Josh Homme is so happy with Queens Of The Stone Age’s current lineup that he can’t wait to get the group back into the studio to work on new material.
“The other night we were up ’til six in the morning, all of us playing guitar,” Homme says of a roster that includes multi-instrumentalist Troy Van Leeuwen and drummer Joey Castillo, who joined in 2002, and new members bassist Michael Shuman (Wires On Fire) and utility man Dean Fertita (the Raconteurs, the Waxwings).
“Queens sounds better than it ever has live,” Homme continues, “but we’re trying to figure out how to tour and how to (write and record), ’cause I think for everyone right now the idea of creating something is even more enticing than going on the road. This lineup feels like we could basically blow through a whole record quick.”
And then some. Homme says that what he’d really like to do is “make an EP or two before making another (album),” although he’s not sure QOTSA’s label, Interscope — which turned down his request to release an EP of outtakes from the new “Era Vulgaris” sessions — will go along with that plan.
“The difficult thing is to bend other people to your will,” Homme says with a laugh. “Songs need to have a home. If you just record them, they’ve got no destination, no home.”
Homme says that he “absolutely” plans to document the current QOTSA configuration via a live album and/or DVD. “It would be a crime not to,” he says. Meanwhile, the group is also taking an interim creative step during its current North American tour of “rewriting bunches of our songs” to best display the virtues of the current quintet.
“They’re just, like, open endings and cues and saying, ‘Let’s try to head this general direction’ so it’s not endless jam band stuff,” Homme explains. “That way we never get bored and it’s always fresh for us. That gives us the best chance of trying to blow people away, blow their minds. I don’t think we’ve touched the tip of the iceberg of what we’re able to do now. We should really be stretching as far as possible.”
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