If you haven’t heard of what has been going on with Queensryche the past couple years it is possible you are living under a rock. The veteran metallers had a highly publicised spat and split with singer Geoff Tate, who then went to form his own Queensryche.
There has been a lot of exchange of silliness, including who legally owns the Queensryche name, which version of Queensryche is the real Queensryche and so on and so forth. Finally the band reached a settlement about the dispute, and Geoff Tate’s version of the band will be put to rest after a farewell tour. In an interview with rock journalist Mitch Lafon, he discussed his feelings about saying farewell to the Queensryche name. [Excerpts transcribed and copied from BLABBERMOUTH.NET]
On whether his QUEENSRŸCHE “farewell” tour means that Geoff Tate as an artist is done with:
Tate: “No, not at all. It’s actually just a farewell to the [QUEENSRŸCHE] name, and kind of an end of the story. And [I’m] very happy about that, very glad that we finally reached a settlement and I can move on with my life now.”
On whether he will continue to perform the QUEENSRŸCHE songs after he is done with the QUEENSRŸCHE ‘farewell” tour:
“I’m gonna continue playing the songs I’ve written on all the albums. This is just, really, saying goodbye to the name and ending that chapter.”
On how he is feeling about no longer using the QUEENSRŸCHE name:
Tate: “I haven’t really got an answer for that at the moment. I don’t have a definitive answer. I can say there’s a lot of mixed emotions regarding it with me. I’m glad to be moving on, I can say that — very glad to be moving on. I wish that I was moving on in a different. I wish things would have been different… I wish that it all would have… I can’t even really say it yet. Honestly, I can’t quite put it into words yet… I just wish it wouldn’t have gone to the level that it went to, with the lawsuits and all that stuff, and all the horrible negative stuff that’s been said. That never was what I thought QUEENSRŸCHE was about. When I wrote ‘Operaton: Mindcrime’, people started saying, ‘This is a thinking man’s metal band’ or ‘rock band,’ and I was very pleased with that moniker; that’s what QUEENSRŸCHE really meant to me — was that it’s thinking music. It’s music that challenges you and you can lose yourself in it and get transported to a different place and it kind of opens up your mind to infinite possibilities. And I was very comfortable with that; that’s what I always thought music should be. And I definitely felt proud of that. And now the name means something different; it means this awful lawsuit, this fight, these terrible, negative things, and that’s not my idea of what QUEENSRŸCHE is. So I think it’s a good time to put an end to that and put a period on it and move on and continue the vision that I had, continue progressing and exploring music.”
On what is next for Geoff Tate after the QUEENSRŸCHE “farewell” tour:
Tate: “After this tour is done in September, I plan on launching into a new record at that time. I’ve been writing and coming up with new material and working on a new vision of where I wanna go musically. And I’m very excited about that.”
On how it feels to be able to explore different musical styles without being restricted by people’s expectations because of the QUEENSRŸCHE band name:
Tate: “I think I’m in a position that… It’s actually a very wonderful position to be in. I can do a lot more of what I want to do, musically, without the confines of the QUEENSRŸCHE name. So that’s a very good feeling. I can’t get away from hard rock. I mean, I love hard rock and that’s what I’ve always done. My version of it, or my vision of it, may differ from other people’s, but that kind of goes with the territory, I think. I don’t think, as a writer, you can expect everybody to love everything you do, because you’re in a different place than the other guy; we’re all moving in different circles, we’re all living different lives. When you can line up with what a large amount of people are thinking or experiencing, I think that’s a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t always happen. So I think you have to like what you do and be into what you do and have a passion for what you do. And that’s what it’s all about for me, at least. And I think that passion that one has for what they do is contagious and it spreads out and people pick up on it.”
On whether he plans to put on any more “Rock And Vaudeville” performances:
Tate: “I hope so. It’s a really fun show. From an audience standpoint, it’s very entertaining. There’s drama, there’s comedy, there’s a lot of great rock music, starting from the ’50s all the way to the present time, that we do. And it’s a very, very entertaining show. And from my standpoint, it’s incredibly challenging and fun to perform, because I get to sing all these incredible songs from rock history — all the way back from the ’50s and the Chuck Berry stuff to KORN. And I love that; I love singing different material and I love the performance aspect of it too.”
On whether he can still hit those high notes like he used to in the early QUEENSRŸCHE days:
Tate: “Oh, yeah. I’m not in a wheelchair yet. [laughs] I don’t know how to explain it. You sing what you write and you write what you feel and you give the song what it needs, at least your vision of it. I think that singing high or singing low for a reason of, ‘This is what I can do,’ kind of a showoff kind of thing, is not what I’m interested in. I tend to lean more towards, ‘What is the song conveying?’ ‘What’s the sentiment behind the lyric?’ ‘What’s the music doing?’ First and foremost, in writing, I try to come up with a melody that’s pleasing to me, that I feel conveys the emotion of the song, and then build on it from there. But just to sing high or sing low or… I guess it’s more like… I don’t look at music as a sporting event; it’s not a competition to me. It’s an emotional thing; it’s an emotional presentation, really.”
On how he plans to bill himself when he goes out on tour next year:
Tate: “I’m gonna be announcing some information later in the summer regarding that. It’s a little too early to talk about it at the moment. I’m pretty much saying I’m writing a new record right now, and after the tour we’ll begin recording.”
On the negative connotations surrounding the QUEENSRŸCHE name following the legal drama and public war of words between Tate and his former bandmates:
Tate: “[The legal stuff] has been in the news for so long, and it’s what people think about now when they hear the name QUEENSRŸCHE, and that’s not at all what I’m interested in thinking about or talking about. An analogy for you: my wife and I used to go to this wonderful Italian restaurant near where we live. It was operated by this family who came from Italy — a man and his wife and their three daughters — and they made just exquisite food. It was just so original and different and unique and they had a very romantic environment in which to serve it in, And they had it for… oh, I don’t know… 15 years, something like that. And then they retired. And some other people bought the restaurant, bought the name and continued on with the restaurant. But the whole thing changed. The food was mediocre at best, and what they did was they compensated by creating gigantic portions [laughs] — gigantic portions of mediocrity. The name is the same, but everything else is different. And that’s kind of what QUEENSRŸCHE is to me. It’s not the same anymore, it’s not what I envisioned it to be and what I was striving for years to make with it. It’s just a name now that means something different, and what it means I’m not interested in, I’m not comfortable with, and I wanna do something different.”
Surely from the sound of it Tate will be continuing to ‘cover’ Queensryche, but we can also expect some new material which could be very interesting to hear!
