Albert Hammond Jr., guitarist for New York rockers The Strokes [ tickets ], is used to feeling pressure. His band received mounds of adoring press for its '70s-inspired 2002 debut, "Is This It," and recently dealt with the daunting task of avoiding a sophomore slump.

And for the last six months, the group has been plastered all over gossip rags for drummer Fabrizio Moretti's relationship with actress Drew Barrymore.

But Hammond has no qualms about the pressure--and excitedly hopes it worsens as his career continues.

"We really actually do better work under pressure, so it's kind of nice," said Hammond, speaking by phone from New York, where the group had been rehearsing.

"I don't think it's ever going to get any easier," Hammond continued. "It's just going to get harder, which is good. It's not bad that it's getting harder. I'm glad. It wouldn't be very fun if it got easier."

Shortly before the Oct. 28 release of The Strokes' second album, "Room on Fire," Hammond talked to liveDaily about the pressures of rock stardom, writing songs with Casablancas and recording without a studio.

liveDaily: What do you think about all the press that your band has received?

Albert Hammond Jr.: I never really thought about it that much. It's cool in some ways. It gets us attention. It's bad in other ways. Things get a little strange and [the media] go a little bit over the top. It's nothing we can really control. It's nothing that we really started, either. It's one of those things you have to take as really funny and just kind of laugh at it.

What do you think it is about your music that has garnered the band so much attention?

I think basically a lot of the stuff that's out is aggressive and doesn't have that much melody, or it's very melodic and kind of cheesy. We kind of fit in the middle. We can have something that's aggressive with beautiful melodies. In the mainstream, it doesn't seem like people are into the whole song and melody and stuff like that. It's a hard thing to do. We all like melody but also all like rhythms and making something tense, or making people feel tense. Songs should have a beginning, middle and end. Sometimes people try to make things weird just to be weird, not actually weird because it's interesting. I'm not saying everybody. There is some interesting stuff.

What do you find interesting?
I just saw Built to Spill [ tickets ] play live. They're absolutely amazing. They actually covered "Someday" [from "Is This It"] when we went to the show. I actually went two nights. The first night they said, "Sometimes we cover 'Someday.'" We went the second night, Julian and I, and they played it. Usually when bands cover songs, it's kind of weird. But they did such a good job. It was very touching and amazing.

Was recording the new album different from recording "Is This It"?

Yes. The last time, we weren't at a studio. We were in a basement underneath Avenue A in Manhattan. The music went straight to computers. This one, we were at a studio. It's very different like that. I think our last album was like a set list. So this one felt different. When it goes through a board, you can make it sound bigger. You can make it sound warmer. Or if you don't really want the warmth [you can do that too]. … Nick [Valensi] had a cool guitar tone that sounded like a keyboard that we used on two songs. Basically, we just kind of spent hours and hours working on it.

What do you mean by "our last album was like a set list"?

Our first album, we played for like a year as our set list. If you saw us, you saw that set list. [Laughs] This new album, if you saw us live, you probably only heard four of the songs--and we changed it in the studio. There were songs that we never played live, too.

Who is the main songwriter in the band?

Julian. But the lyrics are the last thing that happen. He brings the music as well. He wrote everything, except I co-wrote one song, "Automatic Stop." Basically, if we're playing it and it's no good--if nobody likes it--it's gone. It's like having a captain of a ship. He still needs to have his crew back him.