Artist:   Geoff tate (Queensryche)

Date:   30 May 2008

Formed in 1981 Queensryche rocked the very foundations of the 80's music scene with the release of their phenominal concept/story album 'Operation Mindcrime'.  Some 20 years later and the band continue to go from strength to strength.  We catch up with lead singer Geoff Tate during rehearsals just prior to the first night of their European tour to find out how things are going in the Queensryche camp ...

MM - Did you ever envisage 'Mindcrime' being the success it turned out to be?
Geoff - No, it turned out to be quite the phenomena itself and exceeded all our expectations. 

MM - The album has been ranked along with 'Tommy' and 'The Wall', what prompted the band to do a concept album in the first place? 
Geoff -  We'd always listened to these bands and these sorts of albums, 'Tommy' and 'Quadrophenia', so these were always in amongst our influences. With the Mindcrime story we were really moving in that direction looking for a solid theme we could build an entire album around so it happened at the time we were inspired at the time and it was what we were kinda looking for anyway so we were in the right place at the right time.

MM - Why was there such a long gap between 'Operation Mindcrime' and 'Operation Mindcrime 2', it was some 18 year in between these two albums? 
Geoff - Well you know when we finished the first album we designed it so it was left open ended on the story, so the story wasn't concluded, the plan was the write a sequel to it to follow it at some point.  We started that process, the writing and the recording of the sequel and the album that came out next, honestly it was such a commercial success that it kind of took us off in a different direction for a while.  It was an album that really changed our lives quite a bit. 

When you sell millions of records suddenly you're in a different economic status and you have kind of a different view point on how you want to live your life.  We wanted to write about that experience and what happened at that point.  In some ways it was a very positive experience but in others it was a very negative experience.  It put us into a place that none of us were really prepared to deal with.  All of us come from really humble beginnings and all of a sudden we became fairly wealthy.  It makes you question a lot of your values and you tend to think about what you want to do with your life. 

We wanted to write an album about that and what we were experiencing, which led us to the album 'Promised Land'.  That led us onto a totally different album after that and the whole story behind 'Mindcrime 2' kind of got put on the back burner.  So it was sitting there all that time and we'd occasionally visit it from time to time and we'd think about returning to finish it and we'd get started on it then something would happen and we'd loose interest. 

I think the band wasn't in the right place to do it.  It's really hard to do an album when the whole band isn't vibeing on doing it, so we really had to wait until everyone was on the same page before we decided to do something.  I guess around 2005 we started talking about doing it again and at that time it seemed everyone was kind of excited about doing it and we returned to the story and finished writing some of the songs that we left to be finished.    

MM - When you're writing an album, following on from the success of 'Mindcrime' and 'Empire', did you think the fans expected Queensryche to do another concept album?  Did that put any pressure on you when writing new material? 
Geoff - I'd like to think that they don't know what to expect.  I'd like to think that but I don't know really whether they think that.  What we've always tried to do is release the kind of records that we really like.  We write about things that are interesting to us and that we find move us emotionally and we write about a lot of personal experiences and things like that, so where that takes us we never really know until we complete a record.  Then you look at it and say OK and put it out there to share with other people.  Sometimes they like it and sometimes they don't, but that's always been the way with some things.  

MM - Last year you did the 'Take Cover' album which was a mixed bag of songs that were your personal favourites and influences.  It was quite a completely different album altogether? 
Geoff - The covers album was really kind of an experiment for us, something that we hadn't really planned on doing or even thought of, but it was a suggestion from a friend of ours at the record company who attended one of our sound checks at one of our shows in LA, he said ... "gosh I always love it when you guys do cover songs in your sound checks, I recon you guys should record some of those, I'm sure we'd like to put a record of that stuff out".  It sounded like quite a fun project to us and we talked about it and decided to do it. 

I think we spent about 10 days on it, it was really fast and furious and kind of a fun exercise in that our music tends to be really serious stuff and composing is really the hardest part of it, but with this one we didn't have to write anything and we already had great songs so all we had to do was change the arrangement, or change the theme and give it our own interpretation to it. 

It was fun to do and we didn't really have a set plan as to what songs we'd be doing, we had to just make up our minds so we all just picked songs that we really really liked and the only rules were that you had to do something to the arrangement to change it.  So we didn't know what the other band members would pick, which again was kind of a fun thing to see what songs were inspirational to say Eddie our bass player or Scott our drummer.  Some of them I'd never heard before so it was fun to walk into that little adventure.   MM - Yes, it's quite an eclectic mix on the album, there's Pink Floyd at one end then there's Black Sabbath at the completely opposite end of the spectrum. 

MM - You're currently doing your rehearsals for the new show, how have these been going? 
Geoff - We are in Bilbao, Spain and tonight's our first show.  We've spent the last couple of days rehearsing and putting the set together. 

MM - How long did it actually take to put the whole show together and how many people were involved?
Geoff - Well we started putting the show together a couple of years ago and actually built the whole thing and filmed the footage for part of it, for the film screens and then we toured North America with that for 17 shows or something like that.  Then we put it all away and this is our first return to it in about a year and a half so we had most of the show already picked out and knew how it would work this time we put it together. 

I think probably for this European tour we've probably spent about 2 months getting things together and relocating all the stuff we lost.  Some things were too expensive to bring over from America so we had to have some of them built over here.  We've been rehearsing for about a week and a half in Seattle musically and then we've been rehearsing for about 2 days here on the stage. 

MM - How much input did the band have in the actual production of the show? 
Geoff - Well we dream it up and then we have to find very creative people to make our dreams a reality.  We had a really inventive graphic's artist here yesterday who was painting our set, he's a graffiti artist and it was fantastic watching him work and seeing how quickly he works and how accurately.   

MM - Are the band working on a new studio album at the minute? 
Geoff - Yes we are actually, we're in the midst of recording it.  We've taken a break to do this European tour.  We've written all the songs and are about half way through the recording process right now. 

MM - Is it going to be another concept album?
Geoff - It is.  It's a story album, a concept record.  Sort of a contemporary observation of modern culture.  I can't really tell you too much about it but it's a really big story that we've had to condense down into story.  It's a very cool album and I'm really happy with it so far.  We plan on finishing that after the tour which will be around the end of June, the middle of July and we hope to put the new album out some time in the Spring.   

MM - Speaking of new albums, do you have another solo album in the offing? 
Geoff - Yes actually I do and that's also nearing completion as well.  I'm not sure when I'm going to put it out yet, probably after the new Queensryche record.

MM - Keeping on a more personal note I notice you have a new wine named after you, 'Insania'. 
Geoff - Yes!  I'm very excited about 'Insania'!  

MM - How long have you been teamed up with Walla Walla the 3 Rivers winery?
Geoff - Well I met Holly Turner who's a very well known wine maker, I met her at a wine tasting a few years ago and we just really hit it off and she's a wonderful kind of person, very talented.  Her husband Andy and my wife Susan all kind of get along really well and we've become good friends and we were just talking about wine and one thing led to another and the next thing you know we've developed a new kind of wine that's kind of a Bordeaux style red wine and I have to say I'm in love with it, it's one of the best wines I've ever tasted.  I'm very pleased with it.  The chemistry is just right, the grapes are well displayed.  I'm very excited about releasing it and we're doing a pre-release for it and playing a solo show at the winery there to kind of celebrate the release of the wine, to let people know about it. 

MM - It sounds like an interesting project because Washington is not really renown for being a wine state over here in the UK, it's more California we get over here in England. 
Geoff - Washington is number 2 in the wine producers we have here, especially the Walla Walla area which is kind of becoming the new Napa Valley.  We have something like 94 wineries there now and that number just keeps growing.  The wine is really award winning internationally renown wine from the Walla Walla valley.  We're really please with the product that we've developed and we're hoping to launch it internationally at some point in the next year or two.  You'll have to keep your eye out for it.  MM - Yes definitely, I wouldn't mind a little taste of that myself actually.  

MM -  You've had such a successful career so far, what do you think the future holds for both Queensryche and Geoff Tate?
Geoff - well you never know.  I'm very fortunate to be involved with a number of very wonderful musicians and to have had such a wonderful career and such a wonderful learning experience.  We started the band just out of High School and it just really took off.  We've been working in it and at it ever since and it's been a wonderful ride and I don't see it ending.  We all love playing music and we all love playing together.  We all love travelling and that's really how it works so well for us, travelling and writing a new album then taking it out.  You can't ask for much better than that.  As long as the creativity is still there and we're still happy doing what we're doing I can't see us stopping doing what we're doing unless maybe the price of oil and fuel get so high that we can't afford to do it any more.  MM - I think that's going to be a worldwide problem. 

MM - Thanks again for taking the time out to chat to us and I won't take up any more of your time and let you get back to your rehearsals.  Hopefully I'll see you when you come over and play the Newcastle gig. 
Geoff - Thank you and I'll look forward to meeting you.

MM - We'd like to thank Geoff from taking the time out from the band rehearsals today to chat with us and look forward to seeing him and the band in concert when they return to these shores later next month.     

Geoff concert at the 3 River Winery is scheduled in for 20th September 2008, if you'd like to find out more about the wine 'Insania', the 3 Rivers Winery, or Geoff concert there, then head on over to the winery's website at www.threeriverswinery.com .

 

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