Al Hammond Jr. Speaks About Strokes New Album

It's been so long...without the Strokes. The NYC band has been on hiatus since touring in support of 2006's First Impressions of Earth. Guitarist Al Hammond Jr has kept himself busy releasing his debut solo record, Yours to Keep, and recording it's follow-up. He recently revealed the the follow-up will be finished after some engineering and mix work, the latter taking place in January of '08.Hammond also dished about his time apart from the Strokes. While he has "no idea, man" as to the status of the next Strokes album, he admitted that the band "definitely talk about things."Hammond added: "I just have learned that, unless there's something in concrete that we've all decided, then I can't really say anything. It wouldn't be my place; it would be our place as a group. So, I've gotta leave that as "everything's great." I just have no idea when we're going to do anything.""We're just trying to figure things out. How to do things differently. How to not play the same game. So no, I don't think there's anything that works in general in music. Occasionally, if you have success with certain kinds of songs that you write, then you can tend to write them again quickly, because it's not guaranteed. Nothing's guaranteed. But it's closer. But we're not in that stage. And that's just from history. I wouldn't even know if that would work with us, you know?For anyone worried this might sound a little too vague and somewhat unpromising, Hammond reassures everyone , "Oh yeah, they're still my friends. I just talked to them the other day."Source: Pitchfork