The Desert Sessions

The Desert Sessions are a musical collective series, founded by Josh Homme in 1997. Artists such as Brant Bjork, PJ Harvey, Twiggy Ramirez, Dave Catching, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan, John McBain, Ben Shepherd, Josh Freese, Chris Goss, Alain Johannes, Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Ween, Les Claypool and many others from the Palm Desert Scene have contributed as songwriters and musicians.

History

Background

The Desert Sessions began in August 1997 at the Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree when Josh Homme brought together musicians from the bands Monster Magnet, Goatsnake, earthlings?, and Kyuss. The ranch, located in the Mojave Desert, has an old house filled with rare and unique recording equipment and instruments, and is owned by Dave Catching and the late Fred Drake. With the large numbers of musicians arriving to the ranch over time, and with many albums having been produced there, the setting has been described as creating a unique "desert sound" comparable to the grunge rock of Seattle in the early 1990s and the acid rock of San Francisco in the 1960s.

The first Desert Session was not actually a "session" per se, but Homme and his band at the time (The Acquitted Felons) playing for three days straight on psychedelic mushrooms. Since then, the Desert Sessions have become legendary, growing in intensity and artistic merit. Homme said:

At Desert Sessions, you play for the sake of music. That's why it's good for musicians. If someday that's not enough anymore, or that's not the reason behind you doing it—that's not your raison d'être—then a quick reminder like Desert Sessions can do so much for you, it's amazing. It's easy to forget that this all starts from playing in your garage and loving it.

Improvisational atmosphere

Desert Sessions songs are written "on the spot," often in a matter of hours. Many stories have sprung from the improvisational atmosphere of the ranch. For example, the song "Creosote" from Volumes 9 & 10 was written by Dean Ween and Alain Johannes on the ranch's front porch within four minutes of meeting each other. Similarly, Chris Goss and PJ Harvey wrote the song "There Will Never Be A Better Time" for I See You Hearin' Me after going out onto the porch of the ranch for four minutes with an acoustic guitar; they re-entered the house and recorded the song in one take, the only time the song was ever played by the collective.

Homme on project delays

In a 2007 interview with Rockline, Homme stated that he was going to be working on a new Desert Sessions album in December 2007, and the first ten will be re-released as a box set. Homme also stated:

There's nothing going on [now]. I wish, but I've run out of time. I'm talking to this one guy about adding four more hours to each day, but he's not real positive about it. Those are never going to end, because there's no reason for them to end. But I'd like to make them more regular. – Josh Homme interview with Billboard.com, April 13, 2007

The Desert Sessions are gonna go on forever. There's no reason to stop them. No, it wasn't me that said there would be only 12 volumes—I'm gonna do 112! It's just a mix tape—the longest-running mix tape in existence. It's awesome: doing them is just a matter of making the time frame come together. I was really wanting to do one before the new album "Era Vulgaris" came out, but we didn't put a time frame on it and it consumed what would have been that time. I didn't want it to take away from what we were doing. – Josh Homme in May 2007 as recorded by Blabbermouth.net.

After 11 years of inactivity, Homme revealed in October 2014 that he would start working on more Desert Sessions material the following year. Homme added:

"Because Desert Sessions works best at a certain time of the year, when everything slows and everyone takes a deep breath out. At the end of the year, in that December-January timeframe, everyone has exhaled. And post-exhale is the time to do something like that. So if I miss that window… I miss that window".

Desert Sessions Volumes 11 & 12

Homme remained silent about the project until May 2019, when he posted an image on Instagram with the hashtags "#Desert, #Sessions, #11, #12".

In September 2019, Desert Sessions Volumes 11 & 12 were officially announced, along with a comedic promo video featuring Homme and Liam Lynch. The promo includes Homme running through some of the featured artists such as Billy Gibbons, Les Claypool, and Jake Shears.

In October 2019, recordings of the Desert Sessions were released for the first time in sixteen years.

Live performances

The Desert Sessions have only performed live twice. The live performances, which included Joey Castillo, Troy Van Leeuwen, Brian O'Connor, and Homme, as well as a variety of musicians performing different songs, were performed on an episode of the British music television show Later... with Jools Holland, as well as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2004.

The updated Desert Sessions website featured a "World Tour" page coincident with the release of Vol. 11/12 but no dates were ever added. Whether this indicates possible intent to tour the material at the time is unknown.

Awards

The art directors for Desert Sessions Volumes 11 & 12, Doug Cunningham and Jason Noto, won in the category for "Best Recording Package" at the 2021 Grammy Awards.

Discography

Note

• Desert Sessions 7 & 8, 9 & 10, and 11 & 12 were never released independently of each other. The first two were originally released as two double EPs, and the latter as a single LP.

Collaborating artists

Notes

External links

• Official site
• discography at Discogs