Queensryche- Geoff Tate Interview

Conducted by Deb Rao, Photo-Thomas S. Orwat, Jr.

Queensryche are currently on tour in support of American Soldier with special guest Lita Ford. Brutally honest, graphic, and hauntingly real, Queensryche latest release,” American Soldier" will captivate you from the opening track to the grand finale'. Queensryche are no stranger to a concept album having released Operation Mindcrime in 1988 and have never shied away from controversial subject matter. American Soldier finds Queensryche and lead singer Geoff Tate taking on the perils of war, the good, the bad and the ugly. You will find nothing pretentious and no stone left unturned on American Soldier. 

American Soldier features twelve tracks that are carefully orchestrated with a vast array of melodic melodies combat hard driving riffs, fast and furious drumbeats and outstanding vocals by Geoff Tate. 

Geoff Tate of Queensryche has checked in RockMusicStar.com to discuss the current American Soldier tour, War, his Insania Wine line, and what it was like working with the Soldiers for one of Queensyrche most brilliant albums to date "American Soldier."

RockMusicStar: Geoff, Thank you for checking in with RockMusicStar.com. Queensryche is currently on the road in support of American Soldier. I understand that Edwin McCain joined you onstage last night. How did that go?
TATE: Yes, he was out to eat and see the show. So we asked him if he would like to do a song with us. He did a beautiful song,” I’ll Be." That is the fun of being on tour. We love to bring musical guests onstage with us.

RockMusicStar: I understand that Lita Ford is performing with you on the current tour. What songs is she doing, and how did this transpire?
TATE: Yes, Lita plays several songs with us. She has a new album out and is playing "Crave", and "Patriotic S.O.B". and her classic hit "Close My Eyes Forever." We met Lita in Spain this summer. She told us how her new album was coming out in the Fall in The States. So we asked her of she wanted to come out on tour with us? She said,” I don't know if I want to bring my whole band? So we offered to play for her. We like it that way. Having a musical guest perform with us versus having an opening act. It makes a better presentation. It has been going great.

RockMusicStar: Queensyrche has been on the road for most of this year. You had the opportunity to visit so many great places. Tell us about the highlights of Japan and Australia.
TATE: Queensryche has performed in 26 or 28 countries this year. We are going to England in December. Japan was a real interesting place to go. It is a unique and different kind of harmonious place. Tokyo has a kind of softness to it.

RockMusicStar: What are your future recording plans? Is there another Queensryche album or solo album in the works?
TATE: Yes, we are all making solo albums. We are also working on another Queensryche album. Also a TV music show.

RockMusicStar: Will the next Queensryche album also be a concept album? Any release dates in the works?
TATE: I can't say if it will be a concept album. It is not finished yet. In regards to a time frame, I like to keep the life cycle of art flowing until it is finished. You can't put a time limit on art.  

RockMusicStar:  You also spent a lot of time on the road talking with Soldiers about the war. How did this affect your viewpoint of the military after listening to your conversations with these Soldiers?  
TATE: I walked away with this project with a feeling of gratitude of the Soldiers experience and what they sacrificed and what they go through. I think that is one of the main points that I hope people take away with after listening to the music is that same feeling. Especially in America I think that we take for granted quite a bit what our military does. We are very free to follow our dreams and pursue our goals and we don't worry about an unwelcome force kicking in our door at night. We don't have to defend our patch of ground. Because somebody else is doing that for us watching our back. What the Soldiers do is a very important thing. I hope people realize that with the release of the album.

RockMusicStar: When you are a soldier you are in combat everyday. What people don't realize that when they return home, their lives are forever changed? Did any of the Soldiers that you spoke with ever regret going to war?
TATE: No not one Soldier that I talked to ever regretted his experience. They all seem to have taken the experience no matter how difficult it was or how easy and learn something from it that has helped them improve their life in some way. By giving them strength, a personality and character. That was really one of the things that impressed me. Out of all the conversations that I had, all of them tended to have such a high sense of duty and honor that is something that really grasps you.

RockMusicStar: Was it hard to orchestrate the music to this album? There was a lot of spoken word by the Soldiers on the album.
TATE: What we tried to do is paint the picture musically in support of what the words were. The words were of course taken from the interviews. Actually, the interviews were really invaluable in writing the songs. Because you could sit and listen to the audiotapes and watch the film interviews you would really walk away from those with a musical impression. It really helped us write to it. 

RockMusicStar: Was there one particular Soldier story that stood out from the rest? 
TATE: When I was making the record. I tried not to assume or make judgment. It was really hard. It is American culture to make judgment like a sporting event and the good and the bad. Art isn't something that plays by that event. I thought that every story was going to be a different conflict. Surprisingly for me, and the central point of the record was how their human expressions were constant and similar in a way and it all tied in well together for the record. 

RockMusicStar: Over how long a time period did it take to record "American Soldier"?
TATE: I started working on it I believe in the summer of 2006. We just completed it in January 2009. So it was quite a long time really.

RockMusicStar: The album cover has a picture of the Soldiers combat boots on the cover. What does this denote to you?
TATE: Do you know the old saying,” How can you know me until you walk in my shoes"? I think the album cover really says that. It is an hour of music where you get to walk in the Soldiers boots for a while. You really get to understand their experiences first hand. 

RockMusicStar: Do you find it easier to write a concept album and gather a bunch of songs with one central theme?
TATE: Well yeah know you have the concept of an album, which in my mind means a collection of songs. I think there is a couple of ways that you can go with that collection of songs. You can write twelve songs that are all very different from one another and explore a lot of different thoughts and ideas. Or you can write around a central theme and focus those songs on that central subject. Which I find to be very challenging and very satisfying creatively to do that. It is very difficult in a song form to explore a subject in-depth. You got a limited amount of time with the attention span that you are dealing with.   The album collective gives you much more time and so many different ways that you can explore a theme. You can write about it from so many different angles.

RockMusicStar; Geoff, Is their anything else that you want to say about American Soldier?
TATE: I think it is a very good album. For the band it was a wonderful, wonderful experience to be able to participate in portraying the soldiers story. We really, really learned a lot from this project. I think it really changed us. It changed our way of thinking in a very positive way. 

RockMusicStar: What were your Dad's thoughts on the album? I know he appears on the song,” The Voice"?  Has he been been out to see the shows?
TATE: Yes, he has been out to see a couple of the shows. He always supports us in everything that we do. 

RockMusicStar: I have to ask you. How is your new line of wine Insania going? When is the next vintage?
TATE: The next vintage comes out in February 2010. Our last vintage came out in February 2008 and it sold out. You can pre-order the upcoming vintage at www.queensryche.com and www.geofftate.com   

RockMusicStar: Geoff, Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. Best of Luck on tour with American Soldier.  
TATE: Thanks Deb, Stay warm.