Q u e e n s r ÿ c h e

Is your new live album to be seen as a summary of 20 years of Queensrÿche as a band or
is there any other reason behind releasing it? 
- It's just a live record. You can see whatever way you like.

From what I've heard you had people coming in from all over the world to witness the recording of the live album. Was that by invitation or did they just show up?
- We have quite a fan net work that goes around the world and whenever we get ready to do any sort of event we put the word out that we're doing it so that people can travel to wherever they want. As usual we sent the word out that we were doing the shows and people came.

How does it feel that you have people travelling from all over the world to see you record a live album and DVD?
- It feels great. It's wonderful. We've been touring for a lot of years and I think we're a very good live band and I think people appreciate that and want to be a part of the making of a live record. It's actually quite fun. A lot of people we've developed a relationship with over the years so it's nice to see them out in the audience. 
- There's some other stuff involved too (with the DVD). I don't exactly know all what it is. I believe that it's going be stuff on the band.

You've divided the album into four suites. Is that how you look upon the life of Queensrÿche, in four life cycles?
- No I don't think so. It was just the running order of the songs. People are kind of into putting things in little boxes and calling them things.

You came under at lot of criticism for the "Hear In The Now Frontier" and "Q2K" albums. Did it ever feel like you were betrayed by the same people who hailed you as innovators when you released albums like "Operation: Mindcrime" and "Empire"?
- I wasn't really aware of the criticism and I don't really pay any attention to other people's opinions. I think it is better to do the things you do and be happy with whatever you do and not be too worried what other people think. In the end it doesn't really matter what anybody thinks.

I remember when you released the "Operation: Mindcrime" and "Empire" albums how special they felt. Is it possible to create the same feeling again when Queensrÿche release a new album?
- It's a different time space for me than it is for you and for you than it is for my sister. Everybody has different ways of processing their feelings. "Operation: Mindcrime", we liked the record when we made just as we liked "Q2K" when we made it. The band was very into it, happy with it, pleased with it and ready to move on to the next project. That's the kind of way we work. How other people view what you do is completely separate
from your own view. ".Mindcrime" wasn't immediately a popular record. In fact it's still not considered a popular record if you look at just the sales. It sold a couple of million records world-wide but that's nothing if you compare to Michael Jackson's "Thriller", which is a very popular record. "Operation: Mindcrime" did not sell right away. It didn't take off and started selling any considerable records till it was out at least a year and it was due to MTV in America playing the record. Still it's not the kind of record you're gonna put on and listen to in your car. It's an intense-listen-to-by-yourself record. It's not a social activity sort of record so therefor it doesn't appeal to a huge segment of the population. My point is that no, you can never re-create somebody else's feelings and I wouldn't want to. I'm not even at ".:Mindcrime" anymore. I'm past that now. It's a place I was but over the years I've moved into other ways of thinking and different interests.
Other things interest me now. You can never go back. It's what it is. It's a great record for its time. 

When you release an album is it even possible to comprehend the way people will intrepid what you've done?
- Everybody listens to it differently, with different ears. The process of what their own filters pick up is different from your own. For example, you're a man who grew up in a completely different environment than myself, different country, different culture. You speak a different language. You have a whole different set of filters in your personality than I do, and mine are different from my own brothers and sisters who grew up in the same family. It's all very diverse and there's no way to process all that information in a way that would be consistent to each individual. 

When you had a major hit with "Silent Lucidity" what were your initial thoughts on that?
- It wasn't like it happened immediately, it was a slow process. There was not a lot of thought that went into it. No one ever came to me from the record company saying that the single is a top ten hit in every single country in the world. I found out a few years later by talking to journalists that it had done really well in a number of places. I never had a felling of it being successful. 

When you found out that "Silent Lucidity" had been a hit all over the world did it change the way you looked at your own music?
- No, not really. I think the way that media jumps on certain things and makes it very popular, or pushes it down peoples throats is a very interesting topic. The topic of the following record "The Promised Land" is all about that. The whole "Empire" situation was a really interesting time for me in that there was so much work going on with the band, we were touring constantly, and there were these television shows that they wanted
us to do. There was so much media focus on the band that is was incredibly uncomfortable to live any sort of normal life style. I need to have some sort of normality in my life in order to write and function as a person, so I really pushed the band to drop out of everything for a couple of years and just sort of take a break after "Empire". I'm really glad we did because now we're able to live and exist and not be in a fish bowl constantly. I prefer life like that rather than have a constant media focus with people camping on my doorstep and that kinda thing. 

Sometime I get the feeling that bands today are so aware of the fact that they're just going to be here for a short while of time that they try to get on everything that they're offered just so that they have their 15 minutes of fame. You're not doing that. Instead you opt for the opposite.
- Our 15 minutes of fame lasted long enough, for me at least. I can't speak for the rest of the band. I'm glad that it's past.
- The pop mentality has been propagated quite heavily around the world. Look at what sells the most today. It's what I would like to call one-dimensional, most of it. That's what the majority of the populous wants. They want to have a certain type of music and that's what they get. 

Queensrÿche had a stable line-up for a very long time. Did you ever re-evaluate the reason for keep doing it after Chris DeGarmo left?
- I was fairly devastated by him leaving cos we were very close, we worked together consistently every day, we talked together every day, about the band, about the record we were working on, what we were going to do next. When he decided to leave I took it as sort of a personal attack. That he didn't want to work with me again. I was very upset by it and it took me a while to recover from the shock of him leaving us because he just sprung it on us. I had all kinds of thoughts about what the future of Queensryche would be like. Luckily my wife sort of talked some sense into me, telling me I had to pull myself out of it and get back on the horse again and keep riding, keep working. I'm thankful to her for standing by my side through a really rough time and helping me get over the hump. 

With Chris leaving you were forced to look for a new guitar player. Did you experience any kind of obstacles in getting the go to just start looking for a replacement?
- We needed somebody who would be a strong writer and somebody who would be able to play well. Luckily Kelly (Gray) just kind of stepped in. He was already involved with us because Chris and I had already contacted him to work on the next Queensryche record as a co-producer and engineer. So he was already involved with us on a daily basis. Luckily he could step in and he kind of took over. He had some songs and some ideas. He and I had been in a band together years ago and had written a number of songs together so we had some sort of working understanding. He was in the right place at the right time. He's a strong writer and he kind of fitted right in with the group. 

You've always been seen as the thinking man's metal band. How do you feel being viewed as an intellectual band?
- I guess it's better than being called a stupid band. It's human nature to put things in boxes and categorise it. I used to get very offended when people categorised the kind of music I was doing but over the years I've realised it's just human nature and there's no way to fight it. Audiences and journalists always put you in little boxes from day one when they listen to the music. To describe what you're hearing automatically puts you in a position to categorise and put things in little boxes. There's no way round it. I just try side-step all that by not listening to anybody else's opinion on what it is I'm doing. I like what I do. I just do what I do without questioning what it is I'm doing. Music is all about self-expression. It's not a sporting event. It's not measured by how many songs are on the record. How good it is, is all relative and subjective. It's all about self-expression.

Being seen the way you are, do you think that had something to do with some of the negative reactions you received for "Here In The Now Frontier" and "Q2K"?
- What you're dealing with is preconceptions. People having an idea or expectation on what something is going to be and then it's not at all what they dreamed up. You set yourself up for disappointments whenever you have preconceptions, whether it be music or a relationship. It's much better and easier on the individual if they have an open mind and accept what comes.

When you receive a new album by a band you like you tend to want it to be a continuation of where they left of on the previous one.
- But why? What makes you think that those people are even in the same realm as you are. Do you even understand the last record the way they meant it to be? There's no guarantee. It's just what it is. It's a whole completely different set of parameters to deal with each time somebody makes a record. It's where they are at that point in time. How they are feeling, what's important to them at different points. 

But there will always be this discrepancy between what the artist wants to say with his art and the way the consumer interprets it.
- That's what makes life beautiful. That it's not so figured out, not so easily followed. It's all random and chaotic and beautiful. The label thinks differently. They work from a different angle. Their point of view is to maximise sales and make sales whenever possible. They're always looking for ways to do that whenever possible. 

With Sanctuary you seem to have a label that is just as much into the music as they are into selling units but how does it feel when you realise that the label are more into selling units than really caring for the music?
- I never really get that comfortable that they are coming from the same planet that I am. I tend to sort of keep them on an arm's length. I'm glad that they are enthusiastic about working with the band but I haven't seen any issues yet where they have stepped in and said that we can't do this or that. I don't expect them to do that. They seem to understand the line there, that's a line you don't really cross. That's all I ask from them that they have some interest in what we're doing and that they let us do what we do and we'll let them do
what they do. 

Have you experienced times when the label has said that you had to compromise your artistic integrity?
- They always say that. On our first record "The Warning" they came out to the studio and listened to tracks and took it away from us saying that we had gone over budget, they assigned a different guy to mix the record so that we can watch it. They took it out of our hands and they had this guy mix it, who had no clue what was going on with the record or what the bands intent was. They didn't take any input from the band at all.
- We're not unique to the record industry. Everybody goes through it. The conception is that the label is paying for it so they should get their input to the way they think it should be done. The other thing is that I'm paying for it in the end. It's my money, it's my vision and I'm creating a thing and I'll make what I want. It's a constant battle all the time. With all this new technology at hand do you think we'll see a time when bands won't need second or third hand parties to do it?
- I think that time is now. The Internet offers the artist the possibility of selling the music to the people. The problem is, and some don't conceive it as a problem, is that he record industry is investing in the Internet and kind of trying to control it. Pretty soon they'll just be obsolete, who needs the middle man when you can sell directly to the public, when you don't have to go through a record store or a label. The thing is that what the record labels has that makes them so valuable is that they have capital in order to advertise and give publicity to a certain record. Without the public knowing you have anything out there that's interesting you're not going to sell any records. That's what the record label has, the money to put behind a band. It takes millions and millions of investment dollars to promote an artist and make them into a mega-star or a platinum selling artist. It's a lot of money that has to be put into it. It's all in advertising. 

On a more happier note. When can we expect a new Queensryche album?
- I don't know. We'll start working on it in January 2002 so I would say probably in the fall.