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Desert session

Josh Homme’s lullabies of love
October 22, 2007 9:56:07 AM


VIDEO: Queens of the Stone Age, "3's & 7's" (live at First Act Guitar Studio)

The Phoenix's Will Spitz interviews Josh Homme (mp3)
For nearly two decades, Josh Homme has had countless irons in the rock-and-roll fire, from his early days as a stoner-rock pioneer with Kyuss and his ongoing Desert Sessions series with the likes of PJ Harvey, Dean Ween, and Mark Lanegan to his lascivious sex-rock side project Eagles of Death Metal and his current bread and butter, Queens of the Stone Age, who play the Orpheum Theatre this Friday. Over the phone from “very weird” Baltimore, Homme talks about Era Vulgaris (Interscope) — Queens’ newest album and the follow-up to 2005’s Lullabies To Paralyze — plus PJ Harvey and Cee-Lo, Dave Grohl’s hair, playing in the “Fantasy Suites” at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, and his baby daughter, Camille.

Last time we spoke, about a year and a half ago, you were in the process of writing what would become Era Vulgaris, and you told me that it was going to be the gnarliest Queens of the Stone Age album ever. Is it?
Honestly, I think it’s the most out there of all the Queens records. We got it wet and rolled it in broken glass. I’m really proud of this record.

You recorded at Cherokee Studios in LA, which has a mind-boggling client list, from MCCartney and Bowie to Shaq . . .
And Nelson. Of all the records they’ve done, they proudly display the Nelson record in the hall. It was a really great place, and it had a really strange vibe to it. It’s also the place where Station to Station was done, and Bowie told them to move out of the office because he was going to put in a bed and sleep there — and that’s rad. It had a very sleazy vibe to it. It was like neon and mirrors, and that just screams, like, cocaine cramps. I think that it helped in the writing process because you were really submerged. I think it was inevitable that I would sort of write from a Hollywood observation because it’s so, you know, like the Eagles said, “lines on the mirror, lines on her face.” And it just had that bad vibe of that whole world. I mean, it was a good vibe — a good bad vibe.

You’ve played Era Vulgaris’s “Make It Wit Chu” with both PJ Harvey [on Desert Sessions 9 & 10] and Cee-Lo [at the 2007 MTV Video Music awards].
I think Cee-Lo probably has the best voice that I’ve ever been around. He has no break in his voice from the bottom to the top. His voice is like silk panties, like something beautiful covering something sweet. PJ’s amazing. [Affecting an English accent] She’s very English and she’s got the proper snarl, you know? It’s been a while since I’ve talked to her, and I miss her because she’s a true character. I respect PJ so much.

Dave Grohl was recently quoted as saying, “Queens of the Stone Age are the best band I have ever been in — without question.”
Oh, that’s weird. I mean, he was in Nirvana. Well, I love him for saying that, man. No one has ever been nicer to me in the music business, in the whole music thing, than Dave. Since 1991, he’s been one of my dearest friends and the person that I’ve always gone to for . . . some things are hard to get past, where you’re just like, I can’t take it — I’ve always called Dave. Dave is that guy you see on TV — to everyone Dave always comes off like a nice guy. And it’s exactly accurate to what he’s like. For someone like me, who sometimes has trouble with this, he’s always helped me.

That said, long-haired Dave or short-haired Dave: who wins?
Long-haired Dave. And bearded Dave, too. Jesus Dave. Why, what do you think?

Yeah, you’ve gotta to go with long-haired Dave. It looks cooler when he plays drums, anyway.
Yeah. When we were at the VMAs, the funny thing is that I never even realized I was at the VMAs because I never saw one lick of what was going on in the show. It was awesome, one of the best times I’ve had in a long time, and I think it’s because I never once thought we were at the VMAs. And I look over at Dave, and we do a shot of vodka, and he lights a smoke and starts playing drums. I was like, we’re at the VMAs, and they’re filming you smoke and drink. That was a very infiltrating move that he pulled there.

Do you play certain music for your daughter, like an early-years rock-and-roll-edification type of thing?
No, I just want her to love music, and I want her to have the same relationship that Brody [Dalle, his wife and former Distillers frontwoman] and I have with it — it’s the thing that sponges away everything that’s bad. It’s this beautiful thing. And it’s a pleasure device — you’re supposed to use it to make you happy or to convey an emotion that you don’t have the words for. And I don’t really care what she uses, what kind of music it is that does that for her as long as she can understand what it means. It doesn’t much matter. I mean, hopefully it won’t be the soundtrack to Lord of the Dance or something. And I’ve been writing songs just for her. A thousand lullabies, man.

Not Lullabies to Paralyze, I hope.
No, those are for everybody else.

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE | Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place, Boston | October 12 | 617.482.0650

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