Q&A

Troy Van Leeuwen: “Musically we can do anything we want”

When did you start

work on Villains? Around August last year we decided we were just going to be a band, sort it out old school in the rehearsal room. Mark [Ronson] came in near the end as a fresh set of ears. He’s always intrigued me. He also has great hair. We heard he was a fan, but you never know what that means. But he was very respectful to our history and knows a lot about music in general. Guitar-wise he had some really interesting techniques. He helped us visualise our sonic future. One thing we wanted to do as a response to …Like

Clockwork is have more of an upbeat record. We always want the audience to get up and dance, and that’s another reason we wanted to work with Mark.

What about the two

slower songs? It’s really delicate for us to venture into that territory; they need to have the right lyrics or it turns a bit sappy. We’re not usually a ballad band, but musically we can do anything we want. INTERVIEW: PETER WATTS

Did he know about QOTSA? How did he help with the groove element?