Albert Hammond Jr.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Tetragrammaton.

**Rick Rubin** (3:34)
Wow, this guitar sounds so cool.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (3:37)
Thanks, man. Yeah, I did that in Hawaii.

**Rick Rubin** (3:40)
Nice.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (3:41)
Yeah. I was just thinking that that song has had a long journey.

**Rick Rubin** (3:48)
How did it start? What do you remember?

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (3:50)
It was a song I had that I sent the band a long time ago.
And then Julian liked it and we jammed on it at like, I want to say 2019 at this festival in Paris. But then it took its own life in Costa Rica because it had multiple parts and you were like, actually that chord progression is verse and chorus. And I was like, oh yeah, that makes sense. And then the melody kind of grew and the breakdown. And then I think that guitar part makes the chords feel like they're not just continuing.
Or just even the way it starts, it's like, what's happening? But it's so catchy. It's very cool how this thing that's put together over time, little bits here and there, but it just sounds so fluid as a song.

**Rick Rubin** (4:37)
It sounds free like it just kind of happened.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (4:39)
Yeah, that's what I mean. But it's like all these little things that kind of like, because you could beat the shit out of a song.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:44)
Yeah.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (4:45)
And be like, I killed it.
How did I kill it? But it's the opposite. It feels like this one became free.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:51)
Yeah.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (4:52)
Because it needed help to get the shell off or something.

**Rick Rubin** (4:55)
This is an example of what's happening now for the band. What was happening around the time of the birth of The Strokes?

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (5:03)
I was the last member. Well, they weren't The Strokes. They weren't called The Strokes yet, but they had known each other in some form, probably a few years because I met them when I was 18

**Rick Rubin** (5:13)
What year did you join?

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (5:16)
September of 1998 So it will be 28 years in a few months since I've met those guys.

**Rick Rubin** (5:20)
Congratulations.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (5:21)
Which is insane.

**Rick Rubin** (5:22)
Insane.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (5:23)
Yeah, I moved across the street. I went to a film school.
I took a year off before going to college, and I ran into Julian. We moved in together right away.

**Rick Rubin** (5:34)
Did you know him from before that?

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (5:36)
I had gone to school with him when we were younger. He's gone to school with everyone. He's known Nick Gleisens. He was like five.

**Rick Rubin** (5:43)
I see.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (5:43)
Then Fabit and Nick since they were like early teenagers.

**Rick Rubin** (5:46)
When you knew Julian the first time, did you ever talk about music together or play music together or no? No.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (5:54)
I think I was 13 and he was 15 Felt like a big brother vibe.

**Rick Rubin** (5:58)
With someone you want to hang out with, learn stuff from a guy who's a little older.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (6:02)
With doing stuff that you don't really know, like, what's that?

**Rick Rubin** (6:05)
Yeah.

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (6:07)
It had that kind of energy. When I met him again in New York, he was very advanced musically from a young age. He was very smart with it. We had a similar, it both felt like we wanted to play music or be in a band.

**Rick Rubin** (6:21)
What was going on in New York in 1998? What was the scene like?

**Albert Hammond Jr.** (6:25)
So funny. We always make this joke because we always tried to have a scene. But no one wanted to play with us. I think we rubbed people the wrong way. But we always thought, if we can just get a few bands, we can play one place, people will come to us. Why tour when we're in New York City, like everyone comes here? The idea was if we hung out together at places, people would start to recognize us. Five guys hanging out in the same place. It's like, who are those guys? Oh, yeah. Always hanging out. That's the idea. There was this place called Bar 13
I guess the vibe was like a 60s revival. Also, Don Hills had it where it's like people fully dressed up like the 60s and dancing. That's like where they were girls and could we get in? We weren't 21, whatever. You figure out a way to get in when you're not of age.