Queens of the Stone Age: No One Knows by Joel McIver

Author:Joel McIver
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Individual Composer & Musician, Pop Vocal, Music, Biography & Autobiography, Genres & Styles, Composers & Musicians
ISBN: 9781783233939
Publisher: Omnibus Press
Published: 2015-03-08T11:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

2002: Deafened

IN February 2002 Josh and Nick took a few weeks out of their schedule to repeat the move the former had executed back in 1998, when he had joined Mark Lanegan’s band The Screaming Trees as a back-up guitarist, by joining producer Chris Goss’ band Masters Of Reality for European dates – ironically in support of Lanegan, who was on a solo tour. Goss had extended his production career by working on albums including The Cult’s Ian Astbury and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, but his band was still his priority and the two Queens’ presence would only boost its profile. Josh explained, “This isn’t work, it’s the most fun I can have. I’m playing great music, in the company of some really good friends. I’m just glad I could fit it into my schedule.”

Although Songs For The Deaf would not appear until September 2002, Queens Of The Stone Age (the Homme, Oliveri, Lanegan and Grohl version, plus associated touring members) built it up in pre-release interviews, perhaps because of the success of the Grohl-fuelled recording sessions and the appetite from the press and fanbase for a killer follow-up to Rated R. Primary among the themes discussed were the atmospherics of the record, which would help it enter darker, more introspective territory than before. This element was assisted by Lanegan’s trademark grim, almost Tom Waits-like growl.

Homme: “There’s a lot of darker material. I think [Mark’s] voice lends itself to it, you always feel as though you’re getting whispered to, even if he’s yelling at you. There’s Leonard Cohen moments, Nick Cave moments … Lanegan has a very special voice, it’s not something you can practise for, it’s something you’re just given. It’s easy and fun to write with Lanegan. A lot of dark stuff happened to Nick and I, and there had to be a way to say, well, all this happened but it’s got to get better. For me that’s not depressing: it’s like there’s got to be a way out.”

An unexpected development was the replacement of long-time Kyuss and Queens producer Chris Goss with Eric Valentine, who had previously worked with Oliveri’s partners-in-crime The Dwarves, Smashmouth, Joe Satriani and others. This, it emerged, was an Interscope requirement, and initially not an unwelcome one, as Homme remarked: “He worked on two albums for The Dwarves, so he’s sort of a familiar face and somebody cool to work with. He understands where we’re coming from, and he isn’t going to try to clean us up or anything. One of the main reasons is also that it is kind of hard to convince your record company to spend money on an album when all the money is going in your pockets.” However, things didn’t ultimately turn out the way they’d hoped. Josh: “He just recorded it, actually, [although] it says production [on the sleeve], he was only there to record the beginning of it, it was contractual.” Homme conceded the outsider’s perspective had been beneficial: “It resulted in getting some different takes on things that may not have come out.

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