Things have been pretty quiet from The Strokes camp, with no touring commitments scheduled for this year, but rumours had begun circulating recently that New York’s finest had begun pre-production on a new studio album, working on new material at the famous Electirc Lady Recording Studios in their native NYC. But sooner than you could snarl the hook to “Last Night”, their management and record label quickly shot down suggestions that the quintet were working on new material.
According to NME though, we can now switch the ‘pending’ status back to ‘confirmed’, and from a rather interesting source no less.
An upcoming issue of the British magazine confirms that Albert Hammond Senior, father of Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Junior (obviously), has revealed that the previously denied suggestions that the band were working on their fifth studio album are in fact true.
Hammond Snr. confirmed he’d been speaking to his son about recording sessions, “Albert says that the stuff they’re doing is incredible. They’re doing it themselves with their friend, engineer and producer.” The producer in question was unconfirmed, but it could well be Gus Oberg. The same engineer and producer who worked on last year’s Angles and who’s previously worked on Albert Hammond Jr.’s solo material.
When asked about the sound of the sequel to Angles, Hammond Snr. told NME, “I don’t think they’ll go in a wildly different direction. Obviously the songs will be different, but I think The Strokes are The Strokes; they always will be The Strokes.” He also noted that his guiatrist son also says of the new material, “‘Dad, it’s incredible’.”
A new album would mark the band’s fifth studio record in just over a decade since their zeitgeist-defining debut, Is This It in 2001, and their first new material since 2011’s Angles, which charted at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart as well as America’s Billboard Rock & Album Charts.
