Queens of the Stone Age have a pretty distinctive sound. How did Josh Homme’s writing style develop? Polka music.
Josh grew up in Palm Desert, California, a place he said didn’t offer a lot in terms of guitar teachers. The best he could do was a guy named Tom Polonsky whose specialty was polka music. Young Josh learned the guitar through playing those kinds of tunes over the course of two years’ worth of lessons.
Now that you know that, go back and listen to some Queens of the Stone Age Music, especially the song “No One Knows.” If you deconstruct that track down to its very essence, you can hear the distinctive bounce of a polka. This isn’t the only Queens song that feels this way.
Josh says that polka music is so ingrained in him that the polka feel keeps showing up in his songwriting as a default, whether he wants it to or not.
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