nicole_powers

If music be the food of love, then Eagles of Death Metal are a super-sized serving. Though their music has little to do with The Eagles or death metal, core members and BFFs Jesse Hughes (a.k.a. The Devil) and Joshua Homme (a.k.a. Carlo Von Sexron) have embraced the hard rockin', easy lovin' ethos of such bands. The pair went from kicking a football around together during their formative years in Palm Desert, to kicking musical ideas around as adults on the road.

Homme was the first to commit his life to music, forming cult desert generator party band Kyuss at the age of 14. After Kyuss' demise in '95, Homme regrouped, fulfilling many of his rock & roll dreams with his next band, Queens of The Stone Age.

Hughes' journey to rock was less direct, he got waylaid by university, a career (as a journalist), and a wife. As his relationship turned sour, the guitar seduced Hughes, who reunited with Homme to make sweet, rootsy rock & roll under the moniker Eagles of Death Metal.

At first, Eagles of Death Metal was perceived as a side project by Queens of the Stone Age fans, but the deafening buzz surrounding their 2004 debut album, Peace Love Death Metal, soon changed that. Homme found himself torn between two very viable bands, and was forced to choose between his two loves when both hit the road simultaneously.

As Eagles of Death Metal prepare to release their third album, Heart On, Homme talks to Suicide Girls about his passion for his bands, and how he spreads the love in the musical mnage trios that is his life.

Nicole Powers: Are you sitting comfortably?

Joshua Homme: I am. I'm so comfy now. Thank you for asking. How about you?

NP: I'm extremely comfy. We have a big sectional couch here at the Suicide Girls' office.

JH: Wow. I love how you said sectional. That's great. I'm actually in a sectional myself. I'm sitting right in the corner where they both come together.

NP: I'm all about the corners of sectionals. The only problem is it makes you feel kind of greedy, because a sectional's supposed to do two or three people, but when you're sprawling in that sweet center corner other people are forced to sit in the extremities.

JH: Well, you know, I think sometimes you have to be good to you. I think you're doing the right thing right now. Just be good to yourself for God's sake.

NP: I think we're both on that page and in that corner of the sectional. We've got so much in common already. Who knew?

JH: I know, I love this. Same time tomorrow? What do you think?

NP: So I guess we should talk about the album.

JH: If we must.

NP: Sorry to do it to you because I know you've probably spoken about it a bit too much today.

JH: No, no, I actually haven't, you know, so I'm ready to knock the seal off and talk about it.

NP: Well let's start with the cover. Talk about judging a book by its cover, yours has an image of a bloody heart being squeezed by a well-manicured hand, with blood red nails digging into the flesh. What's that about?

JH: Well we didn't want people to get confused; so many people have been thinking it's called Hard On and I just think that that is so dirty, and we wanted to eliminate confusion.

There's almost a weird Hollywood Strip aspect with the way it looks, you know an eighties metal vibe to it, and for us, Eagles of Death Metal, part of what we're trying to do is unite the clans. We need to touch every scene and invite everyone to come and dance. I think that eighties metal vibe is one of the only things we really haven't tapped as far as who in the scene wants to come and dance.

NP: Talking about the metal vibe, it is heavier than your previous album isn't it?

JH: It's a matter of delivery I think, because I think the production value is a little more professional, and I think it's kind of electrified this time. It seems a bit more electrified. But I wouldn't say heavy metal.

NP: It's just a little bit harder, you know.

JH: Thank you. Oh, the album.

NP: I'm sure the ladies say that to you all the time.

JH: Well, I feel a little harder today.

NP: You're known for having some very cool guests on your recordings. Who guested on this album?

JH: Well, there wasn't many guests on this album...I think we decided not to have too many guests and instead go travel around the States and make the record. Like we recorded part of it in Boise, Idaho and Fargo, North Dakota, because we wanted to kind of be where the people were.

NP: I understand that's the other reason you chose to call your album Heart On, as opposed to Hard On, because it was written and recorded through the heartland.

JH: Yeah, it was written through the heartlands you know, because we are definitely an American rock & roll band. And America's not a dirty word. I don't know what it is actually, but it's not a dirty word. So we thought we'd just put a little spice in it and admit who we are, say that we want to spread a little faith and solidarity throughout the world for rock & roll.

NP: America's reputation has taken a bit of a bashing around the world.

JH: We've been the world's dickheads lately. I'm so sorry about that.

NP: Well, it's not you personally.

JH: Well no, not me personally, but I'm here to help correct it.

NP: Talking of Bush & Co, it brings me nicely to my next question. You have a history of songs that deal with the devil: "Chase The Devil" on Peace Love Death and "Kiss The Devil" on Death By Sexy. What's the most satanic song on the new album?

JH: I would say "Tight Pants."

NP: Why is that?

JH: Well because I would say that if you were talking to the devil, the devil wouldn't say, "you do this." It would be more like, "if you don't want get loose, I understand. I've been afraid too. If you're afraid that's fine." And that song encompasses that sort of attitude.

NP: The lyrics to one song on the new album say, "I came to LA to make rock & roll, along the way I had to sell my soul." Do you feel you had to?

JH: No, but it's fun. I think that Jesse came into this so late. This is essentially Jesse's first band. So he's what I refer to as a late bloomer. The benefits of being a late bloomer, you get to leap frog and just jump right into it. And I think Jesse's perspective from that is, "Wow, did I just sell my soul. What happened?"

NP: There is a weird dynamic between the two of you because for Jesse this is his main gig, while you obviously have Queens of the Stone Age too. How does that work?

JH: For me it's a bit like being a circus performer, it's very dangerous and there's a lot of concentration involved. This isn't a side project for me. I'm in two bands. I have musical schizophrenia, and this is one of those personalities. I've known Jesse since I was fourteen years old, and it feels great being side by side with somebody you've known for so long. He didn't have a moustache back then, but I knew he would. Those are the sort of things that kept us together.

NP: I know that Queens of the Stone Age have finished touring, so will you be able tour a little bit with Jesse for the new album?

JH: I'm absolutely going to tour quite a bit more. I didn't get the chance to do that that much on the last record, and it really hurt, for real. I really wanted to go because the Eagles of Death Metal audience has got to be the funnest audience in the world.

NP: And the music has a sense of humor.

JH: We don't take ourselves seriously, but we take the music seriously. I think, "where's all the fun bands?" ...and that's a shame because I think music is a pleasure device, and it should be used as such.

NP: Your lyrics focus on the fun things in life: Hollywood, women and rock & roll. But there's also heartbreak and loneliness in there.

JH: Yes, and I think on each Eagles record it takes a lot to articulate something that is more rock & roll, and more girl-centric, and more all the things you said without being silly and without being ridiculous about it. I guess the answer is that all that stuff is real. We're not going home and changing into our Mr. Rodgers clothes...The thing that we've always wanted to maintain is that it's got to be honest, and I think that's why Eagles is contagious you know.

NP: But to someone listening to a song like "Wannabe LA" in bumfuck wherever, it would sound like a glamorous fantasy, but, I guess, that's your life.

JH: Well the goal here is to live a different life, and to be the master of your own destiny. That's what we're attempting to do here, and to write about that journey as scientifically as possible. When you write about cutting loose, this is hopefully what it sounds like...

I think there's a mixture of the fantasy of it all and the reality of it all. When you go to a song like "Now I'm A Fool," it's very heartbreaking but it's very honest. And the lyrics to "Wannabe in LA" are about when I first brought Jesse up to Los Angeles to record. And so these lyrics, "I came to LA to make rock & roll, along the way I had to sell my soul," the next verse talks about him recording at my friend's house in their studio one morning and so it's personal, but universal at the same time.

NP: I guess there's a flip side to that song. In it you say, "I made some good friends that made me say, I really want to be in LA," but then you also have a song titled "How Can A Man With So Many Friends Feel So Alone."

JH: Yeah. I bet we've all been in that situation where you're in a crowded room full of people and you're like, "Wow, there's no one here." I think what I really love about Eagles is part of the way we go after this notion of playing for the ladies by touching your feminine side. Like admitting full-on the feelings you have, regardless of what they are, without being a total pussy about it, because, after all, we are men.

NP: So right now, you're touching my feminine side, is that it?

JH: Yeah, if that's alright, I'd like to keep doing it.

NP: Please do.

JH: Because I think too much of the time rock & roll gets turned into Bible study. We're too serious. Too many of the American males, like you're supposed to be in touch with your feminine side, but like you're not supposed to be a total puss. And I think trying to walk that line is not that difficult, you know.

NP: And what's going on in America right now with this whole pervasive Christian right puritanical thinking, it's almost like rock & roll artists don't feel they can be rock & roll anymore.

JH: Yeah, I know, down to their core. Like when we play festivals and stuff, when we roll in in a cloud of smoke, spilling bottles, you know, and you see a bunch of artists that are stretching, and reading, and on their computers, we're always like, "Whooaaa," you know. That's why I say it's very real. What's amazing is how many bands this is a business for, versus how many bands this is what they have to do because this is their way of life. So that's why I'm so proud of Eagles of Death Metal.

NP: But you also seem to know where the line is because you've reprimanded one-time band members for going over the line and maybe partying too hard.

JH: Well that's not actually true. That's what people think. Clearly too you can take something too far. My motto has always been, you've got to deserve to party. I celebrate what we just did, and not what we're going to do, and that's just a philosophical difference. It you party so much that it ruins everything you have, well then, quite frankly, you're partying too hard.


Check back next week for our second Eagles of Death Metal interview with Homme's partner in crime Jesse Hughes.