Queens of the Stone Age to Work on New Music Featuring …Like Clockwork Lineup

After a brief hiatus, frontman Josh Homme of California alt-rock band Queens of the Stone Age has announced that new music is in the works, featuring the same successful lineup from their 2013 album …Like Clockwork. For relieved fans, who might have been alarmed when the band announced a break in March 2015 after two years of touring, it’s now just a matter of time until the promised music makes its debut.

Homme and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen have both been involved in other side projects during the QOTSA hiatus, with Homme collaborating with Eagles of Death Metal and Iggy Pop, respectively, to release new albums Zipper Down and Post Pop Depression, and Van Leeuwen joining supergroup Gone is Gone with members of Mastodon and At the Drive In. QOTSA has only been active since to make a few sporadic festival appearances and perform at a surprise LA concert last year. But it seems both are now ready to buckle down and reenter the studio to record the follow-up to …Like Clockwork alongside the other members that contributed to the last album.

On Soundcloud podcast Let There Be Talk, Homme appeared as a guest to confirm the embryonic stages of new QOTSA music: “Yeah, [a QOTSA return is up next on my schedule]. Same lineup, we’re locked in. We’re having a meeting tomorrow about what we’re gonna do.” Though they evidently haven’t hit the studio quite yet, it’s comforting to listeners to know that the band is in the planning stages for a forthcoming album.

Read our review of …Like Clockwork here (spoiler alert: we liked it) and listen to one of its highlights, “Smooth Sailing,” below.