Before setting off on their recent Australian tour, Queens Of The Stone Age (QOSTA) drummer Jon Theodore ran us through what to expect of their new album ‘Villains’ (out 25 August).
From first listen, ‘Villains’ has more of an inviting sound and is an album for everyone, not necessarily falling into the rock genre category in comparison to previous QOTSA albums. “I don’t know if that was intentional, but it certainly is the result. I think ‘Villains’ has something for everybody,” Jon explains.
“It has some old-school heat for the OG fans, there’s some sugar for the ladies and people who are looking for melodies and there are some rippers for the trippers who are trying to get out there. I think that has to do with [producer, Mark] Ronson for sure, but I think it also has to do with where Josh [Homme] was at in terms of songwriting.
“We really built the songs around his vocals and he had most of the melodies pretty quickly; the songs are more classic in the sense of where the music is serving the vocals. It’s a step in another direction where the songs have the old-school pick-ups and left turns where you think it’s going right, but at the end of the day these are all songs to sing and dance to.”
"We’ll come back as many times as you’ll have us, just make sure you bring the meat pies and sausage rolls and a solid swell in the water and we’ll be there.”
Jon has been part of the QOTSA family since their 2013 album ‘...Like Clockwork’, however this was the first time Jon was part of the recording and writing process of a QOTSA album. “The guys made it great for me and they welcomed me with open arms, I felt like I was in there all the way as soon as we started playing together.
“We had several smaller jams during soundchecks or through practices; we would always play and there were always ideas kicking around. The beginning of this record began in earnest last summer, almost a year ago. We spent all our time putting our heads down.
"It was great for me, being the new guy and being there from the ground floor [on this album]. It’s all coming from within me now. I know this all now, I don’t have to search through the Rolodex of my brain to access which song is which.”
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Jon is no stranger to writing in the studio, having performed and recorded with many projects including One Day As A Lion, The Mars Volta and Giraffe Tongue Orchestra. However, recording ‘Villains’ was a throwback to the old-school days of recording. “I have done a lot of records and they’ve all been different in terms of their approach and execution, from being recorded and mixed in a few hours to taking a year.
“I know this is the same for all the other guys too; this one we made a concentrated effort because with ‘....Like Clockwork', so much went sideways with former drummer Joey [Castillo] leaving and Dave Grohl coming into drum... It took a long time to get that record done.
“We knew going into this that we wanted to capture that original spirit from the way it used to feel, I guess ‘The Way It Used To Do’ from when we were kids, back together like we were in the basement.”
Queens Of The Stone Age collaborated with producer Mark Ronson to create ‘Villains’, which was seen as an unexpected match considering Ronson’s previous work with the likes of Adele, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga.
“I had never met Mark before; the other guys had and they said I was going to love him. We connected instantly, musically and personally; he fit, he was one of the gang right away. He has an encyclopedic brain; having him there to codify all our swirling ideas and help us distill the essences of what we were trying to get at was great.”
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Queens Of The Stone Age only performed a short string of shows around their Splendour In The Grass headline slot. However, there are already plans brewing for an extended tour later in the ‘Villains’ album cycle. “Hell yeah man, if we could tour Australia every month we would do it.
“We’ll be looking forward to playing there a bunch of times and this being a real short trip means, for sure that we’ll have a chance to come back, at least once more, hopefully even three times on this cycle.
"We’ll come back as many times as you’ll have us, just make sure you bring the meat pies and sausage rolls and a solid swell in the water and we’ll be there.”
