Interview: Strokes’ Albert Hammond, Jr. Digs Deep into New “Momentary Masters” LP
AHJ speaks on his latest solo offering and the uncertain future of the band
With the release of 2013's Comedown Machine, The Strokes called it a day with RCA Records, fulfilling their contract with the label. The band famously gave no promotion for the record, hosting no interviews, appearances, tour dates, or even photo shoots. Naturally, this led to rampant speculation on the part of their fans. Since then, the status of the band has been unclear, with conflicting — or perhaps just evolving — quotes in various interviews from both guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. and lead singer Julian Casablancas. While they continue to perform together, the prospect of returning to the studio to record another album is still equivocal.
While frontman Casablancas released his experimental Tyranny LP with The Voidz last year, the reactions were mixed on its stark change in direction. Albert Hammond Jr.’s new solo offering Momentary Masters — his third album and first in seven years — seems like it might be more up the fans’ alley, as his unmistakable, trademark guitar licks have a warm, familiar feeling. But this is quite a different record than any album from The Strokes, with AHJ at the helm on vocals, bearing his soul for all to listen. Cuepoint spoke to Hammond about the new record ahead of its July 31st release.
Cuepoint: I’m curious about the intro to the new album, you have this funny answering machine message about Ms. Cleo and the Psychic Friends Network to kick the whole thing off. What’s the story behind that?
AHJ: That was actually just a recorded phone call that my wife had. It was obviously a wrong number, but we just found it hysterical, so we put it on speaker and recorded it. So when the album was being mixed, the mixer had put it in the beginning, and when I went to go listen to it, I had forgotten it even existed. It just felt so fitting. It was very funny when she was calling her, because she was very angry. There was about two and half minutes recorded.
So we can look forward to the full, uncut two-and-a-half minute version being leaked on TMZ later this year?
(Laughs) I don’t know about TMZ, but it would be funny to put out the whole thing on the website or something. For sure, I would totally do that. It’s there somewhere, I just got to find it.
The first track, “Born Slippy,” and maybe to some extent “Don’t Think Twice,” you’ve said is about moving on and having to reinvent yourself after things fall apart. Can you elaborate on that a bit?
Yeah, the idea that everyone has felt in different ways when you feel like something that you did defines you. Then you reach a point when you question whether you can do it anymore, or you question what you are doing and the age thing, or you’re just confused about something you’ve done for many years. So it’s the idea of starting from scratch and I guess explaining fear in its most basic form.
Does this relate back to things with The Strokes and the status of the band, or is this just more of a personal reflection?
Well, I mean everything relates. I don’t think it was written solely thinking about that. You know, your life is going to have stuff that affects you, so whatever affects you is going to relate back, for sure. Being in a band for so long, and then not knowing what’s happening? I imagine that is in there. I don’t really write lyrics down solely based on that. It kind of gets put together and then you can kind of can see things that you were thinking, and that leads to other things, and then that gets edited. In the process of it, it can change within the song, and then by the end of the song, you’ve got something else. There’s always a part of that in there, but I didn’t want people to think that I was solely saying that. There are many other things, like when I had two years of not playing music when I went to rehab. I just didn’t know what to do with myself, like what was I going to do next? I even feel that way sometimes when I’m just by myself. Like, I don’t know how this is going to turn out. It’s a roll of the dice to see if I can stand on my own two feet. If it doesn’t turn out, then I gotta figure out a different way to do it.
Back in June, I read that you said that the future of The Strokes is unclear. But now I see you have a couple of show dates together in September and October of this year. I also read recently that Julian said new music is being recorded. So where do things with the band stand now? Is it still up in the air, or do you have a better idea now about the future of the Strokes?
Nope… I don’t.
In regards to the album cover to Comedown Machine, The Strokes had a media blackout at the time. I was always curious about the RCA logo was much bigger than the band’s name on the cover. Were you guys trying to say something there?
A lot of people read into that more than it was. Originally, I wanted to make it all red, with nothing. No name, no album title, all the pages in the booklet red, the CD red, everything red. I guess that was too extreme (laughs). Fab found this old quarter-inch tape box that looks just like that, except instead of “The Strokes” it says something about the studio take. So we just took the same aesthetic and just put in the band name. It had nothing to do with that.
I think all of our choices are about aesthetics. It’s about how something looks, if it looks beautiful. In that, you might find something to read. But this was more like a piece of artwork hanging on the wall, it just looked cool. People thought we didn’t care. Fab put his heart and soul into that, it was not like “Oh whatever, last album on this label.” But it was more that we thought it was cool to use the same photos as the first record, just blacked out, you know? It kind of represented the cycle. But on my Twitter feed I got a lot of flack from it, like we didn’t care, but that wasn’t the case at all. I actually love that, it is probably one of my favorite ones, it’s one of the few that I listen to. The first half…
On your new album, songs like “Coming Getcha” and “Losing Touch,” you seem to be realizing your own mortality and your time and place in this world. Is this something you have always taken an interest in or have certain experiences brought you to this point?
I think I always was interested in this since I was a kid. The song “Coming Getcha” was after so many things and different parts that were in that song. The chorus at the end, whether I was writing about it or not, I really don’t remember. But it just kind of reminded me of my friend that passed away who introduced me to different music and books. There is an element of things like that getting left behind.
“Losing Touch” to me was always more about how I was — even though there was always changes happening — I was kind of happier, even though I was a little more out of the loop. I never really felt part of the loop. People just start to tell you those things and it makes you laugh. It’s more about that, I guess.
I understand the Bauhaus art movement and Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot both have some influence in the look and creation of this record.
These are things that just, in general, excite me. When starting a project, your influences are the things around you. It doesn’t mean you have to sound like it or look like it or anything. It’s just something new and your curiosity becomes enthralled by it. For a couple of years I’ve watched clips of Cosmos and read Pale Blue Dot and I just loved how it made me feel. It made me feel like life was meaningless and that you create your own meaning. It’s kind of perfect for the human condition of change and being fallible. It kind of all just fit so well for me. It invited me to explore another part that I hadn’t explored for whatever reason.
Aesthetically, we were just putting that in there because the artwork had certain similarities with that, with the high contrast of black and white, the projections on everyone, and the clean lines. There’s an element of that in there.
I feel like you listen your whole life, so when you are in the studio, your references are all the songs and music that you know. It just depends on where the songs are going and what attracts you at the moment. It sounds like something, but what inspired it? Things that excite me are these four different bands: Wire, with a song called “Champs,” Misfits, with a song called “Hybrid Moments,” R. Stevie Moore, and Wipers “Wait A Minute.” I wouldn’t say I sound so much like them, but that’s definitely what has been exciting to me for the past couple of years.
That leads into my next question. In regards to the song “Touché,” you’ve said “you need to look up to the greats and pick up where they left off”…
Yeah, the idea that in creating stuff, there is a whole fabric of things that people have of made over time. You don’t really need to start from scratch, you can start to find people that had similar ideas and explain stuff in a different way. To borrow and attach your things with it. I always related it to automobiles. They nailed it with aesthetics, but then kept trying to make it more efficient and forgot to make it look good.
You find something that you think is great, and in your head, you are always trying to reach it, to beat it. I don’t feel like I got there, but I feel like I’m getting closer.
So what is your holy grail as far as a perfect song or perfect album? Something that influenced you heavily when you were growing up and that shaped your musical tastes?
So many different influences. There’s never just one thing. I guess what spawned the immense attraction to it was Buddy Holly. I heard that once and I went from not really knowing what I want to do to just growing up overnight and knowing exactly what I wanted. But it’s not just that. That leads to something else and that whole line of things is what gets me excited. Eventually you wear it down and you need something else, but can go back to it and be excited about it again in a different way. Guided By Voices was huge when I was 16. Then I got into the Beatles, then classical music, Beethoven. That really got me into [music] theory and wanting to understand. For a while I was like “Oh, everything has got to be emotional!” then I kind of realized that I had to know some stuff too (laughs).
Let’s talk about “Drunched in Crumbs” and “Side Boob.” They kind of end the album on an upbeat note, dealing with themes of love and sex. Was this a conscious decision after delving into a lot of heavier topics on the album?
To me, the album, you put it on, it doesn’t have to be anything but entertainment. When you listen to stuff, something has to hit you before you can go into it and see the different layers. You’ve just got to have fun at first. The order of the tracks is definitely thought out, it was not random. We put up many different sequences. We had ones where “Caught By My Shadow” was later on, but this was the best sequence. I don’t really think I thought of it any other way than that when it told a story. When I listened to it, in my gut, I felt a story that I liked, in which each song sounded better in the order that it was. A lot of it is gut reactions that you’ve honed in on over time. It’s editing yourself, where you know that’s what it has to be, with no rhyme or reason to explain it, you just feel it. I’m pretty sure that we just knew that “Born Slippy” and “Side Boob” had to begin it and end it.
“Don’t Think Twice” is kind of like a palette cleanser for everything. The last four songs kind of go right into each other and make the album feel like it’s ending quicker than it is, which makes you want to hear it again. That’s the thinking more than anything, what’s going to make you want to push play again.
You have a concise, ten song tracklist here and many of the best albums of all time are ten tracks, like Thriller or Illmatic. Was there other material that you recorded for this album that was left on the studio floor?
We went in and recorded twelve songs. “Power Hungry” was the last song we recorded and I felt like we reached a peak of being together and I just felt like we needed to stop. I needed to go and hone in on some guitar things, some melodies and some lyrics. When I was trying to do all of these parts, those ten just seemed to fit. You just start really doing the ones that are the most exciting to you. The last two just didn’t feel necessary. They’ll probably be broken up and sold into other songs for myself (laughs). But I’ve already started working on the next one and those two aren’t in there. They might have ended up being great, but mentally I felt done and didn’t feel I could do anymore with them in the time that I had. I just felt fried and complete.
Did you ever title those tracks?
Yeah, one was called “Boom Chica,” because it had a certain rhythm. That was just a working title. The other was called “Hero’s Welcome.”
That pretty much wraps it up. I’m curious what’s your take on the streaming music model?
My position is that something in the system went awry. Granted, the system was already pushing its limits with the labels abusing their powers a bit. I don’t know, maybe musicians made too much and then they paid the price later and made less? But I definitely see it hurting smaller bands and how they tour. But every time you talk about streaming, people get so defensive like “You just want to make money!” (laughs). It’s such a hard topic to speak about and find a common solution for. But yeah, of course, it doesn’t feel good if people get your music for free. It doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t feel that it is not worth something. But I guess streaming is the middle ground? I don’t know, maybe I should investigate it more. I don’t really look at it and see the royalties.
I just know that everything has been affected. Magazines sell less, so they need different people to give them money and you only get certain kind of content, that’s going to affect it. People want bands to tour more, but they can’t reach it because they don’t have enough record sales to make enough money to pay themselves to go there. Everything affects something else. I think in time it should work itself out.
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