Beating the odds: Queens of the Stone Age overcome challenges in making 'In Times New Roman …'

Sometimes life gets in the way.

With perseverance, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and goals can be met.

This is the situation Dean Fertita found himself in within the last couple of years.

“It felt like forever since we had made some music,” Fertita says. “The pandemic happened and life got in the way of us working on the album. It’s funny because we have maintained such a close friendship for 17 years. It always feels like we can pick up right where we left off.”

Fertita is a member of the rock band Queens of the Stone Age.

After six years since its last album, the band released, “In Times New Roman …,” on June 16.

The band is currently on its “The End is Nero Tour,” which will make a stop at Revel ABQ on Tuesday, Dec. 12. Opening for the tour is Spiritualized.

With a pause in making music, Fertita and the band had time to reset and have a spark reignite.

“I hesitate to say it, but we’re playing the best we ever have,” he says. “This is what is making this leg of the tour really exciting.”

Queens of the Stone Age was formed by Josh Homme in 1996. He remains the only original member, though a rotation of heavy hitting musicians have been part of the band.

The current line up includes Homme, Fertita, Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman and Jon Theodore.

The band has also released eight full-length albums to date, which makes putting together a set list a little more tricky for the band.

Beating the odds: Queens of the Stone Age overcome challenges in making 'In Times New Roman …'

“It is a challenge,” Fertita says of the band’s set. “Even though bands do play for more than two hours, it’s a lot for an audience. It’s really asking a lot for an audience to devote that much time. We do want to focus on a new record. We have loosely constructed a way to approach our set and it includes songs from each record each night. There are a few from the new album that we haven’t done yet.”

Fertita says the band sets up a room backstage where they can rehearse songs.

“This is what helps us keep the set list loose,” he says. “We have time before the show to learn a new song and practice it for an hour and then put it in the show. It’s a way of keeping us doing our best.”

When Queens of the Stone Age began working on “In Times New Roman …,” it was done in stages.

Fertita moved his family from Nashville, Tennessee, to the West Coast in September 2020 with the intention of working on the new material, after the band had a Zoom call in May 2020 about working on the new album.

The band had a lot of false starts due to the pandemic’s restrictions.

“I did some recording with Josh and demoed things at his house,” he says. “Troy worked on it as well. We whittled away on the music casually for a year until we got the 10 tracks that made the album.”

Fertita is proud of the work on the new album and it represents the space the band is in currently.

After decades of touring professionally, his outlook has changed with balancing life on the road.

“It’s gotten harder to leave home in some ways,” he says. “I still love being with everybody and expressing these songs. When I first started, all I wanted to do was play music. I’ve been able to do this all my adult life and I strive to get better in all aspects of my life.”