Albert Hammond Jr

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Albert Hammond Jr (born 9 April 1979, in Los Angeles) is a musician and member of the rock band The Strokes. He plays lead and rhythm guitar.

The son of songwriter Albert Hammond, Albert Jr. was sent to the elite boarding school Institut Le Rosey at the age of 13. While there, he met Julian Casablancas, who would go on to be a fellow band member.

In 1998, Albert met up with Julian in New York City and together they formed a band with Julian's former schoolmates: Nick Valensi, Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti.

Albert is currently engaged to Catherine Pierce, one-half of the folk singing group The Pierces. His trademark is wearing formal suits, usually a different one for each show. Albert is usually seen playing an olympian white Fender Stratocaster, or bandmate Nick Valensi's Les Paul Jr. He is usually associated with the "rhythm" guitar portion of the majority of Strokes songs, and most solos are played by Valensi. The solos in which Albert does play are Last Nite, Trying Your Luck, Take It or Leave It, Under Control, The End Has No End, Ize of the World, and Vision of Division. His solos tend to focus largely on more emotional, "bluesy"-type melodical 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 the guitar in a high horizontal position, similar to Buddy Holly.

Although vocalist Julian Casablancas is the major contributor to the songwriting process for The Strokes' music, Albert has been known to write a few pieces of his own. He has been credited to writing three mostly instrumental songs (Swiss Beats, Holland, By the Way, and Obstinate) for the bands' 2001 tour video entitled "In Transit". He had also written a song called "Elephant Song", in which Albert used when he was required to record a song for his Sound 101 class in freshman year, using the school's recording equipment. The song was played at a few shows before the release of their first album. The Strokes was to later rerecord the song as a special giveaway for fanclub members. In a recent NME article (March 2006) featuring The Strokes, it was said by friend of the band, Adam Green, that Albert is recording his own solo CD that will be out "in a few months". Also, in a May issue of the magazine "Rock Machine", Albert commented on the album, saying that it "isn't going to be a guitarist kind of album" (paraphrased).

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