The Strokes named their latest album “The New Abnormal” well before knowing what our new normal would be. “It feels so prescient because of the parallel between something like coronavirus,” says Julian Casablancas, 41, lead singer and lyricist of the New York garage-rock band. “But the name came from the [2018 California] fires, when Malibu basically burned down.
Everything right around the studio where we were working burned down. And the governor [Jerry Brown] came up with that line.” The Shangri-La studio of “New Abnormal” producer Rick Rubin — who has worked with a broad range of artists from Jay-Z to Adele — somehow escaped the wildfires.