A few days, ago, erstwhile pop singer Albert Hammond Sr. told an Australian newspaper that The Strokes were in the process of recording a new album with fabled producer Rick Rubin. That made everyone excited. On Saturday, his son, Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., clarified on Twitter that there’s no album to speak of. Now everyone’s bummed.
Hammond Sr. seemed pretty solid in The West Australian when he said, “They’re making a new album now with a great producer called Rick Rubin. I speak to my son every day and he says that they’re so happy.”
But, no.
Sorry everyone we are not in the studio recording
— Albert Hammond Jr (@alberthammondjr) July 30, 2017
Forgive Albert Sr he got prematurely excited. A lot of unknowns and nothing worth speaking about at this time.
— Albert Hammond Jr (@alberthammondjr) July 30, 2017
We met and played a few music ideas for Rick to feel out a vibe but even a theoretical album plan would be years away, if at all.
— Albert Hammond Jr (@alberthammondjr) July 30, 2017
Meanwhile, vocalist Julian Casablances took the opportunity to reveal that he’s working on new music with his side band, The Voidz…
gearing up for TheVoidz actually. will have some new music for everyone to publicly judge soon.
— Julian Casablancas (@Casablancas_J) July 30, 2017
…And to make a pretty-clever-all-things-considered basketball joke.
(What Albert Sr meant to say is we are working with NBA point guard Ricky Rubio on a new offense for our basketball league)
— Julian Casablancas (@Casablancas_J) July 30, 2017
Rubin, of course, is one of the most heralded producers of the last half-century, having worked with everyone from The Beastie Boys to Johnny Cash. He was in on the ground floor of New York’s hip-hop revolution in the early ‘80s, and The Strokes basically lit the fuse on the city’s rock revival in the early ‘00s, so it seemed like a great match. The Strokes haven’t released an album since 2013’s Comedown Machine.