Singer Julian Casablancas is on tour while his band, the Strokes, is working on its fifth album.

ASSOCIATED PRESS / JEFF CHRISTENSEN

When the main voice, and the chief songwriter, of a famous band does a solo album, the obvious question is, how different is it going to sound, really?

Well, in the case of Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas’ “Phrazes for the Young,” released last fall, the answer turned out to be, “Quite a bit.”

Casablancas is coming to Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence Tuesday, at the beginning of his first leg of full-on touring.

Certain songs, particularly the opening “Out of the Blue,” have a similar hip-yet-uptight feeling to the best Strokes stuff, but there are plenty of electronic experiments, such as the expansive “11th Dimension” and the short, sharp “River of Brakelights,” and surprisingly touching moments, such as “4 Chords of the Apocalypse,” an organ-soul ballad with weird, twisty ornaments that evoke nothing more than a 21-century Cars, as well as “Ludlow St.,” a country ballad structurally — there’s even a banjo — but decked out in full neon-light production while singing about the gentrification of a New York street.

All this makes it a bit more of a challenge to put the songs on stage, Casablancas says. During the “little runs here and there” of solo shows he’s done so far, he says, “I think people don’t know what to expect, so once they see all this crazy stuff being executed efficiently, it’s pretty exciting.”

It wasn’t easy, he says.

“It took a while, to be honest, to re-create, because there are a lot of different parts interlocking, and to get everyone to find the chemistry and have everything bouncing off each other in the correct way with the correct sound and the correct feel was challenging. But super fun, though.”

Touring as a solo act isn’t all that different from band life, Casablancas says.

“It’s different in rehearsal and [on the bus] and stuff, but on stage it kind of weirdly feels the same. My duties are similar. I do think it’s a little more relaxing, because I can say what I want and do what I want, without getting a weird vibe.”

The writing and recording process felt the same way.

“It was kind of similar to early Strokes stuff, which were based on demos that I did by myself.… The recording obviously was a little weird without musicians, and if I ever do a solo thing again, I’ll work with other musicians to bounce ideas off of. It’s just easier in terms of tones and time-wise, and in terms of hearing the song back.”

He says there wasn’t anyone in the process who served as an editor of his ideas: “I knew I wanted to throw the kitchen sink in. I did it on purpose; I wanted a lot of different melodies and rhythms.”

As for The Strokes, Casablancas says they’re still at work on their fifth record, and “it’s coming along” — he foresees a January 2011 release.

But while there are no specific plans for another solo record, it’s an avenue he wants to continue to pursue. “It is nice to work differently. It’s fun to collaborate, and it’s fun to see my own ideas through, intact and pure.”

Julian Casablancas plays at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, 79 Washington St., Providence, Tuesday night. Call (401) 331-5876 or go to www.etix.com for tickets.