INARA GEORGE

“No One Knows”.

Inara George happened to be the first singer to perform on my QOTSA project.
I’ve always loved her voice (either solo or with in the band she forms with Greg Kurstin, The Bird And The Bee).
I knew I could contact her through Nouvelle Vague’s booking agent.
Inara’s response to my project was instantly enthusiastic.
Only problem was, she wasn’t home for a while at that time, she was traveling.
I asked her if she could record a quick vocal take on her computer, just to check the key, the interpretation…
I received her take the day after, by email.
I added it to the instrumental track and was completely blown away.
Her interpretation was simply perfect.
I listened to the song 50 times, I played it to Frédéric (the sound engineer) and to friends.
I felt I had to keep this take, roughly recorded on a computer.
I didn’t even choose to re-record anything in a proper studio (I think Inara has been a bit frustrated by this, I do apologise).
In the end, her vocals make me shiver each time I hear the song.
I can’t even understand how Inara managed to deliver such mixed feelings (emotion, loneliness, beauty, hope and concern) in ONE take.
One more anecdote : “No One Knows” is the first demo that I sent to Josh Homme.
When I read the sentence “Inara sings the song better than I do” in the email he wrote back, I knew I could keep this take…