Troy Van Leeuwen

Troy Van Leeuwen (born January 5, 1970) is an American musician and record producer. He is best known as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist in the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, with whom he has recorded four studio albums. Joining the band in 2002, he is the second-longest-serving member of the band, after founding member Josh Homme. Leeuwen is also a member of the supergroup Gone Is Gone and has fronted his own projects, Enemy and Sweethead.

Originally a member of Failure, Leeuwen joined the alternative rock supergroup A Perfect Circle in 1999, contributing to their first two studio albums, '' Mer de Noms'' (1999) and ''Thirteenth Step'' (2003), before joining Queens of the Stone Age to tour in support of their third studio album, ''Songs for the Deaf'' (2002). Leeuwen has remained in the band ever since, recording four albums with the band to date: ''Lullabies to Paralyze'' (2005), '' Era Vulgaris'' (2007), '' ...Like Clockwork'' (2013) and '' Villains'' (2017).

Leeuwen has contributed to several other Queens of the Stone Age-related side-projects, including The Desert Sessions, Mondo Generator, Eagles of Death Metal and The Gutter Twins. In 2016, Leeuwen was a member of Iggy Pop's touring band, supporting his album, '' Post Pop Depression'' (2016), recorded with his Queens of the Stone Age bandmates Josh Homme and Dean Fertita.

In 2022, while on a hiatus from Queens of Stone Age activities, Leeuwen became the touring guitarist for the punk band The Damned, filling in for founding member Captain Sensible. In October 2022, he replaced Dave Navarro in the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction for the duration of their tour with the Smashing Pumpkins, with Navarro struggling to recover from long COVID.

Biography

Van Leeuwen has a Dutch surname (he has ancestors from the Netherlands and has described himself as a third-generation American). He became interested in music at an early age and his dad would play early rock and roll records such as Chuck Berry. His first big influence in learning how to play rock came through listening to Led Zeppelin records. Playing drums initially, Van Leeuwen sought to imitate Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham, but later switched to guitar and discovered that he had an aptitude for it. He cites Jimmy Page as a big influence:

Music career

In the late 1980s, Van Leeuwen played in Jester, a successful southern California band fronted by vocalist Eric Book. Jester released an EP, which is the earliest and most rare recording of a 16-year-old Van Leeuwen. He then played in a small band called Little Boots, with which he recorded a number of demos and played a few shows before the band's breakup. His next band was 60 Cycle, which released their debut "Pretender" in 1995, and their self-titled album the following year. It was during his time in 60 Cycle that Van Leeuwen met Kellii Scott, and the two started working on a project (later to be known as Enemy). Van Leeuwen went on to play in Failure. The band released three records and didn't enjoy any commercial success, but was praised by critics as a talented and almost revolutionary group. It was during a tour with Failure when Van Leeuwen met former Kyuss guitarist Josh Homme, who was presently playing rhythm guitar with The Screaming Trees. After the breakup of Failure, Van Leeuwen became a session musician and recording engineer, working with groups such as Orgy, Crazy Town, Coal Chamber and KoRn.

A Perfect Circle

It was during his time as a session musician that Van Leeuwen met Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, who offered him a spot in his and Billy Howerdel's new band, A Perfect Circle. The band played their first show at LA's Viper Club Reception on August 15, 1999. After playing shows in Los Angeles, the band entered the studio to begin work on their debut album, '' Mer de Noms''. The album was released on May 23, 2000, making it the highest ever debut for a new rock band, selling over 188,000 copies in its first week, and appearing at number four on the ''Billboard'' 200. Van Leeuwen toured extensively with the band, initially as the opening act for Nine Inch Nails, followed a number of headlining tours around the world. Van Leeuwen recorded guitar parts on only three tracks of A Perfect Circle's second album, ''Thirteenth Step'', before successfully auditioning for a spot in Josh Homme's Queens of the Stone Age.

Queens of the Stone Age

After outperforming Jeordie White and others in the audition, Van Leeuwen was welcomed as the band's second guitarist for their ''Songs for the Deaf'' tour. Besides playing guitar, Van Leeuwen also performed on lap steel guitar, keyboards, backing vocals and occasionally bass guitar. Due to the band's schedule, Van Leeuwen had only one week to learn 30 songs before the tour began. For the European leg of the album's supporting tour, Dave Grohl left to return to his main band Foo Fighters. He was replaced with former Danzig drummer Joey Castillo. ''Songs for the Deaf'' was a critical and commercial success, and the singles "No One Knows" and " Go with the Flow" became hits on both radio and MTV. The tour culminated in a number of headline dates in Australia in January 2004.

Van Leeuwen's first recording with QOTSA was ''Lullabies to Paralyze''. The band entered the studio with long-time collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes, who replaced Nick Oliveri on the album. Van Leeuwen aimed to fill in some of the gaps in the music where he felt the sound could be expanded through atmospheric and ambient textures made by guitar, lap steel and piano. The album (the title of which is taken from a lyric in ''Mosquito Song'' from Songs for the Deaf) featured several guest appearances, most notably ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, who performed backing vocals and lead guitar on " Burn the Witch" and the ZZ Top cover, "Precious and Grace". Despite reportedly turning down an invitation to remain with the band, Mark Lanegan recorded vocals on new tracks, and appeared with the band on the supporting tour when scheduling and his health permitted. The album was leaked onto the internet in February 2005, and was aired by Australian radio on March 3, 2005, as an unsubstantiated 'World Premiere'. The album was then officially released on March 22, 2005, in the US, and debuted as number 5 on the Billboard Music Chart: the greatest initial success of any QOTSA record to date. On November 22, 2005, the band released a live album/DVD set called '' Over the Years and Through the Woods'', which featured a live concert filmed in London, and bonus features (including rare videos dating from 1998 to 2005).

After touring to support the album, the band headed back into the studio in July 2006. A year later, Van Leeuwen reported that the band had written new material that was "still in its infancy", which Homme later suggested might be released as an EP. This matured into their 2007 release ''Era Vulgaris'', to which Van Leeuwen contributed a significant amount of material.

Several sites reported that the album would include many guest vocalists, including Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, Julian Casablancas from The Strokes, Mark Lanegan, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, and wittingly, deceased humorist Erma Bombeck. Josh Homme described the record as "dark, hard, and electrical, sort of like a construction worker". ''Era Vulgaris'' was completed in early April 2007 and released in June 2007 in the US The tracks " Sick, Sick, Sick" and "3's & 7's

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