erin_broadley

Imagine waking up in the morning and heading off to work. Except, instead of an office you spend your day chained up in a wet, dirty basement. And instead of a boss snooping around your desk, your biggest concern is whether or not you're next in line to be sliced, diced and devoured by the pearly whites of the cannibalistic Stepford Wife who just feasted on the left thigh of your friend. It might sound odd, but for the members of Queens of the Stone Age, it's just another day on the job shooting a music video for their song "Sick, Sick, Sick." After spending close to a year locked up in the studio and nearly going mad with musical saturation, Josh Homme, Joey Castillo and Troy Van Leeuwen have returned with a new album Era Vulgaris, the followup to 2005's Lullabies to Paralyze, and are ready to get back to what they do best -- tour until the wheels of their bus fall off. For what's left of 2007 QOTSA will hit the road and bring its music to the masses -- leaving dust in your mouth, sweat on your upper lip and a trail of broken bottles and broken ear drums in its wake. True to its desert rock roots, this band still has its swagger.

Troy Van Leeuwen took an extended coffee break in Los Angeles to chat with SuicideGirls about the new album, broken light bulbs and why he was forced to ruin his brand new suit.


Erin Broadley: How's your day been so far? I'm sure you're up to your neck in press with the new album finally out...

Troy Van Leeuwen: I'm doing good. Not a lot of press but a lot of coffee. I'm home in LA for a little bit but we start doing radio shows at the end of the week and then we go to Europe and off to the circus.

EB: It's definitely a circus. Back when QOTSA first stepped into the public eye, Josh was asked to describe the band's music so, to dodge yet another "stoner rock" label, he said, "We want sex to bleed into the music." Would you agree and do you think Era Vulgaris accomplishes that?

TVL: Yeah I think we all feel that if you're going to be in a rock band, sex is a big part of the music so we're always trying to put that into the music. Theres a lot of that one this new record. We figured things out as we were in the studio because we didnt really have anything written besides that song Make it Wit Chu. So in order to kind of tap into stuff, you have to find stuff in the moment.

EB: A few years back I talked to Mike Patton about an essay he had written for John Zorns book Arcana: Musicians on Music. He wrote that the best type of music for him was music that achieved a sexual level of expression. That was the kind of release he wanted from music, ideally. I thought that was great.

TVL: I would agree with him on that. There's definitely a big element to that.

EB: This summer you guys are doing the Duluth Tour where you plan on touring the smaller cities in the US for a change.

TVL: Yeah, it's an attempt to reconnect with people we havent seen in a long time or might have never seen in places like Bakersfield or Missoula, Montana. I've never been there. We live in Los Angeles and I actually dont like playing here that much. I want to play in front of people that dont get a lot of rock bands coming through their town.

EB: A lot of people in major cities dont realize how special it is that live music is readily available. They dont realize how the rest of the world lives.

TVL: Yeah, I know theres a lot of people starving for it. Thats important to us nowadays.

EB: Yeah, it's really important these days for bands to reach out to their audience and give them a little extra, because the idea of simply buying albums to bring fans and artists together has completely disintegrated and left fans (and bands) feeling disconnected from each other. It boils down to the fact that a lot of fans just dont want to be forgotten. Because downloading has redefined the currency of artist support, it's also sidelined the importance of fans into a category that does not have a voice in the money making part of the music industry. Fans feel neglected and will punish bands that dont redefine artist-audience relationships to once again include them, like your band is with something like the Duluth Tour. As the saying goes, if the rules dont include themthen they dont apply to them either.

TVL: Exactly. For either one of us, the fans or the musicians, I just think it's important to keep that connection strong. I mean, our CD is already being played [on the Internet] so who knows who is going to buy it. That stuff is so far out of our hands now. In order for us to feel like were doing something, in order to touch the fans, especially those who might not be close to a big city, we want to spend some time there. It gets you closer. Theres something about a small, sweaty club thats packed with everybody togethernothing can compare to that!

EB: Speaking of your audience, another thing you guys did was release a video clip of one of your studio sessions during the tracking process. I thought that was awesome. Fans love that. They love to be included somehow in the artistic process, especially in between albums when they're off the radar. How else do you guys keep your audience involved, especially in between albums and tours?

TVL: We did a few shows last year but we really tried to do something different with this record. We did an Ask the Band thing with fans and video answers on our Website. Were trying to do more stuff like that. Were making these mock commercials for the new record. Josh was talking about this kind of nave point in time when TV and commercials kicked in with cartoon characters selling cigarettes and stuff like that. Like Fred Flintstone buying Camels. So we decided to invent a character called Bulby to sell our new record.

EB: What kind of character?

TVL: Theres two. They're both light bulbs. One of them is broken. Hes smoking. And the other one is a pirate with a pirate hat and a wooden leg.

EB: So they're on the cover of the album, but will these characters make any appearances on TV or the Internet?

TVL: So far it's just the cover of the record but actually, I think one of them is going to be on a TV commercial. Bulby is going to be like this East Coast guy with a sales pitch [in a New Jersey accent] like, Go! Queens of the Stone Age, the new album

EB: Like a used car salesman...

TVL: Yeah, like Just do it! (Laughs.) We want to keep it fun.

EB: I came across an old interview of yours where, when asked about your particular role within QOTSA's music, you said, "My role is to color stuff and to create certain depths, form shadows, light, or space even." It's fascinating when musicians describe their work in terms of other art forms, like describing the music making process in terms of painting or whatever. Is that a way it makes sense to you when talking about it?

TVL: Yeah, I guess so. I know that my role is to fill in some gaps and, most of the time, to be a character somewhere between faith and lead guitar. Whatever is not being covered by Josh, you know. We all -- myself, Joey and Josh -- have been in a lot of bands so we know how things work. As a songwriter myself, you have the vocals which are one of the most important things and were trying to support that. Thats the process and one of the only rules there is -- that the vocals and the melody need to be supported. But other than that, especially with this record, there are no real rules at all. It was like, I'm gonna play a bunch of keyboards. I'm going to re-introduce the synthesizer to the band and make it sound like a broken robot. It's about finding a way we can express ourselves through music by not just playing notes. Like creating sound and space [but not overdoing it].

EB: What's important with space, and what I've noticed with QOTSA, is a bands ability to recognize and treat negative space. Like, you guys have a big sound but you don't use a lot of filler and cram the sound in there. You're not just packing it in for the sake of making it sound big. Thats really the mark of great musicians --you're ability to reel it in and know how to handle the silent moments and the negative space.

TVL: Thats really good. Thats a really good way of putting it. You know, I'm going to use that! Thats awesome. Thats a perfect way to describe it. There is negative space in all of our recordings and our music. And the funny thing is, we didnt cram a lot of stuff in these songs for the new record in order to make it audible and not shove it down anybodys throat. Even the mixing process was a long one. A lot of pieces in the music are important, there are a lot of pieces, there was a lot of depth and we really wanted it to be a record for people that wanted something new. It's a delicate mix.

EB: In general, what was the recording process like for this album?

TVL: We basically started a year ago. And like I said, we didnt really have anything written. So it was a long process. It was the longest I've ever taken to make a record, frankly. I've made records over the process of a year but this was the first time it's ever been my total focus for that long. This was the first time I've ever done that...total focus for 10 months.

EB: That can be quite a grind.

TVL: It was. But it was also definitely enlightening, learning about each other and trying to outdo yourself and trying to prove to the people you're playing with that you belong there.

EB: Well, supposedly when a person is placed in an environment of extreme physical stress they will to reach some enlightened state of mental clarity.

TVL: Moments of clarity, yeah.

EB: Theres something about creating in that intensely isolated environment

TVL: It's true! It's no joke. Youve got to dig in to find stuff. I dont think we would do it like that ever again (laughs) but it definitely worked in these circumstances.

EB: I read that when you first joined the band in 2002 you were given something like a week to learn the entire catalog.

TVL: Yeah, everything up until that point. Its a little different now. Weve had a little practice with our new members, but Joey came right after Dave [Grohl] and he had less time than me to learn everything. Like a couple of days. I have so much respect for Joey! Things have sort of always been like that with us.

EB: It keeps you on your toes.

TVL: Thats totally it. I love that. I love a good challenge.

EB: It reflects the nature of what rock and roll is in the first place.

TVL: It really does.

EB: You dont want to get to cozy as a band and rest on your laurels.

TVL: Yeah, theres no way were anywhere near taking it easy. I think thats another thing thats expressed on this new record. There are moments when it sounds like it's just going to fall apart but somehow it doesnt. Live, it translates there too. We take a left turn and were like, "How did we get here?!"

EB: What did Trent Reznor do exactly with you guys on this record?

TVL: Well, he did the title track which isnt actually on the record. Thats actually out there somewhere in the Internet world. It will be available on the iTunes version of the record but it was sort of an announcement got leaked, unfortunately.

EB: Besides Trent, you also had Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream collaborate on the album as well, correct?

TVL: Yeah. He came out to the desert with us and did some B-Sides. He did Brian Eno's Needle in the Camel's Eye with us. Hes so great man. I loved it. We were doing this version of Smokestack Lightning for, like, two hours. It was so rad because we dont like to jam that long. But it was so entertaining to watch him sing. He was writing on the floor. It was rad. I was like, "Wow this guy is so into it, so were just going to keep going." We were like the puppet masters to him -- us just playing music and him going nuts.

EB: When I read that he worked with you guys I figured there had to be some memorable moments in those sessions.

TVL: He did do a remix of I'm Designer too from the album which was cool. Were collecting versions of remixes. The guys from TV on the Radio did one and were trying to get Trent to do one too. Were probably going to do a big release will all those remixes.

EB: Let's talk about the music video for Sick, Sick, Sick. It's pretty awesome and gnarly

TVL: Yeah, it was actually very gnarly. As far as the performance angle, that was the only thing we had anything to do with. Weve got a new band, new blood, fresh

EB: Fresh meatWhy not show that with cannibalism? (Laughs.)

TVL: Yeah! It was an opportunity for us to all out-ham each other. And there was definitely some carnage at the end of the shoot. I had just got this brand new Missoni suit I was wearing down in this dungeon that was wet and muddy. I went down! I ended up on my back. It was rad. I slipped on the water. Our new bass player hit his head on this cement beam and had to get staples.

EB: Did you get it all on video?

TVL: Yeah, it's all at the very end. It was the very last take of the night. If you watch closely you're going to see it. Josh smashed his stuff, the drums got disintegrated. It was carnage, definitely. The director, Brett Simon, gave us this treatment for a song on the last record called In My Head. We really wanted to do it but it just happened to be the only time we listened to the record label and it was such a fuck up on our part. The video we ended up with for that song is so lame! It was three of us against a green screen with effects added later. It was like a fucking Gap commercial. It was terrible. Just terrible. We were on the road so we werent in control of it. But, long story short, this video concept was originally supposed to be for In My Head but then when this song Sick, Sick, Sick got picked as our single we decided we still really wanted to do this. It was an opportunity for us to tell the director, "We like your visiondo your thing. You're the director, were the band and well do our part, but it's your art."

EB: Any other video ideas lined up?

TVL: No, not yet. Were just kind of kicking this whole thing off so we'll see how it goes. I dont know if they're going to play this video on MTV. Well see. I dont think it's that offensive.

EB: No, not at all. Look at some of the other crap they play on MTV. I find that stuff way more offensive (laughs.)

TVL: Yeah, what does popular culture even define as offensive anymore?

EB: I can't keep up, man. I dont think I've even watched MTV in years.

TVL: I dont think I have either. It's all about YouTube. Might as well cut out the middleman. Id rather watch stuff on there anyway.

EB: People pretty much only watch TV on their computers nowadays. The remote control is going to become a fossil.

TVL: I like the Discovery Channel.

EB: I fucking love the Discovery Channel. I'm addicted to that show "Deadliest Catch" about Alaskan crab fishing.

TVL: Oh yeah, oh my god! (laughs.) Those guys are not fucking around. I can't even imagine.

EB: Yeah, but if they manage to survive for a few months then they can take the rest of the year off and get a nice paycheck. I imagine its a lot like touring! (Laughs.)

TVL: (Laughs) Yeah. But there's no water that washes up on our stage.

EB: So what are your plans for the rest of the year? Just tour your ass off?

TVL: Yep, were going to tour until the wheels on our bus fall off.


For more information and tour dates, go to qotsa.com.