The Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr has revealed that the band originally thought an offer to sign to independent record label Rough Trade was “a joke.”

Speaking to XFM, Hammond Jr said the band initially got a call from the label's boss Geoff Travis – who expressed an interest in signing them - when they were in Nwe York.

"Some guy from Britain calls you and says he wants to sign you? You're only nineteen [years old]...of course you think its all a joke,” he said.

The band eventually signed to the label at the turn of the century, a decision Hammond Jr said they made because Rough Trade promised the band longevity.

"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,” he said.

As previously reported, The Strokes are expected to re-enter the studio next year to record their fourth album.

(by Jason Gregory)