Listen to the isolated guitars on Queens of the Stone Age song ‘No One Knows’
During their earliest years, Queens of the Stone Age were, for all intents an purposes, a duo. The band’s 1998 self-titled debut only lists two permanent band members – singer/guitarist Josh Homme and drummer Alfredo Hernández. Hernández was out by the turn of the new millennium, leaving just Homme and new bassist Nick Oliveri to record their follow-up, 2000’s Rated R.
2002’s Songs for the Deaf expanded the lineup to a quartet, but it was still largely centred around Oliveri and Homme. Former Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan was an official member, but he only got the occasional lead vocal along with a spare songwriting credit or two. Dave Grohl was also an official member of Queens at this time, but he soon jumped ship back to his day job with the Foo Fighters.
In some ways, it was good that Homme was largely on his own. It mean that he could layer as many guitars onto a song as he wanted. Homme’s playing style owed a lot to a surprising genre – polka music. The oompah rhythm that gives polka its signature bounce can be heard all over Homme’s most famous guitar line, ‘No One Knows’.
The secret to ‘No One Knows’ is its unique tuning – C Standard. It’s the same intervals that most guitar strings are tuned to, only four semitones lower. The unique growl is what allows Homme to add the biting low end to the ‘No One Knows’ riff. It also allows him to bounce back and forth between the low C and high C octave, giving the song’s riff a classic polka feel.
Homme almost certainly used his “secret weapon” amplifier while recording the song as well: a 1980 Peavy Decade practice amp. As he revealed to Mark Ronson in the Apple TV+ series Watch the Sound, Homme had been using the tiny low-watt amp for almost all of the band’s recordings. “This thing is incredible,” he said. “This is the best bass amp [and] guitar amp. It just sounds so wirey.”
Unlike most isolated guitar lines, hearing the guitars from ‘No One Knows’ away from the rest of the arrangement doesn’t reveal much in the way of subtleties. ‘No One Knows’ is purposefully mixed to have the guitars front and centre, so every harmonic lick or intricate power chord run up is already on full display. What is fascinating is hearing how many extra guitars are used to make the song’s chorus even bigger, with a whole army of additional guitars coming in to make the song’s crunch even cruchier.
Check out the isolated guitar track from ‘No One Knows’ down below.
