Albert Hammond Jr on The Strokes: ‘We thought it’d be cool to keep a quietness to it’

Guitarist won't be drawn on band activity but says New Yorkers are 'in a great place'

The Strokes‘ guitarist Albert Hammond Jr has said that the band thought it would be cool to go about things quietly rather than talk about and tour their most recent album ‘Comedown Machine’.

Hammond Jr, who released new album ‘Comedown Machine’ with The Strokes earlier this year, discusses how quiet the band have been in a new interview with NME. In the interview, published in this week’s issue, available digitally and on newsstands now, Hammond refused to comment in detail about the band but insisted that they are “in a great place”.

Asked why the band have not done any interviews around the release of ‘Comedown Machine’, Hammond Jr says: “We just made a decision to keep a [lid on it]. We thought it’d be cool to keep a quietness to it, to see what a record would do [if you could only] listen to it.”

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The guitarist turned solo singer suggested that he was not able to speak for the band, without the others by his side. “I’m one fifth of something and I don’t want to come across to our fans as if I called this interview to speak about stuff as if I’m taking advantage of the opportunity,” he said.

Hammond Jr previously revealed that a song on his new solo EP “floored” bandmate Julian Casablancas when he first heard it. He will release the solo EP, titled ‘AHJ’, on October 8. It follows his 2006 debut album ‘Yours to Keep’ and a second solo LP, 2008’s ‘¿Cómo Te Llama?’. The new release was produced, engineered and mixed by Gus Oberg and recorded in Hammond Jr’s own studios in Manhattan and upstate New York.

The ‘AHJ’ tracklisting is:

‘Cooker Ship’
‘Strange Tidings’
‘Carnal Cruise’
‘Rude Customer’
‘St Justice’

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