Josh Homme is open to making music in different genres with his band Queens Of The Stone Age but has one condition: not drifting away from his core sound. In a recent chat with Dean Delray, Homme argued:
“Somehow, it feels like the minimum obligation is that you should sound like yourself. I always think, ‘We’re supposed to not sound like everyone else.’ That almost seems like that’s the first step because that means we can play things like blues, or mellow tunes, experimental stuff, or pop music, and because it sounds like us, it will naturally sound different. We’re the filter it’s going through.”
The vocalist pointed to Ween as an example of a band that successfully worked on various genres while keeping their identity:
“I love a band like Ween so much, and Ween had such a big influence on me because they can play anything they want. And they play it with such confidence that even when it’s silly, you believe it, and you know it’s true. Even when it’s a joke, you understand that there’s a certain amount of craftsmanship to making someone laugh in a song, too. Doing that well is tricky.”
The Artist Has A Whole Project To Experiment With Musical Genres
Josh Homme opened for Ween with Kyuss in his early career. This experience, and later collaborations with Dean Ween on ‘The Desert Sessions,’ influenced the singer’s musical approach, as he previously shared.
The Queens Of The Stone Age frontman founded ‘The Desert Sessions’ in 1997 to explore different genres of music, including experimental rock and psychedelic rock. In addition to Dean Ween, he worked with many artists like Ben Shepherd and Josh Freese for it.
In 2019, after a 16-year break, Homme revived the project with ‘Volumes 11 & 12,’ bringing together a group of musicians, including Billy Gibbons, Carla Azar, Les Claypool, Libby Grace, and Mike Kerr. Discussing the lineup that ‘looks odd on paper’ with GQ, he noted:
“If you play music, you’re interested in the inner workings of these other gangs of people. I was looking for a way to keep playing without having a band and have it be kind of genre-less.”
Check out the singer’s interview in the video below.
