On Friday, Queens of the Stone Age will return with their first album in six years, In Times New Roman… In anticipation, the band has shared one final preview in the form of “Paper Machete.” Take a listen below.
In an upcoming interview with Consequence, frontman Joshua Homme spoke at length about the song and its connection to past QOTSA tracks like “Little Sister” and “Regular John.”
“There’s some classic us here… Like, that lead line that’s going through the song, that’s such quintessential Dean [Fertita] — it’s very him, the style and the way it’s played. And Troy [Van Leeuwen] was saying, ‘I’m going to do a lead that’s the exact tone as ‘Little Sister.” I guess we call them cousins, like ‘Little Sister’ is related to ‘Paper Machete’ — and it’s also related to our first song, ‘Regular John,’ all the way back.”
“I think, lyrically, this has become this diary of a life. You’re writing a soundtrack in your life. When you stop the film and pull a single frame, each song is like a single frame of an emotion. This one kind of represents the frustration of saying, ‘I’ve had enough now.’ I think it’s really important to be able to really distill it down to one drop of an emotion for each song.”
QOTSA previously previewed In Times New Roman… with “Emotion Sickness” and “Carnavoyeur.” Ahead of Friday’s release, Homme also appeared on Kyle Meredith With… for a lengthy chat about the album and his approach to creating music.
To support their new album, QOTSA will embark on a North American tour beginning in early August. Tickets are available here.
