The Strokes’ guitarist talks about band’s debut

By Chris Moriates
Daily Bruin Senior Staff The excitement seemed to be coming through
the phone line. It was a big day for the five New Yorkers that
every music magazine is tripping over themselves to praise as the
next big thing – the day of the U.S. release of the rock band The
Strokes’ debut album. Guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. took some
time to discuss the new album, the tour and his future.

Chris Moriates: How’s it going?
Albert Hammond Jr.: It’s going great man.
Our record came out today and I just bought it and I just heard it
and I am really happy with myself right now.

Isn’t it the same album that has been out for a month
in the UK? Well, yeah, it’s the same record. But you
know you stop hearing it for a while, you go out on the road and
you start hearing all these people talk about all your crap and you
forget that you played some good songs. The U.S. release has a new
song on it and it just sounded so good”¦ I don’t know,
it’s just exciting. It just came out ““ our first record
just came out! It’s just so cool.

Can you sum up those feelings? What does it feel like? I
mean, have you dreamt your whole life to have your record in stores
across the country? Well, of course. I’m absolutely
““ if I could describe it in words then I would be a better
man, but I don’t think that I’ve achieved that
vocabulary yet. I wish I could – just the fact that I had
goosebumps and I felt really good.

This album and your band as a whole has probably the most
hype surrounding it that I have seen in a long while ““ Do you
think that you guys are worthy of all this hype? Well, you
know, I mean, I don’t really give a shit. I don’t worry
about it. Some bands get it and some bands don’t. We just
sort of focus on being friends and playing music and being content
on making records and not really focus on that. I would be a little
scared if I thought that we made a bad record, but I think that it
is really good and I think that people should just listen to it for
themselves. If they like it, then cool. And if they don’t,
that’s fine too. You should just hear it and not judge it by
what you read in the papers and stuff like that.

So, you would be content even if the record didn’t
sell as well as you guys expect, you would be ok with that? We
never put expectations on anything. Our expectations were like
““ we already achieved it; we made the album we wanted, we put
it out on a label and they understood what we wanted it to sound
like. We already achieved our success. All that other stuff is like
the cherry on top, but if the cake isn’t any good, then the
cherry isn’t gonna make it any better, you know what I
mean?

Yeah. So, you guys have been described as the Velvet
Underground and bands like that. Do you agree with those
descriptions, or how do you label yourselves? We try to make
modern music. Fine we have some influences from the past, but I
think that our influences are much broader than just that era and
that time period. I mean, even though the Velvet Underground are
from the late “˜60s and not the “˜70s, which is like most
of the other bands that we are compared to. But I think that we
take something from almost every period. We just sort of find
what’s cool in some things and try to do it in our own music
““ whether it’s a rap song, heavy-metal song, acoustic
song, anything.

Well, you describe yourself as “modern music,”
but at the same time you guys definitely have a sort of vintage
look and even a bit of a vintage feel. Do you feel like you are a
modern band that draws on the past or are you kind of a vintage
band? I don’t know. Every generation has a little bit
from its past. I don’t think that our look has anything to do
with our music. I’ve been dressing like this since I was 15
and I was playing different music back then. So, I don’t
think that it really has to do with the music. One is one thing and
the other is another thing. If you can have both, it’s
cool.

Do you consider yourself a New Yorker now? How is it being
the only Californian? Yeah”¦ I mean I moved there and
(the rest of the band) were born and raised there and I live with
them 24/7. So, I really feel like a total New Yorker”¦ even
though I am from LA, I feel like a New Yorker now.

Are you looking forward to coming out back out here and
playing sold-out shows at The Palace? The whole band always
looks forward to going to LA, because I’m from there and its
exciting. But still, I’m from LA and I always wanted to play
in LA and now we are playing two shows at The Palace. It’s
ridiculous”¦ it’s like, “˜wow.’

It’s going to be a big show and I’m really looking
forward to it. Yeah, so am I dude.

I was reading your profile and it discusses how
Julian’s (Casablancas, lead singer) father John was, I guess
you could say wealthy. Does any of that conflict with what you guys
are trying to do or does that help? No one ever gave us money
to do anything. We never used the connections to get
anywhere”¦ even if we did, it never really got us anywhere.
All the stuff we did was just hard work in the studio and stuff and
it just happened to be that our families had money. And Julian
didn’t even live with his dad because his parents were
divorced when he was young and he lived with his mom. It
wasn’t like he was driving Ferraris. He hung out and did what
all kids do and he just had a place to live ““ he wasn’t
a street bum or anything.

How is the New York scene, coming out of that? Is it still
competitive musically? The thing that is weird is that when we
started we were like “hey, we could find four or five bands
and we could draw so much (people).” But nobody really wanted
to play with us; no one would help us out. So I don’t really
know too much about the scene, because nobody ever let us into it.
I think that there are a lot of small scenes in New York right
now.

Well then where did your following grow from? Was it all
film / art school type of kids that would come to your shows?
Actually it was every type of kid. Our show was younger people,
older people, asian people, black people”¦ there were mod
kids, goth. It was weird; it was just a whole bunch of kids.
It’s fun, because we aren’t trying to appeal to a
certain group. We try to be more universal and our music I think is
really universal ““ it has melody and balls, I think that it
will attract a lot of people, personally.

Let’s discuss the album a little. The release was
delayed because of the song “New York City Cops” and I
heard that it had been sent out to the record stores and then they
had to send it back to be destroyed. That sounds great.
That’s so funny ““ “˜they had to be sent back to be
de-stroy-ed!’

Well, yeah. But I mean, they had to get rid of them all. The
unreleased copies are being sold on E-Bay for over $100 right now,
are you aware of that? That’s so weird. I have 20 copies
at home, I should put them up. Ha.

How did the delay come about? Did the record company come up
to you guys and say “hey, I don’t think that we should
release “˜New York City Cops’ right now”?
Well, we are lucky because with our record label we can really do
what we want and they will back us up. So pretty much what happened
was that happened and we didn’t know because the song has
nothing to do at all ““ zero ““ with, you know, cops now
of days or anything. It’s just like the right song at a bad
time. Bad timing ““ that shit happens. But it would be cooler
if we could show people how we went into the studio and recorded a
new song, put it on the record and released it only two weeks
later. So that just shows our integrity.

Was this a song that was already written that didn’t
make the album? Well, it was written in the past, during the last
two weeks of our tour in August. It was like we were just finishing
the album and we had never played it live when we recorded it. We
were going to play it live at the Irving Plaza show, but it got
cancelled.

Are you going to play it here in LA? Yeah. We are
playing it now.

Well, I downloaded “New York City Cops,” I
don’t know how you feel about that ““ Actually, lets
talk about that: How do you feel about the fact that a lot of
people have heard your music through the Internet. Do you support
that? Our whole goal was to have people hear our music. So,
however they get to hear it, I think that’s fine. I still
think people enjoy buying records so I think that people getting it
off the Internet, if they like it enough, they will go out and buy
it.

Well, listening to “New York City Cops,” there
isn’t really anything that is in the song that is
offensive. But it’s not though. It’s so funny
it’s like a song”¦ I mean Julian wrote it, before I give
more detail, he likes keeping it open, but basically it’s
about this girl is with this guy and during the chorus she is
saying “hey man, you’re not being very smart. Like,
you’re fucking with us and all we are doing is hanging out.
Go do something a little more intelligent.’ That’s it,
you know what I mean, it’s not like an anthem to go kill cops
or anything.

Right, it’s no “Cop Killa'” or
anything. No. It’s not. It doesn’t even have to be
about cops. It could’ve been about anything, but for some
reason that’s what came to mind and it works out.

But because of that, when you were told that it should be
taken off the record, did you guys come back and say “hey,
it’s not about anything like that!” We did of
course, man. I mean it wasn’t like a fast decision; we really
thought about it and took our time thinking things out. And we just
felt like, for some reason in America as a mass sometimes people
are too sensitive and they don’t really want to hear excuses,
even though what you are giving them isn’t really an excuse.
So we thought why have them be able to hound a song that’s
good”¦ it just came out at the wrong time, that’s all,
so we changed it.

Are you guys going to perform it live? We still do.
It’s been on our setlist from the beginning and we just kept
it on the list.

Your influences have been listed as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Bob
Marley ““ How much were you influenced by those bands?
Well, Nirvana and Pearl Jam ““ it’s just that when
Julian and Nick first started, those were the bands that made them
want to play music. It’s not like we pulled stuff from them.
Bob Marley, yeah”¦ you know, everything from Freddy King,
Buddy Holly to The Cars”¦ The Cure. It’s not about
bands. It’s just listening to their music and seeing what
they did right and what they did wrong and why they did certain
things wrong and not do it. Its like, you are working at it and you
are never done ““ you never achieve it.

What do you listen to nowadays? In the van we have been
listening to David Bowie and some early Joe Jackson and Bob Marley
and one song from “—— Incorporated” by Sonic
Youth”¦. Just a bunch of stuff, the Beatles”¦ It switches
off from Jackson Five”¦ And Nick really likes putting in Jay-Z
“Hard Knock Life,” ha, he really likes putting that on.
It’s kinda funny. Different shit sometimes.

Do you want to get videos on MTV or do you want to be a
“TRL Band” or are you guys taking more of a punk rock
stance? To us its not like we want to be that. It’s
like, we are going to do things our way and if that gets us to
that, then that’s fine. Then you’re doing it your way.
See, that’s fine. It’s not bad to be those things, its
just bad when you get there by cheating and doing stuff that you
don’t want to do. Like, do I want to make a gay video to be
on MTV ““ No! We made a video and I think it’s fucking
great and I think if they play it on MTV people will be shocked.
They will be watching it and see this video all of a sudden come on
and be like “what the hell? How the hell did these guys get
on MTV?” But not in a bad way, just like how it’s so
real. It’s people playing music and the video is live ““
it is not from the album ““ it is a live take from the video.
We shot it nine times and we just took the best one and the whole
video is just the one thing.

What song is the video for? “Last Nite.” We
just decided that it should be the first single because it’s
an easy song for people to get. And then we can start putting other
songs on when people know who you are more and are willing to pay
attention. I think that “Last Nite” is the type of song
that even if you don’t want to pay attention, it kinda
catches you.