In a 2014 interview with GQ, Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas explained how he came up with the tune, which has him repeating, "I've got nothing to say." Here's what he did say: "It's funny: This is one of those cheesy songwriter 'I dreamt it' stories, but I dreamt it was a Scissor Sisters song. And there was just a chorus where they kept saying, I've got nothing to say, and it was so hypnotic and weird and f--ked with my head. I woke up thinking it was a real song. And then I realized: 'Oh, wait, I made that up in a dream, so I can just do it and I'm not plagiarizing.'"

When asked if the lyrics expressed his true feelings, Casablancas replied: "No. I just think it's interesting, because there's something so vain about being in a band and being a singer. So to say 'I have nothing to say' seemed like a cool, refreshing kind of concept."

Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti gave his take on the tune in a 2006 Clash interview. "That whole song is like where we confess that we're just going to do our thing and we're going to be a band and live by our own integrity and never compromise," he explained. "The music industry is like any other business. It's about trade-offs. And very often when you don't give what people are expecting of you - you know, the powers that be that decide how successful you're going to be - they'll f--k you in the ass. I'm not going to name any names but a lot of times we haven't done things because we feel like we'd be embarrassed to do them and that's cut off our road with certain people."

This was used in the 2007 movie Dedication, starring Tom Wilkinson and Billy Crudup.

This was included on the 2019 soundtrack to the Hulu miniseries Looking For Alaska. It also showed up in the second episode, "Tell Them I Said Something..."

The Mellotron melody was played by the band's lead guitarist, Nick Valensi.