The last we heard from Josh Homme, he was struggling to hold it together in an emotional interview with his Eagles of Death Metal co-founder Jesse Hughes, speaking about the Paris terror attacks. And while many were waiting to hear about the next Queens of the Stone Age album, it turns out that Homme had something else up his sleeve the whole time. March will see the release of Post Pop Depression, and album he recorded with Iggy Pop. The two are scheduled to premiere music from it tonight on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
In an interview with the New York Times, Homme says that the project, which was kept under wraps the entire time, helped him in the aftermath of the attacks. “The fact that I had this to work on, it saved me,” he comments. He also says that he’d been planning on being at the Paris show, but changed his plans. And while the album will be coming out on Loma Vista, it was recorded with their own money without a label in mind, and started with a text message from Pop to Homme suggesting they get together and write. Homme said that Iggy Pop’s solo albums caused him to break up Kyuss:
I was listening to ‘Lust for Life’ and ‘The Idiot,’ and I was traveling on tour with a very successful band,” he said. “I thought, ‘That said what I wanted to say and I couldn’t say it better.’ So I quit.”
Pop FedExed some lyrics, poems and quotes to Homme, and a few months later, Homme responded with some songs in progress. The nine songs were recorded in three weeks with Homme’s QOTSA bandmate Dean Fertita (who also plays in the Dead Weather) on guitars and keyboards and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders on drums, with help from Troy van Leeuwen and Chavez’ Matt Sweeney on bass. They’ll be touring in support of the album in March, but very few shows will happen, so tonight’s Colbert performance is the best way to hear the new project.
