We spoke to Josh Homme about Queens Of The Stone Age‘s In Occasions New Roman… within the Uncut dated August 2023 – right here’s the complete, unedited interview, during which Josh goes deep into the brand new report, tells us what working with Iggy taught him and explains why he’d prefer to make a report that destroys stereos.

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There’s no messing about on In Occasions New Roman… – there aren’t any company, you produced it, it’s simply straight in.
Sure, that’s true. You already know, I believe you make information in your personal time, and then you definately surprise in the event that they’ll match into their time that they’re launched in. And one way or the other, this report appears very of its time. It’s very brutal, tonally brutal. And, I believe you mentioned it higher than I’ll, there’s no mucking about, it’s wilful stupidity, proper off the drop.

You’re all the time experimenting, however on the earlier two albums, there was a particular ingredient of attempting out a number of various things. And this one feels such as you’ve realized from that, and also you’ve taken a few of the extra profitable new concepts on. It feels comfy, however thrilling on the similar time.
Properly, don’t even make me completely happy by saying that we’ve realized from that as a result of that’s precisely… You already know, I suppose I all the time search for cycles of three – I knew the primary report was a part of one thing extra, I already had this Rated R form of idea when the primary report was taking place. The primary report is stamping your floor for the place you’re ranging from, the second is the experiment and the third is encapsulating all that you simply’ve realized in a manner. And I believe so many individuals have gone by way of a lot within the final 4 years, and I too have have gone by way of a lot. The music was recorded about two years in the past, I simply wasn’t able to sing it – the blokes pushed me so much to get it to the end. However I wanted to be complete to complete, and it simply took me some time to try this. It understands itself. So by the point I lastly got here to sing it and end it with with Mark Rankin, and Mikey Footwear, it was a kind of moments the place you’re like, ‘no, no, I do know who I are proper now.’

Such as you mentioned, you’ve gotten been by way of so much – so the lyrics are very private, however on the similar time, they’re a few of your funniest. There’s a pun each different line.
I imply, I suppose a pun is a phrase for making up a phrase, proper? Oscar Wilde mentioned ‘Be your self, everybody else is taken.’ And looking out round and listening to everybody inform you there’s so many guidelines – can’t do that, don’t do that, don’t contact that, be afraid of this, don’t have a look at this – I simply thought, ‘Oh, fuck all this, it’s a bunch of bullshit, it’s not true. In reality, I could make up no matter phrases I like, I can do no matter I like.’ For instance, on one thing like Them Crooked Vultures, every little thing was an animal, and I have a tendency to try this for a report, choose a factor. In any case, life could be very spherical – if you happen to suppose somebody’s above you, all it’s a must to do is flip the sphere and also you realise there’s no above or under anyone. I additionally suppose that this [album] is correct for its time, as a result of I do know everybody else sees the identical obscenery I see. ‘Hellscape, occasion of two?’ I don’t thoughts that really. I don’t have a look at it as unfavorable. I believe failing to be trustworthy about figuring out what you see is the unfavorable. Understanding when one thing is correct can solely occur in case you are prepared to confess when one thing’s improper, for you or generally. So, I believe accepting actuality for what it’s, is what takes you from pessimism to realism.

Do you see this as the ultimate a part of a trilogy, then?
I do. I believe [2005’s] Lullabies To Paralyze and [2007’s] Period Vulgaris have been kind of like looking for the open doorway or open window, if you’ll, to attempt to enter the subsequent part, and it felt [2013’s] …Like Clockwork was [that next phase]. I imply, after I have a look at this now, I believe, ‘In Occasions New Roman the Villains come Like Clockwork’, that’s what I see. I really feel that this album is the brutal fact of all of them. I believe meaning you can begin The Wizard Of Oz proper now, and they need to match up.

I suppose they’re additionally linked by the lineup, which has been so secure – a lot of the guys have been round since Period Vulgaris.
[Artist] Frank Kozik, who simply handed away, he was the man that got here up with the concept of [desert sessions]. I didn’t have a band on the time, and he was like, ‘You must take individuals out to the desert and simply report, name it the ‘desert classes’.’ It was his thought. You already know, after which as soon as I used to be on the market, I believed, ‘I ought to make a band out of this.’ I suppose [it’s like] orbital motion, like, because the Earth rotates the concept ought to be capable of rotate and alter with out shedding your sense of gravity to what you’re doing, in order that was the notion of constructing a band that would modify and alter. Very like the band Ween may play something it wished to each time it wished to, all it’s a must to do is imagine – you realize, Ween put out a rustic report, and it’s an incredible nation report. They imagine they will do it. So I believe Queens has all the time been like, ‘How will we maintain altering, continuously, and danger shedding individuals, however retain a way of self?’ And I believe earlier than that had so much to do with interchanging members and now it has so much to do with holding these members and taking these grand leaps collectively.

It’s experimenting with stability.
Ha, the disrupting of stability – precisely. There’s sufficient disruption [around now] that a bit of stability really has develop into useful in a manner. Yeah, as a result of the experiments at the moment are coping with sonic brutality, so the phrases are purported to say one thing actual. However the sonic aspect of it also needs to converse to one thing, it ought to counsel a route too. I believe on the Iggy report [2016’s Post Pop Depression], I realized that… there’s a track referred to as “In The Foyer”, and when he screams it drowns out the music, as a result of I used to be like, ‘Why can’t he simply drown it? Why can’t he bury it? Why can’t the dynamic be so vast that you simply’re like, ‘Oh’?’ After which that gave solution to Villains, you realize, the start of that report is so quiet on goal that you simply crank it up after which when it goes you go ‘holy…’. Why can’t I play a grimy trick on individuals I like? Why can’t a report seize you by the shirt collar and kiss you on the cheek and scream ‘I like you’ in your ear? Like, it may, it may do this. And I believe the brutality of even the primary track “Obscenery”, it’s so brutal that when this orchestra simply collides with the music, at the very least you realize it’s on goal, it’s some form of counterbalance, one thing fragile and exquisite to destroy.

The top of “Carnavoyeur” is loopy – that compression!
It’s probably the most you are able to do with out digital static. And I mentioned, why can’t we go additional? I’ve been considering this because the finish of the primary report, however what if you happen to placed on a report, and on the finish it destroyed your stereo? That will be… that will be unforgettable. It will be impossibly harmful artwork perpetually, proper. You already know, the factor was, [people say] ‘I don’t need to be related to that.’ It’s like, effectively, why not? I do. I’d do this.

It’s a situationist form of prank. That’s nice.
Properly, an actual assertion. I believe it’s past a prank there buddy, as a result of if you happen to make information as actual as you may, what does that imply? As a result of actual could be very broad time period… as trustworthy and weak, and as legitimately near the centre of who you’re, as you may. And if you happen to make one thing that you simply really love, then another person has an awesome likelihood of loving it, too. It might solely be 300 individuals, however it’s sufficient. What if 300 individuals fucking beloved what you probably did, it was their favorite factor? I imply, what number of could be sufficient? Wouldn’t two individuals be sufficient? I believe that that’s really what our job is, is to make one thing that another person may love, too.

Properly, there’s a bit greater than two individuals for you.
That’s simply gravy, I suppose, as a result of that’s greater than anybody deserves possibly. I’m all the time ready for, sometime, somebody to ring my doorbell and say, ‘Joshua, no one likes your music anymore. So we’re coming in, we’re gonna simply take all these things.’ And I all the time suppose I’m ready for that day. And I’ll be like, ‘That was a very long time, although. Fairly good. [I did] fairly effectively.’

The album’s solely simply finished, however I wager you’ve gotten plans for what comes after the trilogy…
Now why would I do one thing like that?! I believe if you happen to don’t make plans, you’re a part of another person’s. And I believe it’s necessary to make the music from a really actual place, however I’ve come to benefit from the surprise and the shock of leaping out of the darkness and doing enterprise on our followers, like, I like to shock and shock and go away breadcrumbs and I prefer to take part of their pleasure and their pleasure. It’s my job to make pleasure and pleasure and it’s a pleasure and pleasure to take action. I like to determine how one can do one thing that makes individuals which are into our music take one deep breath in and get excited, so I’d by no means give that away. However oh, I received plans. They don’t all work, however that’s not the purpose both.