QOTSA Part 2: Troy Van Leeuwen And Joey Castillo Have Their Say

We revealed outtakes from our Joshua Tree, Calif. interview with Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme on Friday. Now we have an interview with QOTSA guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and drummer Joey Castillo, who provide insight into the writing and recording of Era Vulgaris.

What were the differences between the production on Era Vulgaris and Lullabies To Paralyze?
Van Leeuwen: The last one, we had a lot of the songs written already. This record we had about 95 per cent not written. So it was completely different — literally going in blind, almost.

So there was no real plan for Era Vulgaris, where the last three records had a bit of a road map. Was there any more stress in the writing and recording this time around?
Van Leeuwen: A lot more, especially with [Homme] breathing down our necks. [laughs] It's more stress when you don't know what you're going for until you're actually doing it. Then all the stress makes it worthwhile.
Castillo: I think it's easier to be all stressed together.

How much time did you guys spend over the course of the last year working on the album?
Van Leeuwen: The cumulative time off was a month-and-a-half, from start to mastering, every day except the lord's day off.

Did the band take any sort of different approach to the actual writing for Era?
Castillo: I think ultimately we've always tried to do something different than what the next band would try to. But I think it's like what Troy was saying earlier, when you're going into unknown territory, it's wide open. With Lullabies, most of it was written on the road, so we had a lot of ideas, at least sonically. This, we were literally starting with nothing.
Van Leeuwen: I think that you find yourself going, "I can't do what I would normally do." I'd say noise was a big part of what I was trying to do. I would say, rhythmically, there's certain things where it sounds like a robot that sounds like it's breaking down every three steps. There's definitely offbeat rhythmic syncopation, and I found myself wanting to do that more than melodically. And having music be this beast that has beautiful melodies. Melody is overrated.
Castillo: I think we all kind of knew that, rhythmically, we wanted not a dance feel, but something that was a little more ass-shaking. I know that Troy and I like a lot of rhythmic stuff like Bauhaus. A lot of these drums are all over, but if you can latch on to something and get that repetitiveness happening — that's what was going through my head.
Van Leeuwen: It was basically the straightest white-boy drum beat with heavy synths.

A significantly crisp version of "Make It Wit Chu" made it on to the album, after lingering as a Desert Session track since before Lullabies. What led to its inclusion on Era?
Van Leeuwen: It just seemed to be the definitive version. We tried it, along with trying lots of stuff. We put down a lot of ideas. But we were playing it on the road last year and it was kind of a ginger-on-the-palette part of the set. Who doesn't sing along to it? It just seemed like the version on Desert Session was a good time thing. This one's got a little more sorrowfulness in it. I don't want to use the word blues, but it's definitely got more soul. More longing.

When you guys are in your touring phases, you're on the road for long, rigorous stretches. Will you do the same sort of thing for this album, or are you at a point yet where you want to take it a little easier?
Van Leeuwen: I think we're in it for the long haul again. I think we want this record to be heard by everybody. Who knows with radio and video, because we had radio play for the last record a lot, and that didn't really translate into, say, record sales. We had to go out and tour. I think we're going to go to some places we haven't gone on this one.