Music

Kicking drugs has led ex-‘Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr. to a fresh sound

It’s 10:30 a.m. on a freezing winter day, and as he stands in the middle of an East Village street, Albert Hammond Jr. is telling The Post in detail about his years as a heroin addict.

“One time I did it in the bath, and I had to pull myself out,” he remembers matter-of-factly as passersby barely notice the graphic conversation going on next to them. “I thought I was gonna drown. I didn’t realize the hot water makes [the blood in] your veins move faster, so it hits you hard. There were many times I looked in the mirror and thought, ‘Don’t die — focus.’ ”

We’re standing outside his management office because a miscommunication means no one is inside to let us in. But the lack of privacy doesn’t matter to Hammond — he is brutally candid about the darkest days of his addiction, which lasted roughly from 2006 to 2009 and extended from cocaine to ketamine. Things finally came to a head when his band, the Strokes, started recording their fourth album, 2011’s “Angles,” upstate.

“I saw clearly that I had to begin again, otherwise it would kill me,” he recalls. “You can’t shoot drugs like that and not be on the verge of death at all times.”

Fast-forward four years, and Hammond is in good health, both physically and artistically. After two middling solo albums, he released the four-track EP “AHJ” back in October on Strokes singer Julian Casablancas’ label, Cult Records. A nimble and energized collection of new-wave rock punctuated by Hammond’s signature spiky guitar, it’s by far the best piece of work he’s ever released on his own — and next Friday, he’ll bring it to life by opening for Brit star Jake Bugg at Terminal 5.

Getting sober has helped Hammond find a new spark creatively. “Each song kept on getting better,” he remembers. “By the third song on the EP, the producer Gus Oberg and I started to get a little nervous. We weren’t sure

if we could carry on in that trajectory. I think that’s why we stopped when we did!”

The four songs have left many people wanting more, but there are also those who think Hammond’s solo work is getting in the way of the Strokes making a real return. The New Yorkers quietly released their latest album,

“Comedown Machine,” last year but didn’t tour or promote it, prompting the inevitable speculation that they hated each other and were on the verge of splitting. Hammond denies that, but stops short of revealing any definite plans for the band that made New York the rock ’n’ roll capital of the world during the early aughts.

“We seem so fragile on the outside that anything I say could be taken the wrong way,” he concludes. “We have to figure out what we want to do, but I don’t think there would ever be a moment where we make a statement saying we’re no longer in a band. We’ve gone through so much. Why can’t we always be a band?”