July 25, 2023 • 56 mins
Albert Hammond Jr. first rose to prominence as the lead guitarist of The Strokes—a band at the forefront of New York City’s indie rock renaissance in the early aughts. In 2007 Albert Hammond Jr. launched his solo career, putting his songwriting and abilities as a frontman to the test. He’s now released five albums, including, Melodies On Hiatus, which came out just a couple months ago. It’s a double album that he co-wrote with Canadian singer Simon Wilcox, and features collaborations with GoldLink and Matt Helders from the Arctic Monkeys.
On today’s episode, Albert Hammond Jr. and Justin Richmond talk about how he was dramatically impacted by his parents’ recent divorce, despite the fact that he’s in his early 40’s. Albert also reminisces about his past life as a champion roller skater who was once scouted by Kristi Yamaguchi’s Olympic ice skating coach. And he explains why he’d never been a fan of Radiohead or Led Zeppelin.
You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Albert Hammond Jr. songs HERE.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. Albert Hammond Junior first rose to prominence as the
lead guitarist of The Strokes, a band at the forefront
of New York City's indie rock renaissance and the early odds.
The Strokes released their debut album Is This It in
two thousand and one to huge commercial success. Two decades,
(00:38):
five albums and a Grammy later, the Strokes have become
a modern successor to the bands that influenced them, The Cars,
The Stooges, the Velvet Underground. In two thousand and seven,
Albert Hammon Junior launched his solo career, putting his songwriting
and abilities as a frontman to the test. He's now
released five albums of his own, including his latest Melodies
(01:00):
on Hiatus, which came out just a couple of months ago.
It's a double album that he co wrote with Canadian
singer Simon Wilcox and feature sure his collaborations with Goldlink
and Matt Helders from The Arctic Monkeys. On today's episode,
Albert Hammond Junior and I discussed his parents' recent divorce
and how despite the fact that he's in his early forties,
(01:21):
he was still dramatically impacted by it. Albert also reminisces
about his past life as a champion rollerskater who was
once scouted by Christy Yamaguchi's Olympic ice skating coach, and
he also explains why he's never been a fan of
everyone else's favorite bands Radiohead and led Zeppelin. This is
(01:45):
broken record liner notes for the digital age. I'm justin Ritchman.
Here's my conversation with Albert Hammond Jr. When did you
record the new solo record, Melodies on Hiatus Man.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I thought it was going to come out a lot sooner.
I started in twenty nineteen, right at the end of
touring my last record, Francis Trouble. I had no idea
of making a double album. It wasn't like I want
to make two records. And all I thought was, I
can start now. And because I knew, I wanted to
deconstruct the band and I wanted to keep it meaning
(02:22):
like the record before that was a live band in
a room in a studio like this, a studio head upstate.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It was very like.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Studio live takes band and this upstate New York. Yeah, sorry,
you live in New York long enough, you just call
it up So I wanted to just like I usually
I love plugging my guitar and direct, even if it's
just to like an apollo.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I mean, I would plug it into a board. I
love that too, or just like a neve like that
over there. But I was like, let's just do it
all like we do the demos.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Drum machines kind of play all the different parts with instruments,
and we're just trying to create a vibe for each
song to then play for people to be like, this
is where I wanted to go. Help me get it there. Yeah,
So I started in twenty nineteen. My parents were getting divorced,
and my mom was in this rental right by the
Beverly Center, very cool rental. Yeah, just started there with
(03:19):
my laptop. But your parents just got divorced. But when
we were recording in twenty seventeen here they just started.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
But it was still happening in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I think it ended. I think it took like four
or five years. It was kind of ridiculous. Wow. I
was gonna ask you cause I guess you know, Old
Man seemed like an obvious jumping off point.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It's so funny because some songs come you know, they
just kind of like lay themselves out. I remember I was,
I was at this whole time twenty sixteen seventeen eighteen.
I was staying a lot in my parents' apartment here.
They weren't here, and my life was a lot here.
The Strokes were doing stuff. I had my solo manager
(03:59):
and my label here working with people, so it was
just easy to come here.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And I was just playing.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
The guitar and it kind of just like it kind
of came. I said, my old.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Man blah blah blah, and I kind of just had it.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It wasn't intended to be a dig at him or anything.
And then by the time I got to doing lyrics,
and Simon actually Samon Wilcox did lyrics because well, by
the time I got to twenty songs, I looked at
all twenty and I was like, there's no way I'm
going to finish these. This is just too much work.
I'd rather start from scratch. But you knew you liked
all twenty, Yeah, I knew well by then it was
(04:37):
like the album's a double album. But like I song titles,
little lines here and there, lyrics from me are last,
so I'll do I sang all the songs parts I
knew I had melodies for and ones that I was searching,
or if I wanted to change it a little bit,
you know, it'd still punched me. And I'd be like, oh,
that's that's fine for them to be similar. This one
(04:59):
should be a little different. Let me just kind of
find it. But you're just making shit up, and sometimes
it works, sometimes it doesn't. What was cool was that
Simon kept phrasing of mine that had I written lyrics,
I wouldn't even have kept because these were just like
little rambling things I did, Like I was making stuff
up on the spot. Maybe it's a mistake or you
(05:20):
don't fit the words you want, but she was able
to keep them in And so there's something really magical
in that. But yeah, Old Man is not about It's
not like a dig going back to that, it's not
a dig on my dad.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It was quite the opposite. It's kind of like you just.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Realize in life how your perspective changes over time. Yeah,
you know, and like so you see your parents and
you're like a kid, and you have all these feelings
and thoughts and you know, teenager twenty, and all of
a sudden you end up being their age that you
remember looking up at them and then you're kind of like, oh,
(05:58):
this is so strange. How did I get here and
how you're viewing stuff? But now they're older so you
can't see. So it's just this cycle of, you know,
maybe we just have to be more gentle with everyone,
just because we're all, you know, human beings and we
make mistakes, and like, I feel like the more you judge,
(06:20):
the more you end up doing the same things later on. Yeah,
And so it was that kind of idea in there.
And that's the other thing I would do assimon is
that when I was doing it, she would be like,
you want to keep the world old man? Or maybe
she even said like I really like it, let's let's
keep it, and I was like, no, I wanted to
keep it. It was very natural, is the first thing that
I sang when I was trying to find the melody.
(06:41):
So yeah, it's kind of hard to change those words.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So how much of that did she write versus I
would say she wrote the lyrics just because I said
old man, or like if she kept a line or
two of mine that I said that worked, everything is there, Yeah,
by her hand, you know, like I wouldn't. I wouldn't
take that away from her.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
But the conversations that we had dictated sometimes where songs
would go. And it was definite point where I was like,
it's not about fuck you, it's not.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
It's not like that all.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
If anything, it's like, oh man, like all the times
I said that, and now I'm in your shoes when
I would say that to you, and I'm like, I
kind of get it, and you you know, you did
a lot, like you know, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Well, your parents getting divorced at.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
That time, yeah, they were still Yeah, but it wasn't
a dig at the But did.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It must have spurred it, right, I mean I just
don't imagine. Sure.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
It was definitely not. You know, divorce is it's funny,
divorce is not. I was thirty six when they started.
It wasn't any easier. It wasn't like I'm thirty six,
Like I didn't feel it.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, felt it just as hard. Very weird. It's always weird.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
When it's the idea like never call the cops, never
get as soon as you get other people involved in
your stuff, you can't just talk it out, Yeah, you can't.
You can never go back Yeah, it's you know, and
that's what it was. I would get a lot of
the weirdest things I got is just we were like
a tripod.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Of a family. My mom's Argentina and my dad's from Gibraltar,
which is the craziest place to be from. I like Gibraltar.
Where the hell is that the rock?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, Living Daylights James Bond, the opening scene is in Gibraltar.
If you want to know what it. What it looks
like is just a giant rock off the coast of Spain.
That it's British and they're angry about that, but yes,
so far away. And they met in Argentina and they
moved to La and I grew up here. So I
didn't grow up with like a family every couple of
(08:45):
years when they'd come visit for three months, not like
cousins or aunts who live in the same city. So
we were like a tripod. So that interaction still existed
even in the divorce. So that was like the hard
part was like, even though I was not getting involved
or I was just trying to help out where I could, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Going to affect me.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, and anger will come out from different people and
it's gonna you know, I'm in the middle. Regardless of
if they don'tics or not. I imagine some things came from it.
But that's like it a god. Writing songs are so
so funny. There's so many different spots, and you might
even have one line that means something to someone, but
the whole song it's a different meaning meaning like it's
(09:29):
not just not so like I'm going to write about
how much I like or dislike this person. Yea, even
if you do that, you might venture off and have
a whole story or line works. I mean, it's a
combination of music and words. Sometimes stuff that's really simple
is more powerful. The music, to me is what I
(09:51):
want to have move you. And then though the words
on top are like a cherry. But these conversations I
had with Simon were like amazing. We would have hour
long conversations about what I felt, where I wanted to go,
or what she thought, or we would disagree or agree
or like it would be amazing. But like remember an
old man, the second verse just wasn't right. And then
(10:12):
she came up with the bullet wounds and self defense.
Even like it never stopped. She had this story. It
didn't feel like that to me, but she had this
story about this older person who just like never this
character like who never stops even though you know he
hasn't made it, he doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I was like, sure, I guess try writing that, and
I didn't connect with me.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And then she sent me the lyrics and I was
just like, this is so great, but this is not
what I would have thought it would have been.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Did it ever connect with you at any point?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I mean, the lyrics connected with me when I sang them.
For sure, I wouldn't have sang them. This is the
first time I wrote with someone else. I didn't do
anything that didn't fully.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Connect feeling authentic, you know. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It wasn't like I just mean sometimes the way the
way someone tells the story about where they're gonna go,
you're kind of like, yeah, okay, I don't I don't
know what in your head, but it's yeah, it's funny
to not get it and then get something back and
being like, well, whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Was in your head it was.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's not what I thought it was going to be,
and this is amazing. But yeah, no, it wasn't like
just write lyrics. I had thought I was gonna like
try to get a bunch of friends to help me
write lyrics. But it's a lot harder to get people
to help you out than you might think.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
What kind of trouble did you come across with that? No? Nothing,
Just people say.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Any of what kind of trouble? Oh I got in
a lot of trouble. I get in a lot of trouble.
But it's not from asking people to write songs. Such
a trouble maker.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I don't know. I just this was just like an idea.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I thought, like I would ask certain bands that I'm
friends with, if they people who I like they write lyrics,
if they wanted to give it a go.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
But it's hard. People I did. I did.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Everyone was really nice, but I think they were all
like in the middle of records or sometimes people wanted
to do it, but they I think maybe they wanted
to change the malady of it, which I wouldn't have minded,
but have been like, Okay, well now we're working on
the song very differently, you know what I mean. I
think it was just the timing of it because I
was just recording, right, it's recording I could have I
(12:26):
could still be recording. I was in such a finding
voicemail wasn't just like creating songs. It was I was
in such a little heaven.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And you were sort of doing the strokes with the
new abnormal was yeah, at least stating too right. We've
done a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And then we started the promo tour, and then the
pandemic happened, and then Gus would just fly over. Gus Ober,
he's my best friend. He just front housed with the strokes.
I was pretty loose during the pandemic. I'll be honest.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
No, no precautions for me.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Well no, I was just thought, no, no, I mean
there was precautions. I mean he flew on the plane
and I guess you have to wear a mask, but he.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Just came over. Precautions because you he just came over.
And then we just started working and my wife was pregnant.
I don't know. We would still exercise and stuff like.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I always feel like I find it hard to believe
what happened there was they tell you what's happening, but
no one ever tells you how to build your own
immune system.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
It was a weird thing to navigate. It was. It
was very weird. Did work in on music though, I mean,
how your wife was pregnant, so it was a lot.
I mean, well, she got pregnant.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
In June, and this was we started in March. Right
and first kid, right, first, first and only kid, first kid,
No more kid war scene, no more.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Kids.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
One is I'm grateful for her changed my life. I
love her dearly, but I don't have the capacity for
It's a lot for.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
It requires a lot of bandwidth. I have two, you
have two. Yeah. My eldest really liked your solo record.
Check me at it. The playlist is it? How old
are they? Seven and four? Just turned seven and four?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Mine just a little over during a different, different spot.
I was terrifying at first. Oh my god. You know
some people come they come out and they're like I
was born to be a parent.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I was like a PTSD, Like I was like, what happened?
My life's completely changed? Yeah, I love you, but it's
just everything's really different.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Do you feel like it's balanced out? It's balancing out
for sure. I mean anything, it makes sense, any creation
in the universe is through destruction, you know what I mean?
Like here and how we're here, it was through things
banging into each other and blowing up. So it makes
sense that to create something like.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
New life.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I mean, it's amazing to have seen it. You know,
it must be something that it you know, just.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Just an extreme thing. Your kid destroys your life, Yeah,
I mean it's it's it just it just needs.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
It destroys it in the sense that it's meant to
and you're meant to build up deeper and better and
your your heart's richer for and it's like, so you
can't be the same person. It would be ridiculous. And
just to see life take shape. I started to think
that maybe personality traits and little things you do or
(15:31):
just are all in there. It's got nothing to do
with what I was saying or doing, just from generations
passed on and who knows which part she has some
different people, but it's.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And that's it's sometimes that's scary. Sure, when I think
about it, I'm like, damn, does she have some of
my uncle in there? I mean, I'm.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Sure she's just like I'm sure they have different How
are you even ancestors you didn't even meet, like you
have like your friends or friends brothers, And you're like, yeah,
it doesn't even seem like the part of the family
or like their personality was just so different than the
rest of the family.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Friends who were twins, and you just couldn't believe.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Dude, I was a twin. It passed away at five months,
but I was I was so curious that, not not
to bring a down. Wow, you're like, oh, but yeah,
I always feel like there was something. I'm always so
curious about what that would have what my life would
have been like had I had a twin.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Were you able to glean from your parents, how similar
not you were in the five months, Like we talked.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
About five months in like, my mom didn't know she
had twins, and it was five months, but it still
looked like a little human. Supposedly when it came out
my dad. This might be a little graphic, but my
dad took it out of the toilet and they brought
it to the hospital and they said it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Looked like a little kid.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I always questioned this, but the doctor was like, yeah,
you lost the baby. Those are just phantom feelings. And
like a few weeks later she found out she was
still pregnant with me. And I remember knowing that as
a kid, but as a kid, you don't like really
think what that must feel like for your parents. It
wasn't until I was thirty six, and I was like, man,
that must have been weird to have I think, is
(17:17):
it called stillborn to like have a kid come out
like that, and like that's heavy, that's not a light thing.
And then I didn't realize how close she worked so
much so that the nail and part of the other
placenta was on mine when it came out like one
of the things, and so like it made me like.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And actually it made me.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Cry because I was just like imagining just being that
close to someone. There must be some kind of energy
in there, you know, when you're like being made.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah. I know at the time you weren't thinking about
how your parents felt, but it's probably because it was
super overwhelming for you too. Or did you really not
eat when I was a kid and when you were
a kid. I mean it's hard to remember, or yeah,
maybe it was it was too much. I was just
I always thought it was just like a it was
just a story. I heard it so much when I
(18:10):
was since I was little, so it just became like
it's part of my story and it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I was older, I was like, man, this story is
like a superhero story and that's when I did on
the record before, I was like, what a cool way
to create an alter ego through that story. And then
this album is like the deconstruction of accepting. I made
a record where I accepted being the front person, because
(18:38):
all the records beforehand were just like, I really just
want to be in a band. I just like writing songs. Yeah,
they're just exercises, so I could try to write more
songs in the band or just be a better songwriter
in general. And on the fourth one, I was like, Okay,
I just have to accept that it's just my name, so.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Before you thought about it as exercise for the Strokes.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, the first album was just like when I made
my first album, You're to keep. I was like, if
I don't finish something and it's just done, I got
anything I was to tour it or anything. If I
don't like finish it, I'll.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Never grow because I'll always be like, well, it's just
kind of a demo. I can change it. You know.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Everyone always like, you know, that's just a rough mix.
I'm changing everything.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
So it felt good to commit to I just felt
like I needed it.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I felt like I had stuff that i'd been nurturing
since my late teenage years, mixed with stuff that I'd
done after I joined a band. So I needed to
get rid of it to move on.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, yeah, and I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It wouldn't be the songwriter today unless I had done that.
But I just mean, I didn't want to be like
I didn't want to release a solo record and be like,
I'm Albert Hamman Jr. Look at me like I just
always wanted to be in a band.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That's all. We're going to take a quick break and
then we'll be back with more from Albert Hammond Junior.
We're back with more from Albert Hammond Junr. So you
feel like a guitar player like that feels like I
just like writing songs.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I didn't even feel like I feel like my guitar
player now because that's where the role like.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
When I fell in love with.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Music and guitar, I never it wasn't like, oh I
like Jimmy Hendricks, I want to play lead. I was
just like I like Buddy Holly, I like Roy Orbison.
I just wanted to sing and write songs. It wasn't
until I was in a band that I I don't
know why I didn't click with me like guitar parts
it should have maybe or I didn't understand it. I
just I guess I fell in love more with the
(20:38):
song than like the instrument. And it wasn't untill like
I felt like I had to when I was in
a band, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna have to.
Even when I was first playing some leads at early
stroke stuff, I was like like I'm doing this like wow,
like it was so it was so strange. When I
(21:02):
first started writing songs. It wasn't till like make an album.
It was just to like be a contribute in what
we were doing. You know, It's always been a struggle.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I love performing.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I've been I used to roller skate when I was
a kid, so I feel like I've been performing since
before in nine, ten, eleven, twelve, I would, you know,
skate in front of a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Of skating's back Are you are you diving back in?
Are you getting back into Well? No, I did.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Like my skating that I did was you know, like
figure skating and ice skating. Yeah, I did that alone
with a partner.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
On ice skates. Store, No, on roller skates. They wanted
me to do. It's so funny.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
The what was their name, Kristin Yamagucci, the coach wanted
to coach me for the Olympics because his thing was
like he was like, I can teach how you can
do everything you need to do to learn skates and
stuff like that. What I can't teach is like what
you have. I had like posture or like grace, and
I could like move. I think my dad wanted me
(22:04):
to ice skate too, because there's money in ice skating.
There's no money in roller skating.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Incredible.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
I was like, what, I don't love ice skating like
I love real skating. I mean it was fun, it's
very competitive. I liked winning. I just remember that. I
remember not being nervous and I liked winning. I was
like practicing every day three four hours a day, seven
days a week, and then one day at twelve, I
(22:31):
like the hairline fracture on my ankle and then I
was like, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I'm not doing that anymore. Was it like your parents
being like you have to go to definitely know you
want it to or not. You can't.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I don't think you could push someone into wanting to
do that if the person didn't want to do it.
You might, you know, every day falling down, getting up,
falling down like you just hours and hours. It's the
same thing with an instrument, right, I mean people ask
for advice on guitar, and it's just like you're gonna
have many moments where you're gonna want to quit. And
(23:06):
it's the people that push through those moments that get better.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's all. That's all it is. Do you still have
those moments where you want to quick guitar? Oh my god? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Tell you kidding? Like I love tennis and I was
watching tennis and I was I was, I was angry.
I was like, the number one tennis player has a
coach teaching him more stuff, even though he's number one.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I would love a.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Guitar teacher to get me over hurdles. I have weaknesses
on guitar. I'm very slow musician. I'm not a studio musician.
My ear is slow picking stuff up. I get like
stage fright in playing music with the band or other people,
and like stuff I won't know or just not doing
stuff well.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I'll rehearse shit out of.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Something so that I can perform it on stage where
it looks like you can't imagine the person not belonging there,
and I love that. I love that part of entertaining,
but the unknown like scares me so like I'd love
to strengthen.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
That ability.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I mean, to come up with stuff for me, even
like guitar parts I do on this album. I mean,
I have to play so much bad stuff to find
the good stuff, like embarrassingly, so you know, like for
like hours and then sometimes it's quicker and sometimes it's not.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
But it's like.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
It's hard for me to have that confidence to do
it in other settings.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Do you have days then where it's like really working,
like it almost comes scarily easy, like ever, nothing ever
feels easy.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
But I definitely have days where I get enough confidence
where I feel like maybe I'm not a mediocre piece
of shit, like.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Maybe I actually am.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
I remember turning I think it is to my wife
and I was like after recording this, and I was like,
maybe maybe I can I know how to write a
song or something like that. I kept saying, like I've
done it this many times, like I got it. There's
got to be something there, right, Yeah, it's hard to
the creative world can be hard. You set your own
(25:16):
boundaries and disciplines, and there's a lot of time to
be just destructive. And there's a lot of times for
my my that inner voice I've been working on for
a long time. It's just we all everyone has their
inner voice.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, it's it's a rough voice. Your invoice, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
So it's it can be it can be hard sometimes sometimes.
I mean, honestly, I do want to find someone to
like help me get over some some hurdles.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I'm really good at being told what to do and
I'll go do it, yeah, and and do it. But
if I have to like figure out I reads, like
reading the instructions and like you tell me, if I
do A B and C, I'll get to D.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Then I'll do a B and C. But if I
have to guess that AB and C gets to D
and two months of gone by and I haven't one
to D, Yeah, am I doing it wrong? Yeah? I don't.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
It's the same thing with food and working out. When
someone told me what I had to do to achieve
certain things that I wanted to and why it works,
it's great. Yeah, I'll just follow what you're saying and
I'll get to But if I had did like guess,
I'd probably give up because I wouldn't see the results.
I would feel like I was doing it wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Well, how did you early when you first picked up guitar, Like,
how did you get through that? I don't know. It's
a good question.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Maybe early on was different because you're well, it's different
in the same so there was I was still pretty
private about it. I wasn't like I had friends or
people in my school who were like, I play music
or write songs, and they'd play you their songs like.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I never did that. I wouldn't sit down and like
play someone a bunch of my songs. You aren't at
like lunch playing.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
People with those people who were like, oh I wrote this,
I do it like the what's it called?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
We remember? You'd have like class squads or whatever, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
School meetings and someone would be like, oh, the assembly
and this guy wants to play the song. Like that
was not me, like, not that I didn't want to
be like that. It wasn't like I was like but
I just like, yeah, I didn't feel confident like that.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I was just like, well, and then and then when
you're not confident, the part of you is like fuck
that kid, Yeah, of course you know, well you kind
of gauge.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
You're like, does everyone It's like it's good too because
you're just like, what don't people like about it? Because
he has confidence and able to do it? So what
is rubbing the wrong way? And so you learned something
from that?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
I don't know. I started playing. It takes a while
to get barchoards. I stuck with it.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I really learned a lot when I joined the band.
I became like, I feel like I've discovered myself amongst
the other four.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
They're all very.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Talented and quick and intense. I really like discovered what
I liked and who I was in playing with them
and even in whatever songs that Julian Road or parts
that people had, or you know, learning to how you
fit in.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
You know, you can play a a a barchoord and
there's like, you know, three or four other solid positions
to play it in that are more exciting than.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
That a bar choord. A barchoord works really well for
a certain thing riff is happening. But then I found
like different inversions and I realized, like inversions change everything.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah, just opens up a whole new door.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
At first, it was just like a third over, like
you know, like three, five one, and then piano inversions
started coming in, and then that's like where I am now.
I feel like those different versions allow me to they
all come from me a little lazy.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
You don't have to move so much. Yeah you can, you.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Like, oh I look this minor here, and then there's this.
The progressions of guitar are all are all right there,
so it's like I mean, not always, but it just
it can lean itself to new sounds and stuff like that.
So like I think when I started, I didn't know
what I was doing, not that anyone else in.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
The band knew.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
We all kind of like discovered knowing that together. I
remember early on though in La and first hearing god
By Voices and I was sixteen, and maybe it was
like hearing that band that was like the you said,
how did you keep going? So I probably, you know,
thirteen fourteen, maybe as young as twelve, learning stuff, but
(29:57):
like not really committed. Fourteen fifteen you're more committed. You know,
it's like ninth grade, you know, first getting stone and
life just changes and you hear music and you become
a different person.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Feels like overnight, you watch movies and you're like these
people are incredible movie. What am I doing?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
And I went to like a private school, and you
just like everyone's so boring. At no offense to people
in my school, it was just like they're all so nice.
I just mean, like the conversation was always just like college, married,
make money, and so it just felt like there had to.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Be more.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
To it than that, and it all felt like so
planned out. I just remember, like I at sixteen and
then I got my voices were like some a band
where I heard and I know everyone talks about their
low fidelity. I didn't listen to them like, oh this
is low fidelity. I just heard amazing melodies and songs
(30:54):
and like words and it hit me. It was like
visceral music that hit my gut, that made me feel
different as a person, like I walked down the street
with a different attitude. And I think it's when you
find stuff like that you feel like they're just game changers.
You're like I was just like, I will find a way.
(31:15):
It doesn't matter I need to be the kid at
the assembly. I don't need to I'll find my way.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Yeah yeah, yeah. Once you found guided by Voices, did
similar sounds continue to excite you or did you sort
of go like, you know, some people have an evolution
where they discover something. They're like like guided by voices,
and it's like, oh, like, well they liked you know,
I don't know Susie and in the banshees or whatever, they
(31:41):
will just keep going.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Forward or I don't, Oh no, I find I definitely
found people like that. I had a close friend named
Matt Rivetto who was like my slightly older and he
was like my style and music like icon, you know,
he was like eighteen, I was sixteen. I just like
looked up to him at the coolest hair, dressed like
(32:03):
these weird thrift suits, and I was just like, this
guy is amazing, and yeah, he would show me stuff
and it was amazing to see, like like.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
The modern Lovers.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
That band had the guitars and keyboard and talking heads
and the drummer in the cars, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
So it's like and you just start you start going
to that. You say Elvis.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Costello and then like Nick Lowe because he produced it,
and you hear his songs and you're just like, oh wow,
he was like such an interesting songwriter. And then those
songs are similar to like Squeeze, but those early time
with like guy to have voices was probably like in
that same world would be like built to spill. They
(32:50):
were very moving for me. They covered Someday at Irving
Plaza in like two thousand and one or two. We
came to see them and they scribbled it from the
set list. I mean, we didn't see it, and we're like, oh,
it's so weird that they were scribbling. I know they
get stoned and maybe they got weird. But but and
then they covered it and it was like the best.
(33:11):
You know, normally when someone covers a song, you're just like,
thanks for ruining it. They did such an amazing job.
It was like I was like anything. Jill and I
were like crying at the show. It was so good.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
It was great, man.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
But yeah, just an amazing band right with like songs. Yeah,
who else was in there? I mean so many people,
you know, the The Cure of the Cars, the Beatles, Stones.
But I also grew up with like Phil Collins and
Elton John when I was like nine ten. I love
those songs, So I bet part of me still has
(33:48):
those like big eighties songs deep inside me.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
So yeah, yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Like I don't find it cheesy. I think they're just
like really good songs. Whitney Houston, Like I just I'm
just like.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Man, are you Whitney fan? Yeah? I love Whitney Houston. Man. Yeah,
amazing voice, I mean, my god, amazing voice. And also
like could go really big and like do like the
I have an incredible voice thing. It could also just
be sing a song straight and just fucked you're so good.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah, no, just an incredible This was around that time.
I mean, you slowly build. I have like an encyclopedia
of music. What's funny is that I got into music
at different stages, right, Like I remember being like my
early thirties and I got into the Misfits, and I
feel like that's a band you find when you're like fifteen. Yeah,
(34:37):
but like I feel like my fifteen was like thirty one.
Like I was like late to the late to Honestly,
it was late to the game. Like in my early thirties,
I was like, oh, I need something like this in
my set list when I play, I need some like
aggression like that.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
And I spent like a whole.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Record trying to find my own versions of it. It's
so I didn't want to sound like the misfits, But
I just I liked the vibe that it was. It
was coming off right, and I so, I mean, it's
it's funny to have that delay, because I did feel
like that's something when you have like a teenage anks
usually and I had that like.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
An angst in my early thirties. Sometimes I rediscover my
teenage angst. I don't know why I was. I mean,
I was listening to a lot of your solo records
and a lot of Stroke stuff in the last few days,
and then for some reason on the way here, I
don't know if it was because of listening to you
got your music or what, but I just was compelled
to put on Black Sabbath, which is so cool. You know.
(35:36):
Oftentimes it just comes on and it's like cool, but
actually put it on this time, and uh, I was
like fuck. I feel like yeah, I feel like fuck, fuck.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
The world, you know, like there's such a there's such
a cool, interesting band. I feel like sometimes they're they're
like logo or what people think they are because time
has passed and people have been inspired by them. But
they're very melodic band. Yeah, and like this stuff is
like not that distorted or dirty. It's like a very
(36:05):
it's very straightforward. It's not theatrical. Maybe that's why it
lasted the test of time a little more, because it's
like and he has a very he discovered early on
his voice right away, so as soon as you hear it,
you're just like, yeah, it's a hook in itself. Yes,
you know, even on a solo, stuff was crazy train crazy, yeah, solo, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
It was that. Randy Rhodes play guitars. Yeah, such a
guitar player. Such a guitar player.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I don't forget the leads so because sometimes when it's
like so much fire, it's like cool, I know, you
play very fast.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
But just like the.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Verse licks that he's doing in there are like I mean,
like I could just listen to that and that'd be enough.
You'd like, yeah, you have an amazing song. You don't
need to play anything else. But yeah, no, he really
got it. He knows his vocal sound.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It's funny. No one tried a lot of people copy
Black Sabbath, but doesn't seem like anyone really tried to copy.
They did not. But no, like that heavy guitar stuff
with like Azzi's sometimes sounds like you could be I know, yeah, yeah,
it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Like that's where I feel like people got influenced by it,
but then they they took a part of it that
I don't hear when I listen when I when I
listen to and.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Even the drums, like the drums are really loose, like
they're cool that there's a lot of parts, but like
it feels also loose and I don't know jazz like jazzy,
I guess, you know, very cool.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
They're a very cool fan I also got into later
in life. Yeah, just that happens. Like I also like
this never a fan of led Zeppelin to this day
just doesn't move me. Wow, just like.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
No part of it. I mean, they're all amazing musicians.
I'm not crazy.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, I'm It's just not something that I put on
and I'm just like.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yeah, it doesn't give meaning to me.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I know people are they're like wow, really, I'm like,
I know, I've tried.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I almost feel they're a part of it that you
don't like when you hear it is you're like, oh
fuck that annoys me or this.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm not a huge fan of the of the vocals.
I mean I think that all bands, even ones I
don't they got some great songs and I listen to
parts and like they have it, but as a whole,
like I don't like put it. There's a few bands
that are like that. People are like blown away. I
never really got into Pink Floyd. I love some of
(38:29):
the guitar playing those with the solos. I would totally
the Benz the literal bends that sounded like the radio
Head out but like the way they would bend or
do something like I would like, Ooh, I like that,
you know what I mean? Like because I'm definitely one
that just because I don't like something wouldn't mean I
wouldn't reference a drum pattern from led Zeppelin and be like,
oh that's cool, let's do something like that. Yeah, I
(38:51):
just they're just what I mean is don't like is
like I never They never moved me like I was
describing God to my voices, where I like it gave
me attitude to walk around.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
I never felt that I'm waiting. I'm still waiting for
the day. The Smiths never got into them. Everyone's like, wow, really,
who's another one that everyone's kind of radiohead?
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Fuck? Great radio as amazing song.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
That I would listen to for sure, but I've never
like put on one of their records and.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Like luxuriated in the Yeah. Yeah, there's definitely songs where
I'm like, is it the feeling? I honestly have no.
I have no clue you think I want to be
outside of it. I want to be on the inside.
It's to be super clear.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I don't dislike all these bands are incredible.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
It's just your takes.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I would be honored to be in any of these
bands or even come close as a musician.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Nothing to do with that. You don't think you're better.
I like parts and songs of theirs, all of it.
It's just these are just it's funny that they are
bands that have created something for other people that I
didn't get that didn't happen to me yet. That's all.
That's the only thing I'm saying. Like, did you hate
(40:07):
the Misfits until you heard them? I didn't.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Wait, I didn't say I hated anyone. I hadn't heard
of the Misfits. No, when I was a teenager, I
didn't know the mis I literally discovered them, Like, who
is this band?
Speaker 1 (40:20):
This is amazing? You remember what song was? Uh? Last Caress?
And I was just like how did I not know this?
And then I proceeded to write like three or four
demos that it was like trying to be I even
covered that song live for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
But you know, I don't hate any of those bands
that I said. I think they're amazing. It's just like
it doesn't resonate. Yeah, And that doesn't like mean there's
probably even other bands. There's bands I like, uh song
from songs from them are amazing that I I might
have had moments with them. You can't have a moment
(40:56):
with everything. And sometimes it's just like how That's why
reviewing a record's kind of funny, because you know, like
how many times have you listened to your favorite songs?
And some days you're kind of like hu, and other
days you're like you could be crying or like it's connected.
You're in the matrix and you're like stopping the bullets.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, And then there's there's there's there's groups that I
dislike and songs that I songs at least that I
intensely hate. But then once while I hear that song
coming through the window or something random, and I'm like, fuck,
this sounds really good. It happened recently and I can't
remember wish I could remember what song it was, And
I was like, fuck, do I like maybe I kind
of like.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I like this, That's what I'm waiting for. That's what
I'm I'm it's it's come. It's definitely come close on
some of on some of those, they've all turned around
a little bit, except for led Zepp.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Are people tempted to try to turn you like.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
They're always blown away. They that's the last thing they
would think that I would, I would say, And then
some people are like, you know what, I get it.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
I get it. But still I want to make it
super clear that I think they're amazing musicians.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
I feel like I'm going to get I'm just waiting
for the hate I'm going to get on this.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
They're amazing musicians. Some amazing I just mean.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Like the three hour show, some of the long jams,
some of like the vibe they went for.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Just it's not like what I'd want to play, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Like I'd rather like, I mean, look at my top
songs over here, what do you got to song? Like
I'd rather put on Philip Glass String Quartet number three,
Like I'd rather hear.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
That we have to pause for another quick break, and
then we'll come back with the rest of my conversation
with Albert Hammond Jr. We're back with Albert Hammon Jr.
Do you think your critical voice makes you better, like
if you were being honest with yourself. I don't. It's
(43:06):
the same way. I don't think so people think.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I mean, it's fun to do drugs, but people do
drugs and creating because it's like I need to be
like dark, right. I think you do need your shadow
and your dark side to create, but you don't need
to do drugs or be angry or have that stuff
to enter the shadow. I mean, the shadow is there
all the time, you know what I mean. I think
(43:32):
it's just embracing the shadow and like nurturing it and
like sucking that creative.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
That's where like creation really is in there. You know.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Sometimes I actually feel I can I feel like two
different people, like how I live my life and then
how I am when I create. It takes a second
to get in. Like the guy who pays the bills
or drives or you know, I like put stuff in
my calendar. I'm organized. That guy is not the guy creating.
You know, the guy creating is like more of a
(44:07):
more of a mess.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Does one feel more like you?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
They both feel like me, but in fact that you
used always tell my therapist like I want to be
like Indiana Jones, but part of me feels like Indiana
Jones who's in the plastic box and the toy store,
Like I'm doing it, but I'm not actually living it.
That makes sense, Like I used to be worse and
now I'm a little looser. But like I was like,
like I need to somehow enjoy the process more than
(44:36):
the end result. I noticed it in like getting something
ready in my in my house from moving. It's like
you just want to get it done, but then when
it's done, something else you have to do.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
If you don't enjoy getting there, that's all you have
is the getting there.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
That's all. That's all we're all doing always. And so
when you think about the creative, like there's these two people.
The person who pays bills and drives and puts stuff
on your calendar, and then there's the creative person. The
creative person or the person who's creating. Is that the
same person that goes like on tour, when you tour.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
No, no, the person on Maybe sometimes on stage you
can get lost in it, but being on stage isn't
like you know people like, oh just got flow and
I just got caught into it. At least for me,
stage is like the way someone describes playing a tennis match,
(45:31):
fucking nailing it, gonna beat this guy. To just breathe
just because you didn't do something right. You don't fall
apart while looking like you belong there, never ever showing that.
But so it's like this inner thing that's just like
the amount of times I've had an amazing show has
(45:53):
gone from like starts strong, I feel like I'm falling apart,
and I come back, and then something happens and you
get lost, and then where you want to push the
crowd away, they go, and then you're able to bring
them back, and at the end you have more of
that than when you started, So you feel like you
did something right in there. That's usually like it's a
(46:16):
show is like a whole experience. That's why you're so
trained afterwards.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
It's like it's never just like I went out there
and did my thing.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
I wish that sounds amazing if doing your thing is
a ninety minute movie then yes, that's what happens with
ups and downs and curveballs, and like your show is
like your whole mix and so like, and sometimes you're not.
This is more of when I'm doing solo stuff. But
you're not at one hundred percent because you can't be.
You're on tour.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
You're never going to be.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
It's about learning how to be at like seventy percent,
but doing the show like you were at one hundred.
It really is like and that's kind of like the
secret to playing live music because it's never like you're
at home. I meditated for three weeks, took the perfect shower,
my hair is sitting just right. Let's just go do
a show. It's like that, except the next day you
have to do another.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
One, and you have to somehow get to the next.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
You're just like yeah, especially on the soul stuff, You're
just you're tired. Nothing that you wanted to do is
come out totally right.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Has a relationship between changed over timely? Does it evolve?
Is it like at first it was really fun and
then it became a drag and then it's.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Never I'm not jaded enough to not enjoy my life.
I felt like I was built to be a part
of a traveling circus cool, Like I do love it.
In many ways, you are going to not like things
that you love at some point inevitable. Still has been
(47:46):
moments where like, I love music and I would write
songs and record them even if I didn't play music anymore,
because I just can't. It's just I just do it.
I don't like I'm gonna sit and write. They just
like come out right. I don't think I could stop that.
But it's been moments where I've been like, man, imagine
if I like didn't play music or something else. So,
(48:06):
but I don't like dislike tour, and I've learned that
the longer you do it, it's different solo. In the
strokes of the luxury is that we have a big
fan base, and so like it's more comfortable to tour.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
It's cool to reach new.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
Areas you haven't even though you've been doing it for
twenty years. And it also when you've been doing it
that much. The high isn't so much from playing a
new song and having no one know it. The high
is like watching how people are absorbing stuff that you
know well and that they know, and then feeding off
of that energy. Playing a song that is clearly making
(48:48):
a crowd all feel nostalgic.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
How could that? If that's jading you, then I don't know.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
You gotta go do something because that's like, that's a
magical thing.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
I feel lucky.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
I wanted to be part of that fabric when I
was a teenager and I fell in love with music,
and now to even have glimpses of being part of
that fat is.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Yeah, it's unreal. It's really cool that you can have
that perspective on it while doing It's like you still
maintain the fan perspective in a way.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
I feel like you have to, though I was saying
that it's like your innocence from it is going to
get beaten out pretty fast, just by the game you
have to play. All business is a game, right, and
when you fall in love with music, you have no
idea what that game is. But it's not what you
think it is, and it's not for the love of it.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
You know, there's you know, this.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
Stuff that you have to this stuff you have to do,
but that's that's okay if you get to like create
and do other things. Basically everything has a price, Yeah,
some at some point, small, big, very rarely is that
I create something so magical that there isn't there's still
even when you do that, there's still some price somewhere. Yeah,
(50:05):
you know, yeah, maybe you get tired of doing it,
so you have to rediscover how to not feel tired
from it.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Yeah. How much input do you have on planning a tour?
Like do you get to like say like I don't
really want to go there, or do like a festival
like in my in my Soul stuff or the Stroke stuff.
I guess both both. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Touring wise, I would say Julian has the most say.
I would say most singers have the most say about it.
Unfortunately that's kind of like or fortunately whatever that's like
make sense, That's that's part of it. I mean I
like festivals as like a cherry, you know. To me,
they're like they're fun when you're doing your own thing,
(50:50):
and then then then you get to do them because
they're like this crazy thing. When you just do them,
it can get dark because it's how you.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Have to look at it.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Like a festival crowd, you're gonna play a certain kind
of set list, you get seventy five minutes, you're gonna
play a set list that appeals more to a mass.
You're not really gonna take them too far. It's it's
too big. That's not the point of it. That's not
the vibe of the party. It's not like a Andy
Warhol party and there's a bunch of weird people invited.
(51:20):
It's like a very you know, it just it is
what it is. And then at your own show you
could have a little run of two or three songs
that you're almost purposely pushing people away to then bring
them back, or like this is where it's going to
dip down, and then we can wrap it back up
at the end and you can do something that you
can play some weirder songs for you, or do something
(51:42):
and can go, you can do a jam. You can
just have more fun with it. So I think when
you're doing that, eventually, like I said, with anything becomes boring.
And so the playing the straight ahead thing for the
giant audience, you're like, wow, I just played for the
sixty thousand people.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
It's what a rush. So that variety it's helpful.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
So I always just trying to say everything touring, I
always try to like want to have that balanced. But
between management and you know they figure it out. Well,
my stuff is different. It's like I'd like to tour places,
but it's unfortunately. This is what I tried to do
on this record was to have less of a band
and have more stuff on tracks and create Since I'm
(52:25):
not a band, I can create a weird world of
like a three piece band with tracks and just have
it be like weird or weirder than less straightforward than
just having like I've always had just players play everything.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
I was just trying to be able to afford to
go on tour. It's very hard as.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Less people are like why don't you come here or
come there? It's like I always debate how to talk
about this because it's not like it's not a complaint,
it's more just like realities of reality, like the band
never feels stable enough.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
To just sit there and enjoy.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Okay, Like I never feel like I never saw it's
always like older brother. That's not negative positive, it's just
like my personalities reaction to this thing I exist in
the business, right you can't like you realize that touring
(53:26):
in some ways is a luxury, which is great. You're
a band that has an audience, like be grateful because
that's like, and you can if you can then make
money from that, that's an amazing gift. This other bands
that would want to do that and just just like can't.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
I mean, i'd imagine people cold understand because even if
you work a regular job and you have to take
a business trip, you know, if the money's.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Not right, it's like it's always someone else paying musicians
like actors have businesses like we are the business even
at the highest level, Like who's the biggest They gross
crazy amounts of stones right right, they're still paying themselves company.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
They might get an advance from a big company and stuff.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
I got to advance it, but they're still at a
loss YouTube for like six eight months of that touring,
even though they're like the biggest band. There's no like
but when you make a movie, the actor is a
director is they're not at a loss. It's just the
big company paying for it. So it feels a little
a little different in that in that way, I mean,
(54:29):
maybe that's what makes.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Musicians a little cooler than actors.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
Sorry, guys, it's gonna get outside here and just have
a line of actors. I heard what you said, and
I'm mildly offended. I can take my mildly offended. The
Albert or story. A lot of people mad at you,
thanks for nothing. The Albert Hammond Junior story.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
Oh that was fun, man. I appreciate it, and I
appreciate you. Thank you for the years of music in
the in the new solo record. Can't wait to hear
the second half.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Oh man, I can't wait to just have it out.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
Thanks to Alberham and Jr. For chatting about his new
double album, Melodies on Hiatus. You can hear it along
with all of our favorite songs from him and the
Strokes on a playlist at Broken Record podcast dot com.
You can subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot
com slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all
of our new episodes. Broken Record is produced with help
(55:36):
from Leah Rose, Jason Gambrel, Ben Holliday, Nisha Venkatt, Jordan McMillan,
and Eric Sanda. Our editor is Sophie Crane. Broken Record
is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this
show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus.
Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription service that offers bonus
(55:57):
content and uninterrupted ad free listening for only four ninety
nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts, subscriptions,
and if you like the show, remember to share ra
and review us on your podcast staff. Our theme music
expect canny beats. I'm Justin Richard H.
Pushkin. Albert Hammond Junior first rose to prominence as the
lead guitarist of The Strokes, a band at the forefront
of New York City's indie rock renaissance and the early odds.
The Strokes released their debut album Is This It in
two thousand and one to huge commercial success. Two decades,
(00:38):
five albums and a Grammy later, the Strokes have become
a modern successor to the bands that influenced them, The Cars,
The Stooges, the Velvet Underground. In two thousand and seven,
Albert Hammon Junior launched his solo career, putting his songwriting
and abilities as a frontman to the test. He's now
released five albums of his own, including his latest Melodies
(01:00):
on Hiatus, which came out just a couple of months ago.
It's a double album that he co wrote with Canadian
singer Simon Wilcox and feature sure his collaborations with Goldlink
and Matt Helders from The Arctic Monkeys. On today's episode,
Albert Hammond Junior and I discussed his parents' recent divorce
and how despite the fact that he's in his early forties,
(01:21):
he was still dramatically impacted by it. Albert also reminisces
about his past life as a champion rollerskater who was
once scouted by Christy Yamaguchi's Olympic ice skating coach, and
he also explains why he's never been a fan of
everyone else's favorite bands Radiohead and led Zeppelin. This is
(01:45):
broken record liner notes for the digital age. I'm justin Ritchman.
Here's my conversation with Albert Hammond Jr. When did you
record the new solo record, Melodies on Hiatus Man.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I thought it was going to come out a lot sooner.
I started in twenty nineteen, right at the end of
touring my last record, Francis Trouble. I had no idea
of making a double album. It wasn't like I want
to make two records. And all I thought was, I
can start now. And because I knew, I wanted to
deconstruct the band and I wanted to keep it meaning
(02:22):
like the record before that was a live band in
a room in a studio like this, a studio head upstate.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It was very like.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Studio live takes band and this upstate New York. Yeah, sorry,
you live in New York long enough, you just call
it up So I wanted to just like I usually
I love plugging my guitar and direct, even if it's
just to like an apollo.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I mean, I would plug it into a board. I
love that too, or just like a neve like that
over there. But I was like, let's just do it
all like we do the demos.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Drum machines kind of play all the different parts with instruments,
and we're just trying to create a vibe for each
song to then play for people to be like, this
is where I wanted to go. Help me get it there. Yeah,
So I started in twenty nineteen. My parents were getting divorced,
and my mom was in this rental right by the
Beverly Center, very cool rental. Yeah, just started there with
(03:19):
my laptop. But your parents just got divorced. But when
we were recording in twenty seventeen here they just started.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
But it was still happening in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I think it ended. I think it took like four
or five years. It was kind of ridiculous. Wow. I
was gonna ask you cause I guess you know, Old
Man seemed like an obvious jumping off point.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
It's so funny because some songs come you know, they
just kind of like lay themselves out. I remember I was,
I was at this whole time twenty sixteen seventeen eighteen.
I was staying a lot in my parents' apartment here.
They weren't here, and my life was a lot here.
The Strokes were doing stuff. I had my solo manager
(03:59):
and my label here working with people, so it was
just easy to come here.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And I was just playing.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
The guitar and it kind of just like it kind
of came. I said, my old.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Man blah blah blah, and I kind of just had it.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
It wasn't intended to be a dig at him or anything.
And then by the time I got to doing lyrics,
and Simon actually Samon Wilcox did lyrics because well, by
the time I got to twenty songs, I looked at
all twenty and I was like, there's no way I'm
going to finish these. This is just too much work.
I'd rather start from scratch. But you knew you liked
all twenty, Yeah, I knew well by then it was
(04:37):
like the album's a double album. But like I song titles,
little lines here and there, lyrics from me are last,
so I'll do I sang all the songs parts I
knew I had melodies for and ones that I was searching,
or if I wanted to change it a little bit,
you know, it'd still punched me. And I'd be like, oh,
that's that's fine for them to be similar. This one
(04:59):
should be a little different. Let me just kind of
find it. But you're just making shit up, and sometimes
it works, sometimes it doesn't. What was cool was that
Simon kept phrasing of mine that had I written lyrics,
I wouldn't even have kept because these were just like
little rambling things I did, Like I was making stuff
up on the spot. Maybe it's a mistake or you
(05:20):
don't fit the words you want, but she was able
to keep them in And so there's something really magical
in that. But yeah, Old Man is not about It's
not like a dig going back to that, it's not
a dig on my dad.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It was quite the opposite. It's kind of like you just.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Realize in life how your perspective changes over time. Yeah,
you know, and like so you see your parents and
you're like a kid, and you have all these feelings
and thoughts and you know, teenager twenty, and all of
a sudden you end up being their age that you
remember looking up at them and then you're kind of like, oh,
(05:58):
this is so strange. How did I get here and
how you're viewing stuff? But now they're older so you
can't see. So it's just this cycle of, you know,
maybe we just have to be more gentle with everyone,
just because we're all, you know, human beings and we
make mistakes, and like, I feel like the more you judge,
(06:20):
the more you end up doing the same things later on. Yeah,
And so it was that kind of idea in there.
And that's the other thing I would do assimon is
that when I was doing it, she would be like,
you want to keep the world old man? Or maybe
she even said like I really like it, let's let's
keep it, and I was like, no, I wanted to
keep it. It was very natural, is the first thing that
I sang when I was trying to find the melody.
(06:41):
So yeah, it's kind of hard to change those words.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So how much of that did she write versus I
would say she wrote the lyrics just because I said
old man, or like if she kept a line or
two of mine that I said that worked, everything is there, Yeah,
by her hand, you know, like I wouldn't. I wouldn't
take that away from her.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
But the conversations that we had dictated sometimes where songs
would go. And it was definite point where I was like,
it's not about fuck you, it's not.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
It's not like that all.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
If anything, it's like, oh man, like all the times
I said that, and now I'm in your shoes when
I would say that to you, and I'm like, I
kind of get it, and you you know, you did
a lot, like you know, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Well, your parents getting divorced at.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
That time, yeah, they were still Yeah, but it wasn't
a dig at the But did.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It must have spurred it, right, I mean I just
don't imagine. Sure.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
It was definitely not. You know, divorce is it's funny,
divorce is not. I was thirty six when they started.
It wasn't any easier. It wasn't like I'm thirty six,
Like I didn't feel it.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, felt it just as hard. Very weird. It's always weird.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
When it's the idea like never call the cops, never
get as soon as you get other people involved in
your stuff, you can't just talk it out, Yeah, you can't.
You can never go back Yeah, it's you know, and
that's what it was. I would get a lot of
the weirdest things I got is just we were like
a tripod.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Of a family. My mom's Argentina and my dad's from Gibraltar,
which is the craziest place to be from. I like Gibraltar.
Where the hell is that the rock?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah, Living Daylights James Bond, the opening scene is in Gibraltar.
If you want to know what it. What it looks
like is just a giant rock off the coast of Spain.
That it's British and they're angry about that, but yes,
so far away. And they met in Argentina and they
moved to La and I grew up here. So I
didn't grow up with like a family every couple of
(08:45):
years when they'd come visit for three months, not like
cousins or aunts who live in the same city. So
we were like a tripod. So that interaction still existed
even in the divorce. So that was like the hard
part was like, even though I was not getting involved
or I was just trying to help out where I could, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Going to affect me.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, and anger will come out from different people and
it's gonna you know, I'm in the middle. Regardless of
if they don'tics or not. I imagine some things came from it.
But that's like it a god. Writing songs are so
so funny. There's so many different spots, and you might
even have one line that means something to someone, but
the whole song it's a different meaning meaning like it's
(09:29):
not just not so like I'm going to write about
how much I like or dislike this person. Yea, even
if you do that, you might venture off and have
a whole story or line works. I mean, it's a
combination of music and words. Sometimes stuff that's really simple
is more powerful. The music, to me is what I
(09:51):
want to have move you. And then though the words
on top are like a cherry. But these conversations I
had with Simon were like amazing. We would have hour
long conversations about what I felt, where I wanted to go,
or what she thought, or we would disagree or agree
or like it would be amazing. But like remember an
old man, the second verse just wasn't right. And then
(10:12):
she came up with the bullet wounds and self defense.
Even like it never stopped. She had this story. It
didn't feel like that to me, but she had this
story about this older person who just like never this
character like who never stops even though you know he
hasn't made it, he doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I was like, sure, I guess try writing that, and
I didn't connect with me.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And then she sent me the lyrics and I was
just like, this is so great, but this is not
what I would have thought it would have been.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Did it ever connect with you at any point?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I mean, the lyrics connected with me when I sang them.
For sure, I wouldn't have sang them. This is the
first time I wrote with someone else. I didn't do
anything that didn't fully.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Connect feeling authentic, you know. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It wasn't like I just mean sometimes the way the
way someone tells the story about where they're gonna go,
you're kind of like, yeah, okay, I don't I don't
know what in your head, but it's yeah, it's funny
to not get it and then get something back and
being like, well, whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Was in your head it was.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's not what I thought it was going to be,
and this is amazing. But yeah, no, it wasn't like
just write lyrics. I had thought I was gonna like
try to get a bunch of friends to help me
write lyrics. But it's a lot harder to get people
to help you out than you might think.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
What kind of trouble did you come across with that? No? Nothing,
Just people say.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Any of what kind of trouble? Oh I got in
a lot of trouble. I get in a lot of trouble.
But it's not from asking people to write songs. Such
a trouble maker.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I don't know. I just this was just like an idea.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I thought, like I would ask certain bands that I'm
friends with, if they people who I like they write lyrics,
if they wanted to give it a go.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
But it's hard. People I did. I did.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Everyone was really nice, but I think they were all
like in the middle of records or sometimes people wanted
to do it, but they I think maybe they wanted
to change the malady of it, which I wouldn't have minded,
but have been like, Okay, well now we're working on
the song very differently, you know what I mean. I
think it was just the timing of it because I
was just recording, right, it's recording I could have I
(12:26):
could still be recording. I was in such a finding
voicemail wasn't just like creating songs. It was I was
in such a little heaven.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And you were sort of doing the strokes with the
new abnormal was yeah, at least stating too right. We've
done a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And then we started the promo tour, and then the
pandemic happened, and then Gus would just fly over. Gus Ober,
he's my best friend. He just front housed with the strokes.
I was pretty loose during the pandemic. I'll be honest.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
No, no precautions for me.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Well no, I was just thought, no, no, I mean
there was precautions. I mean he flew on the plane
and I guess you have to wear a mask, but he.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Just came over. Precautions because you he just came over.
And then we just started working and my wife was pregnant.
I don't know. We would still exercise and stuff like.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I always feel like I find it hard to believe
what happened there was they tell you what's happening, but
no one ever tells you how to build your own
immune system.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
It was a weird thing to navigate. It was. It
was very weird. Did work in on music though, I mean,
how your wife was pregnant, so it was a lot.
I mean, well, she got pregnant.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
In June, and this was we started in March. Right
and first kid, right, first, first and only kid, first kid,
No more kid war scene, no more.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Kids.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
One is I'm grateful for her changed my life. I
love her dearly, but I don't have the capacity for
It's a lot for.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
It requires a lot of bandwidth. I have two, you
have two. Yeah. My eldest really liked your solo record.
Check me at it. The playlist is it? How old
are they? Seven and four? Just turned seven and four?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Mine just a little over during a different, different spot.
I was terrifying at first. Oh my god. You know
some people come they come out and they're like I
was born to be a parent.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I was like a PTSD, Like I was like, what happened?
My life's completely changed? Yeah, I love you, but it's
just everything's really different.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Do you feel like it's balanced out? It's balancing out
for sure. I mean anything, it makes sense, any creation
in the universe is through destruction, you know what I mean?
Like here and how we're here, it was through things
banging into each other and blowing up. So it makes
sense that to create something like.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
New life.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I mean, it's amazing to have seen it. You know,
it must be something that it you know, just.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Just an extreme thing. Your kid destroys your life, Yeah,
I mean it's it's it just it just needs.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
It destroys it in the sense that it's meant to
and you're meant to build up deeper and better and
your your heart's richer for and it's like, so you
can't be the same person. It would be ridiculous. And
just to see life take shape. I started to think
that maybe personality traits and little things you do or
(15:31):
just are all in there. It's got nothing to do
with what I was saying or doing, just from generations
passed on and who knows which part she has some
different people, but it's.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And that's it's sometimes that's scary. Sure, when I think
about it, I'm like, damn, does she have some of
my uncle in there? I mean, I'm.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Sure she's just like I'm sure they have different How
are you even ancestors you didn't even meet, like you
have like your friends or friends brothers, And you're like, yeah,
it doesn't even seem like the part of the family
or like their personality was just so different than the
rest of the family.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Friends who were twins, and you just couldn't believe.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Dude, I was a twin. It passed away at five months,
but I was I was so curious that, not not
to bring a down. Wow, you're like, oh, but yeah,
I always feel like there was something. I'm always so
curious about what that would have what my life would
have been like had I had a twin.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Were you able to glean from your parents, how similar
not you were in the five months, Like we talked.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
About five months in like, my mom didn't know she
had twins, and it was five months, but it still
looked like a little human. Supposedly when it came out
my dad. This might be a little graphic, but my
dad took it out of the toilet and they brought
it to the hospital and they said it.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Looked like a little kid.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I always questioned this, but the doctor was like, yeah,
you lost the baby. Those are just phantom feelings. And
like a few weeks later she found out she was
still pregnant with me. And I remember knowing that as
a kid, but as a kid, you don't like really
think what that must feel like for your parents. It
wasn't until I was thirty six, and I was like, man,
that must have been weird to have I think, is
(17:17):
it called stillborn to like have a kid come out
like that, and like that's heavy, that's not a light thing.
And then I didn't realize how close she worked so
much so that the nail and part of the other
placenta was on mine when it came out like one
of the things, and so like it made me like.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And actually it made me.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Cry because I was just like imagining just being that
close to someone. There must be some kind of energy
in there, you know, when you're like being made.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah. I know at the time you weren't thinking about
how your parents felt, but it's probably because it was
super overwhelming for you too. Or did you really not
eat when I was a kid and when you were
a kid. I mean it's hard to remember, or yeah,
maybe it was it was too much. I was just
I always thought it was just like a it was
just a story. I heard it so much when I
(18:10):
was since I was little, so it just became like
it's part of my story and it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I was older, I was like, man, this story is
like a superhero story and that's when I did on
the record before, I was like, what a cool way
to create an alter ego through that story. And then
this album is like the deconstruction of accepting. I made
a record where I accepted being the front person, because
(18:38):
all the records beforehand were just like, I really just
want to be in a band. I just like writing songs. Yeah,
they're just exercises, so I could try to write more
songs in the band or just be a better songwriter
in general. And on the fourth one, I was like, Okay,
I just have to accept that it's just my name, so.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Before you thought about it as exercise for the Strokes.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, the first album was just like when I made
my first album, You're to keep. I was like, if
I don't finish something and it's just done, I got
anything I was to tour it or anything. If I
don't like finish it, I'll.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Never grow because I'll always be like, well, it's just
kind of a demo. I can change it. You know.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Everyone always like, you know, that's just a rough mix.
I'm changing everything.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
So it felt good to commit to I just felt
like I needed it.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I felt like I had stuff that i'd been nurturing
since my late teenage years, mixed with stuff that I'd
done after I joined a band. So I needed to
get rid of it to move on.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, yeah, and I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It wouldn't be the songwriter today unless I had done that.
But I just mean, I didn't want to be like
I didn't want to release a solo record and be like,
I'm Albert Hamman Jr. Look at me like I just
always wanted to be in a band.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That's all. We're going to take a quick break and
then we'll be back with more from Albert Hammond Junior.
We're back with more from Albert Hammond Junr. So you
feel like a guitar player like that feels like I
just like writing songs.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I didn't even feel like I feel like my guitar
player now because that's where the role like.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
When I fell in love with.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Music and guitar, I never it wasn't like, oh I
like Jimmy Hendricks, I want to play lead. I was
just like I like Buddy Holly, I like Roy Orbison.
I just wanted to sing and write songs. It wasn't
until I was in a band that I I don't
know why I didn't click with me like guitar parts
it should have maybe or I didn't understand it. I
just I guess I fell in love more with the
(20:38):
song than like the instrument. And it wasn't untill like
I felt like I had to when I was in
a band, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna have to.
Even when I was first playing some leads at early
stroke stuff, I was like like I'm doing this like wow,
like it was so it was so strange. When I
(21:02):
first started writing songs. It wasn't till like make an album.
It was just to like be a contribute in what
we were doing. You know, It's always been a struggle.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I love performing.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I've been I used to roller skate when I was
a kid, so I feel like I've been performing since
before in nine, ten, eleven, twelve, I would, you know,
skate in front of a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Of skating's back Are you are you diving back in?
Are you getting back into Well? No, I did.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Like my skating that I did was you know, like
figure skating and ice skating. Yeah, I did that alone
with a partner.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
On ice skates. Store, No, on roller skates. They wanted
me to do. It's so funny.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
The what was their name, Kristin Yamagucci, the coach wanted
to coach me for the Olympics because his thing was
like he was like, I can teach how you can
do everything you need to do to learn skates and
stuff like that. What I can't teach is like what
you have. I had like posture or like grace, and
I could like move. I think my dad wanted me
(22:04):
to ice skate too, because there's money in ice skating.
There's no money in roller skating.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Incredible.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
I was like, what, I don't love ice skating like
I love real skating. I mean it was fun, it's
very competitive. I liked winning. I just remember that. I
remember not being nervous and I liked winning. I was
like practicing every day three four hours a day, seven
days a week, and then one day at twelve, I
(22:31):
like the hairline fracture on my ankle and then I
was like, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I'm not doing that anymore. Was it like your parents
being like you have to go to definitely know you
want it to or not. You can't.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I don't think you could push someone into wanting to
do that if the person didn't want to do it.
You might, you know, every day falling down, getting up,
falling down like you just hours and hours. It's the
same thing with an instrument, right, I mean people ask
for advice on guitar, and it's just like you're gonna
have many moments where you're gonna want to quit. And
(23:06):
it's the people that push through those moments that get better.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's all. That's all it is. Do you still have
those moments where you want to quick guitar? Oh my god? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Tell you kidding? Like I love tennis and I was
watching tennis and I was I was, I was angry.
I was like, the number one tennis player has a
coach teaching him more stuff, even though he's number one.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I would love a.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Guitar teacher to get me over hurdles. I have weaknesses
on guitar. I'm very slow musician. I'm not a studio musician.
My ear is slow picking stuff up. I get like
stage fright in playing music with the band or other people,
and like stuff I won't know or just not doing
stuff well.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I'll rehearse shit out of.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Something so that I can perform it on stage where
it looks like you can't imagine the person not belonging there,
and I love that. I love that part of entertaining,
but the unknown like scares me so like I'd love
to strengthen.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
That ability.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I mean, to come up with stuff for me, even
like guitar parts I do on this album. I mean,
I have to play so much bad stuff to find
the good stuff, like embarrassingly, so you know, like for
like hours and then sometimes it's quicker and sometimes it's not.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
But it's like.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
It's hard for me to have that confidence to do
it in other settings.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Do you have days then where it's like really working,
like it almost comes scarily easy, like ever, nothing ever
feels easy.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
But I definitely have days where I get enough confidence
where I feel like maybe I'm not a mediocre piece
of shit, like.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Maybe I actually am.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
I remember turning I think it is to my wife
and I was like after recording this, and I was like,
maybe maybe I can I know how to write a
song or something like that. I kept saying, like I've
done it this many times, like I got it. There's
got to be something there, right, Yeah, it's hard to
the creative world can be hard. You set your own
(25:16):
boundaries and disciplines, and there's a lot of time to
be just destructive. And there's a lot of times for
my my that inner voice I've been working on for
a long time. It's just we all everyone has their
inner voice.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Yeah, it's it's a rough voice. Your invoice, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
So it's it can be it can be hard sometimes sometimes.
I mean, honestly, I do want to find someone to
like help me get over some some hurdles.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I'm really good at being told what to do and
I'll go do it, yeah, and and do it. But
if I have to like figure out I reads, like
reading the instructions and like you tell me, if I
do A B and C, I'll get to D.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Then I'll do a B and C. But if I
have to guess that AB and C gets to D
and two months of gone by and I haven't one
to D, Yeah, am I doing it wrong? Yeah? I don't.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
It's the same thing with food and working out. When
someone told me what I had to do to achieve
certain things that I wanted to and why it works,
it's great. Yeah, I'll just follow what you're saying and
I'll get to But if I had did like guess,
I'd probably give up because I wouldn't see the results.
I would feel like I was doing it wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Well, how did you early when you first picked up guitar, Like,
how did you get through that? I don't know. It's
a good question.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Maybe early on was different because you're well, it's different
in the same so there was I was still pretty
private about it. I wasn't like I had friends or
people in my school who were like, I play music
or write songs, and they'd play you their songs like.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I never did that. I wouldn't sit down and like
play someone a bunch of my songs. You aren't at
like lunch playing.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
People with those people who were like, oh I wrote this,
I do it like the what's it called?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
We remember? You'd have like class squads or whatever, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
School meetings and someone would be like, oh, the assembly
and this guy wants to play the song. Like that
was not me, like, not that I didn't want to
be like that. It wasn't like I was like but
I just like, yeah, I didn't feel confident like that.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I was just like, well, and then and then when
you're not confident, the part of you is like fuck
that kid, Yeah, of course you know, well you kind
of gauge.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
You're like, does everyone It's like it's good too because
you're just like, what don't people like about it? Because
he has confidence and able to do it? So what
is rubbing the wrong way? And so you learned something
from that?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
I don't know. I started playing. It takes a while
to get barchoards. I stuck with it.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I really learned a lot when I joined the band.
I became like, I feel like I've discovered myself amongst
the other four.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
They're all very.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Talented and quick and intense. I really like discovered what
I liked and who I was in playing with them
and even in whatever songs that Julian Road or parts
that people had, or you know, learning to how you
fit in.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
You know, you can play a a a barchoord and
there's like, you know, three or four other solid positions
to play it in that are more exciting than.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
That a bar choord. A barchoord works really well for
a certain thing riff is happening. But then I found
like different inversions and I realized, like inversions change everything.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah, just opens up a whole new door.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
At first, it was just like a third over, like
you know, like three, five one, and then piano inversions
started coming in, and then that's like where I am now.
I feel like those different versions allow me to they
all come from me a little lazy.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
You don't have to move so much. Yeah you can, you.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Like, oh I look this minor here, and then there's this.
The progressions of guitar are all are all right there,
so it's like I mean, not always, but it just
it can lean itself to new sounds and stuff like that.
So like I think when I started, I didn't know
what I was doing, not that anyone else in.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
The band knew.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
We all kind of like discovered knowing that together. I
remember early on though in La and first hearing god
By Voices and I was sixteen, and maybe it was
like hearing that band that was like the you said,
how did you keep going? So I probably, you know,
thirteen fourteen, maybe as young as twelve, learning stuff, but
(29:57):
like not really committed. Fourteen fifteen you're more committed. You know,
it's like ninth grade, you know, first getting stone and
life just changes and you hear music and you become
a different person.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Feels like overnight, you watch movies and you're like these
people are incredible movie. What am I doing?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
And I went to like a private school, and you
just like everyone's so boring. At no offense to people
in my school, it was just like they're all so nice.
I just mean, like the conversation was always just like college, married,
make money, and so it just felt like there had to.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Be more.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
To it than that, and it all felt like so
planned out. I just remember, like I at sixteen and
then I got my voices were like some a band
where I heard and I know everyone talks about their
low fidelity. I didn't listen to them like, oh this
is low fidelity. I just heard amazing melodies and songs
(30:54):
and like words and it hit me. It was like
visceral music that hit my gut, that made me feel
different as a person, like I walked down the street
with a different attitude. And I think it's when you
find stuff like that you feel like they're just game changers.
You're like I was just like, I will find a way.
(31:15):
It doesn't matter I need to be the kid at
the assembly. I don't need to I'll find my way.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Yeah yeah, yeah. Once you found guided by Voices, did
similar sounds continue to excite you or did you sort
of go like, you know, some people have an evolution
where they discover something. They're like like guided by voices,
and it's like, oh, like, well they liked you know,
I don't know Susie and in the banshees or whatever, they
(31:41):
will just keep going.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Forward or I don't, Oh no, I find I definitely
found people like that. I had a close friend named
Matt Rivetto who was like my slightly older and he
was like my style and music like icon, you know,
he was like eighteen, I was sixteen. I just like
looked up to him at the coolest hair, dressed like
(32:03):
these weird thrift suits, and I was just like, this
guy is amazing, and yeah, he would show me stuff
and it was amazing to see, like like.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
The modern Lovers.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
That band had the guitars and keyboard and talking heads
and the drummer in the cars, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
So it's like and you just start you start going
to that. You say Elvis.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Costello and then like Nick Lowe because he produced it,
and you hear his songs and you're just like, oh wow,
he was like such an interesting songwriter. And then those
songs are similar to like Squeeze, but those early time
with like guy to have voices was probably like in
that same world would be like built to spill. They
(32:50):
were very moving for me. They covered Someday at Irving
Plaza in like two thousand and one or two. We
came to see them and they scribbled it from the
set list. I mean, we didn't see it, and we're like, oh,
it's so weird that they were scribbling. I know they
get stoned and maybe they got weird. But but and
then they covered it and it was like the best.
(33:11):
You know, normally when someone covers a song, you're just like,
thanks for ruining it. They did such an amazing job.
It was like I was like anything. Jill and I
were like crying at the show. It was so good.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
It was great, man.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
But yeah, just an amazing band right with like songs. Yeah,
who else was in there? I mean so many people,
you know, the The Cure of the Cars, the Beatles, Stones.
But I also grew up with like Phil Collins and
Elton John when I was like nine ten. I love
those songs, So I bet part of me still has
(33:48):
those like big eighties songs deep inside me.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
So yeah, yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Like I don't find it cheesy. I think they're just
like really good songs. Whitney Houston, Like I just I'm
just like.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Man, are you Whitney fan? Yeah? I love Whitney Houston. Man. Yeah,
amazing voice, I mean, my god, amazing voice. And also
like could go really big and like do like the
I have an incredible voice thing. It could also just
be sing a song straight and just fucked you're so good.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah, no, just an incredible This was around that time.
I mean, you slowly build. I have like an encyclopedia
of music. What's funny is that I got into music
at different stages, right, Like I remember being like my
early thirties and I got into the Misfits, and I
feel like that's a band you find when you're like fifteen. Yeah,
(34:37):
but like I feel like my fifteen was like thirty one.
Like I was like late to the late to Honestly,
it was late to the game. Like in my early thirties,
I was like, oh, I need something like this in
my set list when I play, I need some like
aggression like that.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
And I spent like a whole.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Record trying to find my own versions of it. It's
so I didn't want to sound like the misfits, But
I just I liked the vibe that it was. It
was coming off right, and I so, I mean, it's
it's funny to have that delay, because I did feel
like that's something when you have like a teenage anks
usually and I had that like.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
An angst in my early thirties. Sometimes I rediscover my
teenage angst. I don't know why I was. I mean,
I was listening to a lot of your solo records
and a lot of Stroke stuff in the last few days,
and then for some reason on the way here, I
don't know if it was because of listening to you
got your music or what, but I just was compelled
to put on Black Sabbath, which is so cool. You know.
(35:36):
Oftentimes it just comes on and it's like cool, but
actually put it on this time, and uh, I was
like fuck. I feel like yeah, I feel like fuck, fuck.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
The world, you know, like there's such a there's such
a cool, interesting band. I feel like sometimes they're they're
like logo or what people think they are because time
has passed and people have been inspired by them. But
they're very melodic band. Yeah, and like this stuff is
like not that distorted or dirty. It's like a very
(36:05):
it's very straightforward. It's not theatrical. Maybe that's why it
lasted the test of time a little more, because it's
like and he has a very he discovered early on
his voice right away, so as soon as you hear it,
you're just like, yeah, it's a hook in itself. Yes,
you know, even on a solo, stuff was crazy train crazy, yeah, solo, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
It was that. Randy Rhodes play guitars. Yeah, such a
guitar player. Such a guitar player.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I don't forget the leads so because sometimes when it's
like so much fire, it's like cool, I know, you
play very fast.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
But just like the.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Verse licks that he's doing in there are like I mean,
like I could just listen to that and that'd be enough.
You'd like, yeah, you have an amazing song. You don't
need to play anything else. But yeah, no, he really
got it. He knows his vocal sound.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
It's funny. No one tried a lot of people copy
Black Sabbath, but doesn't seem like anyone really tried to copy.
They did not. But no, like that heavy guitar stuff
with like Azzi's sometimes sounds like you could be I know, yeah, yeah,
it doesn't.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Like that's where I feel like people got influenced by it,
but then they they took a part of it that
I don't hear when I listen when I when I
listen to and.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Even the drums, like the drums are really loose, like
they're cool that there's a lot of parts, but like
it feels also loose and I don't know jazz like jazzy,
I guess, you know, very cool.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
They're a very cool fan I also got into later
in life. Yeah, just that happens. Like I also like
this never a fan of led Zeppelin to this day
just doesn't move me. Wow, just like.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
No part of it. I mean, they're all amazing musicians.
I'm not crazy.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Yeah, I'm It's just not something that I put on
and I'm just like.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
Yeah, it doesn't give meaning to me.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I know people are they're like wow, really, I'm like,
I know, I've tried.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I almost feel they're a part of it that you
don't like when you hear it is you're like, oh
fuck that annoys me or this.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm not a huge fan of the of the vocals.
I mean I think that all bands, even ones I
don't they got some great songs and I listen to
parts and like they have it, but as a whole,
like I don't like put it. There's a few bands
that are like that. People are like blown away. I
never really got into Pink Floyd. I love some of
(38:29):
the guitar playing those with the solos. I would totally
the Benz the literal bends that sounded like the radio
Head out but like the way they would bend or
do something like I would like, Ooh, I like that,
you know what I mean? Like because I'm definitely one
that just because I don't like something wouldn't mean I
wouldn't reference a drum pattern from led Zeppelin and be like,
oh that's cool, let's do something like that. Yeah, I
(38:51):
just they're just what I mean is don't like is
like I never They never moved me like I was
describing God to my voices, where I like it gave
me attitude to walk around.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
I never felt that I'm waiting. I'm still waiting for
the day. The Smiths never got into them. Everyone's like, wow, really,
who's another one that everyone's kind of radiohead?
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Fuck? Great radio as amazing song.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
That I would listen to for sure, but I've never
like put on one of their records and.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Like luxuriated in the Yeah. Yeah, there's definitely songs where
I'm like, is it the feeling? I honestly have no.
I have no clue you think I want to be
outside of it. I want to be on the inside.
It's to be super clear.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
I don't dislike all these bands are incredible.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
It's just your takes.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I would be honored to be in any of these
bands or even come close as a musician.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Nothing to do with that. You don't think you're better.
I like parts and songs of theirs, all of it.
It's just these are just it's funny that they are
bands that have created something for other people that I
didn't get that didn't happen to me yet. That's all.
That's the only thing I'm saying. Like, did you hate
(40:07):
the Misfits until you heard them? I didn't.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Wait, I didn't say I hated anyone. I hadn't heard
of the Misfits. No, when I was a teenager, I
didn't know the mis I literally discovered them, Like, who
is this band?
Speaker 1 (40:20):
This is amazing? You remember what song was? Uh? Last Caress?
And I was just like how did I not know this?
And then I proceeded to write like three or four
demos that it was like trying to be I even
covered that song live for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
But you know, I don't hate any of those bands
that I said. I think they're amazing. It's just like
it doesn't resonate. Yeah, And that doesn't like mean there's
probably even other bands. There's bands I like, uh song
from songs from them are amazing that I I might
have had moments with them. You can't have a moment
(40:56):
with everything. And sometimes it's just like how That's why
reviewing a record's kind of funny, because you know, like
how many times have you listened to your favorite songs?
And some days you're kind of like hu, and other
days you're like you could be crying or like it's connected.
You're in the matrix and you're like stopping the bullets.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, And then there's there's there's there's groups that I
dislike and songs that I songs at least that I
intensely hate. But then once while I hear that song
coming through the window or something random, and I'm like, fuck,
this sounds really good. It happened recently and I can't
remember wish I could remember what song it was, And
I was like, fuck, do I like maybe I kind
of like.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
I like this, That's what I'm waiting for. That's what
I'm I'm it's it's come. It's definitely come close on
some of on some of those, they've all turned around
a little bit, except for led Zepp.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Are people tempted to try to turn you like.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
They're always blown away. They that's the last thing they
would think that I would, I would say, And then
some people are like, you know what, I get it.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
I get it. But still I want to make it
super clear that I think they're amazing musicians.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
I feel like I'm going to get I'm just waiting
for the hate I'm going to get on this.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
They're amazing musicians. Some amazing I just mean.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Like the three hour show, some of the long jams,
some of like the vibe they went for.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Just it's not like what I'd want to play, you
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Like I'd rather like, I mean, look at my top
songs over here, what do you got to song? Like
I'd rather put on Philip Glass String Quartet number three,
Like I'd rather hear.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
That we have to pause for another quick break, and
then we'll come back with the rest of my conversation
with Albert Hammond Jr. We're back with Albert Hammon Jr.
Do you think your critical voice makes you better, like
if you were being honest with yourself. I don't. It's
(43:06):
the same way. I don't think so people think.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I mean, it's fun to do drugs, but people do
drugs and creating because it's like I need to be
like dark, right. I think you do need your shadow
and your dark side to create, but you don't need
to do drugs or be angry or have that stuff
to enter the shadow. I mean, the shadow is there
all the time, you know what I mean. I think
(43:32):
it's just embracing the shadow and like nurturing it and
like sucking that creative.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
That's where like creation really is in there. You know.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Sometimes I actually feel I can I feel like two
different people, like how I live my life and then
how I am when I create. It takes a second
to get in. Like the guy who pays the bills
or drives or you know, I like put stuff in
my calendar. I'm organized. That guy is not the guy creating.
You know, the guy creating is like more of a
(44:07):
more of a mess.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Does one feel more like you?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
They both feel like me, but in fact that you
used always tell my therapist like I want to be
like Indiana Jones, but part of me feels like Indiana
Jones who's in the plastic box and the toy store,
Like I'm doing it, but I'm not actually living it.
That makes sense, Like I used to be worse and
now I'm a little looser. But like I was like,
like I need to somehow enjoy the process more than
(44:36):
the end result. I noticed it in like getting something
ready in my in my house from moving. It's like
you just want to get it done, but then when
it's done, something else you have to do.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
If you don't enjoy getting there, that's all you have
is the getting there.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
That's all. That's all we're all doing always. And so
when you think about the creative, like there's these two people.
The person who pays bills and drives and puts stuff
on your calendar, and then there's the creative person. The
creative person or the person who's creating. Is that the
same person that goes like on tour, when you tour.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
No, no, the person on Maybe sometimes on stage you
can get lost in it, but being on stage isn't
like you know people like, oh just got flow and
I just got caught into it. At least for me,
stage is like the way someone describes playing a tennis match,
(45:31):
fucking nailing it, gonna beat this guy. To just breathe
just because you didn't do something right. You don't fall
apart while looking like you belong there, never ever showing that.
But so it's like this inner thing that's just like
the amount of times I've had an amazing show has
(45:53):
gone from like starts strong, I feel like I'm falling apart,
and I come back, and then something happens and you
get lost, and then where you want to push the
crowd away, they go, and then you're able to bring
them back, and at the end you have more of
that than when you started, So you feel like you
did something right in there. That's usually like it's a
(46:16):
show is like a whole experience. That's why you're so
trained afterwards.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
It's like it's never just like I went out there
and did my thing.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
I wish that sounds amazing if doing your thing is
a ninety minute movie then yes, that's what happens with
ups and downs and curveballs, and like your show is
like your whole mix and so like, and sometimes you're not.
This is more of when I'm doing solo stuff. But
you're not at one hundred percent because you can't be.
You're on tour.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
You're never going to be.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
It's about learning how to be at like seventy percent,
but doing the show like you were at one hundred.
It really is like and that's kind of like the
secret to playing live music because it's never like you're
at home. I meditated for three weeks, took the perfect shower,
my hair is sitting just right. Let's just go do
a show. It's like that, except the next day you
have to do another.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
One, and you have to somehow get to the next.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
You're just like yeah, especially on the soul stuff, You're
just you're tired. Nothing that you wanted to do is
come out totally right.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Has a relationship between changed over timely? Does it evolve?
Is it like at first it was really fun and
then it became a drag and then it's.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Never I'm not jaded enough to not enjoy my life.
I felt like I was built to be a part
of a traveling circus cool, Like I do love it.
In many ways, you are going to not like things
that you love at some point inevitable. Still has been
(47:46):
moments where like, I love music and I would write
songs and record them even if I didn't play music anymore,
because I just can't. It's just I just do it.
I don't like I'm gonna sit and write. They just
like come out right. I don't think I could stop that.
But it's been moments where I've been like, man, imagine
if I like didn't play music or something else. So,
(48:06):
but I don't like dislike tour, and I've learned that
the longer you do it, it's different solo. In the
strokes of the luxury is that we have a big
fan base, and so like it's more comfortable to tour.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
It's cool to reach new.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
Areas you haven't even though you've been doing it for
twenty years. And it also when you've been doing it
that much. The high isn't so much from playing a
new song and having no one know it. The high
is like watching how people are absorbing stuff that you
know well and that they know, and then feeding off
of that energy. Playing a song that is clearly making
(48:48):
a crowd all feel nostalgic.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
How could that? If that's jading you, then I don't know.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
You gotta go do something because that's like, that's a
magical thing.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
I feel lucky.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
I wanted to be part of that fabric when I
was a teenager and I fell in love with music,
and now to even have glimpses of being part of
that fat is.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Yeah, it's unreal. It's really cool that you can have
that perspective on it while doing It's like you still
maintain the fan perspective in a way.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
I feel like you have to, though I was saying
that it's like your innocence from it is going to
get beaten out pretty fast, just by the game you
have to play. All business is a game, right, and
when you fall in love with music, you have no
idea what that game is. But it's not what you
think it is, and it's not for the love of it.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
You know, there's you know, this.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
Stuff that you have to this stuff you have to do,
but that's that's okay if you get to like create
and do other things. Basically everything has a price, Yeah,
some at some point, small, big, very rarely is that
I create something so magical that there isn't there's still
even when you do that, there's still some price somewhere. Yeah,
(50:05):
you know, yeah, maybe you get tired of doing it,
so you have to rediscover how to not feel tired
from it.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Yeah. How much input do you have on planning a tour?
Like do you get to like say like I don't
really want to go there, or do like a festival
like in my in my Soul stuff or the Stroke stuff.
I guess both both. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
Touring wise, I would say Julian has the most say.
I would say most singers have the most say about it.
Unfortunately that's kind of like or fortunately whatever that's like
make sense, That's that's part of it. I mean I
like festivals as like a cherry, you know. To me,
they're like they're fun when you're doing your own thing,
(50:50):
and then then then you get to do them because
they're like this crazy thing. When you just do them,
it can get dark because it's how you.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Have to look at it.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Like a festival crowd, you're gonna play a certain kind
of set list, you get seventy five minutes, you're gonna
play a set list that appeals more to a mass.
You're not really gonna take them too far. It's it's
too big. That's not the point of it. That's not
the vibe of the party. It's not like a Andy
Warhol party and there's a bunch of weird people invited.
(51:20):
It's like a very you know, it just it is
what it is. And then at your own show you
could have a little run of two or three songs
that you're almost purposely pushing people away to then bring
them back, or like this is where it's going to
dip down, and then we can wrap it back up
at the end and you can do something that you
can play some weirder songs for you, or do something
(51:42):
and can go, you can do a jam. You can
just have more fun with it. So I think when
you're doing that, eventually, like I said, with anything becomes boring.
And so the playing the straight ahead thing for the
giant audience, you're like, wow, I just played for the
sixty thousand people.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
It's what a rush. So that variety it's helpful.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
So I always just trying to say everything touring, I
always try to like want to have that balanced. But
between management and you know they figure it out. Well,
my stuff is different. It's like I'd like to tour places,
but it's unfortunately. This is what I tried to do
on this record was to have less of a band
and have more stuff on tracks and create Since I'm
(52:25):
not a band, I can create a weird world of
like a three piece band with tracks and just have
it be like weird or weirder than less straightforward than
just having like I've always had just players play everything.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
I was just trying to be able to afford to
go on tour. It's very hard as.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
Less people are like why don't you come here or
come there? It's like I always debate how to talk
about this because it's not like it's not a complaint,
it's more just like realities of reality, like the band
never feels stable enough.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
To just sit there and enjoy.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Okay, Like I never feel like I never saw it's
always like older brother. That's not negative positive, it's just
like my personalities reaction to this thing I exist in
the business, right you can't like you realize that touring
(53:26):
in some ways is a luxury, which is great. You're
a band that has an audience, like be grateful because
that's like, and you can if you can then make
money from that, that's an amazing gift. This other bands
that would want to do that and just just like can't.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
I mean, i'd imagine people cold understand because even if
you work a regular job and you have to take
a business trip, you know, if the money's.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Not right, it's like it's always someone else paying musicians
like actors have businesses like we are the business even
at the highest level, Like who's the biggest They gross
crazy amounts of stones right right, they're still paying themselves company.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
They might get an advance from a big company and stuff.
Speaker 2 (54:09):
I got to advance it, but they're still at a
loss YouTube for like six eight months of that touring,
even though they're like the biggest band. There's no like
but when you make a movie, the actor is a
director is they're not at a loss. It's just the
big company paying for it. So it feels a little
a little different in that in that way, I mean,
(54:29):
maybe that's what makes.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Musicians a little cooler than actors.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
Sorry, guys, it's gonna get outside here and just have
a line of actors. I heard what you said, and
I'm mildly offended. I can take my mildly offended. The
Albert or story. A lot of people mad at you,
thanks for nothing. The Albert Hammond Junior story.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
Oh that was fun, man. I appreciate it, and I
appreciate you. Thank you for the years of music in
the in the new solo record. Can't wait to hear
the second half.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Oh man, I can't wait to just have it out.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
Thanks to Alberham and Jr. For chatting about his new
double album, Melodies on Hiatus. You can hear it along
with all of our favorite songs from him and the
Strokes on a playlist at Broken Record podcast dot com.
You can subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot
com slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all
of our new episodes. Broken Record is produced with help
(55:36):
from Leah Rose, Jason Gambrel, Ben Holliday, Nisha Venkatt, Jordan McMillan,
and Eric Sanda. Our editor is Sophie Crane. Broken Record
is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this
show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus.
Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription service that offers bonus
(55:57):
content and uninterrupted ad free listening for only four ninety
nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts, subscriptions,
and if you like the show, remember to share ra
and review us on your podcast staff. Our theme music
expect canny beats. I'm Justin Richard H.
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