Belfast Telegraph (www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk), November 21, 2003

Live music - Stone Age journeyman Queens of the Stone Age vocalist Mark Lanegan tells Neil McKay why he just can't stop touring
21 November 2003

Mark Lanegan is a glutton for punishment. He's heading straight back out on the road again after a punishing, almost two-year touring stint with Queens Of The Stone Age.

Lanegan is promoting his new solo EP, Here Comes That Weird Chill, and a sixth solo album, Bubblegum, which is due out early next year. A short UK tour brings him to the Limelight on Monday.

"My motivation for making music originally was to get out of town, go travel around and play music, and that's pretty much where I'm still at," says Lanegan. "I enjoy it immensely and I'm glad I get to do it. I've been doing it for almost 20 years and I don't know what else I would do."

Lanegan first surfaced in the late 1980s with Seattle grunge band Screaming Trees, and when they broke up in 2000 he hooked up with old friend Josh Homme in QOTSA. He played on last year's best-selling album Songs For The Deaf, and his solo work is being squeezed in before QOTSA reconvene to work on a new album.

"There's nothing that's been happening with Queens Of The Stone Age that I haven't seen before - I've played festivals and shows with Screaming Trees that were as big as anything I've done recently - but we're selling a heck of a lot more records than anything else I've ever been part of.

"Now that's great, but it adds more work to the job - more people want to talk to you, you have to do more promo, and you spend most of your time doing other stuff. We've just taken a month off after touring for 23 months straight. It gives everybody a chance to do their own thing, everybody's got other stuff going on outside the band.

"The guys all play on my record, so I guess it's pretty incestuous. I recorded a whole bunch of stuff and I just wanted to release it all. The EP is the record company's way of letting me do that.

"I don't have any expectations. I've made a record I like and that's all I ever tried to do. I hope it allows me to be able to do it again, but beyond that I don't really care. The only goal is to make something I'm happy with. It doesn't get any more deep than that."

Mark Lanegan plays the Limelight on November 24. Tickets, priced £13, are available from Katy Dalys and Ticketmaster outlets.