QOTSA Say Recruiting Mark Ronson To Produce New Album Was A “No Brainer”

Having worked with the likes of Adele, Bruno Mars and Amy Winehouse, many fans were surprised to see UK artist Mark Ronson take on producing duties for Queens Of The Stone Age’s forthcoming album, Villains. However, according to the band, the decision was any easy one.

Speaking to The Music backstage at their gig in Sydney on Wednesday, guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen said frontman Josh Homme brought the idea of calling Ronson in due to a desire of wanting to make a “danceable” record.
 
“We’re a rock’n’roll band, but rock’n’roll was first dance music, you know?” Van Leeuwen said.

“Watch Elvis and Chuck Berry. I mean, kids were dancing and screaming and going wild. So we wanted someone that understands DJ culture and understands, you know, the way those records sounds.

“It was kind of a no-brainer.”
 
Fellow QOTSA member, Dean Fertita, added, “It created kind of a total opposite to how we were working on the last record (2013’s …Like Clockwork), which I think is something I think if there was any one thing that we, kind of, consciously said, it was ‘Let’s just, kind of, go into this with a different environment to work in that’s not as emotionally heavy’…”
 
Though the US rockers wanted some dance influence on Villians, they in no way consider it to be a dance record.
 
“It’s just something that is our future selves now,” Van Leeuwen explains.

“We wanted to, I guess, evolve our sound and what we consider ourselves as Queens Of The Stone Age. It’s got to evolve. We can’t repeat ourselves. He was very good for us and allowing us to be who we are.
 
“He’s a great musician and he’s got tonnes of style and he’s got great hair,” he said of Ronson.

“He’s really funny too. We really jived as people.”

Fertita said simply the idea of collaborating with Ronson was exciting.
 
“Who knew if that combination would work? That was kind of the exciting part about it, is take this scenario where it could go great or terribly wrong and try something new and different.”
 
Villains is due out 25 August. Queens Of The Stone Age play Splendour In The Grass this weekend, as well as some additional headline gigs. Click on theGuide for more details.