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"Keep It Innocent": An Interview with Albert Hammond, Jr.

Albert Hammond, Jr should be grumpy by now. He's been on the road for a long time: Hammond has toured in the U.K., then the U.S., then Japan, and is now on the road Stateside again to promote his debut effort, Yours to Keep. And yet, he shows no signs of his energy flagging.

As the son of Albert Hammond, Sr, the creator of such hits as "It Never Rains in Southern California" and "One Moment in Time," Hammond, Jr possesses some prime musical lineage. As the guitarist for the Strokes—who famously conquered the U.K. and U.S. charts before ever putting in time on a tour bus—he experienced massive success in his early 20s. In short, Hammond, Jr has had a good run in the music industry so far.

But he's not one to rest... on his laurels, or really, at all. Now, he's making waves as a solo act—and apparently it was all a happy accident. We caught up with Hammond, Jr just as he hopped off his tour bus at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle, Washington. He was already laughing...

"Oh, man,” Hammond, Jr says, "that's hilarious."

What is?

There's a poster of me—it's just a bunch of hair and a tie. I didn't know that was up. I guess the club did that. (laughs) What did you say?

So how did your solo record come about?

It's so funny. It's just so simple. I had written these songs in transit, like lullabies, and I thought they were better than the other ones I've written. And I met Greg [Lattimer, producer of Yours to Keep] and I told him, 'I've got this one song; it's a lullaby, it's very simple, it's a like ear candy.' We came in to set up this track, "Cartoon Music for Superheroes," with simple rhythms and patterns, and it worked so well that my friends were like, "Oh, that's good!" Before we knew it, it was an album.

What do you mean by "in transit"?

I did this while [the Strokes] were finishing First Impressions [of Earth]. Basically, we did two and a half weeks in the studio over a year and two months. We'd go in for three days and do three songs, and go back three months later and do another bunch of songs. It's been great. I've been able to play Japan and the UK and now America—more than I could have expected from recording for basically three weeks.

Sean Lennon and Jody Porter also play on this record, and you borrowed your bassist from Ben Kweller. Would you say you're part of a community of musicians?

Community of musicians. Collection of asses. (laughs) No, I feel like a part of something, but it's really just a bunch of friends.

Is that a different experience than working with a band as established as the Strokes?

I look at it as such a different world. It's like having two kids, or two different dogs. One dog wants to fetch, and one likes to cuddle, they just both do two different things.

So you’ve been on the road for awhile, which places do you miss in New York?

I haven't been home in God knows, and I stopped going out for so long, but 2A is a favorite place to go to, and I like Joe's Bar. (Someone in the background yells, "Don't tell them about Joe's bar!") Oh, no, not Joe's Bar. It's another bar. I feel bad, because in New York it's all about the cool, hip Misshapes thing. But I don't know where that bar is.

Your dad has said that you convinced him to record his first record in 23 years. Does he have a similarly powerful influence on you?

We don't really talk about music and things like that. I think his biggest influence on me was being very tough, you know: 'Oh, it's great—keep on doing it.' If I didn't really want to do music, I wouldn't have done it.

Many of his hits were written for other performers. Would you ever consider writing for other people?

Everything's just so new in my head. If someone else did my song, it would be amazing. I never considered performing myself to begin with!

When the Strokes first hit, Is This It became huge almost immediately. What were the pluses and minuses of that?

The plus is when you have that, you'll always be in the business. When you have something like that, no one can ever take it away from you. The minus is, you could be doing great things, but the way people measure things is based on that first buzz. Some bands have the right time or the right people, just a bunch of bullshit, really—but for whatever reason, it happened. I never really complained about anything like that; there really can't be a minus to doing what you want to do. There'll always be something that sucks.

You started out in the business when you were 21, and you have a 27th birthday coming up in April. What's the difference between your approach then, and your approach now?

When you're starting out, you don't know what you're going to do with it. It's a huge part of the excitement. I feel lucky to be able to have done it one way, and start from scratch another way. But seriously, it's really weird to feel those same feelings from when you were six years younger all over again.

Does your new solo work feel like a renewal?

It feels fun to play music that my friends and I like; it's fun to hear the crowd's reaction. If you can keep it naive or innocent, where you're still wondering and you still get excited about new ideas, you can keep on doing it—once you find an answer, it'll lose something.

- Andrea Neustein
03.12.07

Albert Hammond, Jr's new album, Yours to Keep, is available in the ARTISTdirect store.