“If something works there, it works everywhere”: Why Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme always writes songs on acoustic guitar
Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme thinks writing on an acoustic guitar is possibly the best place to start when crafting new material.
Though known for their amped up anthems like No One Knows and Song For The Dead, the band had to strip things back for their performance in the Catacombs of Paris last year. Given that Homme writes with an acoustic, the environment became the perfect place for them display their softer side.
READ MORE: “I wanted something that was mine”: Why Josh Homme began downtuning his guitars in Kyuss
Speaking to Uncut in its latest print edition, Homme recalls how the band managed to pull off the unique gig. Filmed and recorded in July 2024, the performance has been released as a special concert film – Queens of the Stone Age: Alive in the Catacombs. The band played a specially selected setlist for the space as they played surrounded by millions of human remains.
“There’s been talk of secret meetings and late-night raves, but we’re the first people to legally play there,” Homme says. “The catacombs is the star of the show, so all the decisions we made were about respecting the space. You can’t plug anything in – we had an electric piano that was hooked up to a car battery. The floors were wet in some areas, like you were in this living, breathing thing. It felt like we’re not supposed to roll out the hits, we’re not supposed to play loud.”
Subsequently, the atmosphere made for a perfect environment to bring out the emotion of QOTSA, something Homme feels lies in the creation of their songs on acoustic: “Most of our songs start by sitting on the edge of the bed, playing acoustic guitar. If something works there, it works everywhere,” he says.
“But I feel that [in this setting] these songs really change their intensity. When things are stripped away, lyrics step forward, emotions run much hotter and higher. We’re a band that always had a lot of emotion on its sleeve, but somehow we’re not as known for our softer side as maybe we should be. I could not have enjoyed it more.”
Queens Of The Stone Age will head out on the road on 10 June. You can view the full list of their tour dates now.
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