J
A-Z OF
OSH HOMME
2019
AND HIS MERRY BAND OF DESERT SESSION-ERS 16 years since Queens of the Stone Age mainman Josh Homme last summoned a group of unlikely comrades to his California desert studio for an Avengers Assemble of rock’n’roll, Desert Sessions returned this autumn for its long-awaited ‘Vols. 11 & 12’. With an eclectic cast including ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr, Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa and all-round polymath Matt Berry descending on Rancho De La Luna for a week, the result was pure alchemy. Here’s what Mike and Matt had to say about it.. .
MIKE KERR ROYAL BLOOD How did the invite come about? We'd been on tour with Queens for quite a while and I'd got to know Josh really well over that time. I had no clue [who else was doing it] and I'm pretty sure that no-one else knew either. But it was kind of like Christmas; I didn't wanna know what was under the tree. What's Josh's role in the operation? It's his house party and, like any good host, he knows who to sit next to each other, who's gonna get on, and also who's gonna cause positive friction. It's all very planned out; nobody's there by accident. He knows how to get the best out of people. What was your highlight? There was a point when I was playing a bit of guitar and I had Josh and [heavyweight guitarist] Matt Sweeney looking at me, and I realised how preposterous that was. To my friends, the in-joke with my band is that it's funny that it even happened because when Royal Blood kicked off I didn't really play bass or sing. So playing guitar next to two of my favourite guitarists and them liking it... it felt like showing Picasso my finger-painting.
MATT BERRY
You’ve known Josh for a while how did he get you involved? It was a spontaneous thing that became a song. I wasn’t in [Joshua Tree] with everyone; I was in Los Angeles and played organ on ‘Chic Tweetz’ with him and Stella out there. Josh was playing a Stones-type rhythm and I was doing a different thing; when you hear it, it’s kind of like the organ player and the guitarist have no interest in what the other person is doing. That’s what made it sound interesting and schizophrenic and odd. What’s it like recording with the big man? We went in there and within 15 minutes we’d come up with something and it’s done. Unlike anyone else I can think of, he’s interested in getting people together to record in that way. Most people who are fronting massive bands are far too concerned with whether they’re gonna be interesting anymore or what they’re gonna do next. But there’s more to him than that. Not to sound like a wanker, but he’s interested in the art of making music. And the result was a pretty fucking weird tune! It’s not weird to me because I was in the middle of it, but if I wasn’t then yeah, I’d probably think the same! But there are some fairly heavy things on the record, so with this it’s just a ‘What the fuck?’ [moment], which is what it’s all about. Not letting you be too comfortable with all this nonsense.
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