Latest / STAR FM Rocktalk / Queens Of The Stone Age: Gitarren-Therapie

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Queens Of The Stone Age: Gitarren-Therapie · STAR FM Rocktalk

0:00
Hi, hier ist Simon und willkommen beim Star-FM-Rock-Talk. Bei uns im Sender
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haben wir ständig Besuch von den größten
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Rockstars und wir setzen sie selbstverständlich sofort vors Mikrofon.
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Und da geht es dann wirklich um alles. Die besten Stories, die ganz neuen Alben
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und natürlich auch der ganz alte Kram.
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Aber im Sommer, da war es ausnahmsweise mal andersrum. Da habe ich nämlich einen
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Künstler besucht in einem Hotelzimmer im Waldorf Astoria.
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Und zwar kurz vor einem Auftritt im Berliner Olympiastadion.
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Ich habe mich mit Josh Homm getroffen, dem Sänger und Gitarristen von Queens of the Stone Age.
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Die Band spielte an dem Tag als Support für System of a Down und das neue Album
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Perfekt war damals noch strengstens geil.
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Ich habe mich also mit Josh, der wirklich eine ziemlich einnehmende Präsenz
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hat, an einen kleinen Tisch im Hotel gekuschelt und er hat mir erklärt,
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wie zerbrochene Keramik und der Spaß daran, in ein Horn zu blasen,
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dieses Album geformt haben.
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Aber er hat auch von Black Metal und von seiner im Alter entdeckten Verletzlichkeit geredet.
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Ein Rocktalk mit Ecken und Kanten, genau wie seine neue Platte.
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Und in diesem Sinne, viel Spaß beim Rocktalk mit Queens of the Stone Age.
1:11
Let's talk about Perfect. And that's already the first question,
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because, you know, when you just... Well, it's actually called Perfect.
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And that was my question, because as a German-speaking person,
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we always have our difficulties with, like, pronouncing names.
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And the TH especially did it. Oh. So this one was, like, a tricky one.
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We know the word Perfect, but we don't know with an H at the end. Yeah.
1:32
Yeah. Yeah, making up words is fun. Bill Shakespeare did it. Why can't I? You know?
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So let's talk a little bit about the album. Maybe you could start off by telling
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me a little bit, you know, what, in your opinion, defines it as an L. Okay.
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Just, yeah, well, I think it's, I think there's this Japanese concept,
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not a concept, it's a practice. It's called Kintsugi.
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Have you ever heard of this before? I think, actually, I have heard about it
2:02
because of the PR text I received. Is that what's in there?
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So it was in it. So I did some research and yes, but please.
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No, but I like Kintsugi because I like that practice of taking something which is broken,
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And through your efforts and through your care and attention,
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you somehow render it as something more than it could have been without this breakage.
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It's the art of repairing pottery that's been broken, putting it back together
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using gold leaf and gold solder. For like the cracks, you put it in the cracks.
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Right, you put it in the cracks and sort of represent it.
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Und ich denke, es ist eine gute Praxis. Es ist eine gute Philosophie,
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wie viel von den Jepern, die die Jepern sind.
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Und ich glaube, ich denke, ich denke, die Rekord in diese Art,
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um, taking deine größten und vulnerable Moments und sort of allowing sie zu
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sein, dass sie mehr, you know...
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Something mehr beautiful, in a sense? Ja, und ich könnte nicht haben geschrieben,
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eine Rekord, das war über Love, wenn ich in meine 20s bin.
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I just wasn't equipped to do that, you know.
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But I'm 53 now and those are the sorts of things that are important to me and,
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I don't care that I'm afraid of things anymore.
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It doesn't, that feels like the direction I should be going.
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If I feel insecure about something or if I feel scared of something,
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that's where I should be going.
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I shouldn't be just jerking off to what I think I know, you know.
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But coming back to that metaphor of the Japanese technique, you know,
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when they're thought about it, you know, you take something that is broken and you butt,
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Wenn du das benutzt, die shape bleibt, nicht? Ja, oftmals.
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Du kannst auch etwas aus dem Sachen ausziehen.
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Aber ich denke, was so brilliant about the Japanese ist, dass.
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Der Priorität ist, das ist etwas, das immer, das ist wichtig für mich.
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Der Respect ist ein Gift, du dir selbst.
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Und zu respecte others. Und frankly, wenn ich nicht jemanden oder jemanden oder
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jemanden, Es ist so impossible für mich zu engagieren.
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Und ich auch liebe die Japaner... Und ich denke, das ist auch,
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das ist, wenn du... Haben Sie schon immer nach Japan?
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Natürlich nicht. Aber auch wenn du da bist, du hast die Trashman auf der Trash-Truck.
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Sie sind die Trash-Truck, der mit einem Selbst-Respekt, das ist wirklich obvious zu sehen.
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Right it's it's it's it's bizarre to my sensibilities because,
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if you're the trash man you're like fuck this job i can't stand right but but
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they're doing it with this sort of self-respect that's really noticeable,
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and and i think so on the subject of just repairing pottery as a philosophical
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practice repairing something broken and making it stronger and and sort of more
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beautiful because of the Das,
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ist eine cool philosophie,
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dass ich natürlich nicht hätte, dass ich nicht mit mir selbst hätte.
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In welchen Sinne diese philosophie auch in musikalien, wenn du das Album schreibst?
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Ich denke, bei der Probleme mit den Schwierigkeiten, die du in dieser Leben
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erlebstst, und nicht auszuliehen. Es ist eine Song, der Insignificant Other,
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und es ist einfach als Beispiel.
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If you're with somebody who's your significant other and you spend a lot of
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time together and if you have something to share with someone,
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you share it with them first because that's part of being in this relationship,
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and even to the point where you're like, oh, I'd die for this person.
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And then in another day later, it's completely over.
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And those ends are such disparately different. That's so far apart, those points.
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And it's something people have to deal with all the time. Das ist so ein strange reality.
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Because on the music side, you make music that... You play music?
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A little bit. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know that when you're playing
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the music side, you just play something you think sounds cool.
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That's such a simple origin.
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And you need to lay a thought over the top of that.
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And what shall that thought be?
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At this point in my life, I'm not really Interested in singing about cars Or dolls or,
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You know, food or politics, I don't give a fuck who you want to vote for.
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That's not what I don't want that in my music personally.
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I value the escapism of music. I want it to take me away.
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And if it's going to talk about things which are real, I want them to sort of
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be the confusion and complicated emotions that everyone has to deal with.
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You know, that's more interesting to me. That's where I'm at, you know.
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Well, it sounds also like a little bit of cathartic for you,
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you know. Sure. Especially with that philosophy coming in, that you use those
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feelings, emotions, memories, work on them.
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You have an outlet for them in some ways. Certainly. I don't see a therapist, I see my guitar.
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I do believe that if you make records honestly and authentically,
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and you pursue the things in your life which are difficult and sort of scary to deal with,
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dass die process of making a record you can unload baggage you can become a
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better person you can gain some understanding and that has this really valuable thing,
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for my life and I also think if
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I really love something and make something that I really care about then,
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I can attract someone that could really love this thing and it could be their
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favorite thing it could be the thing they use when times are dark or when times are joyous,
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because I want to be there with you then I don't give a shit when you're doing
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your laundry I'm not necessary then,
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I want to soundtrack the high highs and the low lows and that's just kind of
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where I'm at and how does this get represented sonically really this album,
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if you put it next to the David record,
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actually he's got more akin Wir haben in Sonnach-Kley with our debut record.
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Und Philosophically.
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The debut record is meant to be raw and singular in nature. The sound is supposed
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to be like one sonic thought.
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And the song is sort of like wear that, right? But it's supposed to sound singular, different.
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Ideally, you put it on and within three seconds you know it's us and it doesn't
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sound like someone else. That's important, right?
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And here I think the philosophy where it needs to sound not like other people,
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and also it needs to proper sound for this emotion.
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There's a song called Mono on there and it's so raw. It's about total heartbreak,
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but that it should sound shitty almost because that's what that feeling is like.
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And it's done in mono. It's mixed in mono.
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And that way when strings and things come in, they come in stereo and it's so wide.
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And when you are heartbroken, you're so one-track mind that it is mono.
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And you are broken, so it should sound destroyed because you want to try to
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get as sonically close to that feeling as humanly possible.
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Because that's the scavenger hunt you're on.
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If I'm making a song about the heartbreak, how close can I get?
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So it actually sounds that way.
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You're not hiding behind layers of production and stuff.
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The opposite. You're showing every scar and there's fuck-ups all over it,
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but I think those are important because that's what makes it more human.
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You can correct and fix all your music if you want to, but oftentimes that leeches
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out the humanity and it sounds really fucking safe and really perfect.
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And perfection is something you strive for, but it's not something you should
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actually expect. It's not something any of us could actually do.
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So when you correct your music, you're taking it to a,
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A place with a lack of humanity. Because the goal isn't for your music to be
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on the click and for there to be no mistakes.
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Not for me, it's not. And I think even some of the black metal and stuff like
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that, what's cool is that they're playing so well that it's an exhibition of
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technique. If you fixed it, it's cheating. It wouldn't sound the same.
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You don't get the emotion.
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Black metal is a perfect example for that because it only exists in its rawn.
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Und du kannst es in den letzten 90s, wo big labels get involved,
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und man hat mehr entwickelt, production-wise. Es hat sich das Echt zu.
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Right. The danger. Because they're trying to repackage it und sell it to you.
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Und wenn jemand gets involved in selling it to you, is der main goal,
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they cheapen this thing. They cheapen it, because they're like,
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Act out, you can get a second record for free, right?
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And those sales tactics hurt, because they invade the emotion They try to get
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between you and the emotion you're feeling.
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The reason black metal is fucking awesome is because it's a scene that largely,
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shuns all that and is impervious to the salesmanship.
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It's like, you know, deep anger and deep emotions and reads to me like love
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songs that does because it requires such passion and dedication.
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And after all, is that not love?
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Is it not love to be so dedicated and passionate about something that you forego
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all other things to pursue this thing?
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So to my ears and my sensibility, black metal reads like love.
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You know, it is love. And I think that's bitchin'.
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Is it something that, like, this kind of, like, niche music affects,
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like, what you do as well, like, you know, when it comes song-wise to the new Queens album?
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Oh, I just want to, whenever we put out a record, because people have expectations.
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We always receive some sort of like, oh, fuck, because the whole point is to
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understand your expectations and crush them and not do that.
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You know what I mean? And I'm not going to copy myself.
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What do I need to go back for? This is, you know, you live one life.
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We're in this moment and that moment it keeps moving. I'm going to stay in that moment.
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I'm not going backwards and I'm not going to rush ahead either but I do think,
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one of the primary building blocks of my job is to crush expectations,
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that's just surprise that's just that's what's cool about this is saying it's not what you expect,
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so go ahead and expect something because that way we can begin the crushing
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of that right because when your expectations are crushed then you reserve the
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right to be surprised by life and that's what's cool for me,
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The surprise and the shock.
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Once you've let your expectations go, now what happens? Now that that's done
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and dusted, what are we going to do?
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So, I enjoy that part of it, you know.
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Do you just like intentionally, I mean, with this one, they were surprised the
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song by, you know, I mean,
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after the catacombs and stuff, we heard you guys like from other strings and
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stuff like that, you know, but this one was like, there was like a lot of that
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integrated as well and female vocals as well and stuff like that.
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So, don't they like intentional choices to be unpredictable in a way?
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I think you hope that the grand total of it has unpredictability as an element of that.
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I don't want to just do things for unpredictability because that takes your
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eye off of what's important.
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I think you just allow, I think unpredictability will naturally come.
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If you pursue a song and say, you tell me what you are and I promise to do as
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I'm told and serve songs as they are.
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So that means if you're like, I hear a female vocal here, that you don't pussy
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out and say, I don't want to do that, I'm afraid to do that, or we can't do that,
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that you shirk your own expectations and that if something needs horns on it,
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you know, I've used horns for years and und mask them as guitars because they're
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so guttural and well you fucking blow into it so I think you just allow,
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the sounds that you hear in your head to be actualized and that's your job and
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that if you really do that for each song each song gets its own individual,
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time and energy that you put into it then it will naturally be.
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Es wird natürliche die expectation verändern.
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Und es tut es selbst. Kann man vielleicht mit einem Beispiel mit einem Rockmusik
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du starte mit der Lurie, du starte mit der Riff.
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Du hast eine Skeletin und dann ist es, du hast die vier Instrumente und das ist.
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Aber das kommt in different points, du hast, das könnte ein bisschen mit dem
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Strings There's a song called Where the Goth Girls At.
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And that opening riff is so stupid and bonehead.
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And when you have five people that all want to play something interesting,
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at times you're all playing counter melodies and you're like,
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what's the actual cornerstone melody? So it goes boom, boom.
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Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it became really clear we all need to just play the same thing.
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No one do nothing different. Just all get behind this thing because it's so
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dumb and boneheaded this move, right?
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And it's plodding along. Now, by the time we get to the chorus,
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traditionally old school queens would, using keyboards and wah pedals and maybe
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octaves would go to this chorus, would go.
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Like we would make this as ugly and big as possible.
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Und wir würden es mit Guitars und Keys machen. Aber dann war es so,
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oh, was eine interessante Juxtaposition. Wenn es eigentlich keine Guitars gibt,
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was es nur Horns und Strings gibt? Was wenn ein Orchestra kommt in?
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After etwas so stupid wie dieses Verses, das Stupidee der Part ist,
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was die Chorus ist nur Orchestra, und weil es so...
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Weil das Juxtaposition sonnisch ist so...
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Really? The chorus is orchestra? There's one guitar playing a line,
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a counter melody over it, but it just felt so grand, you know?
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And it's so small and in unison in the verse, and then the chorus is so big
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and the landscape, it's almost like you turn on all the lights in a vast room sonically, right?
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And that baton pass of this stupidity and singularness to passing the baton
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to an orchestra, that's where the heaviness is coming from.
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Those things feel exciting because you're starting by saying,
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wow, we wouldn't normally do that.
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And I think the joy comes from in saying, what's another way to do this that isn't just a habit?
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Like, how do I break my own habits?
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Because I want to keep moving forward here. And I love recording so much. It's so much fun.
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And it's so much fun to have, to pursue an idea like, ooh, what if orchestras,
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it plays the chorus? What happens?
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And just to allow yourself, look, we're using words that we used when we were children.
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I look at the guys in my band and I'm like, do you want to play with me?
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And that's the things I would have said when I was five.
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And that sense of play is what keeps you from being a bitter old cunt. You know what I mean?
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Und ich denke, Sie wollen das Gefühl, wenn du das Gefühl hast,
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wenn du das Gefühl hast, das ist das ich. Ich würde gerne ein Teil von etwas,
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das ist, in der Examination von etwas dark, ist es etwas Joyeus da.
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Und so, das wäre ein Sonic Examen von diesem Rekord. Obviamente,
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ich glaube, wenn du es mehr und mehr integriert, und playing around mit es,
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wirklich, haben Spaß mit den Sons.
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Let me pause one thing.
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In the past, if you'd have said, or if I'd have said, yeah, let's have fun examining
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this thing, I would have been like, fun, what the fuck are you talking about?
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What, this is like a pizza restaurant?
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But I don't think that anymore because I think of how in this modern day and
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age, sometimes just having fun, like a basic, simple, just that sort of gets devalued,
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or like everything has to mean something and all this stuff.
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It's like, no, no, no, no.
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Um i see the value in escapism,
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of what do you want to do and it's like i don't give a shit i just want to have
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fun i that you know there's a real value in that and where i would have been
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like fun get the fuck out of here with that before you know what i mean yeah,
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i mean creating is fun you know that's where it comes from it started as like,
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a thing to express yourself and what else is expressing yourself than like having
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fun of yourself in a way i agree now but i also you know Für die Center part
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of my career, it was like, no, it's war.
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I want to push buttons and fuck with shit.
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It's war. It felt like an attack. Like, let's go. They'll never see us coming.
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We'll leap out of the darkness.
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But now it doesn't feel like war anymore. Es fühlt sich,
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wie man die interior des Lebens in diesem Leben und zu beenden,
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die Gefühle sind, die Gefühle sind, und was du in der Welt sehen, und was wichtig ist.
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Und für mich, das ist Familie und Freunde, und deine Passions,
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und Liebe und Dinge, und ich möchte das auch verstehen.
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Wie fühlt es sich als 20 Jahre alt?
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Listening to this album you just recorded. If you would take this record and
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give it to yourself when you were playing in Caius.
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Well, in Caius, I only listened to punk rock music and I didn't want to be influenced,
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so I stopped listening to music.
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I was like, I'm only going to listen to what I already know.
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I won't add anything to that.
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And when I was, we had a sound man, his name was Hutch, and he was like,
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man, you got to check out this music, you got to check out this music,
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you got to check. And I was like, I don't want to.
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And then I finally conceded and started listening to all this stuff that he was turning me on to.
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And when I kind of broke out of that spell of not listening to music for a couple
21:40
of years, I was like, I think I need to leave Kaisen, let it be preserved.
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It's time, instead of changing and all this stuff, let's leave this as it is.
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Let's try to preserve it. It's such a cool thing. And we'll leave it untouched
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and it'll just be like this for all of history.
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It won't change that much, you know, and then I'll just start something else
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maybe or maybe I'll just quit, you know, so that's what I did,
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you know, I mean, well, I left I didn't expect that it needed to end.
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I just said I I'm done with it. I have to go.
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But, you know, more coming from like a musical set.
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Do you think you would have liked what you do now as like a young man,
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angry man? Ich weiß nicht, wahrscheinlich nicht.
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Aber vielleicht.
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Ja, ich denke, ich würde, weil ich habe, ich habe gehört, zu diesem Jackson
22:38
Brown record, Run on Empty, und The Doors, und Kenny Rogers,
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und, du wirst du was, und Charlie Daniels Band.
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Ich habe gehört, zu einem sehr eclectic blend. Ich denke, das ist wie Kai's
22:50
kam zu sein, ist es ein sehr eclectic idea.
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Es ist das, es geht nicht so, wie andere Dinge. Und das ist,
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because it was made up of strange chemistry.
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So I think I would have actually liked this because I didn't,
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you know, when it was time to play music at that time in my life,
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I was like, it has to be heavy and it has to sound like nothing else.
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That's it, you know? That's why I tuned to C because I was like,
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I don't, that didn't exist. There was no detuning, you know?
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And I was like, this is how I can be an exhibition of myself of individuality.
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But what isn't out there?
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Let's start with that. I'll do what isn't out there.
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So I was like, all right, I'll tune my guitar down. That's how this starts.
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And that would be the first thing that makes me sound different.
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And largely that worked. It still works. Well, now there's seven-string guitars and all this shit.
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None of that didn't exist. And I'm not saying I created that,
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but I did that solely because it was not being done.
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Because I wanted to try to have something that was different Das war es mir,
24:01
aber ich habe das von Funk-Rock-Musik. Ich habe das von Black Flag.
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Greg Ginn, die Gitarre Player von Black Flag, hat die gleiche Gitarre gemacht.
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Er hat seine Amp Heads gemacht und er hat sich komplett anders.
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Und ich war so, ich will das auch.
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Ich will nicht sein wie Greg Ginn, ich will sein wie mich.
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Und so, ja, da ist das.
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Ich denke, wir sind jetzt ein bisschen aus dem Zeit. Es wäre absolut toll,
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wenn wir, weil wir ein bisschen weiteres machen können, darüber nachher in der
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Zeit sprechen, um die Konzert zu sprechen. Wie, was du für dich?
24:38
Du bist ein Olympiakstadion, einer der größten Spannungen in Europa.
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Und es hat ein bisschen vieles attached zu sein. Wie fühlst du das?
24:50
Ich denke, System of Down ist ein unglaublich und verrückter Band.
24:55
In a weird way, I think we have a lot in common because we don't sound like
24:59
them and they don't sound like us.
25:00
But that's what we have in common is a strange, quirky individuality.
25:05
So I really like the... And their audience is great because they like strange,
25:12
individual quirkiness. And so the audience has been really great.
25:21
And so I've really enjoyed that. I think even the size for them is confusing.
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Talking to them, they seem to be much like, wow, what the hell is going on here?
25:35
Because it's so fucking big. It is huge. Yeah, and.
25:40
That I don't love as much because it's just, I mean, it's cool. It's just so massive.
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It's so massive that it's bizarre almost. Ich habe nie gespielt,
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wo eine Band eine Einzündung hat, dass großartig ist.
25:59
Ich habe nie erlebt, dass in meinem Leben. Es ist einfach einfach trippig, man.
26:05
You know what I mean? Yeah, I would shit in my pants probably.
26:09
I'll shit in your pants then too.
26:10
I would love that as well. Well, no, I think it's, I mean, it's not,
26:16
it's not like daunting or, you know, it's just so strange.
26:22
You know, I think it's a, it's just very rare error. You know,
26:26
it's not, it's not commonplace to, it doesn't matter that we're on the bill.
26:30
They would have sold 80,000 tickets.
26:32
Ich denke, es ist ein Testamento zu ihrer Kreativität und ihrer Individualität.
26:38
Ich denke, ich habe einfach einen großen Respekt für diese Band. Das System of Down.