If you’re still thinking of Albert Hammond Jr. as “the guy from The Strokes,” congratulations on living under a musical rock since 2001. The man is now four solo albums deep, and Frances Trouble, his latest, doesn’t just want to be heard — it wants to blast out of the speakers, rip your sleeves off, and drag you into the pit. “I wanted to make a visceral record. A fun record,” he tells me while attempting to navigate the chaos of SXSW in a car like a man trying to tune a guitar during an avalanche.
The album’s namesake, Frances Trouble, stems from one of those stories so bizarre it makes you pause mid-scroll: Hammond was a twin. His brother was stillborn, unknown to his mother until Albert arrived into the world — with an extra fingernail in tow. “It’s like the stitching in a jacket,” he says, not missing a metaphor. “It holds the jacket together, but you don’t see it.” That stitching — that phantom brother — evolved into an alter ego that gave him permission to say more, sing louder, and maybe, for once, not care what you think. “If I could be someone else, I could poke fun at myself a little more.”
For a guy who helped shape an entire generation’s guitar tone, Hammond still manages to sound like he’s just figuring it all out. He’s equal parts giddy and philosophical — a guy who’s clearly spent a lot of time staring into the mirror, but also knows when to smash it. “You start to see your salability as youth as time goes on,” he says. “You just see all the mistakes you continue to make.”
But don’t confuse this for a therapy album. Frances Trouble isn’t looking for closure. It’s looking for volume. “My first record was like a living room record,” he explains. “This one’s like, ‘come out to the show — let’s all jump up and down.’” Case in point: “Harder, Harder, Harder,” a title that sounds like a Spinal Tap outtake, but lands like a glam-metal grenade. “That’s one of my favorite songs to play live. I love theatrical, over-the-top stuff. I feel like sometimes rock can take itself too seriously.”
When asked about whether this solo stuff could’ve been Strokes material, he takes the long way around. “Even if I give everything I have [to The Strokes], it’s still 10%. I’m left with all this… and I can’t just leave it at home.” Unlike Brandon Flowers, who confessed he wished his solo work had been Killers records, Hammond has no regrets. “I don’t want to compete against a band name. It seems unnecessary.”
Also unnecessary: pretending this is just some side project. “I want to take aim in my songs. I want to play arenas,” he says. “Having room on stage — that seems fun.”
Tracks like “T.F.T.” prove he’s not just rehashing that famous Strokesy chop. “I know it’s different from what would be expected, and that’s exciting,” he says. “Songs on this record are the sounds that are exciting me now.” He talks about structures, progressions, a sandbox full of ideas — but mostly he talks like a man who’s finally figured out how to let go of the baggage and just enjoy the damn ride.
Even when I bring up Meet Me In The Bathroom book — the one that tried to sum up The Strokes in a few juicy chapters — he shrugs it off like someone who’s already heard better stories. “There’s more serious things than whatever the book is,” he says. “You’re gonna end up having like three or four days of your life that’s gonna seem like a period of ten years.”
And what about the future of The Strokes? Don’t bother. “I have a tagline: it’s not part of my culture,” he says, fully aware of how pretentious that sounds and completely unbothered by it. “I always find that the media tries to tear us apart… I try to keep something without being damaged by other people.”
Fair enough. In the meantime, Frances Trouble exists in a world that feels refreshingly free — of labels, expectations, and yes, even fingernails that don’t belong to you. As Hammond puts it, “You secretly wish you could start again and be like, that was just stuff I did in my room.” This time, he’s taking it out of the room and onto the stage — full volume, no apologies.
Listen to the interview above and then check out "Muted Beatings" below!
And check out an earlier interview with Nikolai Fraiture and Kyle!
