DAMN WE'RE TALENTED

Time: 1728

Date: 07.02.06

Tape Recording: yes, tried, device didn't work, lost material.

The Stroke: Albert Louie Hammond Jr.

Location: in bed, in a hotel, in Glasgow.

Ringing room 237, "ring ring ring".

(Albert) Hello,

(tma) Hello, I'm from themodernage and I've arranged an interview with
Albert??,

(Albert) This is Albert!!

(tma) ALBERT??

(Albert) Yes, its Albert" so are you going to interview me for the magazine?

(tma) Well for my website, themodernage.co.uk,, have you heard of it?

(Albert) Ah yeah, yes I have,

(tma) Have you??

(Albert) I have.(honest!!),,

Albert's so polite.

I hope he had his legs up,, for the strokes are doing a massive 18 date U.k tour- and with
Albert's 'tight on the spot, crazy flying curl' stage performance, he needs to keep his
legs up.

When Albert finds himself back in New York, first he'll take his two mini 8lb
Dachshunds, "Calvin + violet" out for a walk. Albert loves his dogs. And second
he'd stop off to taste a slice of 'Tony Clifton', from his local pizza bar in the EAST
village.

(albert): "The 'Tony Clifton' is topped with Shitake mushrooms, onions and red pepper
pesto"- .

But he's far away from a 'Tony', there's more shows to do,, and a little chat with
themodernage.

(tma) Lets have a quick one,? What's the bestest shape?

(Albert) I've never thought about shapes like that-

(tma) I suggest a circle, square, and triangle-

Albert picks= RECTANGLE; cool.

(tma) I hadn't thought about a rectangle before.

From FRANZI-Schueller, I ask:

Albert, is your hair real or do you wear a wig?

(Albert finds this funny)

(Albert) nope, yeah it is my hair. I used to have straight hair up until the age of 15 and
then it began to curl. I met Julian with straight hair. I' wouldn't straighten it back.

What was your first record?

(Albert) I would say The Beatles, Norwegian Wood. I think that was the first music I
bought. I didn't really get into music until the age of 12, and that's when I picked up the
guitar. I ended up matching music with my dad, my dad would buy something and I would
already have it. I began liking Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly; I still want glasses like
buddy's.

I saw you at Shepherds Bush, and your lighting was amazing; do you have any input into the
lighting?

(Albert) Thank you, thank you, yeah our other lighting guy stopped touring with us
for a little bit and nick and fab saw the secret machines, and we asked the guy
from the secret machines if he would do it, and he showed us a bunch of his stuff
and it was cool and that's it.

We have a say in everything we do.

How are you finding this tour?

(Albert) England's like our second home. Its more aggressive over here, the
attitudes are more aggressive. It gets better each day. Its nice to still get
talked about.

I'm looking forward to the Hammersmith show,, it's a big place. The Beatles played
there- I think 1964 – so I'm happy to be playing on the same stage.

So many bands, who were with us at the beginning and gained the hype just became
lost, the strokes are still here" we didn't have anything to prove, but we
showed we were here to stay longer than one show.

From Emily:

With all the new indie bands emerging, do you ever hear your influence in them, which
bands?

(Albert) No, not really. Everyone always tries to compare. Like the libertines-
and us, well I can see we're all guys in a band, with guitars, buts that's it-
we're are doing our own thing. I'm not keen on comparisons. I can see that maybe we
started something, and that has helped new bands emerge.

Do you like any of the new bands?

(Albert) Yes- the artic monkeys. That was the last record I bought. I waited till
the second week of release to buy the record, just to keep their hype up. I like
their guitars.

How do you get a song?

(Albert) Julian will bring something he's been working on into the strudio and
begin playing it on guitar or piano, then we'd break it apart" and introduce new
parts to the song, we'll add our own touch, we always agree . This record saw the
band working more together, we had Fab and Nikolai working together and myself and
nick.. I think Julian wanted that. We all work hard, we're in the studio from noon
everyday., we're talented guys, "damn we are talented".

From Franzi-Schueller:

I loved the special sound of Julian's voice on the first record very much and I wondered
why on the new record, does Julian's voice sound so clear? Or did they just want to change
something?

(Albert) I would have liked Julian's voice to have been even clearer on the new
record. First Impressions gives Julian a chance to focus more on his lyrics and
with more lyrics in the songs, "ize of the world" is a great song lyrically, I
don't know how Julian has the time to breath on that record.

I suggest they haven't changed, yet merely ch' ch' cchanged, Albert sings
along- ch ch changes (David bowie).

(1810hours)

I leave Albert to get something tasty from the room service menu.

The Strokes are it" Albert's it. They are they of 2001, they still want it right" they
haven't turned into ballons ; they still smile nice.

Thank you to ALBERT. thank you for getting me and my good mate becks into the hammersmith warm up.

thankyou tony and richard. x x