Queens Of The Stone Age wrapped up their Australian co-headline tour with Nine Inch Nails last week, and already frontman Josh Homme is looking forward to staring on his next creative projects.
The QOTSA ringleader has discussed plans to finish recording new albums with the Eagles Of Death Metal, a new entry in the Desert Sessions side-project, and even a new Queens album, all potentially before year’s end.
Homme and co. were in New Zealand over the weekend and between playing their arena dates with Nine Inch Nails in Wellington and Christchurch the frontman caught up with 3 News to discuss his future recording schedule.
His top priority? Completing a new record with his Eagles of Death Metal co-conspirator Jesse Hughes.
“I intend to go home and jump right back in. It’s been tough, and I feel like responsible for it not being done, because I am here!” Homme says. “I hate being at the epicentre of what something isn’t happening. So I am going to go home and jump into that.” “As far as Desert Sessions goes, I was going to do a Desert Sessions this year but we did some Eagles recording instead…”
The frontman had previously confirmed that work had begun on a fourth Eagles of Death Metal album, the follow-up to 2008’s Heart On, telling The Music the band had recorded approximately six tracks while “working at a reasonable, sort of casual pace.”
A Homme-less Eagles of Death Metal were in Australia last month as part of the massive Soundwave 2014 lineup, playing Sidewaves with Rocket From The Crypt and Mutemath with ex-QOTSA drummer Joey Castillo filling in for Homme on the drumstool.
The New Zealand interview also saw the frontman hinting at working on a new instalment of the Desert Sessions, the loose, ongoing compilation series that has previously provided blueprints of future QOTSA tracks like ‘Hanging Tree’ and ‘Make It Wit Chu’.
“As far as Desert Sessions goes, I was going to do a Desert Sessions this year but we did some Eagles recording instead,” Homme reveals.
“Because Desert Sessions works best at a certain time of the year, when everything slows and everyone takes a deep breath out. At the end of the year, in that December-January timeframe, everyone has exhaled. And post-exhale is the time to do something like that. So if I miss that window… I miss that window.”
The last Desert Sessions recordings – Volumes 9 & 10 – were released over a decade ago in 2003 and featured PJ Harvey, then-QOTSA members Joey Castillo, Troy Van Leeuwen, Alain Johannes, former NIN/Marilyn Manson member Jeordie White, and Ween’s Dean Ween (who’s been working with Homme on his long-delayed solo debut).
As for Homme’s main musical outlet, earlier this year he revealed to Rolling Stone that the band have “more than enough songs” to record a follow-up to 2013’s …Like Clockwork; “we’re booked ’til September, but after that we plan to jump in the studio and get going.”
Speaking to FasterLouder last month, Homme elaborated on his excitement for getting started on a new QOTSA album, the band’s seventh; “…we have Jon [Theodore] as our new drummer and we want to play together and see what that means, and see what that does. Because there is so much there that is really exciting – that relationship,” said Homme.
“And recording is really the best part of all,” he continued, “because you are making something and chasing something. We don’t really require much to get into the studio, and I think we took a long enough break between these [last] records that it will be nice to go for a while.”
