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Not Stoner Rock then…

‘The term sucks. The only element of the audience I want to get rid of is the shirtless, sweaty, maxi-mullet jock dudes. We want sex to bleed into the music. At our shows, we want to see half boys and half girls in a utopian world, dancing and drinking.’ Josh Homme

Well, not much has changed in ten years. That’s still the goal and the band clearly went some way to achieving it at this years Rock a Field where, if not exactly a Utopia, there was no scarcity of boys and girls drinking and dancing. If the Queens had some difficulties in getting to the field, it was as nothing compared with getting into the backstage area for journos. However, Upfront is nothing if not persistent, and persist we did. We managed to track down Queens guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen to ask him about new album ‘Era Vulgaris‘, working with ‘guests’, competition on the road and the importance of twiddling.

The critical reception for ‘Era Vulgaris’, the Queens fifth studio album, mentioned a change of direction and was almost universally glowing. Something much appreciated by the band.

TVL
“It feels good and we try not to let it colour what we do too much. It is nice to have people like what you do… Sure, I think we are always changing. That’s my favourite thing about some of the artists that inspire me; they’re always able to reinvent themselves. There’s certain cases like say AC/DC who have never re-invented themselves and are still ‘bad-ass’. I like that idea, but with the Queens it’s supposed to morph and evolve, expand and adapt. With this record especially we didn’t’t have anything written when we went into the studio, we gave ourselves the chance to fail and figure things out, to push some buttons and stretch some boundaries.”

Word was that the Queens had changed their working method for this album, and that the band had assembled beforehand with the instruction to bring some source of inspiration which might jog the creative process.

“Well, we always sort of do that, movies, maybe art, books of art. Any kind of vinyl. We had an extra room set up where we just watch movies. Full Metal Jacket, Scarface, especially Kubrick movies, music is a big key to it. I don’t know what it is called but we watched this great Captain Beefheart documentary. We’d watch stuff and then we’d go out and play and work stuff out. It’s not all easy for us, there‘s got to be a struggle there, I think we all understand that.”

Not having anything written before entering the studio meant the recording process for the album took much longer than normal, a year in fact.

“I never thought I would spend a year recording a record in the studio and going there every day. I can’t say I loved every minute of it, but I loved most of it. You know it’s a lot of waiting and figuring and sound wise there’s a lot of experimenting going on and sometimes it takes time to find it and sometimes you don’t find it. Jamming or messing with the gear you know… what we call tweaking.”

Or twiddling!

“I like twiddling. Tweaking has a different connotation to it.”

Moving away from tweaking and twiddling for a moment, rumour had it that the album was inspired, at least lyrically or thematically by regular drives through Hollywood.

“Well, all of us are out of the epicentre of Hollywood. Myself and Josh moved to a place called ‘The Valley’. It is a very suburban area of Hollywood. You’re spending a lot of time in your car and everyday you come out of there listening to what you did. And it’s normally about 5 or 6 in the morning and there’s all the stragglers from bars, street cleaners and other dark life that happens when everyone else is in bed. So yeah, I would say that is correct.”

The albums cartoon cover almost generated as much chatter as its title, ‘Era Vulgaris’.

“It’s definitely a topic of conversation that we like. It’s never been that way for Queens record covers and artworks, (which) have always been pretty basic. It sort of came about when we were thinking how we going to sell this thing? And you know we are looking at this era of advertising of the 50s and 60s and cartoon characters were selling products like alcohol and cigarettes. Fred Flintstone selling Camel cigarettes. So we figured we’d like somebody like that to sell our record and that’s where Bulby and Patchy the Pirate came in.”

Though the reviews for ‘Vulgaris’, were overwhelmingly good, critics seemed to be divided about the overall sound of the album.

“I think it is a dirty record. I really wanted it to sound big and well produced and Josh really wanted it trashy, and I think we captured both. You can definitely see the dirt in some of it. The single ‘Sick, Sick, Sick’, was one of the first songs we tracked and we didn’t even have the right drum mics up. Julian Casablancas, he came in later and sung on it too. At first a lot of people didn’t realise that was him singing and he also plays really good guitar too. It fits in the song, it serves the song, and that’s all we are trying to do. We usually have guests, you know and we try and provide a comfortable environment for people that we respect. I love The Strokes and like Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. I think we are all learning something from it. I like different elements and chemistry. I would love to see Jimmy Page do something with us. Tom Waites is a big influence and Bowie would be a great collaborator.”

Given their fearlessness in casting around for guests, no-one would be surprised if the band did something completely off the wall and invited say, Britney, to do a spot on the next album.

“Yeah… I’m not afraid…maybe Justin Timberlake, he’s got a great voice. He’s a great talent. I admire that.”

Following their poor show at Rock am Ring in Germany 2001, Homme, Nick Oliveri, and on/off singer Mark Lanegan had the date and start time for the gig tattooed on their ribs, so as never to forget it. Serious about giving good shows then, and not above a bit of competition.

“I’d say we are pretty lucky. For example, I like playing with bands that give you a run for your money. Like The Hives, they are a great live band, that gives us the chance to say, ‘Yeah, great, fine, we are going to try and outdo you guys.’ I like playing with bands like that. I hope to do more of that, perhaps a double headline tour with The Hives or The White Stripes.”

“There’s nothing like playing to your own crowd and getting back that energy, but there is something about getting out there and trying to reach more people too. It’s a bit of a challenge.”
 
With so many comings and goings and side projects all running along simultaneously it can be difficult keeping up with what the Queens will do next, and who’ll be doing it. More a musical collective almost than a band in the conventional sense, they’ve been referred to as “musical misfits”…

“Musical misfits… I think that’s great, sure. Yes I’m happy with that let’s just call ourselves musical misfits.”

Who twiddle!

“Who twiddle a lot, yes.”
 

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