GEOFF TATE, Born January 14th, 1959
When most musicians record solo
albums, it's because they need an outlet for material that doesn't fit
the scope of their band. That wasn't the case with Geoff Tate. While
there's very little on his solo debut that couldn't fit within the
ever-evolving musical scope of Queensr˙che, the difference for the
vocalist lies in the expression of those songs, and how they actually
came to fruition.
"The problem when you're in a creative environment is keeping things
fresh and invigorating, and after working with the same people for
twenty years, it gets very difficult—You walk into the room, and
everybody knows what everybody is going to do," explains the frontman.
"There's no spark of new blood, the chemistry is very tried and true,
and you just keep coming up with the same ways of expressing yourself.
What's nice about doing a side project with new people, is that it's a
whole new breed, and a bunch of new ideas, musical backgrounds,
emotional baggage, and whatever else it takes to create. It's a whole
new set of parameters, so it's all new, everyone has ideas you haven't
heard before, and everyone is throwing them against the wall. It takes
on a whole new life."
For Tate, that "whole new life" is a vibrant tapestry of human emotion
and expression, the culmination being his eponymous 11-track offering on
Sanctuary Records. "The songs are all about the strongest passion of
life, which is love. It's all about the feelings that you have for
somebody, how relationships work and don't work, the misunderstandings,
and all that it takes to keep a relationship working. That said, it's
also about stepping out on you're own and trying new stuff, and not
being afraid to take that big step. That makes it kind of
autobiographical, because I'm taking that step, moving out from where
I've been and stepping into other areas, and that's important for people
to do."
"Ask me what I believe in, I'll say compromise…" rings the opening line
of the album's first track, and in those vulnerable depths of "Flood"
the mood is set. The music swirls in a textured wash of soothing guitar
tones and gently cascading rhythms, and Tate's vocals shower the
proceedings like the most welcome of spring rains, his words glistening
like a morning dew. Fans of Queensr˙che will revel in the familiar,
soothing warmth of one of music's most pure voices, while new fans will
find themselves lost somewhere between the melancholy of "Forever" and
the hopeful effervescence of "This Moment." Co-songwriter Scott Moughton
paves a tantalizing trail of Spanish-flavored guitars into "Helpless," a
piano lays the path through the peaceful calm of "In Other Words," drums
propel "Passenger," and "Grain Of Faith" plays like the perfect
culmination of Tate's lyrical harmony and Carrell’s guitar-based
foundations.
"One of the most brilliant points of humanity is when you take a complex
situation, and describe it in a sense that's simplistic enough for
people to grasp it very easily. That's amazing, really, and that's what
I try to do with songwriting—I try to take a big subject and condense it
down into something very simple, maybe just a phrase, or a line, or a
couple of lines that says everything. That's a tough challenge, and
that's what keeps bringing me back to writing music. It's never easy,
which means there's always a challenge to come up with something new and
different.
"I've often had this problem of looking at the glass like it's
half-empty, and I've been trying for all these years to figure out how
to change that perspective. All of a sudden, I've done it, and I don't
know how I did it—I think it's just sort of letting it all go, and
knowing that it will change and get better. I'm definitely in a better
place now than I've ever been in before, I've got a real positive
outlook now," Tate offers, drawing a comparison between his solo
release, and his prior body of work. "Queensr˙che seems to have angst
about it, and I think that's just because of the dynamics of the members
involved. This was much more of a peaceful vibe."
While a "peaceful" vibe may seem a bit askew from the voice behind
Queensr˙che's Operation: Mindcrime epic, there's not a rock band around
that has had the bravado to take their music in as divergent directions
as Tate's full-time outfit, and that fact isn't lost on the singer. "I
never tried to have a box thrown around myself and be a 'heavy metal'
singer," he explains. "If you listen to a lot of Queensr˙che records,
especially since Empire, we've done many different types of music and
vocals, all based around guitars. 'Silent Lucidity' and 'Jet City Woman'
aren't heavy metal anthems, they're just good songs, and I think this
new record of mine is a greater extension of where Queensr˙che went in
those directions."
—Paul Gargano, 04/02
You can also find Geoff Tate featured on the following albums & side projects:
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GEOFF TATE (SOLO CAREER) :: |
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STONE COLD
QUEEN :: |
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HEAR 'N AID
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