Queens Of The Stone Age Reflect On The Common Era: Part One

ChartAttack was invited to meet Queens Of The Stone Age at their Rancho De La Luna studio in Joshua Tree, Calif. in the spring. That became our June cover story.

Now, on the eve of the band's cross-Canada tour (well, almost, sorry east of Toronto), we have the rest of the interviews with the band, which we'll reveal over the next two news days.

Here, frontman Josh Homme talks about the writing and recording of the band's new Era Vulgaris LP, special guests and fatherhood. In the next installment, we'll get guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and drummer Joey Castillo's take on the year the group took off to do the album.

ChartAttack: You do the all the Desert Sessions stuff at Rancho, right?
Josh Homme: That's where I do all of 'em.

But not the real records.
Queens? I've done elements of Queens records here before. Parts of the first record. And a lot of the time we'll come out here and do pre-production, which is a fancy word for "we'll come out here and jam." Pre-production sounds like I'm smarter, and this year's all about trying to over-intellectualize everything I do.

What was the writing process for Era Vulgaris?
We wanted to go in the studio and work in the studio. We knew we had enough pieces of stuff, but we wanted to do all the welding in the studio. And we've noticed that, for the first time ever, we could take our time. I have a little baby now, so I just wanted to take my time and enjoy how short she is, and then how long the studio process could be. So it was about sizing, sizing up what was going on. Together they make a medium size thing.

Lyrically, it's a pretty biting effort. Like the "My generation's for sale" line on "I'm Designer," what was the motivation behind that?
People keep saying that's an accusation, but that's just my sense of humour. It's taking both sides in that song, because every situation is situational, so generalities apply, but not to the finer points, the detail points. So I guess it's because I'm like, "Never, unless these are here and they're blue." It's a closer examination of "only when this occurs" that's happening.

There's a lot of heavy riffage on the record. When it comes to the construction of songs, do you start at a riff and work your way out?
I don't have any habits because, if I prefer to walk in a circle, I feel like I dig a rut. And then you have to tell someone, "No, it's a foxhole," to make it seem cool. I like to stumble on things. I like for things to tell me what to do. I don't like to control them like that. That's like saying, "I know better," and I know I don't know better. I'm a people-watcher, I'm a life-watcher. I like to watch things bubble, you know?

How did Julian Casablancas end up on "Sick, Sick, Sick?"
That song was so in development when Jules came. And I was like, "I don't know why, but I feel like this song and you already knew each other a little bit." The lyrics weren't finished, and I finished them in the three days he was there. They were 70 per cent finished and he and I were talking, and that finished it. He was like, "I don't know if I've ever made a record without feeling like it's all on the line." And I was like, "That's why I asked you out here, because I've never made that record, under that duress."

So it was about letting go of that pressurized feeling, unshackling yourself?
I think that song ended up being like the crown prince of the gutter, going, "Bling! You're free!" And Julian, the line he sings that he wrote also encapsulated the other side of that, you know, pre-fairy god prince of the gutter. It's like, "I'm gonna change. I don't wanna change, actually." That foot in each side, you know? And that's so of this record. He wrote the indecision, too. And it was like, "See, I told you our generation was like that."

There were originally reports that Jesse F. Keeler was going to play bass on the record and tour with the band.
By who? I heard that, too, but I don't ever remember asking him to be in the band. I asked him to come out and play on a soundtrack thing, and he did. And we just went through a couple things trying to figure out which song to do, and it ended up being a thing that we did in the studio called "I Made You" that he wasn't on, so we didn't end up using that stuff that he jammed on. So I don't know. Maybe he thought that. But I never said that. And it was only a day, so he was making a bit much of a day. But DFA is fucking rad. All good things must come to an end. It's how you know how fucking good they were.

Has fatherhood affected your disposition at all?
No, not really. Everyone was saying, "Oh boy, everything's gonna change for you." And what changed is that you never know how much love you had to give. That was a great discovery. And short of that, my other discovery I wouldn't want to get into because they're mine — all mine, like Daffy Duck when he finds the jewels. Basically, family and music are two dogs that don't like each other. You can separate it. The answer to, "Would I take back 'Feel Good Hit Of The Summer?'" is no, I'd re-release it.

Here are Queens Of The Stone Age's Canadian tour dates:

Aug. 21 Toronto, ON @ TBA (Molson Canadian Rocks secret show)
Aug. 22 London, ON @ Centennial Hall
Aug. 26 Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Convention Centre
Aug. 27 Saskatoon, SK @ Prairieland Park
Aug. 29 Edmonton, AB @ Shaw Conference Centre
Aug. 30 Calgary, AB @ Stampede Corral
Sept. 1 Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre