Queens of the Stone Age are not chasing perfection on new album “Perfecth”: “We want to sound human”

Queens of the Stone Age will release their ninth studio album “Perfecth” on October 30th via Matador Records. Despite its title, the central idea behind the upcoming record is not the pursuit of perfection – quite the opposite.

Chaoszine sat down with guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and bassist Michael Shuman for a video interview in Stockholm on June 29th before Queens of the Stone Age took the stage at the sold-out Strawberry Arena as support for System of a Down.

The conversation centered around the upcoming “Perfecth” album, which saw the band consciously preserve the human element, spontaneity and even mistakes in the music. Van Leeuwen and Shuman also reflected on the pursuit of perfection in modern music production, artificial intelligence, the more organic nature of the new album and why Queens of the Stone Age will never make records merely as an excuse to go back on tour.

The pursuit of perfection can easily make everything sound the same

The title “Perfecth” had been floating around the band since the era of their previous album, even though no one was necessarily planning to use it as the title of the next record at the time.

According to Van Leeuwen, the word initially just felt like an amusing idea. It was only after the album was completed that its meaning began to make more sense to the band themselves.

Rather than pursuing perfection, Queens of the Stone Age have always embraced imperfection on their records.

“We don’t expect or strive for perfection. I think maybe what differs us from some other artists is that we welcome the imperfections in making our records. We leave mistakes on our records,” Shuman explains.

Many of the performances on “Perfecth” are first or second takes. If something unexpected happened in the vocals or instrumentation, the instinct was not automatically to fix it.

According to Shuman, modern pop music and contemporary music production often take the opposite approach. Auto-Tune and countless other tools allow performances to be polished almost endlessly.

That does not necessarily make the result more interesting.

“Everyone ends up going through the same fucking filter, and everyone ends up sounding the same. That’s not something we want to do.”

So does the band want to sound human rather than like AI or robots?

“That’s correct.”

There can be something in the first take that can never be recreated

The band’s relationship with demos is unusual as well. Queens of the Stone Age are not particularly fond of making traditional demos because something can happen during the first recording that simply cannot be reproduced later.

Van Leeuwen brings up the new album track “Insignificant Other” as an example.

At the time of recording, the song was essentially still just a few parts and had not even been completely arranged. The band were in the studio around midnight or one in the morning and simply decided to try playing it together.

The second take ended up on the album.

“It was just the five of us in a room doing what we do. There was a kind of magic that you just can’t reproduce. The more you try to reproduce it, the worse it kind of gets,” Van Leeuwen says.

Not every song on the album came together quite so quickly, however. Some of the material reaches much further back in the band’s history.

According to Van Leeuwen, the album even includes a song with roots in the recording sessions for 2013’s “…Like Clockwork”. The music already existed back then, but the lyrics and melody did not find their final form, so the song was put aside until the right moment arrived.

For Queens of the Stone Age, the song itself ultimately dictates how it should be treated.

“It doesn’t matter how much you want to work on something or how much you want to be free and just do what you want. The song is always the thing that dictates how things are going to happen.”

Shuman brings up “Mono” as another example. Josh Homme recorded the original version at his home with help from Dean Fertita, and while it could have been considered a demo, that very recording ultimately became the foundation of the finished track.

Additional strings and drum overdubs were added later, but the feeling of the original recording was preserved.

The Catacombs influenced the more stripped-down direction of the new album

Queens of the Stone Age previously experimented with stripping their songs down to their bare essentials during their performance in the Paris Catacombs. That experience also influenced the way the band approached the material on “Perfecth”.

According to Van Leeuwen, a good song should be able to survive without massive production surrounding it.

“If it can’t be expressed with an acoustic guitar and a vocal, then it’s probably not great.”

One example is “Villains of Circumstance”. The song was originally written around an acoustic guitar, but the version that ended up on the “Villains” album had grown considerably beyond the original idea.

When the band returned to the song in the Catacombs and stripped it back down to little more than Rhodes piano, strings and vocals, Van Leeuwen says the song took on a completely new life.

The experience directly influenced the making of “Perfecth”.

On the new album, the band wanted to use more acoustic guitar, allow more vulnerability to show through and reduce the need to fill every available space with additional production elements.

“Less relying on production tricks. More relying on the song itself,” Shuman summarizes.

“I don’t want to live in a world where we’re competing with AI”

The discussion about perfection inevitably led to artificial intelligence as well.

Van Leeuwen and Shuman are not interested in a world where musicians constantly polish their productions in an attempt to compete first with each other and eventually with AI.

“That’s like a competition for who’s the most boring. Who wants to do that?” Shuman asks.

Van Leeuwen, however, is not worried about AI replacing a band like Queens of the Stone Age.

The main reason is live music.

“People always ask, aren’t you worried about AI taking over and taking over your business and your music making? I always say I’m not concerned at all because it will never take over live music. And that’s one thing that we really rely on and we pride ourselves on, being a great live band.”

Instead, Van Leeuwen sees a more serious threat to professional songwriters who write material for other artists.

For record labels and publishing companies, AI could offer a way to generate material without having to pay actual songwriters.

“I am concerned about those people. They will lose their jobs.”

“Perfecth” removes the mask from Queens of the Stone Age

Every Queens of the Stone Age album has had its own personality, and “Perfecth” is no exception.

One of the most visible changes can already be found on the album cover.

For the first time in the band’s history, the cover features a photograph of the band together.

Shuman sees the decision as a clue to what the record is ultimately about.

“It’s removing the mask. It’s us five guys creating music together. It’s much more human. The sonics are a little bit more organic than maybe past records.”

The decision actually felt slightly strange to the band precisely because putting a band photo on an album cover is such a conventional thing in rock music.

Queens of the Stone Age had simply never done it before.

According to Van Leeuwen, the band’s albums have traditionally been much more conceptual visually as well. This time, however, the music kept bringing them back to one simple idea: it is just these five people making music together.

The current lineup has been playing together since 2012, making this an unusually stable chapter in the history of Queens of the Stone Age.

The new Queens of the Stone Age album will probably get some angry reactions too

So what can fans expect on October 30th?

Van Leeuwen and Shuman do not even try to predict it.

One thing is certain: “Perfecth” will not simply sound like another version of the previous Queens of the Stone Age album.

“Every record has to be different. This one’s different for us,” Van Leeuwen says.

The band are also used to the fact that not every fan immediately falls in love with a new direction.

Shuman points to 2007’s “Era Vulgaris”, whose unusual sonic character caused plenty of confusion when it was first released. Over the years, however, the album has become one of the band’s most important records for many fans.

The band are prepared for a similar reaction this time around.

“We expect a little hate from people. Some people will love it, some people won’t understand, and that’s okay. I don’t think you’re supposed to understand it maybe on the first listen.”

For Queens of the Stone Age, the alternative would be much worse: repeating themselves.

Van Leeuwen says that for bands that have been around for a long time, making a new album can sometimes become little more than a promotional tool that allows them to go back on tour or sell more concert tickets.

Queens of the Stone Age refuse to reach that point.

“The one thing that we will not do, we refuse to do, is give mediocrity to the record-making process. We need to be excited. We need to reinvent.”

The members listen to all kinds of music, and the goal is not to make the same album again and again simply because a particular Queens of the Stone Age sound has worked before.

“We want to explore different things that we love and the different influences that we have. So we will continue to do that.”

At the end of the interview, Van Leeuwen and Shuman also send their greetings to Finnish fans. Both say they have had a great time in Finland and hope the band will return during the upcoming touring cycle.

Shuman even names Helsinki as one of his favorite cities.

You can watch Chaoszine’s full video interview with Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and bassist Michael Shuman below.

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You can check out the singles released from Queens of the Stone Age‘s upcoming “Perfecth” album below: