The Strokes resting while Hammond goes solo

DETROIT (Billboard) - The Strokes have no plans to record or tour at the moment, according to the band's guitarist, Albert Hammond, Jr.

"Everyone is just taking a big amount of time off," said Hammond, who's on the road opening for Incubus and preparing for the U.S. release of his solo album, "Yours To Keep," which came out overseas in October.

Nevertheless, Hammond said the Strokes may well reconvene at some point this year. "If we get offers to play European festivals, cool," he noted. "And if we don't, then maybe we just work on some new music."

Hammond, meanwhile, is busy playing new music to audiences who won't get a chance to hear it on record until "Yours To Keep" comes out March 6 on these shores. The solo venture is a challenge, he said, which "definitely feels like going back to the very, very beginning, when no one knows you."

"On this (Incubus) tour, it's so intense playing before a band that can sell out for or five times the venues they're playing. When they do small places like this it is full, so I walk out there and I'm playing to the full audience that they play to, but they're intense Incubus fans, so they don't really give a sh*t what you have to say.

"Basically you just play and try to have fun in your songs and with your band, and hopefully there's a few people out there who dig it -- which is what's happening. That's just the process of being an opening band, really."

Hammond will be on the road with Incubus until February 11, then plays a headline date on March 6 at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate the new album's release.

He hits the road with Bloc Party on March 23 for a weeklong tour, after which, he said, "I think I'm gonna need a break. I've been on the road since October 2005, and I'm slowly feeling like I'm falling apart or going crazy. So I don't think I could go any more than that."

Reuters/Billboard