Return to the desert for Josh Homme and motley crew

When Josh Homme calls fellow musicians for a get-together in the Californian desert, the aim is to achieve innocence and inspiration.

Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.

Just before Christmas last year, in a recording studio far off the beaten path, Josh Homme blew the dust off a musical project that had lain dormant for 15 years. Having spent more than a year touring the world with Californian rock band Queens of the Stone Age, the frontman saw a gap in his schedule and began asking friends and fellow musicians whether they’d like to join him at Rancho De La Luna, situated near Joshua Tree, 205km east of Los Angeles.

Their mission, should they choose to accept it, would be to move at the speed of inspiration by writing and recording new songs from scratch under a storied name: Desert Sessions. When Homme put out the call last time, in 2003, it was ­answered by the likes of PJ Harvey and members of Ween and Marilyn Manson.

This time, Homme’s invitation was accepted by members of ZZ Top, Primus, Scissor Sisters, Warpaint and Royal Blood, among others. Many of these musicians had not met before, nor had they spent much time in the western desert of the US.

For the man who brought everyone together, its remote ­location is part of the appeal. Without the distractions of living in big cities, the idea is to slow down and, hopefully, tune in to the frequencies that spurred each of them to begin playing music in the first place.

“I like that, because the landscape is so large, you’re rendered a little bit unimportant,” Homme tells Review. “But the ­ironic thing is that, in feeling a little small and unimportant, that’s the perfect time to take a chance. You feel like you can take a risk, take a chance and make some mistakes, and then find the right thing. It’s also the right time to collaborate because you’re out there in secret. No one knows you’re there. No one’s paying attention. You’re not up your own butt. You have the chance to just take it as it comes out there.”

Having grown up in Palm Desert, and been a key member of a unique scene whose “generator parties” in the 1990s have become part of US rock folklore, Homme is completely at home in wide-open spaces.

“I also think there’s a certain perversity of people out there,” he says. “Oftentimes when you’re a musician, you are the strangest person in the room, in your own way. But out in the desert, there are people far weirder than you are, on a grand level, and there’s something comfortable about saying: ‘Boy, compared to everyone here, I’m normal’.”

Sydney-born drummer Stella Mozgawa was a late addition to Homme’s motley crew; the pair had crossed paths a few times over the years, including when her band, Warpaint, supported Queens of the Stone Age in 2014. “Part of the fun is that no one really knows what’s going to happen when you get out there, so you can’t really prepare or plan too much,” Mozgawa tells Review.

“Every single experience, and session, and even song is such a different vibe, and there’s many different rules every time — but ulti­mately, creativity is king, and that’s the most important thing. It’s all very spontaneous, and I think in that moment most people revert back to a really innocent relationship with music, and with creativity, which is just doing it because you’re so excited to do it. It’s such a new environment, and such a new situation, that there’s very little time to slow yourself down with second guessing or letting your ego get in the way. I feel like that whole process is just as interesting as the music it creates.”

Although Homme is the reason a group of talented strangers got together in a far-flung locale, he also has the grace and ability to defer to the artistic decisions of his guests.

“I’m pushing for no one to be in charge in those moments,” he says. “There’s a certain sequence of events that I think it’s important for me to undertake to get it going. I’ve invited everyone to be there, so that seems like a necessary responsibility to take that first piece of music. In a way, I almost take a step forward — and I don’t turn around, and hope that everyone will pass me creatively, so to speak. And then I can sort of walk behind them, with my arms out.”

In this instance, he presented an idea that was reasonably ­developed, which he had written in the early stages of what ­became 2013’s Like Clockwork, the sixth QOTSA album. Yet by the time the Desert Sessions crew was finished with it, this song — now named Noses In Roses, Forever — kept only its lyrics and main guitar part, with his collaborators having come up with newer, better ideas that allowed Homme to subtract his own work.

The experience of how that creation evolved in the hands of Mozgawa, ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, Primus bassist Les Claypool and guitarist Matt Sweeney is itself a microcosm of how this project should work, in the eyes of its creator.

“It became pretty clear that he was very much the glue, and he was the one that picked all the ingredients, but we were all cooking the meal together,” says Mozgawa of Homme. “I think that’s a ­really evolved way of looking at creativity — especially for someone who is in the limelight, and who is very charismatic, and who’s very much a big, charming personality. It’s easy to spend your whole life just putting more weight on that expectation; people ­expect you to be that person all the time. I think there’s a real beauty in how generous he is.”

Seven of the eight tracks that comprise Desert Sessions Volume 11 and 12 were captured at Rancho De La Luna during that week of productivity last December. It’s a diverse set of songs, with no two sounding even close to alike. There’s a psychedelic five-minute ­instrumental (Far East For The Trees), a vaguely threateningly acoustic tune (If You Run), a raucous hard-rocker (Crucifire) and a piano-led ballad that closes the album (Easier Said Than Done).

Evident at every turn is the sense of adventurousness and innovation that prompted Homme to establish this concept back in 1997. One of his overarching goals is that it will hopefully recharge the artistic batteries of each musician so that they can take that ­inspiration into whatever comes next. Happily, this most recent experience has done just that for the man who started it all, too.

“I wouldn’t start this again unless I felt I could truly reinvigorate this with a certain amount of consistency,” says Homme. “And I do see the Desert Sessions as a genre-busting mixtape that could go on longer than any band I’ve ever been in, because it doesn’t require anything but inviting people to come be themselves, in an environment that’s unusual. Ideally, it’s an environment that should be happening more often than not. So when I think of the Desert Sessions, I could picture myself doing this up until minutes before I will die. Because it doesn’t have to obey anything.”

Desert Sessions Volumes 11 and 12 is released on Friday via Matador/Remote Control.