The Rebirth Of Cool

After a five-year hiatus during which all members but one released solo efforts, New York quintet The Strokes finally release that difficult fourth album Angles. Initial sessions conducted with Grammy-winning producer Joe Chiccarelli (My Morning Jacket, Counting Crows) were scrapped when the band elected to re-record the songs at guitarist Albert Hammond Jr's house, producing themselves.

“You go in with the instincts of survival,” Hammond explains. “It runs through the filter of the five of us and you just keep on pushing until everyone’s excited about it and that’s what you end up with. It’s like a photograph, not just the taking of it but the printing of it. It’s kind of our handprint, it’s how we create, a step at a time, a song at a time: ‘Why does that sound cool?’ ‘How come that doesn’t?’ ‘Why does that sound even cooler?’ ‘How do we make this better?’ Variety. Different extremes, from a dry band to complete cold synthetics, from ‘Undercover’ to ‘Games’.”
The major difference this time out, Hammond says, was that the band functioned as a democracy. Each member gets a songwriting credit – a marked contrast to the first three albums, which were dominated by singer Julian Casablancas.
“Even in being democratic you still have people who take leads in parts, or people whose abilities are stronger in certain areas,” the guitarist admits. “I don’t think that’s fully changed. You just try to get better at your instrument and your craft. One thing I learned on this record is how talented everyone is, as a band. You’re so lucky to be surrounded by really talented, strong people. It just kind of organically came back together.”
Was there ever a formal meeting at which they decided to take an extended break, or was it a gradual drift?
“It probably would have been good if there was a sit-down thing or a meeting or something like that, but there wasn’t. It was kind of obvious: we started and took off on this thing and by the time we got to the third album, communication had broken down a little bit. It was going fast and it just needed to slow down for a second to assess itself as an entity.
“I would never speak for the others, but when I look back on it, it makes sense. I needed that. It obviously could’ve gone on, but things happen for a reason. We found a way to communicate and talk. We still saw each other and tried to play music here and there, so there were still moments. We said what we had to say and started a process of working again.”
The result is a 38-minute set of ten taut songs. If the title suggests geometric shapes and sharp edges, things that don’t easily fit together, one imagines any co-operative effort involving five males in their 20s requires a fair amount of, shall we say, tension management.
“It’s all communication,” Albert reflects. “Like you said, forget the band aspect of it, you start to see it in your relationships as you grow up with your friends or girlfriends or even your family – and this is kind of like a family. There’s tension, there’s happiness, there’s chaos, there’s love. But communication is key, ‘cos the minute you stop communicating for a second, things start to fall apart. It’s a slow process. You don’t see it. You see it later when you look back: ‘Of course: it started with such a simple thing... and ended with such a bang!’”
Hard to believe, but it’s ten years since the Strokes released that eponymous debut album amidst a welter of 'it-band' hype. Was it hard to maintain a sense of perspective at the time?
“I was just thinking about it yesterday, funnily enough,” Albert admits. “The hardest part about success, without it sounding like complaining, ‘cos I’m not, but we all as humans have insecurities, and when you’re successful they really pop out, you’re challenged by them constantly. You want to hide but you’ve gotta play live shows. There’s much heavier stuff going on in the world, whatever we’re doing is just music, it should be fun, but it does open up a whole can of worms. The more successful you are, with that excitement comes the dark side, and all your insecurities come pouring out.”
As in, you keep waiting for someone to tap you on the shoulder and say, ‘You’ve been found out’?
“For sure. That’s why I write ‘magician’ on my Twitter account, cos I feel like I’m foolin’ y’all! I can’t really do this – it’s my magic trick! It worked!”
Did the band ever reach a point where they started to wonder why all these actors and supermodels were showing up at their gigs?
“You know. It’s funny, everyone in that kind of business wants to be in a rock band. Even big actors think an up-and-coming rock band is still cooler than than what they’re doing, even if they’re a super famous celebrity. Movie star success, you can see it, but even the Rolling Stones at their height are at some weird hotel... Bands are always a little grungey, there’s some charm and excitement in their lives.”
Presumably though, it’s hard on family, wives and girlfriends outside the bubble of the band.
“You’re asking the one guy who’s single, who doesn’t have kids! Talk about peer pressure! Everyone except Fab has kids and is married, and Fab has a long-time girlfriend. But slowly we’re figuring it out. You start out as a gang, you’re eighteen, you want to conquer the world, fuck everyone else, girls included, and then obviously you start to have relationships and that changes stuff. You have money, you want to start a family, you fall in love with someone, and then you start to branch away from each other as a gang.
“And then in a weird way people having kids brings it all back: ‘Why don’t we do the whole gang thing again – but with everyone?!’ I haven’t told them, a little bit of a secret here, but I would like nothing more than to have everyone with us constantly. This is what we do for a living. Obviously it’s got to be boring for a girlfriend or a wife to come on the road, because after a while it’s all about you, but all it is is change.
“People say, ‘That takes away from who you are.’ I dunno. It takes away from who you were maybe, but we're constantly changing so that's fine. I can't be who I was. I'm excited to see what we make as we change and grow and get older. I can see it in where we want to go with the next record and where we've gone with this one. It's exciting to go with it as opposed to being upset that you're not at the place where you started.”

Angles is out now on Rough Trade. You can listen to 'Under The Cover Of Darkness' on hotpress.com now. The Strokes are one of the headline acts at this year’s Oxegen festival.