Heading to Australia in October for a solo tour on the eve of his second solo LP, ¿Cómo Te Llama?, Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond Jr has revealed that he originally thought his full-time band would never get recognised, let alone be signed.

Currently writing songs for the Strokes’ follow-up to 2006’s First Impressions Of Earth LP, the “GfC” rocker says he thought he phone call from indie label Rough Trade back in 2000 was “a joke”.

“Some guy from Britain calls you and says he wants to sign you? You’re only 19-years-old… of course you think its all a joke,” Hammond Jr admitted to a UK radio station this week, when asked about former label boss Geoff Travis.

“Obviously we wanted to have someone who had money to push the ideas that we wanted but at the same time we were never about getting the biggest advance, it was about the people that we saw that we could create a career with.” 

The 28-year-old muso kicks off his Australian tour in Melbourne on Wednesday 30 July.