Queensr˙che's Geoff Tate

Chris: How are you?

GT: I'm good.

Chris: Are you up in Seattle?

GT: Yeah, uh-huh.

Chris: Great. And you've lived there forever, right?

GT: Well, it seems like it, yeah. Can't get away from the rain for too long, you know, or I dry up.

Chris: Yeah, that seems to be the case actually down here in San Francisco right now.

GT: I was just down there, throughout this last year a lot. I spent a lot of time in the Bay Area recording this record that we just put out.

Chris: Oh, you recorded it down here.

GT: Yes.

Chris: Where?

GT: At, oh, now I'm forgetting the name of the place. Geez. Just...oh, god. I can't think of it. I'll think of it here in a second. I can't remember the name of the place. I don't know why, but lately I've been forgetting the name of that place. It's not San Rafael but it's, you know, kind of in that...well it's near Stanford.

Chris: Oh, I see, over by Mills College and all that.

GT: Yeah, it's right near the university there. Between there and that gig that's...the old Bill Graham place. See what happens with age, your memory starts going.

Chris: Yeah, I hear you. I live in San Francisco and I don't know the names of any of the outlying cities. All right, well let me ask you some questions here about the album then.

GT: OK, I'll see if I can remember what they are...if I remember the answers.

Chris: Well, I wanted to know first off, what was the motivation behind creating a second installment of Operation: Mindcrime?

GT: Well it was planned that way. Originally it was meant to be a sequel. We left the ending of the original one open-ended with Nicky, the lead character, being, you know, committed to prison for murder. And we were planning at the time to, you know, put out the Empire album and then follow it with the sequel to Mindcrime. But things didn't quite work out that way, you know. Empire was a huge commercial hit and it really changed our lives quite drastically. So I wanted to write a record about, you know, that kind of change that happens when you achieve your dreams, and you know...can't quite figure out what to do next with your life. So we wrote Promised Land instead and then that kind of put, you know, Mindcrime on the back burner and...but I'd started working on, you know, the sequel to it, you know, completing the story at the time and started this file on my computer called Nicky, and I'd go there, you know, periodically to write, you know, do character sketches, and you know, "what if" scenarios and such. And I guess then over the years I collected quite a lot of data, you know, in the file, and one day about two years ago I was looking through the file and reading through it...I felt like I had, finally, a story, you know, finally a conclusion to it. So I approached the band and, you know, they liked the idea of returning to it. They thought it'd be musically challenging, and so we began.

Chris: Excellent. The original one was released 18 years ago and explored the first Bush-era, the post-Reagan American landscape, and I'm curious in your opinion how our society has changed since that time?

GT: Well I think in some ways, you know, the sort of surface trivial everyday ways it's changed drastically, you know, especially in all the technology we have, you know, sweeping changes there with, you know, GPS technology, and cell phones, and digital technology, computers, this kind of thing. God, there seems like there's no end to the innovation that we come up with, you know. But I think in the big issues, you know, the human issues, how we treat each other, you know, what things are going on within our society, you know, these--and not just our society, but around the world--these kind of changes, these sort of innovations seem like they take generations to happen. You know, I think that's one of the reasons why the Mindcrime story has resonated with people all over the world, just because it's a classic sort of tale of manipulation. It seems to be part of human nature that, you know, the educated, the intelligent seem to always dominate the weak, or you know, the disadvantaged. And I don't know what that is, why that happens...maybe it goes way back to the primate times, or you know, pre-evolution or something, when you know, the strong dominated the weak. It's just...I guess it's part of our inherent, you know, cell technology or something, or DNA. But you know, I think that these social issues I was talking about, these things are really the important stuff that needs to be looked at, that needs to be addressed, that needs to be explored. And that's why I think, you know, the idea, the concept, the practice of storytelling is such a worthwhile endeavor.

Chris: The original Operation: Mindcrime was, well, it was a successful album and it was in popular music at the time. And I'm curious how you feel about the complete absence of political music in the contemporary popular music landscape.

GT: Well, you know, when the original Mindcrime came out it wasn't part of popular music. It was very much underground and the popular music critics at the time panned it. They weren't interested in it. It was a...as they considered it, it was sort of a throwback to a different period of time, you know, it was kind of a throwback to the '70s. And you know, nobody did concept records anymore, that was passé, you know.

Chris: I suppose when I mean popular...it's just that it seemed to resonate with a large number of people.

GT: Well, I think what happened was, like anything in this country, anyway--in the world nowadays--the media got ahold of it, specifically MTV, and you know, pre...I mean, when we put it out, it was out for a year and a half before anything really happened to it. It sold, you know, just the same amount of records as all our other previous records had sold. And you know, it didn't make a big noise until MTV got ahold of it, and then all of a sudden, boom, you know, it got shoved down everybody's throat you know, six, seven, eight times a day, you know, for several months, and as soon as MTV got it, boom, it went gold, boom it went platinum, boom it went double platinum. It was an amazing journey, and it was amazing to watch the power of television and how strong it is, and what a great salesperson it is. Because once, once something is presented on television, it has a captive audience of people who have been trained to buy what is sold to them. And you know, they can't say no. If it's on TV it must be good, therefore we must have it.

Chris: Did you ever feel as though the mass consumption of the album at that point, once it was MTV-ized and pumped into every home, that it in any way cheapened the intended effect of the album?

GT: Well, I think when you make a record, when you make a song, when you write something that moves you, or is important to you, that's the exercise right there in its totality. And what happens to it after that is completely out of your hands, you know, once you release it to the world and the world takes it and does what they will with it, it's out of your hands. And so, whether something gets cheapened or you know, because a lot of people like it--I don't buy that kind of elitist idea. I think that the more people gravitate towards a story that is a constructive story, or a product that is a constructive product that helps, you know, society--helps people understand what's happening or their place in the world, I think that's a good thing.

Chris: How will this...are you touring for this album?

GT: Yes, we start in Europe in June and then we're back in the States in August and we're booked I think up until, I think New Year's or something like that.

Chris: Will it be a theatrical affair onstage?

GT: Yes. Yes. You know, this album to us is very important. It's the conclusion of a story that's been you know, a long time in the making. And we're going to concentrate on these two records this year on our tour. We're going to present both of them, one and two together as an Evening With Queensryche. And it'll be a dramatic presentation with actors portraying the different characters. It's got a stage set that changes throughout the show depending on, of course, where the action is taking place within the story. There's film screens, surveillance cameras, and the whole thing is wrapped up in surround sound, so it's a very intimate, emotional roller coaster of a show.

Chris: You mentioned sort of the impression of man spanning generations. I'm curious, does your music span generations? Do you see younger kids coming and discovering Queensryche?

GT: Yeah, we do, actually. It's very strange. I have five children of my own and three of them are high-school age. And so, you know, I'm pretty plugged into, you know, the music they like and what they're bringing me and to listen to. And it's interesting hearing, you know, kids that age, you know, finding out about Queensryche and then listening to the music, sometimes for the first time, never having heard it before and hearing their impressions on what it is, you know. It's kind of refreshing to hear that kind of perspective.

Chris: Is there any contemporary music that you enjoy that you hear coming out?

GT: Oh, I think there's a lot of very talented people, you know, in all the different genres of music. You know, honestly, my time is sort of limited with music, in the sense that I'm pretty preoccupied with the music that's in my head. So I kind of give that first priority. I'm always like, working on something, you know, working on the next record, working on a...I've got a solo record I'm waist-deep in right now, and so I'm kind of not tuning into what's around me, more or less. I'm pretty focused on, you know, what I'm doing at the time.

Chris: I just have one last question, and it has to do with your Web site. I was there, well, I'm actually staring at it right now, and on the front page there's an image of an arm, a person shooting what appears to be cocaine, with a crucifix wrapped around their wrist. I'm wondering if you could explain that to me.

GT: Yeah, I think that's probably an image from part of our show, that... Part of the background of the character Nicky is that he's a junkie. And that's how he is manipulated, that's how he is controlled is through his inability to control himself. And he's a drug addict and that's how Doctor X takes advantage of him and gets him to do the things that he wants him to do.

Chris: Great. Well, thank you for taking the time to chat with us.

GT: Pleasure. My pleasure, man.

Chris: All right, take care. Bye.

GT: See you, Chris. Bye.

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