The Strokes talk with BBC about new album, solo work

They say alone we stand, together we fall apart. Something tells us, though, that The Strokes are gonna be all right. The hiatus has officially ended: the New York-based quintet has a followup to First Impressions of Earth in the works.

Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture commented recently to the BBC that they'll be returning to the booth in early 2009 to work on their fourth studio album, in the wake of the band's current hiatus: "We are looking at going into the studio in February now and getting back to being a band again."

Fraiture has been making good use of the time off to helm a solo project, no doubt spurred on by the solo success of fellow Stroke Albert Hammond Jr. Nickel Eye's (yuk yuk) debut album, The Time of the Assassins, is already recorded and set to drop on Jan. 27. Birthed from so-called "old high school poems and rants," it features guest spots by Regina Spektor and Yeah Yeah Yeah's guitarist Nick Zinner (one wonders how many felines must have been involved to secure his support).

"I got sick in New Orleans. I was hallucinating so all these crazy ideas came about from that experience," Fraiture explained. "It's about going through something and how you come out a different person afterwards. I'm excited about moving on from this phase and using all the experience we have from projects like this for our fourth album. Doing stuff like this is necessary for us because we've been in the same band for so long."

Related links:
Catching Up With... Albert Hammond, Jr.
News: Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture embarks on solo project
TheStrokes.com

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