Queens Of The Stone Age mastermind Josh Homme was interviewed recently by Zane Lowe for Beats 1 Radio and explained the decision to utilize producer Mark Ronson (Lady Gaga, Adele), who is more commonly associated with pop acts, on their new album “Villains“. Homme reveals that he had known Ronson in passing, but the pair apparently really hit it off during their time collaborating with Lady Gaga on her latest album, “Joanne“. Homme said of how he came to meet Ronson:
“I met him a couple late nights before that [working with Gaga] here and there. Within an hour of working with him on this Lady Gaga stuff, the references—that glossary he used to talk about stuff—and what was important to him, I realized this grand overlap of interest and fascination and elation in making music.”
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When asked why he used a producer at all having produced past projects he’s been involved with, Homme replied:
“I think it’s our seventh record and we have the luxury of having found a sound that’s ours. But by the seventh record if you’re not careful that’s parody and you end up a cartoon character on the wall. And I think there’s a need to sort of identity who you are now.
…The most dangerous game is to retain that sense of self and take the risk to be something new. And I realize that that’s really where I wanted to go with this especially.
Because that would be exciting too, if you could unlock that code of reorientating your sound, then your… You know, your newest record needs to be the very best one that’s made off the experience and failures of the last one.
So that you could actually… I mean that could make you a better person. You could leave baggage behind. There’s so much that could happen if you make a good record and you really mean it.”
He further said of working with Ronson:
“I think one of the reasons was to act like a talisman, as a reminder of… You know, listening to “Uptown Funk” [Ronson‘s 11x platinum single with Bruno Mars] right? It’s very tight and vacuous—it sounds fucking great. And I was like, I knew I wanted to make something very tight with the air sucked out of it and very clear, you know?
So he was a just a great reminder, just as an opening. And then his desires are so beat-centric and so are mine, that we had this tremendous amount of overlap. And then that sort of giggling over the gold, like, excitement of creating something—he has that.”
Homme went on to say a music video is in the works, presumably for their current single “The Way You Used To Do“. “Villains” will be released on August 25th through Matador Records.
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