WE'RE NOT EASILY CATEGORIZED

:: 04:04 ::

QUEENSRYCHE - "We’re Not A Band That Is Easily Categorized" [Hot Flashes - 05.06.27 17:31:25]

Special Report By Mitch Lafon

On a recent stop near Hartford, CT, Queensryche frontman Geoff Tate, sat down with BW&BK to discuss the band’s current tour with metal masters JUDAS PRIEST as well as their upcoming album Operation: Mindcrime II, due out through Sanctuary early next year.

How is it touring with Priest?

Tate: “It’s great. The bands get along really well. We actually weren’t planning on touring this summer, but we toured with Priest last summer in Europe and they seemed to really like what we do and musically we fit together nicely. So, they called us up and asked us and we were like ‘we’re making a record right now, but it would be interesting to take a break and go out on the road touring with THE PRIEST.’ “

When you’re making an album and head off on the road... does it affect the music.... does it change the vision?

Tate: “Well, you have to get ready to play live. 'I’m American' (new song from Mindcrime II) hasn’t changed since we brought it out and started playing it. We did all the arrangements before we left Seattle. It’s fun playing it.”

This set list is mostly the first three albums – is this rediscovering your roots? Or does it simply fit better with Priest....

Tate: “Really, it’s to fit better. It’s to keep the Priest fans out of the beer line while we’re playing. Those old songs are fun. It’s like trying on your old favorite pair of jeans and seeing if you can still fit into them. It’s fun wrapping your head around that old stuff and seeing where you were thinking back then.”

When I interviewed you for Tribe you said the band had evolved and everybody changes, etc... How does that fit with you going back and doing the old songs?

Tate: “Oh, still. Those songs are from our past. We wrote that stuff. It’s in our heads. It’s in our psyches. As a musician you try to grow and change and find ways to change what you do in a unique way. So, that you can satisfy yourself musically and creatively, and also you don’t want to lose your fan base. It’s like walking a tightrope line. I think we’ve evolved and changed dramatically over our history and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like that and I think it’s the reason why we’re still around making records and touring. It’s because we take those risks and chances. We’re not a band that is easily categorized. We do a lot of things and I like that about us.”

For a long time fans said ‘do an Operation: Mindcrime II’, but you said ‘no – we’re not going to do that’. Why have you decided to do it and where do you find the inspiration to do it?

Tate: “I really hadn’t thought seriously about doing it until I got asked about a year ago to write a treatment for a screenplay for the Mindcrime album. In doing so, I found all this information that you have to come up with when writing a screenplay which you don’t need to include when you’re doing a musical record – back story, character development and all that. As I was writing it out and getting more detail, I found that I had so much material that a sequel was obvious. The more I worked on it – the more interested I became and then I mentioned it to the band and they seemed to like the idea. We found it challenging to take the theme ideas and move them into the 21st century with new production ideas and a more mature approach to the music. So, everybody got on the same page and when you can get everybody from a band on the same page when you’re writing a record it’s a miraculous thing. So, you run with it.”

Is there an Operation: Mindcrime movie? When is that coming out?

Tate: “It’s not even in production yet. We’re still writing the screenplay for it.”

Film cinema or film TV?

Tate: “Film cinema.”

Do you plan to star in it?

Tate: “Ah, no.”

You’ve mentioned in the past that Operation: Mindcrime was inspired by people in the Saint-Sulpice bar in Montreal – are you taking the same characters and just re-visiting them twenty years later?

Tate: “My thought process is this – at the end of the first album Nikki is imprisoned. So, my thought was – what would I be like after 18 years in prison. What would I think about? What would I plan on doing? My thought was that I’d analyze everything in my life. Where did I take a wrong turn and who is responsible for me being in the situation I’m in. So, I’d come up with a plan of attack of what I’d do – when and if I got out. So, the album takes place 18 years after the original and some of the same characters re-visit. Pamela Moore plays Sister Mary back from the dead acting as Nikki’s conscience. We have a male lead singer who is going to be singing the part of Dr.X. Nikki and Dr.X kind of do an opera presentation (aria) back and forth. It’s pretty dramatic. We have an orchestra being recorded in Prague. There’s 74 minutes of music. It’s a big big record.”

What’s the musical direction? Full metal... sort of metal...orchestral?

Tate: “I hate to put boundaries on it. You know metal is a genre that can be defined in a number of ways and I’m not so much interested in other people’s definition of metal as I am in my own. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I figure a band like Queensryche has been around 25 years - we define what metal is. So, there’s songs on it that people are going to find to be very traditional Queensryche songs from different eras of our past and there are songs on it that are very new sounding. There’s very aggressive songs, there’s moody introspective stuff...”

Not a carbon-copy of Mindcrime at all then...

Tate: “Not even close. It’s light years away from Mindcrime. Mindcrime was a one-dimensional record musically. We broke out a little bit of the metal with Suite Sister Mary, but it was still a metal record. Well, this is that and more. We really tried to explore the different emotions the characters were going through, so it’s very story driven. There’s light moments followed by really bombastic moments. It’s kind of like life. You’re not on ‘ten’ all day long. Lots of peaks and valleys it’s like the Himalayas man.”

Is Operation: Mindcrime II the period (to the story) or is the ending open ended?

Tate: “You’ll have to wait and see.”

Now, personally – you did a solo album and talked about doing a second one. Where are we with that?

Tate: “We are with an album that is pretty much finished and awaiting release.”

The next album for you – same as the first with loops and rhythms almost dance beats in parts? Are you going out on a ledge again or more towards Queensryche?

Tate: “I can’t really say yet. I’ve got 27 songs and probably 11 or 12 will make it on to the CD. So, I can’t say ‘what’ is it yet, but it’s a lot of different stuff. Stuff that I’m interested in, but Queensryche couldn’t tackle. Things that are too left of center for Queensryche.”

Album title? Release date? Before or after Mindcrime II?

Tate: “No, No and after Mindcrime II.”

Will you tour solo?

Tate: “Yes.”

Where do you go after the Priest tour?

Tate: “I go home to spend time with my kids. We’re going to do some sailing, camping and motorcycling. Got two BIG weddings this summer in our family and the band is playing a date at Sturgis – the big bike festival in August. Then we have the rest of August off – we’ll finish the record and in September we’ll go out and do some Mindcrime dates (the show we did last year).”

Will you have to listen to Mindcrime II from song one to the end? Is it thematic in that sense?

Tate: “I think so. It has a chronological order to it.”
 

SOURCE:  http://www.bravewords.com/news.html?id=29524

103.1 THE BUZZ GOLF PICS

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QUEENSRYCHE DOES NASCAR?

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VANCOUVER RADIO ADS

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Vancouver fans ... listen to two versions of the latest tour commercial:

VERSION #1 (30 second clip)
VERSION #2 (60 second clip)

(to download, right click and choose SAVE FILE/LINK AS.

QUEENSRYCHE SIGNS WITH RHINO RECORDS

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Press release is forthcoming... in the meantime, please visit http://www.rhino.com!

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Posted: 6/12/05
Reviewed by: Dirt

URL:  http://members.aol.com/mtldreams/judaspriest-queensryche-pnc2005.htm

5 Guitars

Prior to going to this show, I had heard rumors that Queensryche planned on only playing songs from the E.P. (1983), The Warning (1984), and Rage For Order (1986). Given the fact that those are godly albums, I knew that there was no way that I could miss out on this experience. Last time that I had seen the Ryche was back on Iron Maiden's Brave New World tour and they were awesome. During that performance, they primarily concentrated on material from Empire and before, so I figured this show was going to be even better. My only reservation was what I had seen from them on their last DVD, The Art Of Live. They played mostly new stuff and then massacred classics such as "Roads To Madness" and "Della Brown" by modernizing them.

At exactly 8:00pm, the spotlight shined upon guitarists Michael Wilton and Mike Stone as they took center stage and got into their best 'metal' stances. I could feel something great was about to happen and I was right. The boys let loose and the haunting, opening riffs of "The Whisper" from Rage For Order rang out. The sea of people at this outdoor arena rose to their feet in instant approval. It was clear that Queensryche had come armed and ready to prove that they were still at the top of their game. The entire band was adorned in black, with vocalist Geoff Tate, bassist Eddie Jackson, and drummer Scott Rockenfield wearing black shades.

Tate issued a subdued greeting to the audience, and then the band launched into "En Force" from The Warning. This was something special because I don't believe the band has played that one since the early days! If there was any concern that Tate's lower register approach on post Empire recordings meant that his voice was less than it was in 1984, these first two songs proved that our fears were baseless. The keyboards and melodic guitar intro signaled that "Neue Regel" was up next. Cupping his hands over the mic, Tate created the megaphone-like echo and nasal vocals of the studio recording. As he hit those patented highs, he sent a chill through me, while the harmony choruses catapulted me back to 1986! Wilton and Stone pulled off a double axe-attack too. Dualing guitars are what made early Ryche so great and it was a thrill to see it again. Despite Stone's 6-inch high mohawk and mega tattoos (he looked like one of the guys from Rancid!), he certainly knows how to riff, making him the perfect counterpart for Wilton. A personal favorite came next with "NM 156" culled from The Warning. I can still hear the "punch...punch...punch" from Tate! The classic material continued with Rage's "Screaming In Digital," in which Eddie Jackson sang a large portion of the song. What a strong, melodic voice he has.

Geoff then greeted the crowd, asking, "Are you ready for the metal?" The first five songs were awesome and the crowd certainly wanted more. Oddly, the band then delivered "Open" and "Desert Dance" from their poorly received 2000 album Tribe. Based on the classic set, this was unexpected and there was a definite letdown in the crowd. The less technical, more de-tuned guitars, and Tate's lower register approach showed the divide in styles between classic Queensryche and modern Queensryche. With that said, these two songs came off much better than the studio versions. In fact, I didn't mind hearing them at all, especially given the fact that the songs were surrounded by all the rarities.

The crowd let out a huge roar as the band launched into "Queen Of The Reich." The roar turned to shock as the song transitioned into a medley of "Nightrider" and "Blinded," songs that may have only been in the band's set in 1983 and 1984, if at all.

"Walk In The Shadows," the song that should have been the single/video from Rage For Order, was stellar, and was apparently a crowd favorite. Tate then addressed the crowd, saying, "We are honored to be standing on this stage," speaking of touring with Judas Priest. "What a band, what a legacy, what a tour," he said. With tongue in cheek, he questioned the crowd, "Should we continue?" With that, "The Needle Lies" was the only song delivered from Operation: Mindcrime.

Tate then explained the band's next cd would be out in January and that it would be a sequel to Operation: Mindcrime. "I'm American" was performed and gave the crowd an idea of what the album might sound like. While I wasn't blown away by the tune, I must say that it is the best song I've heard from them in years. I especially enjoyed the dual guitar solo (like the great Ryche songs from yesteryear) and the "Who you gonna call? What do you believe in?" lyrics. It was cool as hell when Tate said, "Queensryche, made in America!" too.

"Surgical Strike," another rarity from Rage For Order was dedicated to all the service men and women fighting overseas. Tate stated, "Get home safe brothers and sisters" as he finished the song. A stellar delivery of "Empire" led into Geoff asking, "Jersey, how much metal can you take?"

To complete the show, Geoff spoke of getting older, which he certainly showed no signs of, vocally or otherwise. The guy still has his hair, which I thought began to recede back in the 80s, and he still has stronger pipes than guys half his age. Only an increase around the mid-section was apparent. Geoff suggested that youth should be enjoyed, an appropriate segue way into "Take Hold Of The Flame." The crowd handled the "Take Hold" chant in unison. Before completing the song, a girl ran up on the stage, surprising Tate, slamming into him and giving him a bear hug.

The Bloody Truth: In my review of The Art Of Live DVD, I asked "When will Queensryche figure out that the ?new stuff? really doesn?t go over well?" Well, for this tour, they definitely realized what we wanted from them. They certainly could see how enthralled the audience was with what they were doing! If this doesn't shake them back to reality, nothing will. I'm sure the response they are getting from the setlist on this tour, is much better than when they perform post Empire material. Hopefully, future tours will spotlight pre-Mindcrime material, and more importantly, let's pray that Mindcrime II is traditional in nature. This band is spectacular. All they need to do is write material that captures their talent!

www.queensryche.com

QUEENSRYCHE Setlist:

1. The Whisper
2. En Force
3. Neue Regel
4. NM156
5. Screaming In Digital
6. Open
7. Desert Dance
8. Queen Of The Reich / Nightrider / Blinded
9. Walk In The Shadows
10. The Needle Lies
11. I'm American
12. Surgical Strike
13. Empire
14. Take Hold Of The Flame

QUEENSRYCHE TO PLAY STURGIS

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It's official... QUEENSRYCHE will play Sturgis 2005!  The tentative date is August 12th.  For more information, keep checking here and/or the official Sturgis 2005 website @ http://www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com/.

MINDCRIME II - "A VERY LONG RECORD"

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QUEENSRŸCHE Singer Says 'Operation: Mindcrime II' Is 'A Very Long Record' - June 9, 2005

QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Geoff Tate recently spoke to the Hershey Chronicle about the group's tour with JUDAS PRIEST and the progress of the recording sessions for the new QUEENSRŸCHE album, the next chapter to the 1988 ground-breaking concept album, "Operation: Mindcrime", tentatively titled "Operation: Mindcrime II". Several excerpts from the interview follow:

On reasons for hitting the road between records:

"Self-promotion. We're letting people know we have an album coming out. We're trying a couple tracks from the new album live to try out on the audience."

On "Operation: Mindcrime II":

"I'm kind of getting ready for recording. The drums are done. The bass is being done on Monday. We still need the lead guitar and vocals. By the end of this tour, I should be in top form when recording."

On realizing that there were numerous gaps in the main character of Nikki in the original "Operation: Mindcrime":

"I realized there were a lot of vague areas, so I began to fill in those areas. Before I knew it, I had a large amount of material written.

"It's a very long record. It's very story-driven. It begins 18 years after the end of the first record, with Nikki being in prison. It's a study of revenge — what it is and what it does to someone."

On QUEENSRŸCHE's setlist for the JUDAS PRIEST tour:

"We've picked songs for our set list that fit well with PRIEST. We've found some of our old songs, dusted them off to see if they still fit. And they do.

"It's kind of weird wrapping my head around this stuff. But I found a way.

"You never quite know how a set will be received until you get out and play. We've been doing this for 24 years, and still after the first show, we get together in the dressing room and discuss what  worked, and what didn't. We always find adjustment to do."

On the group's stripped-down production for the JUDAS PRIEST tour:

"There's no production at all; it's just us playing our instruments. It's a breathtaking set, really. In an hour, we can go all out, no holds barred, pull out all the stops and unleash. For us, it's very different. It's a breath of fresh air."

On Tate's theory that to sell the new wave of bands, the music industry turns its back on the groups that have already made it money:

"The established bands selling records become the scapegoats to critics of the time and the industry. The way to sell something new is to criticize the old.

"The grunge 'movement' — it's become a 'movement' now — really was a bunch of rock bands being signed and getting popular. To separate those bands from the last group of bands, they had to have a different slogan, a different trademark. It's a way of selling to a new and younger audience. It's a generation thing — we did the same thing when we started.

"I think the resurgence is because we're in a down period — there's nothing new coming out. So you look at the old and appreciate it again."

On remaning relatively unscathed compared to some of their fellow '80s hard-rock/metal acts:

"We're not a traditional metal band. We don't really fit into any category. We're not associated with any certain era."

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2249&dept_id=450607&newsid=14653320&PAG=461&rfi=9
http://www.roadrun.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=37849

QUEENSRYCHE / JUDAS PRIEST TOUR REVIEWS

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JUDAS PRIEST/QUEENSRYCHE (LIVE) - Chicago, Illinois, USA
June 3, 2005, by: DAN SKIBA
http://www.metalexpressradio.com/menu.php?main=reviews&id=1107

QUEENSRYCHE – Operation LiveTime
June 6, 2005, by: Martin Popoff
http://www.bravewords.com/news.html?id=28635

Angels And Empires Unite
May 30, 2005, by: Dave Jackson
http://www.garageradio.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1176