Rollingstone.com got to listen to Queens Of The Stone Age‘s forthcoming seventh studio album “Villains” and also sat down with the band’s frontman/guitarist Josh Homme and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen to discuss how the effort came to be. Throughout the conversation Homme and Van Leeuwen share various bits of wisdom regarding the opus, including the below from Homme regarding the decision to work on it with producer Mark Ronson (Bruno Mars, Adele):
“I think maybe music people might not understand the vast overlap of the curves between Ronson and Queens. If you listen to ‘Uptown Funk,’ you hear that tight, kind of vacuous dry sound, and that’s where I wanted to take this new Queens record. I wanted it to be like our record Songs For The Deaf, but looking at it with goggles on underwater – that kind of clarity. Also, he’s as obsessed with drum beats as I am.”
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Meanwhile, the November 13, 2015 terrorist attack on the Eagles Of Death Metal show in Paris, France profoundly impacted Homme. Though he wasn’t present at the show, he has long been close friends with frontman Jesse Hughes and drums for the band when time permits. Referring to that and the recent attack at Ariana Grande‘s Manchester, England show, he offered:
“It’s a terrifying club to be part of. You hope it never gets any bigger now than two artists. If you could trade places, you actually wouldn’t, because someone else would understand that.
I don’t think I would wish that on anybody else. … There’s always been fucked-up shit. There’s always been villains. All it does is give you the raison d’être to go again. If you needed a fucking reason, you got one.”
Homme also commented that “Villains” is a bit more revealing than past works:
“When you’re younger, I think you are encouraged or you encourage yourself to hide behind a mask. As the years have gone on, that mask has worn away. I’ve lost any reason to hide. I have a vast disinterest in hiding anything when it comes to writing music. The more vulnerable and honest it is, the better I feel about it.
And what else am I gonna write about? Queens has always been a place that’s free of the politics and rigmarole of the day. We’re more like an arcade or an ice-cream parlor where you don’t talk politics. There needs to be escape. I’d rather talk about one of the only things that matters – that can be family and what you’re passionate about.”
Should you want a whole lot more insight on the album as well some descriptions of what the songs sound like, head to Rollingstone.com.
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