The Queens of the Stone Age rock machine is finally back in Quebec, seven years after their visit to the defunct Montebello Rockfest. In fact, the Palm Desert band embarked on an authentic Canadian leg of their tour in April The End Is Nero which will bring him to 12 cities, including Montreal, Saturday, and Quebec, Sunday. We took the opportunity to chat with Troy Van Leeuwen, faithful accomplice for more than 20 years of leader Josh Homme.
The tour may have started last August, but the Queens still take great pleasure in playing the songs from their eighth album In Times New Roman…, so much so that the guitarist admits to not having yet started working on the next record. “Come and talk to me about it again in December,” he told us, laughing. But for now, we’re still in the honeymoon period with the songs from the last record, we really love playing them. »
Especially sinceIn Times New Roman… marks the end of a trilogy of albums begun in 2013 with…Like Clockwork and continued in 2017 with Villains. “It’s a period that ends quite naturally for us, it’s the conclusion of an exceptional marriage with the artist Boneface, who created all the illustrations for the three albums. It marks a step in time, a decade which also highlights the 10 years of our current band, formed with the arrival in 2013 of drummer Jon Theodore. »
On a musical level, In Times New Roman… indeed comes full circle in the trilogy, sometimes drawing on…Like Clockworksometimes in Villains. “ Clockwork was very dark, it marked a break with previous albums, we didn’t know how the fans were going to react, remembers Troy Van Leeuwen. But as we like to express what we feel at the moment when we create, Villains happened as a reaction. We also wanted to have someone else do the production, which was nice because we’d never worked like that before – Josh and I are producers ourselves. »
Make way for funk
The Queens of the Stone Age have therefore joined forces with Mark Ronson, the same one who has collaborated many times with Bruno Mars, notably for his hit Uptown Funk. “So we had a lot of fun working with Mark, especially since I love funk, I listened to a lot of Parliament and Funkadelic, for example,” Van Leeuwen tells us.
For the new album, we are halfway there, because it was recorded during the difficult period of the pandemic, but we also wanted to keep the groove of Villains. Overall, it’s a bit of a return to the roots of Queens of the Stone Age, so the trilogy ends in a very natural way.
Troy Van Leeuwen
The work in the studio also happened in a very natural way, a complicity having been established between the members of the group – the quintet still orbits around the leader Josh Homme, but the stability of the formation has been reflected for around ten years through an unprecedented collegiality. “We all put the same effort into each song,” says the 50-year-old guitarist. With the last two albums, we tried more than ever to record everything live in the studio, on analog tape. It was quite a challenge to achieve during the pandemic, but we can’t compose remotely, each on our own, we need to be in the same room. The melodies arrive with the music, Josh will then work on his own to write the lyrics. »
Desert rock
It is also in the studio that Van Leeuwen and Homme will refine the sound of their fat and crushed guitars, the keystone of the “desert rock” sound that Queens of the Stone Age largely contributed to making known more than 25 years ago. years. The sound of QOTSA’s guitars is indeed characteristic, but is it so characteristic as to limit the creativity of its musicians? “It never limits my playing field,” assures Troy Van Leeuwen without hesitation.
PHOTO EMILY BERL, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
Queens of the Stone Age 10 years ago in 2014, at the Coachella festival. The two guitarists in the foreground: Troy Van Leeuwen and Josh Homme.
It’s Josh’s rhythm guitar that mainly defines the Queens of the Stone Age sound, I aim for free spaces by adding textures.
Troy Van Leeuwen
He continues: “We have developed such a bond that we know what the song needs. I’m constantly looking for new sounds, but at the end of the day, we stay who we are, so thatIn Times New Roman… is a real rock record, without frills. »
The group promises us some changes to the program for its Canadian round, we’ll see what it’s up to on Saturday, in Laval at Place Bell, and Sunday, in Quebec at the Videotron Center.