Oregon Music News

Queensrÿche

Seattle’s Queensrÿche has sold over 20 million albums worldwide, including 6 million albums in the United States. Queensrÿche celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2011 and have toured sparingly behind their latest album, Dedicated to Chaos, which they released June 28th of 2011. Dedicated to Chaos is the follow-up to 2009’s critically acclaimed American Solider, which told the stories of the lives and experiences of those who have served in the United States armed forces.

Queensrÿche started as a predominantly metal band but throughout the years they’ve shed the label. Still, some fans hold on to hope that the band will return to their The Warning, Rage for Order or Operation: Mindcrime glory. On Dedicated to Chaos, their 12th studio effort, we find Queensrÿche throwing yet another curve ball to listeners. Dedicated to Chaos has more in common with an album released by Genesis or Yes than a classic Queensrÿche album. Dedicated to Chaos is so eclectic that it could be put side by side with Geoff Tate’s 2004 self-titled album and you’d think it was the follow-up. As 2011 winds down and Queensrÿche wrap up touring behind their latest release, OMN caught up with singer Geoff Tate for an end-of-the-year report and a look at the future.

Geoff Tate in action. Photo by Jim Corso

Dedicated to Chaos raised some eyebrows with critics and hardcore fans. You guys threw a curve ball with this album. Dedicated to Chaos hasn’t been as well received by the some of the fan base as previous efforts that were a departure, like Hear in the Now Frontier, Promised Land and Tribe. What do you think of the feedback that the new album has received by fans and critics?

I think all of our albums have been crucified! (laughs) We’ve always done things different, with the exception of our first album, because you didn’t have anything to compare it to. I remember when Operation: Mindcrime was released it was critically taken apart. These days with the internet being a sounding board of every disgruntled fan worldwide, everyone’s opinion is clocked. In the past only we were privy to fan letters that came to our management’s office. It’s a different kind of thing these days. You can’t judge things on the past; all the rules have changed anyway.

In hearing the album, there’s a lot of diversity in there. I remember reading a review early on that mentioned that the songs sounded like they could have been the follow-up to your solo album. Is that fair to say?

I write all the songs! (laughs) Everything that I do will have a similarity about it. It will sound like something that people have heard before because I’ve written just about every song we’ve ever done, except the stuff that (former guitarist) Chris (Degarmo) wrote on his own when he was in the band years ago. There’s going to be some level of continuity simply because I’m involved in it. I don’t know how to answer any other way! (laughs)

Was the material on Dedicated to Chaos all freshly written or did it date back several years?

No. It was all written specifically for this album.

The American Soldier Tour was a success; you performed Rage For Order, American Soldier suites and closed things out with the Empire suite. How do you top something like that?

I don’t think that you try to top it. I don’t know how you can because this isn’t a competition. That tour was a huge success for us. We hadn’t played the stuff from Rage for Order in a long time so we thought, “Let’s dig it up and relearn it and see what we can do with it.” We’ve done that periodically with other albums in the past before. We’ve concentrated on particular albums and played them live; it’s kind of fun to do that. I like going back to see what I was thinking at that time. We played Rage for Order in its entirety in New York City on Halloween; that was pretty fun to do. We actually played Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety on the ShipRocked cruise; the first night we did our regular set and the second night we did Operation: Mindcrime.

With Pamela Moore’s absence,  you had Maria Brink of In This Moment tackling the role of Suite Sister Mary on ShipRocked. How did this come about?

Maria was on the cruise already with her band. She is a good singer and she has a vocal range that can tackle the part. We asked if she wanted to do it and she agreed. She got together with us and did a quick rehearsal at sound check and it turned out incredibly well.

“Suite Sister Mary” from ShipRocked, featuring Maria Brink:

How is it for you to relearn some of that classic stuff?

For me, I’ve written all that stuff so it’s pretty simple. I think the other guys — they have a short memory! (laughs) You can ask me right now to do a specific song and I can do it with one rehearsal.

Queensrÿche performed a string of cabaret dates a few years back. What inspired these? What was the reception since the idea was so out of the box?

That was a show that was originally designed for a two-night stand in a casino here in the Seattle area for Valentine’s Day. We originally planned on doing two shows a week or two later. We started getting calls from promoters across the country. They said, “Hey, we’ve heard rave reviews about this cabaret show you did. Would you be interested in bringing it to my city?” We ended up doing 28-30 dates with it. It was very fun for us to do; it was a theatrical presentation. It was more than just the five of us getting up on stage and playing music. We had dancers, acrobats to jugglers to comedians to aerialists. It was really a fun show.

Is there a particular album that you’d like to perform in its entirety?

(long pause) God, I don’t know. I honestly couldn’t tell you right now. We’ve done the entire Promised Land album when it came out. So we’ve done that in its entirety. Typically, with us, when we put out a new album we try to focus on that particular album live. Although we didn’t do that with this album because it was our 30th anniversary tour and we made an effort to play stuff from all of our records. It’s fun to perform an entire album; for me it’s a very satisfy thing for me to do. It’s very challenging too; our albums cover a lot of different musical ground and I like the challenge of getting that across live. I love getting all of those subtleties and intricacies of a song across live—it’s very satisfying.

Paul Lundren (left) and Michael Wilton / Photo by Jim Corso

Queensrÿche, like many of your contemporaries, have ventured into alternative ways to promote your albums. Queensrÿche has played fairs, rock festivals, casinos and most recently, a cruise (ShipRocked).

Like I was saying earlier, the music business has changed radically. What we used to do doesn’t really apply anymore. If I had my way I’d only play casinos. They are wonderful places to play from a performer’s standpoint. They treat you really well, they pay you very well, the accommodations are top-notch, the stages are fantastic and the equipment is top of the line. Often times when you go into some of these clubs their PA is blown out. It doesn’t work and you spend half of the day getting it to function. The lights are not sufficient and the dressing rooms are full of disease! (laughs) Honestly, our fans are at the age that they prefer to go to a nice place; they want to go to a casino, they want to go to a place where they can see a good show, have a good dinner and have a great time. They don’t want to go to a stinky club that has a bathroom full of vomit — they don’t want to go there, right. We want to accommodate our audience and treat them to a good show. We want them to have a great time and want to come see us again. We don’t want them to suffer through some place that should be condemned! (laughs)

You just took part in the ShipRocked cruise. It sounds like cruises are going to be the new avenue for bands to promote their music.

Oh yeah, they’re really fun. You play one night or two nights on the cruise, depending on the set up, you stay on the boat and go sightseeing during the day. It’s just a fantastic situation — I love being a part of those things.

You have your own line of wine. How did you get into this? You’re personally involved in the process, unlike some artists who simply add their name to the label.

Yeah, it’s called Insania. We do red and white Bordeaux-style wines made in Washington state. It’s a labor of love for me. I really enjoy wine and I’m a wine collector. I’ve had a lot of experience with wine from around the world. That’s what got me started in this was traveling to the different countries. I really became enamored with all the different kind of wine that there are, the different varieties and what you can do with it. It didn’t hurt that I just happen to live in Washington. Most people don’t know this, but Washington state is the second largest wine producer in the United States next to California. Oregon is no slouch, either. Your state produces some fantastic wine, too.

"Revolution Calling" / Photo by Jim Corso

After the remaining dates you have for January of 2012 you’re taking a year off to concentrate on writing and recording a new album. When would you expect to have the album released?

We’ve just begun writing. I don’t know when we’ll have it done. We just start working on it and when we are done, we are done. We never really know.

Is there a particular direction that you’d like to explore with the new album?

Not at the moment. I say this because it’s too early to tell what will happen later in the songwriting process.

Does Queensrÿche have another concept album left in the tank?

There’s always a chance. What it might be, who knows?