Albert Hammond Jr. | |
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Born | Albert Louis Hammond III April 9, 1980 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Occupations |
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Spouse | Justyna Hammond (m. 2013) |
Children | 1 |
Family | Albert Hammond (father) |
Musical career | |
Genres | |
Instruments |
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Years active | 1999–present |
Labels |
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Member of | The Strokes |
Website | alberthammondjr |
Albert Louis Hammond Jr. (born Hammond III; April 9, 1980) is an American musician who is a member of the rock band The Strokes. He is best known for his role as rhythm and lead guitarist, as well as occasionally a keyboard player and backing vocalist for the band. Hammond Jr. has released extensive solo work, including five solo albums.
Born in Los Angeles, Hammond Jr. is a first-generation American, his father the songwriter Albert Hammond being of British-Gibraltarian descent, and his mother being of Argentine descent. He attended the same Swiss boarding school as his bandmate Julian Casablancas, where the two became friends. He would move to New York City in 1998 and attended New York University for a year and a half.
Casablancas invited Hammond Jr. to join the Strokes in 1999, being the last member to join the band. He plays rhythm guitar on most songs, and has some songwriting credits on the more instrumental pieces. Hammond Jr. is passionate about fashion and is known for wearing a three-piece suit on tour. Casablancas credits him for influencing the band's style. In 2009, he released a line of men's suits.
In 2006, Hammond Jr. released his debut solo album Yours to Keep. and followed up with ¿Cómo Te Llama? in 2008. Since then, he has released the 2013 EP AHJ, and the albums Momentary Masters , Francis Trouble , and Melodies on Hiatus in 2015, 2018, and 2023 respectively. [1]
Hammond was born on April 9, 1980 in Los Angeles, California. [2] He is the son of British-Gibraltarian singer-songwriter Albert Hammond, a prolific songwriter best known for his 1972 hit single "It Never Rains in Southern California", and Argentine Claudia Fernández, a former model and beauty pageant winner. [3] He has two older half-sisters. [4] A first generation American, Hammond is of mixed Gibraltarian, Argentine, Austrian, and Peruvian descent; [5] [6] [7] [8] his first language was Spanish. [6] Hammond began playing the guitar at age nine. [9] He was a championship-winning roller skater as a child. [10] [11]
At the age of 12, Hammond Jr. was sent to boarding school Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland. [12] While there, he became friends with future Strokes bandmate Julian Casablancas, a grade above him, whom he connected with as a fellow American. [13] [14] Hammond moved back to Los Angeles where he completed his high school education at the Buckley School. [13] [15] Following graduation in 1998, Hammond moved from Los Angeles to New York City and, having deferred admittance to New York University, took a short-term filmmaking course at the New York Film Academy. [16] He later attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, but left after a year and a half. [17] [4]
After moving to New York City in September 1998, Hammond reconnected with his former school friend Casablancas, who later invited him to join the Strokes. [16] [18] Made up of Casablancas' other schoolmates Nikolai Fraiture, Nick Valensi, and Fabrizio Moretti, Hammond Jr. was the last person to join the band in 1999. [19] In the following two years, the band practiced and performed tirelessly, all while Hammond Jr. was also attending NYU and working at Kim's Video. [20] The Strokes released their first demo in January 2001, beginning a record label bidding war and years of critical acclaim. Since 2001, Hammond Jr., as part of the Strokes, has released two EPs and six full-length albums, most recently The New Abnormal in 2020.
Hammond is usually seen playing a 1985 '70s reissue Olympic White Fender Stratocaster [21] or Gibson Les Paul Jr. that is sometimes used by bandmate Nick Valensi. On the majority of the Strokes' songs he plays rhythm guitar, and solos are played by Valensi. The songs in which Hammond does play solos are "Last Nite", "Trying Your Luck", "Take It or Leave It", "Under Control", "The End Has No End", "Ize of the World", "Threat of Joy", "Vision of Division", and "Drag Queen".[ needs update ] His solos tend to focus largely on more emotional, "bluesy"-type melodic work, and the guitar tends to have a cleaner, softer tone in comparison to Valensi's (with a notable exception found in "Vision of Division"). He often holds his guitar in a high horizontal position, similar to Buddy Holly, which he says is so that he can dance better.
Although vocalist Casablancas is the primary songwriter in the Strokes, Hammond co-wrote the track "Automatic Stop" with Casablancas for the group's second album Room on Fire . He has been credited with writing three mostly instrumental songs ("Swiss Beats", "Holland", and "By the Way") for the band's 2001 tour video titled In Transit. These songs were reworked for his later solo album and have different titles ("Everyone Gets a Star", "Bright Young Thing", "In Transit").[ citation needed ] He wrote "Elephant Song" when he was required to record a song for his Sound 101 class during his freshman year and used the school's recording equipment. [22] The song was played at a few shows before the release of the Strokes' debut album. They later re-recorded the song as a special giveaway for fan club members.[ citation needed ]
In October 2005, Hammond and Ben Kweller released a version of "Wait" on This Bird Has Flown – A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soul.
Hammond released a solo album titled Yours to Keep in the U.K. through Rough Trade Records on October 9, 2006 and in North America through New Line Records/Scratchie Records on March 6, 2007. Produced by Thin Lizard Dawn vocalist Lattimer and recorded at the Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the album features several musical guests, such as Sean Lennon, Ben Kweller, The Strokes' manager Ryan Gentles, Jody Porter of Fountains of Wayne, Chris Feinstein, Mikki James, Sammy James Jr. (The Mooney Suzuki) and the Strokes' lead singer, Casablancas. Bassist Josh Lattanzi and drummer Matt Romano serve as the backing band, with Hammond on guitar and vocals. The first single taken from the album, "101," was released exclusively through iTunes on September 4, 2006. "101" was the follow-up single to "Everyone Gets a Star". The music video debuted online in March 2007. [23] It was going to be available in general music stores, unlike "Everyone Gets A Star" which was only available through UK iTunes Music Store. It was released on November 27, 2006. The music video for "In Transit" was directed by Joaquin Phoenix.
Hammond has said to have been "waiting to make a record like this for years". [24] Early support from his bandmates in the Strokes was only evident after Casablancas' role playing bass and back-up vocals on the track "Scared", though all of the members (with the exclusion of Nick Valensi, who was busy taking care of his newborn children) attended his shows in and around New York.
On March 16, 2007, at the South by Southwest festival, Hammond performed a 12-song set including covers of Frank Black's "Old Black Dawning" and Guided by Voices' "Postal Blowfish". [25] Hammond also regularly covered the Cars' "Don't Cha Stop" in live performances. He supported Bloc Party on their world tour before making stops at Montreal's Metropolis and Toronto's Kool Haus. After this, Hammond headlined two North American tours along with a European tour. The North American tour featured his friends, the Mooney Suzuki. In November 2006, Hammond was announced to be joining Incubus on tour during their North American tour for their new album Light Grenades . [26] On August 29, 2007, Hammond announced on MySpace that he was going back into the studio to record his second album in October 2007 for five weeks.
On March 20, 2008, Hammond posted a blog entry on MySpace in which he revealed the title of his second album: ¿Cómo Te Llama? He wrote that it contained 13 songs with a total length of 46 minutes and 30 seconds. He stated he hoped to be touring with the new album until the end of 2008. On May 27, 2008, Hammond released "GfC", the first single off ¿Cómo Te Llama?, on iTunes in the U.S. The song was played extensively live on his 2007 tour. A non-album song titled "& So It Goes" was released as a B-side along with the single. The album was released on July 7, 2008. [27]
On May 29, 2008, Hammond was Myspace's featured artist and exclusively premiered his new album ¿Cómo Te Llama? uploading all the tracks of the album on his official Myspace page. He celebrated the release of his album with a July 8 small show at the Virgin Megastore, Union Square, in New York City. A noted absence from Hammond's band was recording bassist Josh Latzanni. Steve Schiltz of the band Longwave, who toured with Hammond on his first album also was missing. Although Hammond was supposed to play only two or three songs, he ended up playing almost 10, with a selection that included both new and old tracks. This show kicked off his worldwide tour in support of ¿Cómo Te Llama? with the next show being sold-out at the landmark venue Spaceland in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. This was his only appearance on the West Coast. The following month, Hammond's website officially announced that Hammond would be the support act of the British band Coldplay during their European Tour, which kicked off on September 1 in Strasbourg, France.
In an interview with Har Mar Superstar in July 2013, Hammond revealed that he had recorded a five-song EP to be released via Julian Casablancas' Cult Records. Titled AHJ , it was released on October 8, 2013. [28] Hammond stated in an interview promoting the EP on December 5, 2013, that he would be interested in playing solo as an opening act if the Strokes announced another tour: "I would definitely ask the guys if I could open for them. That'd be amazing." [29]
On June 22, 2014, a photo was posted to Hammond's official Facebook page of himself in a room with other musicians and the caption "the start of something new; LP 3," suggesting that he is working on a third full-length album. [30] Hammond released his third LP Momentary Masters on July 31, 2015 in the U.S. via Vagrant Records. [31] The first single, "Born Slippy", was made instantly available for streaming and download via YouTube and iTunes respectively. Both AHJ and Momentary Masters were produced with Hammond Jr.'s close collaborator Gus Oberg.
Hammond Jr. covered "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot" by Vera Lynn mixed with the chorus from George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" as part of Amazon's annual music series titled Indie for the Holidays. The song was released on December 1, 2017. [32]
Hammond Jr.'s fourth solo album Francis Trouble was released via Red Bull Records on March 9, 2018. The first single "Muted Beatings" was released on February 2, 2018. [33] In 2019 he released a new single, "Fast Times," preceding a brief Western USA tour. [34] That May, he released the single "More to Life". [35] [36] The following year Albert was featured on the 2020 song "Another Hit of Showmanship" by the rock band the Struts. [37] [38]
Guided by Voices, The Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, Frank Black, John Lennon, Matthew Sweet and The Velvet Underground are cited as Hammond's musical influences. [39] [40] [41]
Albert's main guitar is a Fender Stratocaster Arctic White 1985 Reissue of a 1972. He owns three white Stratocasters, a Gibson Les Paul special single cutaway, a Rickenbacker 325, and a Gretsch hollowbody. His amplifier is a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 2x12. His pedal board is made up of an old version of the MXR Micro Amp, a V1 Jekyll and Hyde Ultimate Overdrive and Distortion, and a BOSS TU-2 tuner. In later shows, he adds another Micro Amp, and Jekyll and Hyde, and a Boss Digital Delay. He now uses a Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay pedal instead of the Boss Digital Delay.[ citation needed ]
Hammond Jr.'s sartorial trademark is wearing formal three-piece suits, and has been said by bandmate Julian Casablancas to be the most influential on the band's style. [13] Hammond Jr. most recently collaborated with designer Amber Doyle for the Strokes' 2019 European tour. [42] In a 2018 interview he stated that he'd had a passion for style from an early age, [43] and has always combined his own designs with retail favorites. While Hammond has been best known for his formal wear, he launched his own range of Francis Trouble t-shirts and sports incorporated classic vintage tees. [44]
In 2009, Hammond released his own line of men's suits which he co-designed with stylist Ilaria Urbinati. [45] The suits were at first only available at Urbinati's soon-to-open Confederacy boutique in Los Angeles. Speaking about the designing endeavor, Hammond Jr. told New York magazine, "I want to make suits that I'm going to have for myself. They're for the person who needs his one suit for a wedding. He'd rather get something like this than go to Men's Wearhouse, pay the same amount, and look like an out-of-date parent." [46] Hammond also collaborated with Elliot Aronow of Jacques-Elliott for a collection of ties in 2015. [47]
Hammond Jr. married Polish restaurateur Justyna Sroka on December 23, 2013, [48] [49] with whom he has a daughter, Holiday, born in 2021. [50]
Hammond Jr. previously owned homes in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan and in New York's Catskill Mountains; [51] in the late 2000s, he built his recording studio, One Way Studios, near his home in Port Jervis and later moved to the nearby community of Eldred. [52] [53] [54] [55] In the 2000s, he had relationships with British supermodel Agyness Deyn, [56] as well as American musician Catherine Pierce of The Pierces. [57]
In the 2000s, Hammond Jr. suffered from a serious drug addiction that involved cocaine, heroin and ketamine, among other drugs. He entered rehab in 2009 and has been sober since. [58] [59]
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [60] | US Indie [61] | AUS Hit. [62] | BEL (WA) [63] | FRA [64] | SCO [65] | SWE [66] | UK [67] | ||||
Yours to Keep |
| 117 | 11 | — | — | 186 | 60 | 48 | 74 | ||
¿Cómo Te Llama? |
| 145 | 20 | — | — | 168 | — | — | 183 | ||
Momentary Masters |
| — [A] | 20 | 20 | 160 | — | — | — | 115 | ||
Francis Trouble |
| — [B] | 25 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
Melodies on Hiatus |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
"—" denotes either release did not chart or correct figures unknown |
Title | Album details |
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AHJ |
|
Single | Year | Peak positions | Album/EP | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US Alt [69] | MEX Air. [70] | SCO [71] | UK [67] | UK Indie [72] | |||||
"Everyone Gets a Star" | 2006 | — | — | — | — | — | Yours to Keep | ||
"Back to the 101" | — | — | 41 | 76 | 2 | ||||
"In Transit" | 2007 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
"GfC" | 2008 | — | — | 67 | — [C] | 4 | ¿Cómo Te Llama? | ||
"St. Justice" | 2013 | — | — | — | — | — | AHJ | ||
"Carnal Cruise" | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Strange Tidings" | 2014 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
"Born Slippy" | 2015 | — | — | — | — | — | Momentary Masters | ||
"Losing Touch" | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Muted Beatings" | 2018 | — | 37 | — | — | — | Francis Trouble | ||
"Far Away Truths" | 24 | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Set To Attack" [74] | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Fast Times" | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles | ||
"More to Life" | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Another Hit of Showmanship" (with The Struts) | 2020 | 40 | — | — | — | — | Strange Days | ||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart |
The Strokes are an American rock band formed in New York City in 1998. The band is composed of lead singer and primary songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti. They were a leading group of the early-2000s post-punk revival and garage rock revival movements.
Room on Fire is the second studio album by American rock band the Strokes, released on October 21, 2003, through RCA Records. Its title is derived from a lyric in the song "Reptilia". The album received positive reviews upon its release and reached number four on the US Billboard 200, where it went on to sell 597,000 units by October 2006, earning a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It also reached number two on the UK Albums Chart. Three singles were released from the album: "12:51", "Reptilia", and "The End Has No End".
Fabrizio Moretti also known as Fab, is a Brazilian-American musician and visual artist best known as the drummer for American rock band The Strokes, with whom he has released six studio albums since 2001. A collaborative artist, he has been part of a series of groups since the mid-2000s, most notably the Brazilian-American band Little Joy, which released one album in 2008, and the experimental pop collective Machinegum, which he has led since 2018. Throughout his career, Moretti has worked on a variety of art projects which span the mediums of drawing, sculpture, and installation and performance art.
Julian Fernando Casablancas is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band the Strokes, with whom he has released six studio albums since their founding in 1998. Casablancas released a solo studio album, Phrazes for the Young, in 2009, and has released three albums with the experimental rock band the Voidz.
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Albert Louis Hammond OBE is a British-Gibraltarian singer, songwriter and record producer. A prolific songwriter, he also collaborated with other songwriters such as Mike Hazlewood, John Bettis, Hal David, Diane Warren, Holly Knight and Carole Bayer Sager. Hammond's son Albert Hammond Jr. is a guitarist in American rock band the Strokes.
Nicholas Valensi is an American musician, best known for his role as lead and rhythm guitarist in the American rock band The Strokes. Since 2001, the band has released six studio albums, some of which Valensi has also contributed keyboard and backing vocals to. In 2013, he founded the band CRX, for which he acts as singer, songwriter, and lead and rhythm guitarist. Their debut album, New Skin, was released in 2016, and was followed by the 2019 album Peek. Valensi has also worked as a songwriter and session guitarist with various artists, including Sia, Regina Spektor and Kate Pierson.
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"12:51" is a song by American rock band the Strokes. It was released on October 6, 2003, as the first single from their second studio album, Room on Fire (2003). The track was written by Julian Casablancas and produced by Gordon Raphael. It peaked at number 7 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Someday" is a song by American rock band the Strokes, written by singer Julian Casablancas. It was released on August 5, 2002, as the third and final single from Is This It (2001). It peaked at number 17 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and at number 27 on the UK Singles Chart. It was ranked at number 53 on Pitchfork magazine's list of the 200 Best Songs of the 2000s. In 2020, Paste and The Independent ranked the song number eight and number three, respectively, on their lists of the 20 greatest Strokes songs.
¿Cómo Te Llama? is the second solo album by Albert Hammond Jr. The album has 13 tracks and was released on July 7, 2008 in the UK and on July 8, 2008 in the US. "GfC" is the first single from the album, and it premiered on iLike on May 22, 2008.
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Is This It is the debut studio album by American rock band the Strokes. It was first released on July 30, 2001 in Australia, with RCA Records handling the release internationally and Rough Trade Records handling the United Kingdom release. It was recorded at Transporterraum in New York City with producer Gordon Raphael during March and April 2001. For their debut, the band strived to capture a simple sound that was not significantly enhanced in the studio. Building on their 2001 EP The Modern Age, the band members molded compositions largely through live takes during recording sessions, while lead singer and songwriter Julian Casablancas continued to detail the lives and relationships of urban youth.
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"One Way Trigger" is a song by American rock band the Strokes. Written by the whole band, it was released as a free download ahead of their fifth studio album, Comedown Machine and was made available for streaming via YouTube and SoundCloud, and as a free download via the band's official website on January 25, 2013. Casablancas posted a stylized lyric sheet for the song, designed by long-time collaborator Warren Fu, on his official website on January 30, 2013. The song is one of the few from Comedown Machine to have been performed live, and is the only Strokes song to have ever been performed live by Hammond Jr. as a solo artist.
The New Abnormal is the sixth studio album by American rock band the Strokes, released on April 10, 2020, through Cult and RCA Records. It was their first full-length album since Comedown Machine (2013), marking the longest gap between studio albums by the band. The album was produced by Rick Rubin and recorded at his Shangri-La studio in Malibu, California, with additional recording taking place at studios in Los Angeles County and Hawaii. The Strokes began performing songs from the album for the first time throughout 2019 before revealing the album's track list and cover art in early 2020. "At the Door", "Bad Decisions", and "Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus" were released as singles prior to the album's release, with "The Adults Are Talking" being released to radio months later.
"Bad Decisions" is a song by American rock band The Strokes, released on February 18, 2020, as the second single from their sixth studio album, The New Abnormal (2020). An accompanying music video was released on the same day. It incorporates elements of the song "Dancing with Myself" by British punk/new wave musician Billy Idol, who is credited as a co-writer along with his former band member Tony James.
"The Adults Are Talking" is a song by American rock band The Strokes, the opening track on their sixth studio album, The New Abnormal (2020). It was released to alternative radio as the album's fourth single on November 3, 2020. It was produced by Rick Rubin with music written by all members of the Strokes and lyrics written by the band's singer, Julian Casablancas. It is a new wave, indie rock and post-punk song that Casablancas sings with both crooning vocals and falsetto throughout.
"Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus" is a song by American rock band The Strokes. The song was released on April 6, 2020, as the third single from their sixth studio album, The New Abnormal (2020). The song was featured as part of the soundtrack to the sports video game MLB The Show 21.
Gus Oberg is a Swedish music producer and recording engineer. He is best known as the longtime engineer and producer of American rock band The Strokes, for whom he has worked since 2009. Oberg is also a close collaborator of Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. and has worked on every one of his solo records. Since the late 2000s, Oberg has produced numerous indie rock albums and has often worked with Hammond Jr. or Johnny T Yerington as a producing partner. Oberg won a Grammy Award in 2006 for his engineering work. Formerly based in New York City, Oberg now lives and works out of Austin, Texas.
Albert Hammond [Sr.] was born... to Gibraltarian parents.
My [Argentine] maternal grandmother, Nelly, only spoke Spanish and as a child it was my first language, before English.
Albert... did you tell them you are part-Peruvian?... Your grandfather [was from here]
Albert's father is British, but raised in Gibraltar, his mother is Argentenian, but with Peruvian and Austrian roots.
he's originally from Los Angeles (in fact, he went to the high school Bret Easton Ellis wrote about in Less Than Zero)
You went to Tisch... I went for a year...
[In 2007-2008]... Albert and I needed a place to work, so we started to build what's now his One Way Studios, which is located one and a half hours' drive from Manhattan, in the Catskill Mountains. Albert and I designed the studio together. We had a building constructed from scratch...
...Albert Hammond Jr.'s house in Port Jervis, New York...
He might live upstate these days (Eldred, NY, to be exact)...
[Hammond Jr.] and his wife, Justyna, moved [to Eldred] full-time in March [2015], though he spends much of his time on the road.