Best known as
the Strokes' rhythm (and occasional lead) guitarist,
Albert Hammond, Jr.'s solo career took his music in more eclectic, and more personal, directions. The son of singer/songwriter
Albert Hammond, whose hits include "It Never Rains in Southern California," "When I Need You," and "To All the Girls I've Loved Before,"
Hammond was born in Los Angeles. He went to the prestigious Swiss boarding school Le Institut le Rosey as a teenager, where he met future
Strokes singer
Julian Casablancas. When
Hammond moved to New York City to attend New York University's film school in the late '90s, he reconnected with
Casablancas, and
the Strokes were born. While
Casablancas is the band's chief songwriter,
Hammond co-wrote
Room on Fire's "Automatic Stop" and also wrote songs that appeared on
the Strokes' 2001 tour video, In Transit.
Hammond revamped and renamed these tracks and included them on his solo debut album,
Yours to Keep, which featured bassist
Josh Lattanzi and drummer
Matt Romano as his main support. A host of indie celebrities, including
Casablancas,
Sean Lennon,
Ben Kweller,
Fountains of Wayne's
Jody Porter, and
the Strokes' manager, Ryan Gentles, also appeared on the album, which was released on Rough Trade in fall 2006 in the U.K. and early in 2007 on New Line in the U.S. Bassist
Marc Philippe Eskenazi joined
Hammond's band for 2008's sprawling
¿Como Te Llama?, which was released worldwide that summer.
A 2009 stint in rehab and
the Strokes' reunion -- which produced two albums, 2011's
Angles and 2013's
Comedown Machine -- meant that it took a few years before
Hammond returned to his solo career. The 2013 EP
AHJ featured some of his most focused singing and songwriting, and was released by
Casablancas' Cult Records label. The following year,
Hammond began working on his third solo album. He reunited with
Strokes collaborator
Gus Oberg as well as his backing band -- guitarists Mikey Hart and Hammarsing Kharhmar, bassist
Jordan Brooks, and drummer
Jeremy Gustin -- for
Momentary Masters, which arrived in July 2015. The following year,
Hammond joined forces with
the Strokes once again for the
Future Present Past EP. In 2017, he contributed a version of
Vera Lynn's "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot" that interpolated the chorus of
George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" to Amazon's Indie for the Holidays series. For his fourth album, he reunited with
Oberg, taking inspiration from his stillborn twin to create the songs about loss and identity that made up 2018's
Francis Trouble. ~ Heather Phares