Queens Of The Stone Age have just shared their first new song since 2023’s Times New Roman, and it finds frontman/guitarist Josh Homme joined by the Highway Queen herself, Nikki Lane.

The song is called Easy Street, and it’s a majestic tangle of acoustic guitars, hand-claps for rhythm, seasick synth swirl and Homme and Lane playing Bonnie and Clyde, their voices riding off into the sunset.

““It’s kind of a funny song,” says Homme. “It’s like hitting your funny bone, where it’s funny because it hurts and it hurts because it’s funny. You’re serious, but it’s funny.”

QOTSA fans might already have heard Easy Street live. The band played it during their 2025 Catacombs tour. Lane is fantastic, returning the favour and guesting on a Queens track after Homme played guitar and drums on her 2022 studio album, Denim And Diamonds. He also handled production and mixing.

He does so here, too, sharing the credits on Easy Street with QOTSA bassist/keys player Michael Shuman. This is a shambling psych-country ballad. There was no need to overwork the production, and they didn’t. Homme says they played fast and loose with it. And that was the point.

“We made it the way you’d make a demo,” he explains. “No click track, mistakes left in. It speeds up, it slows down, the claps aren’t great, but they’re not bad, and a bad clap adds this human thing you can’t fake.”

Truth. Also, that disembodied skirl of synth is untethered to any grid. It’s an element of melodic anarchy that seems to have a similar effect on the rhythm. QOTSA want us to revel in the accidental happenstance of it all.

We live in a world of quantized metrics, truly weird shit like looksmaxxing, and people being conspicuously online, optimising their lives for the edification of strangers, people they will never meet – and for machines and bots too – and that seems weird.

Easy Street, says Homme, is a reminder to celebrate the messiness of being human.“It’s not just about silliness. It’s about understanding the imperfection of your life,” he says. “The song, like your life, is in the mistakes. Its imperfections are unbeatable.”

The video, directed by Tony Wolski and Christopher Gruse, is pretty cool too. You can check that out above, and save/buy the single here via Matador. Queens Of The Stone Age’s stadium-filling tour with System Of A Down and openers Acid Bath continues tomorrow night at Tottenham Stadium, London.

See Queens Of The Stone Age for full dates and ticket details.

One chord, four stabs and you’re in. This simple yet instantly recognisable intro kicks off No One Knows, a 21st century rock behemoth that made stars of its performers, Queens Of The Stone Age, and introduced a festival-ready singalong riff that’s as beloved today as it’s ever been.

No One Knows was the lead single from the band’s third album, 2002’s Songs For The Deaf. The album found the Californian band teaming up with alt-rock icon Dave Grohl on drums with spectacular results, and cemented QOTSA band leader Josh Homme as one of the purest rock star frontmen of the new millennium. Aided by a suitably surreal music video, No One Knows became an alternative radio mainstay, and was quickly established as the definitive QOTSA song.

A version of the No One Knows riff first appeared in Cold Sore Superstars, a song from Homme’s highly collaborative Desert Sessions project of 2001.

Speaking to biographer Joel McIver, Homme revealed that the band had been working on No One Knows for some time prior to recording.

“We have patience with music,” Homme said, “a year or five years down the road it may kind of rewrite itself and become what it's supposed to be.”

Most of the track’s staying power comes from its iconic, unusual riff, which Homme plays staccato in C standard tuning (C F Bb Eb G C).

The riff consists of the C minor octave powerchord shape, with the addition of your pinky finger moving from the 10th-fret F note to the 8th-fret D# note on the second (G) string, and then down to the 9th-fret C note on the third (Eb) string.

Each of these descending patterns, played within the powerchord shape, repeats twice, and each bar ends with a short slide down the fretboard before releasing the bottom open C string.

As the song moves into the first verse, Homme’s haunting, seductive falsetto reels off bizarre, trippy lyrics: “We get these pills to swallow/How they stick in your throat/Tastes like gold.”

The song then explodes into its chorus, with Grohl putting in one of his all-time best performances behind the kit, and an additional guitar track (played live by Troy Van Leeuwen) thickens out the distortion for maximum impact.

Dissecting the song on his YouTube channel, The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins commented: “In a modern rock song, when the guitars come in, they’re [often] hard-panned, and it creates this huge, spacious, mega-saturated thing. [QOTSA] have done that on here, but it’s such a nasty sound – it doesn’t feel like a Weezer song, it doesn’t have that hi-fi quality. It’s just huge and human-sounding.”

After another verse and chorus, No One Knows veers off into a crunchy middle-8 section, with more outrageous drumming by Grohl, before cutting out completely for a surprise isolated bass solo by Nick Oliveri. The rest of the band then rejoin for Homme’s woozy guitar solo, backed by Beastlesque orchestral strings.

Speaking to Matt Sweeney for his Guitar Moves YouTube series in 2013, Homme claimed: “Guitar solos to me should be a really articulate way to make fun of guitar solos. My guitar solo… it’s gotten to nonsense. And sometimes they sound like nonsense, but they’re played on purpose.”

After a final, stripped-back verse, the song ends just as it begins, with one extra chord stab to see it off.

No One Knows has a timeless quality to it, largely due to its difficulty to categorise.

Though particularly hard-hitting, it bucked the trend of many heavier rock songs of the day – the production is warm and live-sounding, and the guitars are thick without relying on 7-string gut-punch.

Homme’s falsetto, meanwhile, is a world away from Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park.

Working alongside co-producer Eric Valentine, the band achieved the distinctive sound in No One Knows with some interesting studio tricks.

Speaking to Rick Beato about the album’s mix, Valentine said: “There’s a very extreme compartmentalisation of frequencies going on on this record. The guitars are all mid-range. Josh was obsessed with this 600-to-700 Hz range. It forced the drums to be a little more scooped-out sounding.”

The notably dead drum sound was captured by having Grohl record his cymbals separately. Grohl hit electronic cymbal pads whilst recording acoustic drums, and vice versa, so that his playing could match up as accurately as possible.

Speaking to Rhythm magazine, Valentine discussed this unusual approach: "Having cymbal pads to hit made it easier for Dave to play the way he normally would. It did sound pretty ridiculous before we replaced the cymbal samples with the real ones.

“After the drums were recorded, we set up to record just the cymbals. We set up a dummy snare and toms that were padded to be as quiet as possible. This way he could simply replay the same drum parts and only have the cymbals be captured by the mics.”

Valentine also shared his admiration for Grohl’s finesse behind the kit

“The thing that is most striking about Dave's playing is how consistently he hits the drums. He plays very hard, which in a lot of cases does not necessarily result in the best drum sound. [But] because Grohl hits so consistently it is much easier to accommodate the really hard playing.

“I have heard people speculate that there are samples layered in with the drum recording. There are definitely no samples. Grohl just plays with inhuman consistency.”

Historically, QOTSA have been fairly coy about their gear. Homme’s preferred guitars around this time included obscure models such as the Ovation Ultra GP and the Gibson Marauder, as well as a Maton MS500, which can be seen in the song’s video.

For pedals, Homme has been known to use the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive and a Fulltone FatBoost FB-3, amongst others.

Speaking to Sound On Sound, Valentine said: “We went to this second-hand music store called Black Market Music – it was like a graveyard for broken, old, crappy equipment – and just bought all of the shittiest stuff they had. I was just putting mics in different places to try and pull sounds out of these amps that weren’t particularly hi-fi or explosive sounding by themselves, but with enough manipulation you could get something to happen.”

This use of vintage, undesirable gear in a creative manner is responsible for both the album’s signature tones and the difficulty others find trying to recreate them. Or as Hawkins puts it: “There’s something about a shit guitar played through a shitty old amp that you just can’t beat.”

In an interview with Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass for Guitarings, Homme stated that he’s used an Ampeg VT-40 since he was 13 years old.

“I’ve always liked to use the wrong shit incorrectly,” he continued. “I don’t have a Marshall and I don’t have a Les Paul. There’s nothing wrong with those things, but I just figured, ‘Ok, they’re covered.’”

For those trying to recreate Homme’s blown-out distorted sounds, a major boost in accuracy has arrived in the recently released Peavey Too 10w practice amp, modelled after the amplifier that Homme considered his “secret weapon” for years.

A memorable video for No One Knows was created by Dean Karr and future Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry, and depicts Homme, Oliveri and frequent QOTSA vocalist Mark Lanegan driving through the desert and hitting a deer, only for it to rise up, knock the band unconscious and commit grand theft auto, taking them hostage for more late-night hijinks.

The narrative is cut with the band performing in all their might against a sinister black backdrop, with Homme’s licks, Oliveri’s solo and Grohl’s thunderous fills on full display.

The video got everything right about QOTSA’s presentation; its macabre yet darkly funny narrative and tough, no-frills performance were a perfect representation of the band’s outsider charm and pre-social media mystique, and it would find heavy rotation on music channels such as Kerrang! and MTV2.

No One Knows was released as a single in November 2002, three months after Songs For The Deaf, and reached No.1 on both the UK Rock and Metal charts and US Alternative Airplay.

By this time, the album had already gone Platinum in the UK, by January 2003 would be certified Gold in the US.

No One Knows was nominated for a Grammy award in 2003 (their first of nine to date), but would ironically lose out to All My Life by Grohl’s Foo Fighters.

Since its live debut, No One Knows has become a staple of the QOTSA repertoire. Setlist.fm shows that No One Knows is the band’s second-most played song after Songs For The Deaf’s second single, Go With The Flow. No One Knows has been used as a set opener, played in the encore, and just about everywhere in between.

Appearing on the Tuna on Toast With Stryker podcast, Homme said: “I understand that I’m always going to play No One Knows because I still like playing that song and that’s something that it’s an agreement with the audience. Acting like a song that a lot of people like is a burden is just a strange reaction to the gift that your fans have given you.”

Summing up his thoughts on the song, Hawkins offered a glowing appraisal: “This song is one of the few tracks from that period of the Noughties that really is original. It’s got great drums parts on it and a brilliant video, a good-looking singer with a lovely, soft falsetto voice and a super distinctive sonic signature. Of course it was gonna be a hit, it’s fucking obvious!”

Josh Homme has said he’ll drop in to see the Arctic Monkeys’ childhood homes when he plays Sheffield next week.

Queens Of The Stone Age headline the city’s Rock N’ Roll Circus festival at the Don Valley stadium next Wednesday (August 27). Ahead of that, Homme was interviewed on Radio X about his links to the city and to the UK.

“We’ve had such a great relationship with the UK, and with Britain,” the Queens leader began, before revealing: “I really just want to go to all the Arctic Monkeys guys’ childhood homes and take pictures and then send it to them. So, that’s what I intend on doing. And it was like, ‘What’s the best way to do this?'”

Homme and the Monkeys go back some way. He co-produced the band’s third album Humbug, alongside James Ford and provided backing vocals for All My Own Stunts from their fourth album, 2011’s Suck It And See and One For The Road and Knee Socks from AM. In return Alex Turner did some backing vocals on Queens’ Like Clockwork album and the pair have shared stages many times over the years.

So if you see a tall blond gentleman taking photos around High Green – for that is the suburb where Alex Turner and his crew hail from - next week, don’t be alarmed.

What is it?

The Peavey Decade has come a long way since its debut in the 1980s, evolving from a basic home practice amp to a beloved favourite among stoner rock aficionados. It’s fair to say that this small, solid-state amp wasn’t all that celebrated a few years ago – heck, most of us had forgotten it even existed. Well, one look at the second-hand prices now, and it tells a very different story. What gives? Well, Josh Homme, singer, guitarist, and all-around creative force behind Queens Of The Stone Age, revealed that the secret sauce to his legendary tone was actually this tiny 10W combo.

In collaboration with Peavey, Homme has breathed new life into the Decade with the Decade Too, his signature amp. But now, the legendary sound has been distilled into a compact pedal form, making it easier than ever to recreate those classic QOTSA riffs.

Part of the Peavey Legacy Preamp Series, this pedal is a faithful recreation of the original Decade circuit, preserving all the same controls that made the amp special. Equipped with a switchable Saturation mode, it even emulates the second channel for an extra dose of harmonic overdrive at the stomp of a switch.

Additional features include pre- and post-gain controls, a responsive three-band EQ, and a hard bypass switch with anti-click circuitry. Powered by a standard 9V supply, the pedal internally boosts to 24V, delivering the headroom and dynamic range that defined the legendary original.

So, I’m gonna grab my favourite beaten-up semi-hollow, tune to C-standard, and see if the Decade pedal can help me deliver the feel-good hit of the summer, or if it’s only Rated-R for regret.

Specifications

• Launch price: $239/£175/€199
• Type: Amp pedal
• Controls: Pre-gain, post-gain, low, mid, high, bypass, saturation
• Connections: Input, output, power
• Bypass: True bypass
• Power: 9V DC, center-negative 75mA
• Contact: Peavey

Music Radar Demo

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

If you are at all familiar with Peavey’s Legacy lineup of pedals, that includes the Bandit, Rock Master, and Session, you’ll know what level of quality to expect with this new unit. Rugged and with no frills is how I would describe this pedal, much like the amp it’s based on.

Like the other stomps in the series, a robust die-cast enclosure houses all the important components, and in my opinion, it is nearly indestructible. This pedal feels bomb-proof. I’d say that the Decade feels like it can easily withstand the harsh rigours of heavy touring, and look good while doing it.

In fact, I believe Peavey has perfectly captured the aesthetic of the original combo amp here. The retro knobs and simple graphics really do resemble the original amplifier. It also feels great to operate, with controls that are smooth and well-labelled, and the footswitch has a reassuring sturdiness when pressed.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★☆

The Decade is a pretty simple affair, not that it needs to be complicated. Its intuitive control layout means you can dive right in and start jamming, leaving all those complicated settings and unnecessary distractions behind.

At the heart of the Decade are the dynamic twin gain controls: pre-gain and post-gain. The pre-gain dials in the foothold of your tone, shaping the level of input gain, while the post-gain fine-tunes the signal level before it hits the power amplifier. With a little tweak to both, you can effortlessly shift from crunchy rhythms to soaring leads.

And let’s talk about those EQ knobs, Low, Mid, and High. These are pretty powerful and broad controls. From thumping lows that shake the floor to piercing highs that make ears perk up, it's pretty easy to dial in a number of different tones. That said, I did find the mid control to be lacking precision. No matter where I placed it, I couldn't get the mid-frequencies to where I liked them. Perhaps a secondary Q control for the mids would improve this?

The Saturation switch is another standout feature that brings some real fun to the table. Designed to mimic the second channel of the original amp, it adds a rich layer of fuzzed-out distortion when stomped on.

Connectivity? Again, it's as simple as it comes, with standard 1/4” input and output jacks located on the top of the unit for easy access. It's worth noting that this pedal operates on either a 9V battery or a pedalboard power supply, but it internally boosts the voltage to 24V for added headroom.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★☆

Okay, straight off the bat, I’ll say it; this pedal isn’t for everyone. Josh Homme has described the tone of the original amp as ‘wiry,’ and I think that’s the perfect word to describe it. Relying more on pre-gain than post-gain results in a tone that sounds somewhat hollow in nature. Like something is missing in the midrange. Unfortunately, trying to dial in some of that missing mid-frequency using the onboard EQ only seems to increase the overall boxiness of the pedal and highlight the Decades' limitations.

That said, I don’t think anyone is buying this pedal for its clean tone. Stomp on the saturation switch, and the entire point of the Decade pedal comes into sharp focus. Fuzz-like, with a lo-fi edge that devours C-standard riffs, the pedal transforms a dull, lifeless clean sound into an inspiring explosion of grit and unfiltered distortion.

Ugly – but in a good way. That’s how I would describe the overdriven side of the Decade – especially if you crank both gain controls. There’s still a hollowness to the overall tone, but now that’s balanced out by an almost spitting top end, that’s fierce and cutting.

I know many pedals claim to sound unique, but few actually do. In a world where most overdrives on the market can trace their origins back to a Marshall, a Klon or a Tube Screamer, it’s refreshing to play through a pedal that genuinely has a sound all of its own. Okay, it may not be as sophisticated or classy as a boutique stomp, but I find the Decades’ retro ‘80s charm growing on me.

Verdict

Like I said earlier, I don’t think this pedal is for everyone. The Decade delivers a very specific tone, one that is instantly recognisable to stoner rock fans. So, if you're seeking a polished, smooth, modern distortion, this is most definitely not the stomp box for you. The Decade is unvarnished, undisguised, and unapologetically raw.

Now, at a list price of $239.99, it’s not cheap either. That said, the pedal is still significantly less expensive than buying an original example of the amp and is definitely more flexible. And it has to be said that this isn’t an emulation, or a digital recreation, this is the exact amp circuit, just in a smaller package – and engineering like this comes at a price.

Having the Decade shrunk down into pedal form allows you to harness the tone of this tiny practice amp in a much more convenient way, and the sky is the limit when it comes to stacking it with other pedals and amps.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with the Peavey Decade. This is the sort of pedal that makes you want to haul your amp out into the desert and play low-tuned riffs until the sun comes up.

Also try

Hands-on demos

Peavey Electronics

FACE MI

If you have every wondered what it would be like to perform underground for an audience comprising a film crew and the remains of six million people, take it from someone who has done it before, it is pretty weird.

Troy Van Leeuwen did just that when he and Queens Of The Stone Age took to the Catacombs of Paris, in July 2024, to perform a stripped-down set of Queens classics.

Speaking to Premier Guitar, Van Leeuwen admitted that nothing have prepared him to what awaited him under the streets of Paris’s 14th arrondissement.

“I have to say it was the most bizarre musical experience I think I’ve had,” says Van Leeuwen. “You don’t know what it is going to sound like until you are in there. We knew it was going to be mostly acoustic, so for me, personally, I had to [rethink it].”

Van Leeuwen was offering Premier Guitar a guided tour of his rig for the Age Of Nero Tour, and there was, literally, a lot to process. His complement of Echopark and Fender electric guitars were being served by a well-stocked pedalboard.

But the Catacombs show, which was shot for the concert film and EP, Alive In The Catacombs, was not an occasion for tube amps and octave-fuzz. This is a claustrophobic space, and QOTSA also had to find a space in the mix for a strings section.

“The first guitar I ever got was a cat-gut classical guitar, so I was playing one of those, and I had to really go back to being that kid,” says Van Leeuwen. “The neck was super-wide, so I felt a little bit vulnerable in there... with the bones of six million people watching you.”

“But yeah, it was a bizarrely vulnerable experience, ‘cos you are trying to play within that space but it is smaller than you think. And so I wasn’t trying to be too overpowering, so there was a lot of delicate interplay between me and the strings, and the band. It was bizarre.”

When we think of the QOTSA sound, we think of the white heat of their electric sound, tones designed on fuzz pedals such as the Univox Super-Fuzz – a vintage fuzz that’s so hard to replace that Van Leeuwen admits he no longer takes on the road.

When MusicRadar spoke to Van Leeuwen in December 2023, Van Leeuwen said he had swapped out the Super-Fuzz for an EQD clone.

“There was a plethora of fuzz pedals that we are always messing around with,” he said. “It just depends because sometimes you are using an old [Univox] Super-Fuzz and you can’t take that stuff on the road because every old Super-Fuzz, they’re all different, and so there’s a certain one that sounds really good so you use that in the studio and then you try to find something [for the road].”

“I don’t care if this is a secret or not but I use this pedal called a Fuzz Master General by EarthQuaker Devices, and that basically is a Univox Super-Fuzz clone, and that is the best-sounding one so live I use that.

“It feels good enough, and it feels close enough to the Super-Fuzz that I like, and so I don’t have to take my Super-Fuzz on the road and run the risk of losing it somewhere! [Laughs] Or it breaking. This thing, it’s new, and it does the thing, it does the job.”

Contrary to all the hugger-mugger online about around the guitar amps and effects Queens Of The Stone Age have used and abused in the past, Van Leeuwen is an open book. The only reason he didn’t walk through every pedal on his ‘board on this rig tour was that there were so many of them. But you see them all. This is the motherlode of QOTSA intell.

But there was none of this gear in the Catacombs, where tracks such as Paper Machete and I Never Came were presented as we have never heard them before.

This, says, Van Leeuwen was a process of reverse engineering the songs to make them fit the setting – returning them to their original state.

“Well, to be honest, if it doesn’t work on an acoustic guitar and a voice then it’s probably not a good song. That’s fortunately where we start most of our songs that way, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch to do that instrumentally,” he says “Strings are going to do most of the guitar stuff. What I figured out was that we do orchestrate a lot of guitars, and so it sounds more legit when some strings are doing it.

“That gave me the opportunity to lay back and just strum a little bit, which is the first thing you gotta learn on guitar, rhythm. Get in the pocket.”

The Catacombs Tour kicks off on October 2 at the Chicago Theatre. QOTSA will be playing a string of festival dates across Europe this summer.

See Queens Of The Stone Age for full dates and ticket details. Alive In The Catacombs is streaming now, priced from £5 to rent, £10 to buy.

• Unlock Josh Homme’s QOTSA tones with the Skeleton Key, the new £99 drive pedal from Funny Little Boxes

Queens Of The Stone Age have cancelled a number of European live dates with frontman Josh Homme forced to return to the US for emergency surgery.

In a statement posted to social media, the band said that they had intended to “push through” and play the shows but circumstances dictated that Homme returned home immediately.

“Every effort was made to push through and play for you, but it is no longer an option to continue,” writes the band. “Queens are gutted we aren’t able to play for you. We apologise for any inconvenience and share in your frustration and disappointment.”

The news sees the cancellation of eight headlining and festival appearances in France, Slovakia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, Hungary and Greece, all of which were scheduled for July. 

The Queens Of The Stone Age official site has taken these dates down, with ticket holders advised to contact vendors for headline shows, and the relevant festivals for more information. 

Despite these cancellations, European dates remain on the calendar, with the band scheduled to appear at Way Out West Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden on 8 August, followed by Oya Festival in Norway and Syd For Solen in Denmark on the following consecutive evenings. 

They have four more European festival dates slated for August before starting the US leg of The End Is Nero Tour in late September. 

They have given no indication that these dates will be pulled, and that they are still listed online offers some hope that this won’t keep Homme and co off the road for too long. The End Is Nero Tour’s epic schedule has made road dogs of them all, with scarcely a break since August 2023.

That kind of schedule sharpens a musician up. Speaking to MusicRadar in November 2023, guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen said playing live with no click tracks was a big part of their sound, and how they used the audience’s reaction to help dictate the tempo in a groove.

“We don’t use click-tracks. We don’t use any kind of tracks,” Van Leeuwen explained. “And sometimes we are on the back of [the beat] and sometimes we are ahead of it. Sometimes it’s the audience. If they’re sparky we’ll pick it up, and even in the middle of the song, if it feels like it is starting to sink, well, Josh will say, ‘Pick it up!’ and here we go. 

“Those types of things come with experience of being a musician that’s been doing this for 30-plus years. Everyone else is in the same boat, and this particular lineup of the band has been together for 10 years already, so that [understanding] is only getting better – and that’s exciting, too.”

In 2017, Robert Adam Stevenson had a life-changing decision to make: stay in Oxford with his band, A Silent Film, or move to LA and follow his real passion: recording other bands. “I didn't like being a front person in the band,” he admits, “and I was so much happier being buried in the studio.” So bury himself he did, and during every recording session he drove his band's engineers and producers mad by asking endless questions, but he quickly became knowledgeable enough to record and mix the group. So when they split, Robert had something to fall back on, to become a studio producer/engineer himself.

“It turned out I loved helping other people get through that creative process,” he smiles. “I just wanted to make records all year round and now I can with different people!” And if you're going to fall back on something, you might as well do it in LA, right? At least that's what Robert thought, and in 2017 he decided to relocate there to practise his new craft.

“I just risked it all, sold the band's backline on eBay which got me three months of Air BnB in LA!” Robert almost winces at the decision he made back then, but seven years on it appears to have paid off. Through perseverance, taking every job he could (including “writing some terrible K-Pop”), some good luck, knowing his way around a studio, and being able to help artists unleash their creativity, Robert has worked with some of the biggest names, from co-producing Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck to engineering Queens Of The Stone Age – and being nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY in the process. 

We caught up with him in his LA home studio to talk recording and mixing guitars, Johnny Depp's fanboy Jeff Beck excitement, recording the late great Taylor Hawkins, and even how Josh Homme got into a scrap with a band in Oxford. There's insider info on the notoriously secretive QOTSA recording process – ok, not much, but what did you expect from the Area 51-level security that surrounds Troy Van Leeuwen and Josh's guitar processing? But we do find out is how an engineer/producer gets the best from a band in the studio – and the best guitar recordings. And that it might not be so much about the gear in that studio, but more about getting on with – and the best from – the people within it.

“Oh yeah,” laughs Robert. “that's 90% of the job!”

The studio role 

What is the difference between a producer and engineer? The definitions seem to be blurred…

RAS: "You're right. On a business level, an engineer will get a day rate, but with a producer you are in for the long haul, and get points on the record and a fee per song. So you have to be a bit creative on how you are booked. It's important to me to be a part of the creative process, so I'll push my luck. Sometimes you are not supposed to speak your mind but fortune favours the brave! Read the room, build the trust.”

What is a typical day in the studio?

"It is completely different every day. I consider myself hands-on with the computer and positioning mics – actually being an engineer. But I also come at it from a musical and producer mindset. I'm listening intently to the main creative forces in the room, learning those personalities, and working out where they are hitting their walls. If you can realign someone's perspective, then they can be far more creative. They crave that as well, which is something I learned from being the front person in a band myself."

So your own band experiences have been an advantage…

"It seems to have worked for me with some of the really big names that I have been lucky enough to be in the room with. Sometimes they are not looking for me to produce, they want me to engineer, but all my gears are moving. I'm thinking 'how can I help' and I'm trying to be ahead of the curve of their thought processes."

So you could be doing anything from miking up to sitting on a Pro Tools session and suggesting notes changes?

"Oh yeah. I'll push my luck!"

How much of the job is dealing with the personalities rather than gear?

"90%?! [laughs] The vibe and how people feel, and the type of people in the room are all super important. Also, trying to keep focussed on how inspired someone is, and never letting the gear get in the way. There are some people that love it, but there are others who can't stand it. Jeff Beck could not stand talking about gear; he would just sit back and pretend to be immediately disinterested. My job was to just have it all up and working so he could focus on the music."

LA connection

Ok, talking of Jeff, how did you get to work with such big names when you moved to LA?

"I happened to be working in a studio where Johnny Depp's nephew, Billy Rassel, came in – only in LA, right? He's an aspiring producer and came in to record an artist and I grabbed the reins and finished the project. He said, 'my uncle is really going to like it' and I was like, 'whatever, that's another world'. 

“But Johnny loves making music and I got the call one night: 'Can you come over?' I ended up working through the night, listening to his stories, and helping them make some music. And it just turned out that – and how lucky am I?  – that music happened to be him preparing ideas to give to Jeff Beck because they'd just struck up this friendship.

"I then did the Depp/Beck record [the album 18]. They were so kind to give me a co-production credit. Afterwards Jeff  – and again this is mind-blowing – asked me to play keyboards on tour. I ended up doing the UK, rest of Europe and the US in 2022. It was crazy!"

How did you meet Queens of the Stone Age?

"Through Johnny as he and Josh [Homme] are very good friends. Josh was literally over at the house hanging with Johnny. I'm a huge Queens fan. I remember seeing them play for their first record at Reading thinking, 'This is insane, this is the guy from Kyuss [Homme's former band] doing his new thing!'. I had all those stories that I could talk to Josh about. There was this great incident in Oxford when QOTSA came and had a fight with this Oxford band called Winnebago Deal in an Indian restaurant. It was legendary in the Oxford scene, that Josh Homme had come to town and had a fight with one of the cool bands. So I brought that up in front of Josh and Johnny, and his eyes lit up and he said, 'Oh my god, I remember, yes!'."

Who won the fight?

"Josh, obviously."

How did it work in the studio with Josh, Troy and the band?

"I was coming in, being the engineer and getting that album done [In Times New Roman]. It was incredible to see how it unfolded: a lot of tape and everything on outboard. Basically the rule is never to use computer plugins. I had been making records trying to make them sound like tape on computers my whole life, and to just finally be let loose on a tape machine with a proper budget on a record like that was an incredible learning curve."

How did you find the process?

"Josh had said, 'we're going to do a lot of tracking on tape' and I was like, 'are you sure because I haven't actually recorded onto tape?'. But because he has this 'do everything in a roundabout different way' attitude, the idea of me struggling to use a tape machine actually appealed to him! It was still a Queens record that was going to break the rules and bend everything that you think is conventional. Things would eventually ended up on the computer, but again, with no plugins as it would come through an analogue console."

Did that unconventional approach extend to recording Josh's vocal?

"With many artists you shouldn't just have this 'use your most expensive microphone' [approach]. They [QOTSA] were quite fond of having a few microphones set up at a time, and of course ambient mics set up as well that are very important. I hadn't done as many multi-microphone setups before working on that particular record."

What can you reveal about the QOTSA guitar sound and how they get it?

"That it is a very specific world that Josh keeps secret!"

Ok, how involved did you get with him and Troy in terms of their guitar sound?

"They know [it] themselves inside out and don't need anybody to point them in any directions. And the language they speak to each other in is incredible. They have code words and descriptives for the sounds that they have used in the past that they know work. 

"I was loving just hearing how they communicate about guitar tone. And that filled in so many blanks for [QOTSA] records that I love, so 'why does that record sounds so extraordinarily special?' And it's because of their processes and how they go about things in a roundabout way. It's very much 'find something that's not normal and now where can we make this work?' Combinations are key: light and shade is a massively important thing for them, and they just know the process. And Dean [Fertita, keys and guitars] is a very important part of that process too."

Is there anything that would surprise people about how QOTSA get their guitar sound? It's a vague question, I know…

"No that's fine and I'll give you a vague answer! [Laughs]. I mean, it's everything unconventional. Constant change, try this, try that. Sometimes the rule to get interesting guitar sounds is to go with small amp, single-miked and then loud in the mix, but then they'd do contrary to that in the studio too."

So basically, whatever they do and use in the studio, is unconventional…

"Yeah. I tell you what, I don't remember using an SM57!"

Guitar production 

How does your work vary with other guitarists in shaping their tone?

"Out of all band members, guitarists know their stuff and have the pedals and amps they love. I'd never get in the way of someone's enthusiasm for that, but it's great to show other options and see if it inspires them. And they appreciate being shown new things they can add to their arsenal."

How do you adapt to different personalities and styles?

"I just did a lot of guitar tracking with The Kills and they are so cool, absolutely wonderful, and Jamie [Hince], again, he knows his guitars. It was a joy, and we had a great session where it was set up with a wall of his favourite amps. He had his favourite mics and I added some too. It was lovely just thinking about guitars and having lots of options to play with. It's nice to be able to shake it up and have a lot of colours."

Do you have any tips for recording guitars?

"Yeah, the standard is a dynamic [mic] and a ribbon – we all love that combination and it becomes addictive. You can't quite imagine just recording with one or the other. I've become a fan of not miking too close to the grill. It used to be that you'd have the mic close to avoid bleed playing live. Once you're in the studio and not thinking about those things, it's lovely to pull the mic back six inches or a foot off the cabinet – it really changes the sound. 

"A lot of times I'll have a DI line running because it's become a common thing in music – everyone assumes there's a DI and you get to the end of the process where you've just recorded the mics and someone will say 'hey can I re-amp that?' So we have to DI everything now, just in case."

Do you have favourite mics for recording amps? Is it the dreaded SM57?

"Oh yeah absolutely. The SM is not dreaded! I did pick up some older Unidyne versions and I swear they sound a little richer in the midrange and less sharp. For the ribbon a Royer is great, but other interesting choices are a Coles, especially on a 4x12 – it just works. And then a Beyerdynamic M160 – an amazing microphone."

How do you approach acoustic guitar recording?

"Acoustics are very hard to record – I'm always wishing I had more time. I will often use whatever the vocal mic is as a starting point. The low end is hard to deal with, and I've also started using big valve mics but in omnidirectional mode – that gets a more balanced recording, and then I can boost the low end. Recording an acoustic at the 12th fret with that setup is a good place to start – no rules though! And of course dual mics help; it's nice to have a ribbon set back to capture the room."

What about mixing the guitar?

"It's usually to double track or not, a process that a lot of guitarists say they have to do. But often you are just taking up double the real estate and adding nothing interesting. So use different guitars, switch up the tone, multi mics are useful, or switch up the mics and add tons of ambience. It is nice to have the space recorded in on the finished recordings as it's unique."

Are bands (QOTSA aside) more open to using plugins in the studio these days?

"Yeah, sometimes I'll find that someone who has a great ear will have carved something out in a demo [using plugins], and that when you re-track it with a great guitar and a great vintage amp, they are not that impressed, and that's ok!"

What have you been impressed with on the digital emulation side of things?

"One company is Neural DSP. Those plugins have been really surprising with how good they are. Others I use are Plugin Alliance/Brainworx ones that matches well with UAD's, so I can swap between them. It's common to use a DI bass and add those Plugin Alliance bass sims on top in the studio. Sometimes it's better than the real thing, to be honest."

Overall, which have been your favourite studio moments during your time in LA?

“I was very lucky to be recording with Taylor Hawkins, around 2021 [for his band NHC with Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney] and just to see someone that brilliant recording drums, and seeing their reaction when they hear what you've recorded. Taylor loved all his Genesis and '80s sounding stuff – more than appeared on the Foo Fighters albums – so to be able to do that for him in the studio and him get really excited was a wonderful memory.

“The Jeff Beck album was just shockingly beautiful guitar playing. I'm keyed into these emotional experiences but watching Johnny [Depp] respond to Jeff's performances in the studio was amazing. Jeff would play things that he didn't necessarily think were special and Johnny would be laser-focused at the back of the room encouraging him and jumping out of the seat with excitement. To Jeff it might have been off the cuff but to Johnny it was just watching his hero, you know? A wonderful moment.

“And QOTSA. Oh my goodness, yeah. I just love that there was never a safety net. They just risk everything. Every song starts from a point of absolutely no safety net which I think is so crazy. Usually a band would come in with a demo and maybe you are playing to demo stems or maybe to a click track but [with QOTSA] it's none of that. It's just 'go at it and if it feels good, we're done'. The simplest things work sometimes but it's all about the people."

• Find out more about Robert's work at robertadamstevenson.com

Join us for our traditional look back at the news and features that floated your boat this year.

Best of 2023: There are few bands in the history of rock ’n’ roll to have inspired such a cultish devotion to replicating their electric guitar tone than Queens Of The Stone Age. 

Their rhythm guitar sound is undoubtedly an intoxicating sound, and that’s before you consider the strange textures that sit on top. But there has to be more to it than simple aesthetics. Maybe it is a function of the myths that have been constructed around it; such was the iron curtain around Josh Homme’s early sound, any breadcrumb of information was feasted upon. 

It was a great Eureka moment when Homme revealed that there it was a Peavey Decade used on Songs For The Deaf, and in particular for the bass guitar tone on No One Knows. All of a sudden, this mostly forgotten practice amp was the subject of bidding wars, its transistorised circuit was pored over and cloned then reappropriated in stompbox form. The Acorn Solid State, which was released last year, did just that; full-circuit replica. This year Funny Little Boxes launched the £99 Skeleton Key that promised a compact pedalboard solution for Queens tones.

But the smile on Troy Van Leeuwen’s face when we ask him about this whole culture of QOTSA tone-seeking is the tell; there is much more to it, and of course it extends beyond the signal path. Though, he admits that he too would like to try the Skeleton Key.

“It’s funny you bring up that pedal,” he says. “Somebody told me about that, under the same circumstances, ‘This is supposed to be the way you get the Queens tone.’ Like, ‘That’s cute!’ But I would love to try it just because we all collect tons and tons of pedals. I mean, seeing our band live, you can see on the floor how many pedals that me and Josh alone. It’s like a mini Guitar Center.” 

In Times New Roman, the band’s first since 2017’s Villains, will do much to inflame passions among their disciplines.

It traffics in reference-quality tones – its production deserves high-quality studio headphones – and in louche grooves that are just rhythmically honest enough to be tight, not too much as to be stiff. When they transcribe Obscenery there might not be a lot of ink on the treble clef but there will be a lot of musical information on the page, a lot of counting as its fuzz riff stops, starts and jerks forward to set the hook.

Like the idea of nailing Queens’ guitar sound, performing their catalogue is on the face of it achievable. But it’s the hope that kills you. It’s the simple bands whose sounds are the most copy protected, and Queens Of The Stone Age might just be the most difficult simple band out there. 

As Van Leeuwen admits here, even he has to hold his breath for some of those counts.

Now, this is kismet we have you here today, because in the mail was the Skeleton Key, a new pedal from Funny Little Boxes that allows you to nail the Queens Of The Stone Age guitar tone. So it begs the question: When we hook this up, will we sound like you?

“Well, umm, yeah, I would say, first of all, it’s flattering. But second of all, there’s not just one pedal that does it so… I mean, good luck! Sounding like us with one pedal? I would say it’s probably impossible. My philosophy is that a lot of the way you sound as a guitar player is in your fingers.

“For example, when we worked with Billy Gibbons, he brought some gear to the studio. This was our first meeting. I don’t even think it was a Line 6 POD; it was some off-brand amp simulator, and we were just like. ‘Yo, plug into one of our amps!’ But the funny thing is, we heard him playing through this thing and it was like, ‘Wow! It sounds like fuckin’ Billy Gibbons!’ 

“It kind of doesn’t matter. Billy Gibbons wouldn't sound like Queens ever because he just sounds like he does and it doesn’t matter what he uses. Yeah, we could go through all this gear, all this stuff, and there are a lot of secrets we’ve been keeping over the years, but I think that’s the fun part, the magic of being an individual. It’s about teaching people to get their own sound. That’s where I’m coming from.”

You produced this record yourselves. Where do you begin with a project like that? Where do you start with engineering it? Is it a case of finding a great rhythm guitar tone and taking it from there?

“I would say that the main riff that you’re hearing, that’s the first thing you’ve got to nail, and then you can build around it. You want to get that first sound, the thing that’s the hook, the rhythmic pattern, you want that to be the hook and so you want that sound to draw you in. I think you’re right. 

“We track the band live, and we used tape this time. It was very much old-school to the bone, and so those rhythm tones that you are hearing, [those are] the ones that we managed to get first while tracking with the band. That was important.”

This is an audiophile’s record. It sounds incredible with headphones. Maybe the tape has something to do with that but certainly, from a performance point of view, tape changes things. Tape costs money. Those takes matter.

“Oh yeah, definitely. It puts you under... I don’t want to say it’s pressure but it is the thing that we all grew up doing. Like, I remember using four-track cassettes forever! And you have to press ‘Record’ and ‘Play’ and then you try to play a whole song, and then if you can find the little button to punch in – which I never got – then you could do a punch-in, but then you had to play the rest of the song. 

“So for me it was always about if you can get the whole song in one take, that’s great, but also that makes you go, ‘Well, maybe I can Jimmy Page it where it’s like this first part of the song needs this sound, and then this other sound comes in on the chorus, and I can do something different on the chorus.’ That opens up your mind to parts and hooks. 

“Also, I use a computer now, too, like lots of bands over the past 20 years we’re a lot more comfortable using the digital medium. We’ve done both but mainly this is a live band and the way that we sound on tape it really lends to that.”

You are always one of the most difficult simple bands in the world. Take a track like Obscenery, it’s doesn't seem overly complicated but it has this strut that's stilted but it can’t be halting. Is that the toughest thing to get right, keeping the flow going?

“There’s an interesting thing that we do, and this is with a lot of our grooves, and a lot of our tempos, you kind of have to dance it a little bit. [Hums riff] You said it exactly – it’s a strut. You’re just feeling it, and when everyone is in the room, and everyone feels the same as each other, doing the same strut, that’s actually easier for us because if you’re not in the room while it’s happening you are kind of guessing a little bit.”

It’s a physical element, playing around that beat together.

“It’s a physical element, yeah. We do that live all the time, too. We don’t use click-tracks. We don’t use any kind of tracks. And sometimes we are on the back of it and sometimes we are ahead of it. Sometimes it’s the audience. If they’re sparky we’ll pick it up. And even in the middle of the song, if it feels like it is starting to sink, well, Josh will say, ‘Pick it up!’ and here we go. 

“Those types of things come with experience of being a musician that’s been doing this for 30-plus years. Everyone else is in the same boat, and this particular lineup of the band has been together for 10 years already, so that [understanding] is only getting better – and that’s exciting, too. Every time we make a record now it’s like, ‘Okay, all right! We’ve still got it! [Laughs]”

Well, you never really know until you actually start if it’s still there…

“Yeah. It is not easy to decide what songs are going to be on the record and sometimes these things take time. Also, everyone has a family. It’s not like when we were younger, like, ‘Oh, we’re just going to go into the studio and pop this thing out.’ We have to move at a slower pace but that also adds to the care and the way we produce the songs, and making sure the lyrics are spot-on and there is a lot that goes into it.

“I mean, you are right. We are the most difficult simple band. I’ve often heard guys coming up to us saying, ‘You guys are just playing barre chords!’ [Laughs] ‘I am glad you think it is that simple.’”

That just proves the songwriting is working. It is like the swan on the lake. You don’t need to see the legs kicking.

“Totally.”

What is exciting you on the gear front?

“There are new pedals on my ‘board every three months. It’s fun. That’s part of the fun, and I’ve always got new amplifiers that I’m trying out. I’ve designed some amps with some friends of mine, and luckily I was able to take them on the road for a test run last year with The Damned and Jane’s Addiction. I got called to step in as the hired gun so I took these amps on the road to see what they would do. It was like R&D for the Queens. We are always looking to try something new.”

Can you tell us more about these amps?

“Well, the company we put together is called GMI and it is literally myself and Gabriel Currie, who makes Echopark Guitars. He was making and designing Echopark amps as well. He is very much into the design aspect, and also knows enough about the history of the guitar amplifier; what was used in the ‘50s and the ‘40s, the ‘60s and the ‘70s, throughout the years. 

“But he doesn’t actually do the wiring. Our friend Sean Romin does. He builds them. So with his knowledge and Gabriel’s knowledge together, I was able to say, ‘This is what I’m looking to do’, and we did it. It is a unique amp. It was designed to have the clarity of something that might be a solid-state amp but also it has a power section that’s tube-based.

“It’s a hybrid, because I need to get the cleanest cleans and the gnarliest fuzzes. It was designed to take a lot of pedals, but also you can plug into this thing, straight in, and it feels real nice, too. It is a super-versatile piece of gear. I’m very happy with it.”

Maybe the time is right for players to fall back in love with transistorised guitar amplification again because the technology got a bad rep often for no really good reason.

“I think you’re right. It was just that time in the ‘70s where everyone was like, ‘Well tubes aren’t clear enough sounding.’ Then you get the clarity of something like a Jazz Chorus, and there was this company called CMI [Electronics], that Gibson company that made amps for like a year. 

“It was that era of mid ‘70s when things were going between tube and solid-state and I just thought that was an interesting time because some of those amps now, when you play them, it is a totally unique experience. And it has a grit to it; it’s just a solid-state grit.”

Without giving away all your secrets. What were the most important bits of gear you used on this record?

“There was a plethora of fuzz pedals that we are always messing around with. It just depends because sometimes you are using an old [Univox] Super-Fuzz and you can’t take that stuff on the road because every old SuperFuzz, they’re all different, and so there’s a certain one that sounds really good so you use that in the studio and then you try to find something [for the road].

“I don’t care if this is a secret or not but I use this pedal called a Fuzz Master General by EarthQuaker Devices, and that basically is a Univox Super-Fuzz clone, and that is the best-sounding one so live I use that. It feels good enough, and it feels close enough to the Super-Fuzz that I like, and so I don’t have to take my Super-Fuzz on the road and run the risk of losing it somewhere! [Laughs] Or it breaking. This thing, it’s new, and it does the thing, it does the job. That’s just one example. 

“But we’re using lots of filtering, lots of EQ, because we’re trying to mix ourselves before you get to the mixing [desk]. Like you siad, there is a midrange that we’re always pushing, and you always have to find your spot. I would find my spot in the more upper midrange, and then I use two amps, a dry and a wet. 

“That way I can spread across and there’s this spot in the middle that maybe Josh can use. I’ll take the sides and there’s room; there’s a spot in the mix. That’s how we do it. That’s how we do it live, so it’s already mixing itself. You’re not having the cloud in the middle of everything and trying to hang things around that cloud.”

It is the battleground frequency for the guitars.

“Yeah, and that all goes back to that rhythm tone – that needs to be the thing. That’s the midrange too.”

You’ve got such a great sense of space. It sounds like there was some sort of nominative determinism going on – there’s always a sense of humour with your songwriting – but giving Negative Space that title when there is so much negative space in the composition.

“Yeah, you’re right, as you’re talking about the term negative space there is a lot of negative space in that song, too. The groove is going, the rhythm is [hums riff with its pregnant pause]. There’s room for Mikey [Michael Shuman] to do a little bass riff and then there’s the wah guitar, and that’s it. But everything with us is a play on words, a pun.”

Do you have to hold your breath during those silences, those rests?

“I probably unwittingly do, yeah! [Laughs]”

You mentioned Jane’s Addiction. That must have been an amazing gig to cover. Did you have to change your approach for that?

“I grew up watching that band play, in clubs and then watching them grow into this beast, and I was a huge fan when I was a teenager, so for me it was a strange, great honour to have someone like Dave say that, ‘I like that guy.’ 

“And also, talk about pre-mixing a band? You’ve got Eric Avery, who’s this force of nature, and then you’ve got the drumming of Stephen [Perkins], and those two together have this huge foundation, and as a guitar player, you are just floating around on top of all that. And then you’ve got Perry up here. It’s like a pyramid.

“It was a big challenge because I haven’t soloed like that since I was learning how to play guitar, so it was sort of like going back to being a teenager and getting that sort of energy back. It is a lot of notes and it is happening all the time. 

“I had conversations with Dave about this, too, because even though he wasn’t doing well physically, he was mentally invested in what was happening. I just told him that I was going to approach it as though Jimmy Page was playing in Jane’s Addiction. And he’s like, ‘I love that!’ 

“I mean, I cannot play like he can. The ease and the way he slings out all these scales and stuff, I can do some of that. I just took more of a Jimmy Page sloppy but, again, with the strut, with a groove, and those guys have groove for days. It was a really cool challenge for me to get up there and do it, and not get things thrown at me! [Laughs] That would be my experience with The Damned, too. As long as people didn’t throw things at me I think I’m doing okay.”

It helps when you’ve got Perry Farrell up there. He still has the energy of a teenager.

“Absolutely! Completely, yeah. And as far as my rig on that tour, I just did basically – ‘cos Dave’s rig has never changed since the ‘80s. It’s a Tube Screamer. It’s a wah-wah pedal. Yeah, just a regular old Dunlop wah. A Boss Stereo Chorus. A Boss digital delay, set to one delay time. If you can get the sound to Run Like Hell by Pink Floyd, that’s the delay time!

“I just did my version of that [rig], which is a couple of different overdrives, a wah pedal, and then I used two Eventide H9s, one was basically the chorus and the other was the delay, set for two amps so there was some stereo imaging going on, and that was it. Very simple.”

Is this album really a trilogy or was that something that was made up after the fact?

“I dunno, I guess maybe it was an idea of doing three because it seems like that’s how the band started. There was a trilogy for the first three records. That’s the way I look at it, too. And I look at Lullabies… and Era Vulgaris as these interesting experimental pieces of art that were basically leading us to where we are now.

“They are like the connective records between the way Queens came out and how people got to recognise the band through those first three records. It feels like the same group of three for this new beginning of the band, this lineup.You’ve got Clockwork, you’ve got Villains, and then now In Times New Roman. It just feels right. I love The Berlin Trilogy with Bowie. I understand chunks of three. 

What's next?

“Now we have no idea what we are going to do and it is absolutely… We could just be a synth band on the next record.”

• Queens Of The Stone Age's ‘The End Is Nero’ Arena Tour Begins In The UK At Manchester's AO Arena on 14 November. Last remaining tickets are available here 
• In Times New Roman is out now via Matador.

Some bands are defined by a single voice or instrument, be it the frontman, the guitarist, bassist or drummer. Queens of the Stone Age are a band where no matter which way you lean, there’s a wealth of inspiration to be found. It’s a unique sound that holds the Holy Grail of simultaneously appealing to fans of each instrument, as well as producing actual songs that people can sing along with.

But, there’s no doubt that Queens of the Stone Age is every bit a drummer’s band. One that has had a strong pedigree of people holding down the groove. But for 10 years, Jon Theodore has not only held it down — faithfully adopting the styles of the drummers who came before him — but also putting his own stamp on one of contemporary rock’s best-loved catalogues, while also contributing to its continued evolution.

Jon Theodore’s entrance into QOTSA was quick, replacing Joey Castillo at the tail end of the recording sessions for …Like Clockwork — the band’s fifth album that would begin a trilogy of QOTSA records for Matador Records. “Troy called me to say that I should come down” he told us in 2014. “I was like, ‘I’ll be right there’. I brought my drums over in my truck and had a list of tunes to learn…”

Sessions for the album had all but wrapped, with Theodore arriving in time to cut drums on the title track. 10 years on, and he now has two full-lengths to his name with the band: 2017’s Villains, with pop producer, Mark Ronson at the helm, and this year’s triumphant return, In Times New Roman…

The latter was produced by the band themselves, with — by his own admission — a palpable contrast in sound and feel between the two. Both holding equal merit, the former was a heavily refined exercise in sonic and arrangement perfection, while making the latter, according to Theodore was like ‘going into the basement for band practice in the 90s.”

With QOTSA’s The End is Nero tour currently rolling through Europe like a drop-tuned juggernaut, we caught up with Jon Theodore to take stock on the last decade and find out why he’s fallen back in love with traditional wood drums, how Queens of the Stone Age feels “like home” and why he’d choose to shoot Dave Grohl’s intro from Song For The Dead into space…

It’s been 10 years and three album cycles since you joined QOTSA, how do you feel you’ve evolved over this time?

"On a personal level, I feel like it's been a really, super cool evolution. After playing drums my whole life pretty much, to be able to jump right into a whole different ocean. When I joined the band, Like Clockwork was pretty much finished, we just did one track [with me drumming]. 

"I basically started by going from being a fan of the band to actually learning how to play everything from the first six records. So it was really eye-opening to sort of inhabit each vibe and sounds from all the drummers that have been before me. 

"It was a really great chance for me to broaden my horizons in a way that I probably wouldn't have if it wasn't part of the necessary requirements to be in the band. I would say, going from learning everything to actually counting the band in and starting to play it on stage in front of the fans — who at that point knew it better than I did — it's a pretty eye opening experience, just to jump right in. 

"When we did Villains, that was the first time I really got to experience the recording process with the band. In much the same way as when I was just learning all the material, it was a very steep learning curve. 

"By the time it came time to do In Times New Roman…, I feel like I was able to take all that experience of recording, playing shows, really getting to gel with the rest of the band and the personalities, and really channel it in a way that, for the first time felt like I could really be myself in this framework of being a Queen, you know? 

"Things that are challenging and worthwhile take a lot of time. I've certainly put my time in at this point and I'm finally able to kind of, not sit back, but at least enjoy it. I'm really having like more fun now than I've ever had in these past 10 years."

It feels like In Times New Roman… shows off multiple sides of your playing that fans of your other projects will be familiar with too…

"Yeah, I like to play as much as possible, in as many different situations as possible, just because I love listening to all kinds of music. So every chance I get - it's like, if I can play music with someone, that's even more meaningful than just a regular friendship. 

"So, I'm always trying to have that interaction. But yeah, I feel like all those other experiences definitely stay with you forever. It just adds to your sort of repertoire and your frame of reference. It just enriches the material from which you can draw when you're working on stuff. It gives you a bigger palette, more colours to work with.

You’re the fifth drummer in the band. Do you still view the different eras as ‘This is a Gene Trautmann part, or a Dave Grohl or Joey Castillo part’? Or does it feel more like your own now? 

"Well, I think in a way, I kind of like inhabit…instead of it being a mental or cerebral thing, I've been like internalising it over the years. So I think at this point I've normalised most things into my own sort of approach. 

"I play everything from my own vantage point at this point. I think over the years, I've probably internalised the aspects of every other drummer's approach that I think are the most meaningful, or the ones that I can actually honour with my approach.

"At first, it was real cerebral, and I really had to try and adjust to try and approximate the different styles. But now, it's like studying those drummers so carefully has kind of helped me import the parts of their approach that I can really identify and connect with and add them to mine. So now it's like one big, kind of giant robot made of everybody."

Was there a particular song which predates your time in the band, that was a challenge or a more alien style to what you were used to?

"The way I approach things, every single note that's ever been played before me is its own unique challenge. My goal is to really get into it so deeply that I can that I can try and actually, hear what those players were hearing so that I can really honour it. 

"To that end, I didn't prioritise any person or era over any other. They all presented their own unique challenges, and I treated them all with the same level of respect and honour that I could. I just kind of jumped into it all and tried to like to do the best I could in every situation. 

"So that's the truth, something that you would consider very simple, didn't always feel simpler to me. Every aspect of [QOTSA's catalogue] presents its own set of challenges, so it's like a never ending kind of challenge. It's fun. I still have to try, you know? Nothing is really that second nature." 

Similarly, is there a song or part since you joined that you feel represents your playing the best?

"I don't know, that's hard to say. Because I feel like they're all like, my little children. I love them all for different reasons. I love some of them because it's a version of me that I would never be able to access without the input of these guys. 

"Other ones I feel sound more naturally like what I would do if I was alone. I think all of In Times New Roman…, more or less. This new record is definitely my favourite. The main reason is because it was finally a point where we were doing full takes. 

"When I listen to it, it sounds like you're standing in the room next to us. There's a very limited number of overdubs, there's only a few songs that took more than two or three takes, so it feels like a real return to the roots of what got me interested in making music in the first place. 

"It’s like the way that we used to make music back in the day, when there was just tape machines. You had to be good enough to just cut the song, and then if it wasn't great, you had to do it again until you got it right. 

"I feel like, especially in this era of computerised everything, where you can fix everything, it was a real sort of personal triumph to be able to get to the place where I felt confident enough to be able to be loose in the moment. 

"There's a lot of things that happened on those takes for the first time, while the tape was rolling. We were so all over each other synergistically that it really sounds special to me. So I guess I would say the whole new record."

How did that way of working compare to making Villains with Mark Ronson behind the desk?

"It was the opposite, in a lot of ways. In Times New Roman… was pretty much just us. For Villains we had Mark Ronson, and we had Mark Rankin. So there were always multiple other inputs. 

"We did some unorthodox recording techniques, like tracking the drums without the cymbals. It was really the first time I'd ever approached making a record that way. We really hyper-produced that record. So it was very like hyper-vigilant. It wasn't loose in any way, it was very calculated.

"We spent so much time choosing drums, choosing heads, moving drums from room to room, switching studios. We were always chasing down this sort of perfection. Every drum was considered, every room was considered and we built every song from the ground up. Which bass drum, which snare drum, which rack tom, no cymbals… 

"Then, as far as writing and arranging, every single ‘I’ was dotted and ’T’ was crossed, and we did 100 takes of all the songs. We just played it into the ground until it was as perfect as we could get it, and that did something super cool. 

"In Times New Roman… was the complete opposite. We were like, ‘This is us. The world is gonna end, let's just turn these lights off and have at it’. That was so liberating. So they were pretty polar opposite in terms of approach."

That comes through, even in the sound of the kit, they're much bigger, with more tone and resonance…

"Yeah, on Villains we were putting baffling between the drums so that each mic was totally isolated, there were no cymbals. On In Times New Roman… I think, one of the tunes there were like, three mics on the drums. I can't remember which one it was. But yeah, we just took the opposite approach and it was refreshing." 

It’s arguably a more riff-y album, and QOTSA drum parts often follow and weave around the riffs closely. Obscenery does this, then opens up into the straighter, off-beat ride pattern. How did that come about? 

"That verse beat was Josh's idea. He's got this crazy idiosyncratic approach to drums. He really thinks about it. He's a great drummer, but the thing that makes him so great is that he approaches drums like someone who doesn't play drums. So he's not ever restricted by those sort of 'standards'. 

"He had the idea for the verse beat that we worked out. For the most part, the way we approach it is each one of us is going to be like a piston in the motor. We're all going to get specific enough about our parts that when we put it all together it locks up. That's what's special about this band, I think. 

"So that part, if you listen to it by itself is kind of elemental and kind of kooky. But when you put it together in juxtaposition with the guitar riff and then the bassline, it makes this cool popcorn that feels like a motor. 

"So instantly once we started down that road, it locked itself in pretty quickly. There's a lot of variations in there that I just kicked up during the take that were slightly off balance. 

"Then the chorus groove kicking in, it's hard to make the jump conceptually to like, the 'tang and the hump' - the ride bell, you know?! But once you make the commitment to it, then you’ve gotta go all the way in. 

"At first we were messing around with just crashing it, and then using a China, and then it became clear that it had to be that offbeat ride thing. Once we got there, it was pretty easy. Then the way those choruses kind of double-time themselves is a cool way to make a variation in what would normally just be a disco beat. 

"Not to mention, I used some really super wackadoodle tiny hi-hats that I had no stand for, so I just put them on a stand off by the floor tom. I locked them down, closed super tight. I was like, 'Let me try this!' 

"Then within an hour of trying that, we had recorded it. That opened this possibility my brain. It was completely unrehearsed, it was just something that happened in the moment and it ended up opening up this channel in me that made something come down that was unique in the moment." 

Negative Space sounds like a lot of fun to play, is that you getting to unleash your inner Bonham a little bit?

"Oh, yeah dude! Again, it was Josh's was idea to play on the rim, instead of a hi-hat. know. As soon as you change the frame of reference, just slightly, it completely deconstructs everything. So suddenly there's all this space in between all these backbeats to do whatever the fuck I want with the bass drum. 

"I sort of knew, generally what the beat was supposed to be like, but I didn't really know the arrangement in my brain while we were tracking it. So I was just kind of reacting and feeling my way through the verses. 

"The verses were kind of free-styling. But we had really locked that chorus beat down. Same thing, it just came up very quickly. I just have to pretend that like I'm not just trying to be John Bonham!"

The way the drums kick in on Time and Place completely flip where you think the downbeat is. How did that come about?

"Well, that's my favourite thing about Queens, there's a lot of moments that happen like that, and that one came from a demo that Josh made. He was like, 'Here, check this out. I made this demo.' and then the drums dropped. We're all like, 'What?!' 

"So once I understood that, I was able to take that and run with it. I tried to basically make it as 'New York City, 1979' as possible. I tried to imagine it was a Talking Heads song, or Liquid Liquid or ESG or something. I wanted to it to be like, 'art school dance party'. 

"I would just try and keep it as locked with that bassline as possible, and I tried to only add fills that supported the vocal arrangement. That bridge that happens, the like, dropped bridge in the middle -  I remember I just started jamming it. 

"Josh was like, 'That's dope. You should do that in the middle.' I think we'd already done a take of the song so it was really a very fresh idea. It's kind of like a miracle that it happened and works. But again, if you had that overcooked, it would sound contrived. So that bridge is another special place for me on the record."

It sounds like you had a lot of freedom to experiment as a band. Do you think self-producing In Times New Roman…at Pink Duck gave you that?

"Definitely. Plus, we weren't consciously spending thousands of dollars a day on a really fancy studio where Jay-Z's in the other room or whatever. Or you know, you drive up, and there's assistants on salary, bringing food. It's a massive production, and it's such a massive expense to go do it in that way. 

"But when we do it in our own place it feels like going in the basement for band practice back in the ’90s. So there is a liberating aspect to doing it ourselves. We had Robert Stevenson engineering, and he's a good friend of ours, he's such a pleasure to be around. 

"So it was really just us. If it wasn't happening, we just left and came back when it was, so it was like a very natural approach."

Are there any songs from In Times New Roman…that you haven't played live yet that you're looking forward to playing?

"We played Obscenery for the first time last night. I think the only ones we haven't played so far are Sicily and What the Peephole Say. It's funny, normally you make a record and you choose four or five of the new songs, but because of the way this record came down, we could play any of them. 

"We've been talking about getting the other two together. Those are the only two left and I imagine we might even play them on this tour. There's so many records now, it's hard. There's so many songs! 10 songs from the new record means we're probably only playing 10 other songs."

You’ve started playing Song For The Dead again after a short break. Obviously that’s a Dave Grohl part, but what’s it like playing such a well known drum intro?

"Dude, are you fucking kidding?! It's fucking iconic, man. Every time I just start the hi-hat. I'm like, ‘Fuck yeah, this is gonna be…’ I can't believe I get to play this fucking song. You know? That intro, for me it's one of the most memorable drum intros of all time. 

"The whole song…it's relentless! It just keeps on going. There's so many super cool moments and hooks from the drums there. It's so much fun to play. It sucks that it's last all the time, because I'm already fucking smoked by then and it's one of the more challenging numbers to play, physically. 

"We gave it a rest, pretty much for the first time since that record came out. I think it's been the last song of the set for 20 years. But it's always a fucking a dream to play, because it's also one of those iconic Queens songs. 

"If you had to make a gold record of Queens to shoot into space, that song would certainly be on it. You could probably just put that song and it’d be fine."

Have you noticed a difference since it had a resurgence with viral social media posts? 

"You know, a lot of times people send me stuff like that, but I just don't really like to watch it. Don't get me wrong, I love the internet. I love the socials, but I like to look at mountains and surfing and baby animals and my friends doing stuff. 

"But there's this new thing, which is musicians just playing alone in their room, being awesome at something for 15 seconds. It's super impressive, but it's just…Maybe it's because I'm old and I have a kid and another one about to come, but I want music to be memorable. 

"I want it to be a song that elevates my spirit or that touches me or something that really resonates. For the most part, just watching a drummer or a guitar player just play another song, that's great. But that's what you do in your bedroom or in your basement. 

"So with all due respect, because there's so many incredibly talented people who do that shit, I just couldn't care less. I would rather spend my time looking at like, surfing or motorcycles or baby seals or something."

You’ve been playing Ludwig drums for a while now, and took part in the Vistalite’s 50th Anniversary promo last year. What’s your current setup?

"I've always loved Ludwig the most, but I never had any new Ludwigs. I had some old ratty wood Ludwig's that wouldn't stand up to any road use. When I joined the band, I only had a vintage Stainless Steel set of Ludwigs, which are still the sickest. 

"I had those and a Fibes acrylic set. Josh was like, 'You should get some wood drums.' Someone I knew was like, 'Oh, I know the DW guys.' So I got some new DW's, which are killer, but you know, I've always loved Ludwigs. 

"It was great to switch to wood drums as I joined the band, but then as soon as I got the chance, I wanted to move out of that, and I wanted to get some Vistalites. For me Vistalites are only Ludwigs, so I met the Ludwig guy, Uli and I was like, 'Dude, I always wanted to get a set of Vistalites' and he said, 'Call me anytime'. 

"So, I respectfully told the DW guys, you know, thank you so much for everything. It's not you, it's me. From there, I wanted to try a wood set that had a really hard bearing edge and projected really well. I hadn't really used wood drums (apart from the DWs) since the '90s. 

"I played on a set that my friend had, that I think were Tama. They were just so massive, and they projected and were so crisp and clear. I was like, 'Man, this is incredible'. So I asked Uli, 'Do you have drums that sound like this?' He came to LA and set up a whole shoot-out of drums. I sat down on these Classic Maple drums and instantly I was like, 'Oh my god, this is like exactly…' it was like a revelation for me. 

"So he was kind enough to make me some, and it's changed everything for me. I got a bigger bass drum. I don't need any muffling on them, they're tuned wide open and they are just like, clear and loud. They have great tone and they project really well and and they look super dope too. 

"They're so good, they're fucking amazing. Actually, when I brought them into the room for the first time, everyone was like, 'Holy shit! What are those drums?' I was like, ‘Yeah, I know’. 

"So yeah, that's my new setup. Ludwig, Classic Maple. I'm a purist, I just like the classic sizes. The kick drum is 24”x14”, rack tom is 13”x9”, then the floor toms are 16”x16” and 18”x16”. I’ve used a 14”x6.5” Supraphonic for years. But yeah, I'm pretty much like, standard when it comes to sizes and materials and stuff.

"Then I still have the Zildjian cymbals because my friend Kirsten always lets me turn in all the broken stuff and get whatever new stuff I want! I don't like the super shiny ones, usually. 

"I like the ones that are a little more classic, sonically and also visually so playing I'm playing all Ks pretty much. And then the rest of the stuff is the same. I'm still playing Vic Firth sticks and Remo heads. The DW hardware still the best, so I get all that stuff from those guys because they're kind enough to still you know…talk to me even though I don't use their drums anymore.

Do you have electronics in your setup?

"We use Roland triggers on the on the drums to trigger gates at front of house. So we don't trigger any drum sounds, but we use them to control the gates. And then and those run through the Roland TM-6. 

"Then I also have the the SPD-SX, because there's a few songs where I have samples like those strings swells in Feet Don't Fail Me Now. I have a second pedal next to my hi-hat, which I use for the claps in The Way You Used To Do. 

"I was like, 'Why don't we just record a clap, and I'll play along?' And Josh was like, 'Nope!'. I said, 'I can only play it with my left foot.' and he's like, 'Well do that then!' It's so fucking hard! So, I have to play a clap with my left foot all the time.

"Then sometimes, like in I'm Designer, there's those claps and I hit those on a pad. We don't have any like sequences or click tracks or anything. There's no pre-recorded track stuff. I just have like little accents or other sounds that I hit."

Finally, you’ve been in the band for as long — or longer — than any other drummer. Does QOTSA feel like home?

I'm definitely the best one, ok? Let's just be clear. I'm definitely the best. Just playing! I don't think I've ever been in a band for 10 years. Come to think of it, I don't know if I've done anything for 10 years. Yeah, it feels like home, man. These guys are my brothers and my best friends, they’re the people that I always want to see and hang out with. 

"Being part of this, and watching it grow, as we’ve evolved and being more and more involved in the creation of things, I feel very invested. I feel like it's mine. I mean, I feel like it's mine as much as everybody else's. [Laughing] It’s my band, ok?"

Queens Of The Stone Age's ‘The End Is Nero’ Arena Tour Begins In The UK At Manchester's AO Arena on 14th November. Last remaining tickets are available here.

Funny Little Boxes has unveiled a compact distortion pedal that offers the “thunderous sound of Queens Of The Stone Age in a box”. 

A two-hander between the English guitar effects pedal company and the Let’s Play All YouTube channel, the Skeleton Key is based around an op-amp driven circuit, controlled by a simple three-knob setup, and it promises to be the secret that legions of guitar players have been searching for – Josh Homme's guitar tone.

This is the boldest of claims. There are no shortage of theories and recommendations when it comes to his Queens Of The Stone Age electric guitar sound. 

Type “How to nail Josh Homme’s guitar tones” into your Google search bar and you’ll get “About 5,610,000” results, and even then that seems like a conservative estimate from the algorithm. This is a subject that has captured the imagination of countless guitar players ever since Homme came out of the desert with the big sky riffing of Kyuss. 

Homme’s tones are warm, kind of woolly, kind of fuzzy, analogue, old-school and yet never having really existed before he came on the scene. They are so prized that when players got wind that a Peavey Decade was used by Homme in the studio, prices for the practice amp rocketed – even if any of Peavey’s solid-state practice combos could have performed a similar job. 

In April 2022, Acorn Amps replicated that Peavey Decade mojo in a stompbox with the Solid State – a preamp pedal marketed to Homme superfans. Still the search continues. Homme’s tone is a Mona Lisa smile for guitar players. It’s Big Foot. It’s the Loch Ness Monster. It’s a mystery that won’t quit. 

Even if Funny Little Boxes’ Skeleton Key opens the door to his rhythm sounds, we’ll wager that the search will still continue. But listening to the demo video, in which the scratchy hot-wool of the No One Knows riff is played on a Charvel Superstrat and sounds… well, convincing, this Skeleton Key is definitely worth investigating.

It’s also inexpensive, priced £99 and available direct from Funny Little Boxes. It has top-mounted jacks on an enclosure that’s painted pillar-box red and emblazoned with custom artwork from Queens Of The Stone Age artist Boneface, and it is fairly straightforward, with Gain, Tone and Volume controls for dialling in a sound. 

That sound encompasses tones from across Homme's QOTSA catalogue, from the early hits of their eponymous debut, through the Rated R/Songs For The Deaf era to the present day with Paper Machete.

“The QOTSA sound has had guitarists forking out on expensive amps and pedals for years and still left them wanting,” says Funny Little Boxes. “Want no more as the Skeleton Key unlocks them.”

You can judge for yourself in the demo video above. And find our more at Funny Little Boxes.

• Queens of the Stone Age engineer Eric Valentine on how Dave Grohl recorded drums on No One Knows: "It did sound ridiculous before we replaced the cymbal samples with the real ones"

We've heard about how the drums were recorded on Queens Of The Stone Age's classic No One Knows, but it's time to give the guitar players something to get stuck into. But be prepared: this Josh Homme riff needs a steady fret hand with a strong fourth finger.

To capture the energy and drive of this riff you'll need to pick hard and use a combination of palm and fret-hand muting to bring each stab to an abrupt stop. To mute with the fret hand, you'll need to relax your fretting fingers enough to stop the strings ringing. For pick hand palm muting, simply rest the side of your hand on the strings beside the bridge after each stab. Check out the riff lesson video below. 

The main riff is based on a C minor barre chord at the 8th position, while your fourth finger adds a melody line. You need a strong first finger to barre across the strings, and coordination in your fourth finger to add the melody notes. Practise slowly until it starts to feel more natural.

Josh Homme has revealed he was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and underwent surgery to remove it. The Queens Of The Stone Age frontman shared his diagnosis in a recent interview with Revolver, and said that he expected to make a full recovery

Homme did not share many details, other than to say that the procedure was successful and that he was still healing. He has performed twice with Queens Of The Stone Age this year, with the band’s much-anticipated new album, In Times New Roman… scheduled for release this Friday through Matador.

“I never say it can't get any worse,” he said. “I never say that, and I wouldn't advise it. But I do say it can get better. Cancer is just the cherry on top of an interesting time period, you know? I’m extremely thankful that I’ll get through this, and I’ll look back at this as something that’s fucked up – but will have made me better. I’m cool with that. There's a lot of stuff I want to do. And there’s a lot of people I want to do that with.”

The interview is one of the few times we have heard from Homme in recent years, in which he has been making headlines for his acrimonious divorce from Brody Dalle. Homme told Revolver he “felt chained to the floor for the last three years”, and that he didn’t necessarily want to make a record but it seemed as good a course of therapy as any.

• Funny Little Boxes has revealed its £99 follow-up to the 1991 overdrive pedal and QOTSA / Josh Homme fans are going to want one

In Times New Roman… is QOTSA’s first since 2017’s Villains. It was recorded in California at Homme’s own Pink Duck Studios, in Burbank, and down by the coast in Malibu at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios. The band handled the production themselves, with Mark Rankin returning to mix the record.

Earlier today, QOTSA debuted new track, Carnavoyeur – a louche groover with a late-night after hours feel and with Michael Shuman’s bass guitar all distorted and gnarly through what sounds like it could be a Mu-Tron III or similar. There is a lot of cool electric guitar sounds on the track, too.

Carnavoyeur is the second song to be shared ahead of the album’s release. Emotion Sickness shambled out the gate with a classic QOTSA rhythm, rock you can dance to, with psychedelic big sky moments. If Emotion Sickness is a good-times open-air jam, Carnavoyeur sounds like it might be foreshadowing some of the darkness we’ll find on the new album.

In the same interview, drummer Jon Theodore said some of these tracks were captured in the first or second take, or when the tape was rolling and they kept on playing. “It was really liberating and as an experience it brought us closer together,” he said. “There was real joy, there was passion, there was fire.”

In Times New Roman…. is available to preorder and is out Friday 16 June through Matador. You can read more from Homme at Revolver.

We are big fans of Funny Little Boxes' debut release, the 1991 overdrive pedal. Inspired by the tones of Pearl Jam's Ten album, the £99 pink wonder clearly struck a chord with plenty of other players after its 2021 release and FLB's Andy Ilgunas had to work overtime alongside his collaborators to meet the demand. But even in our glowing 1991 pedal review we couldn't help wondering what would come next. Well now we know, and we're very excited!

It's called Skeleton Key and it aims to deliver some of the holy grail drive tones of Josh Homme in Queens Of The Stone Age. These guys clearly like a challenge!

Andy describes Skeleton Key is "an op amp-based distortion pedal with a unique voice and specifically tuned gain stages so that when you put it between your amp and down tuned, humbucker loaded guitar you can nail a range of the incredible tones on offer throughout the QOTSA back catalogue."

Last year saw Andy undergoing treatment for cancer, and he's now physically recovered, but when he restarted work on the original planned follow-up to 1991 – a pedal that's still in the works – but things took a different turn.

"Trying to jump back in where we left off after a three-month break is migraine-inducing and though I sit with breadboard and oscilloscope in front of me, for hour after hour, I make little progress," explains Andy in his introduction to Skeleton Key. 

"All the while, there is a nagging in the back in my mind, a sensation of something persistently tugging me away from what I am trying to work on and toward something else," he continues. "Eventually it takes over.

"Instead of working on nailing the circuit I have at this point invested hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds in I find myself starting afresh with a couple of op amps and no set direction or even clear idea of what I am doing; working on pure instinct in an attempt to satisfy the hammering in my head.

"After a week I have something. In terms of the circuit topology, it is completely unremarkable, but the sound it produces is exceptional. Visceral and thrilling."

The timing ended up being fortuitous after a difficult few months. Around the same time QOTSA announced the reissue of their self-titled debut album and Andy put it on for a listen.

"And there it is, in the first track Regular John," he recalls. "That same hammering, relentless onslaught that I have had bludgeoning my brain for the past few weeks."

Refocussed on this new pedal design, Andy made rapid progress with Matt Webster offering feedback through testing.  But as Homme fans know, a QOTSA pedal is not an easily-deliverable task. Andy knows this too.

"Although a lot of QOTSA songs contain what are ostensibly very similar sounds, there are several sonic nuances that feature, and which are not easily captured," he acknowledges. "There’s a reason Josh Homme’s tones are so hard to nail."

One element is Homme's Peavey Decade amp.

"Let us be clear, this is not a clone of that amp," Andy states. "Whereas it is verified that the Decade has been used throughout the making of several QOTSA records, the fact is it is only a single part of the sound as a whole and I remain unconvinced that the Decade alone can truly capture the QOTSA sound."

"The tricky thing with capturing QOTSA’s sound is that it is often not what you think it is and due to the general veil of secrecy that has surrounded the band and how they record there is no magic key for unlocking their sound," he continues.

Andy and Matt have spent long hours "forensically listening" to QOSTA songs and comparing to the circuit of the Skeleton Key as it developed. Constantly refining it.

 "The most important part of any circuit is the gain staging," he explains. "This posed one of the biggest challenges in the circuit’s development.

"You might be surprised but, for such a powerful sound, the QOTSA guitar tone isn’t that high gain. I have lost count of the number of times I sat on the floor of Matt’s studio while he would play the current iteration of the circuit and take off his headphones only to say, 'There’s still too much gain'.

The adjustments continued.

"This would then present a new set of problems in how the adjusted gain would affect the EQ," admits Andy. "The tone and gain controls in this pedal are highly interactive with each other so the development of it has mainly revolved around a delicate balancing act of the two."

But he says the final result has been "worth every second". "A particular point of pride has been capturing the guitar tone on First it Giveth," he reveals. "Which is a pretty individual tone within the QOTSA canon.

"The high levels of interactivity between the gain and tone controls have been the key to being able to dial in just the right amount of gain and treble to nail it."

The result is a pedal Andy and Matt have every confidence in. "As I said earlier there was no such key to easily unlock the QOTSA guitar sound," says Andy. "But there is now that we have made one."

The artwork for Skelton Key is even provided by Boneface, who has worked on QITSA albums from Villains onwards. 

Andy has even offered some pointers on dialling in the tones for specific Queens songs.

"Start with everything at noon and you are in No One Knows and Little Sister territory. From there you only need a few tweaks of the gain and tone control to access everything from Lost Art of Keeping a Secret to First It Giveth and beyond.

Preorders are now open for a limited run of 100 Skeleton Key pedals at £99 each ahead of its general release, and even though there isn't a firm date for dispatch, FLB are working to a timeframe of approximately five weeks.

More info at Funny Little Boxes. 

Billy Gibbons’ beard is the stuff of legend. It’s iconic. It is to the Texan blues-rock shuffle what Elvis’ white jumpsuit is to rock ’n’ roll. But Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme has revealed that the ZZ Top frontman’s beard is more than just a look. When he and Gibbons were jamming, Gibbons played a harmonic with his beard.

Homme was in conversation with Marc Maron for his WTF Podcast when he shared this moment of electric guitar history. The story goes back to 2004, and the sessions for QOTSA’s Lullabies To Paralyze. Being a huge ZZ Top fan, Homme was desperate to play with Gibbons and made the approach. 

“For me, that was one of the huge moments of my career,” said Homme. “Really, at the time he hadn’t really jammed with many outsiders in years, and luckily there were some people at his management who were into Queens. I got him in there under the guise of doing [ZZ Top’s] Precious And Grace but then I said, ‘But I have this thing…’”

Precious And Grace duly got recorded, with Gibbons performing lead vocals with Mark Lanegan, but that thing Homme had in mind was Burn The Witch, and he wanted Gibbons to take a solo over it. As Homme tells it, they were jamming it out and the beard did the rest.

“When was playing the lead on that song, his beard gently floated down and hit the strings and it made a harmonic with his beard,” said Homme. “I swear. It’s on film. And I literally grabbed him by the shoulders, I’m shaking Billy Gibbons, ‘Dude, you did the first ever beard harmonic!’”

Homme and Maron went on to speak about the influence of ZZ Top, with Homme admitting to using the early recordings as a reference for drum sounds. “It’s such a great drum sound,” he said. “It’s tight, dry, sort of vacuous, beautiful sound. I’ve used it as a sonic reference when I’m in the studio for what to chase after. I love all that stuff.”

Once Gibbons entered the QOTSA inner circle, Homme took the opportunity to ask him how he executed one of his signature licks.

“He’s got this certain lick that only he does,” said Homme, humming the lick. “And I was always like, ‘How?’ I said, ‘I deserve to know what that is. Because I can play [it] but there’s a way that you’re doing it.’ He’ll bend a note and then tap, like Eddie Van Halen’s tapping on the neck but he’s doing it once, and holding it. And instead of a million taps, it’s one. It was so simple I was like, ‘You’re fucking kidding me.’ [Laughs] It was so awesome.”

You can check out full conversation below and subscribe to WTF With Marc Maron here.

That Joey Castillo has been the driving force powering Queens Of The Stone Age for almost a decade is testament to his technique, ability and staying power.

The first six years of the stoner rock-pioneers’ career saw four drummers take up residency at the band’s Spinal Tap-esque revolving drum throne. Not only that, but with Queens mainman Josh Homme and long-time guitarist Troy van Leeuwen both also accomplished drummers, this is one demanding job.

But Castillo has made himself indispensable to the cause, not only with his breathless raw power and fluid technicality, but also thanks to the incredible musical bond he has developed with Homme, who he also replaced as drummer for Eagles Of Death Metal.

Since his arrival in Queens in 2002, which of course saw him step into Dave Grohl’s shoes, Joey has headed out on three world tours with the band and enjoyed commercial success with 2005’s Lullabies To Paralyze and its follow-up Era Vulgaris.

Four years on from dropping their last record, Joey and the Queens return regrouped, recharged and ready to hit the studio later this year. They got back into the groove with a recent sold-out European tour promoting the re-release of their seminal, self-titled debut album.

Rhythm Magazine caught up with Joey while he and the boys were in London for what would prove to be a masterclass in band dynamics and drums/guitar interplay.

Here we bring you shots of Joey’s drum setup along with extracts from that interview, which you can read in full in Rhythm 193. Or you can subscribe to Rhythm Magazine to read interviews with the world’s top drummers each month.

• Find your next setup with our guide to the best drum kits

DW Jazz Series: 24x16-inch kick drum; 14x10-inch rack tom; 18x16-inch floor tom.

What have you got in mind, kit-wise, for the new record?

“In the past we’ve set up kits based around the songs. I’ve had a couple of kits set-up here and there, one that’s a trashy-sounding kit and one that’s kind of a big kit.

“Myself, I really love my live-sounding kit because of the fact that I’m competing with four guitars basically and keys. Me and my soundman Hutch have done a lot of experimenting in finding something that cuts and that can compete with that many mids and that much high end. I think we’ve nailed it.”

14x8-inch Sonor snare.

Joey on his prized snare:

“The snare I use is a 14x8-inch that actually belonged to Chuck Biscuits. It’s completely banged up. It’s a total mess and my tech every time says, ‘Can we fix this?’ but I have to leave it exactly as is.

“It’s not a true round diameter anymore but it’s a great, great snare. I love it and it works amazingly. Chuck’s my guy. I’ve seen every band he was in and he really is the guy who inspired me most. He was somebody I was able to see and get close to multiple times and he blew me away. He’s amazing.”

Zildjian: 24-inch K Light ride; 21-inch Prototype K crash; 19-inch K Hybrid crash; 14-inch Soundmaster hi-hats.

Joey on his stripped-back setup:

“I’m always up for experimenting, but I really enjoy the basic set-up of a rack and a floor and couple of cymbals. At the same time with Eagles [Of Death Metal] there’s no rack tom, it’s floor tom, kick, snare, two cymbals and a couple of percussion pieces.

“I think ultimately down the line it forces you to be a little more creative with less. I know the less-is-more thing is a cliché, but I know what I do best - I can get the most out of what I use.

“But I’m always up for adding some colour to the kit and willing to try something someone else uses that I don’t. Live I use two crashes, a ride and a set of hats and occasionally I throw a china in for a couple of songs. That’s really about it.”

Latin Percussion 160 Cyclops Tambourine; Latin Percussion cowbell; Remo Black Dot heads; DW hardware: 6710 straight cymbal stands; DW 9000 bass pedal; Vic Firth Super 5B sticks.

How about your drum sound for the recording sessions?

“I really enjoy the single-head drum sound. The old-style concert toms. My kit basically is black dot heads on top and no bottom heads, so the concert tom sound. It seems to work really well. We’ve had a lot of great compliments and people have commented on the sound we’re getting.

“I like that dry, in-your-face kind of sound. It’s not a pretty sound, but I think it’s a really amazing sound for the band. Like anything, it wouldn’t work for everybody but it really works for what we’re doing.

“I’m actually really looking forward to recording that way [using concert toms]. Some songs on Era Vulgaris are that way but not all of them. That’s all my plan for now. Obviously a big dry drum sound is what I love, but we’ll see.

“It’s always a game with Queens and it’s always something different for each song. Each song always holds something - we try to anyway. I’m sure it’ll be something weird with something going on with the drums, it always is.

“For the tone I use just a little bit of Moongel for the rack and the floor. For the snares I use a ring with a bit of Moongel.”

It seems you like to write parts around Josh Homme’s guitar and there is a great chemistry between the two of you in that respect:

“Yeah. Josh loves drums and he’s a drummer himself and so I think with the Queens Of The Stone Age especially, it is a very guitar and drum-driven band. With the chemistry, there’s the things I know the band do really well live - stopping on a dime and turning things around - which is really with all of us.

“As a player you speak this language with people you’re playing with. It’s unspeakable but you are able to communicate with people that you’re playing with and you know what’s going on.

“Having played with Josh this long now, I can feel when he wants to push or sit back on something or if he wants to turn on something, it’s pretty apparent.”

Now pick-up Rhythm’s current issue 194 featuring an in-depth interview with Biffy Clyro sticksman Ben Johnston. Or subscribe to Rhythm here for a monthly dose of new gear reviews, kit buying guides, pro drum lessons and all-star interviews.

Liked this? Now read: Queens Of The Stone Age: Rated R (Rx reissue) track-by-track review

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With Glastonbury Festival kicking-off properly today, we thought we'd bring you a countdown of 10 classic performances that the MusicRadar team have witnessed at Worthy Farm over the past decade. All with video, of course, so you can relive these great festival highlights with us.

Think we've missed anything or are way off the mark? What are your favourite festival performances from the last decade? Let us now via Facebook, Twitter or the comments section below. And if you're at Glastonbury this weekend keep us updated with what you're up to via the same means.

First up: ?

10. Arcade Fire - Other Stage, 2007

It feels like Arcade Fire should have played Glastonbury more times than they actually have - their multi-instrument, semi-choral brand of indie rock seems like the perfect fit for Eavis' fields.

Yet they've only actually appeared once, playing the Other Stage while touring their second album, Neon Bible, in 2007. The show was worth the wait though.

9. The XX - John Peel Stage, 2010

A high-profile Glastonbury set can really separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to up-and-coming, hyped-up bands.

When The XX played in 2010 - performing sets on both the John Peel and Park stages over the weekend - they cemented their place as one of the most exciting new bands to emerge over recent years. Turning songs that were unknown to most just months before into emotional, crowd-bonding moments of brilliance.

8. Elbow - Other Stage, 2008

After years of not-quite breaking through into the mainstream consciousness, Elbow's 2008 Mercury-winning album The Seldom Seen Kid finally saw the band reach the wider audience they deserved.

Their set on the Other Stage was timed perfectly with this gear shift. And the band playing One Day like This with an orchestral backing as the sun finally came out on a cloudy afternoon made for a perfect festival atmosphere.

7. Flaming Lips - Pyramid Stage, 2003

Back in 2003, The Flaming Lips took to the Pyramid Stage directly before Radiohead's Saturday night headline set.

Despite being active since the mid-1980s, it was only at the turn of the millennium, with the release of '99's The Soft Bulletin and 2002's Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, that the Flaming Lips found commercial success. Their '03 set saw the Lips performing their brilliantly eccentric live show - complete with animal costume-clad dancers, confetti canons and giant inflatable suns - to a larger audience than ever before. And they didn't fail to deliver.

6. White Stripes - Pyramid Stage, 2002

The White Stripes headlined the Pyramid Stage in 2005, stepping up to the plate and giving the sort of awe-inspiring headline performance you'd expect from the duo.

But their best Glastonbury performance came three years earlier, when the band performed the Pyramid Stage mid-afternoon. Touring their third album White Blood Cells at the time, the duo played a set that was, on the surface, much more low-key than their later headlining performance would be.

The stage set-up consisted of just Meg on drums and Jack on guitar and vocals. But the lack of stage props and extra instruments did nothing but draw attention to the raw, garage-rock power of the duo's music.

5. Leonard Cohen - Pyramid Stage, 2008

For years Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage has played host to 'veteran' artists on the Sunday afternoon (the likes of James Brown, Brian Wilson and Shirley Bassey have all played the slot).

But few of these classic artists can match the emotional singalongs inspired by dark crooner Leonard Cohen. His rendition of Hallelujah in 2008 - performed hunched over in front of a rapturous crowd - was a true Glasto classic.

Unfortunately, Cohen asked not to be filmed at the festival, so the footage above is the best we have.

4. Queens Of The Stone Age - Other Stage, 2002

When QOTSA played the Other Stage back in 2002 the band had just released their excellent third album Songs For The Deaf.

At the time they were touring with what is undoubtedly their 'definitive' line-up - including Nick Oliveri on bass and Dave Grohl on drums. Combine that with a great setlist of hard-edged Queens classics and you've got one of the most all-out rocking sets Pilton has ever seen.

3. Paul McCartney - Pyramid Stage, 2004

Despite fairly insane weather conditions in 2004 (a vast number of tents were lost under floods), McCartney bringing the music of The Beatles to the festival for the frst time was enough to cheer anyone up.

Sure, his set verged on the cheesy side at times (firework displays during Live And Let Die, incessant thumbs-up signals to the crowd) but nobody can knock a huge crowd singalong to Hey Jude. As anyone who was there will testify, nothing brings a huge crowd of strangers together more than witnessing Beatles classics performed by a true legend.

2. Radiohead - Pyramid Stage, 2003

While Radiohead's '97 headline set - shortly after the release of OK Computer - is often seen as their 'definitive' performance, their set in 2003 shouldn't be overlooked for classic status.

While the band famously said that they didn't enjoy performing in '97, due to sound problems on stage, when they returned six years later they were obviously in their element. The set mixed their more leftfield material from Kid A and the recently released Hail To The Thief with classic rock numbers from The Bends and OK Computer.

If '97 marked their entry into the big leagues, '03 cemented Radiohead as one of the biggest, most exciting bands in the world.

1. Jay-Z - Pyramid Stage, 2008

Of all the acts on this list, none had something to prove as much as Jay-Z did. His booking, as the first rap artist to headline the Pyramid Stage, was much discussed in the press in the lead up to the festival. He was blamed (probably inaccurately) for slower-than-usual ticket sales and derided publicly by Noel Gallagher.

But Jigga stepped up to the plate, coming onstage wielding a guitar and playing a rough, tough-in-cheek cover of Oasis' Wonderwall before cutting into his own hit 99 Problems. It's a set that proved not only that hip-hop had a place on Worthy Farm, but that Jay-Z is one of the most consummate pop performers on the planet.

Now play: MusicRadar Glastonbury 2011 bingo

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