Hot Press Meets Queen of the Stone Age

Since their inception in '96, Queens Of The Stone Age have thrived on chaos. They've been arrested for baring all onstage in Brazil, banged up for battering Terrorvision at an English festival, involved in a brawl with Dwarves frontman Blag the Ripper, seen copious members come and go and were even involved in a soap opera-like love triangle between QOTSA's Josh Homme, the Distillers' Brody Dalle and Rancid's Tim Armstrong. One thing remained constant throughout all the drama though and that was their unapologetically primal rock which saw metallers, indie kids and mainstream fans united by their church of noise.

Of course, there was only so long Queens could last with all that drama and the cracks began to show during the cycle for their occasionally brilliant but ultimately overblown fifth album Era Vulgaris, resulting in a hiatus in 2009. For keyboardist/guitarist Dean Fertita it was an especially frustrating time. He'd only just joined the travelling circus two years previously.
“I missed everybody a ton when we were on hiatus,” says the friendly musician. “I think if it wasn’t for that time off this new record
[...Like Clockwork] would never have been made and the experiences away from it helped us pull back together. These guys are my closest friends so when I don't see them for two or three years it does bug me. I feel very fortunate. I've played in bands in the past and with Queens, it's a friendship first.”
With the outside world beginning to think that Queens were finished and long- time fans (including this writer) feeling extremely disillusioned due to Homme’s decision to sue his former Kyuss bandmates for having the “audacity” to tour as Kyuss Lives, the band reconvened in 2009 to try to make a sixth album. By all accounts it didn’t go well, at least at first...
“In retrospect we needed the lows to get to where we were in the end. We were obviously proud of it when it was done. When we were in it, we didn’t really know what we had. Obviously we realise we had a bit of a rebirth and the album is a new way to look at us. It’s another part of the arc of what is going to be the story of Queens Of The Stone Age.”
A leaner, more measured beast, ...Like Clockwork is their best work since their commercial peak Songs For The Deaf.
“It’s something different and new and simplicity is the key,” offers Dean. “It wasn’t
the easiest record to do. I’ve told Josh this a million times. Usually when things are difficult you get a feeling maybe there’s a reason why it’s difficult - maybe it isn’t good or something – but I never felt that with this.
“I never considered giving up but there were some really big highs and lows,” he continues. “Our drummer and friend Joey Castillo left in the middle of recording this record and we didn’t know what we were going to do and then 48 hours later we were recording with Elton John.
“Suddenly this record has a focus again and Dave Grohl’s coming in playing drums, so there’s this optimism again. We probably needed some shake-ups to get a united front on the whole thing.”
With Elton coming in on keys for ‘Fairweather Friends’, was Dean a little grumpy that the tracksuited ivory tinkler was taking his spot behind the piano?
“You know what? That was the coolest thing for me ever,” he beams. “We tracked that song live and the first thing he said when he walked in was ‘So, what? Have you got a ballad for me?’ I think he was assuming he’d go sit in a corner and learn the song for an hour. That’s not what happened at all. We worked out an arrangement in the room, learned the song together and I was still able to play, but to a much lesser extent with him in the room [laughs]. It was so cool to be able to play with an idol.”