Interview with Queensryche’s Geoff Tate: “One person’s art is another person’s waste of time. It’s really all very subjective and I think art should push people’s buttons.”

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 31 years since Queensryche arrived in the metal world a young, hungry band with a sound that was a unique mix of progressive smarts and classic NWOBHM.  While the music of Queensryche was stellar on it’s own, it was the voice of lead singer Geoff Tate that truly made Queensryche a revolutionary and ground breaking band.  With a voice that cuts through the air with the intensity of a sonic boom, Geoff Tate over the years would solidify himself as one of the most unique singers in metal and go on to inspire and influence a whole new generation of singers.  Queensryche experienced many years of success and some amazing albums but in 2012 a shakeup in the band had the band parting ways and eventually being a camp divided.  Queensryche vs. Queensryche.

It’s no secret that the last couple of years have been trying times for not just a band divided but a fan base divided as well.  I really got kind of tired reading all these interviews with Geoff Tate that seemed to never go beyond the feud between him and his former band mates.  I decided to reach out to Geoff to see if he’d be willing to talk about anything else other than that and he excitedly jumped on it.  Geoff is a great guy and he’s a cut above the rest.  We talked about the weather (literally), the subjectivity of music and other art forms, and eventually did touch briefly on his feelings about the bitter parting of ways.  This was a great honor for me and I hope you all will dig reading my conversation with Geoff Tate. 

 

Geoff.  Thanks so much for taking the time out to talk to me today. 

Thank you.  It’s my pleasure, Don.

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Happy Holidays to you and your family by the way.

Thanks Don.  We’re enjoying it but our weather’s been incredibly cold right now here in Seattle.  We’ve been having several weeks of weather below the 20s which is kind of unusual for this part of the world.

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Well we’re in Atlanta and we are also having colder weather than we’re used to as well.  I’m sure it’s because we’re a bunch of lightweights though.

[laughs] What temperature have you guys been at?

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Oh we’ve been in the 30s and below.  Got some ice and what not.

Oh wow that is cold [laughs].

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Geoff, if it’s ok with you I’d rather not talk about the whole QR vs. QR thing.  Besides, you’ve probably feel like this horse has been beating way too much.  You must be tired of going there.

[laughs] Thank you.  Yes, I am [laughs].

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What is the one question that you get asked so much that you if you had to hear it again you’d scream?

Well, I get asked a lot about the lawsuit of course.  Over the last year it’s been pretty predominant in the interviews.  Nobody ever asks me about music [laughs].

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Geoff, I’ve got to know.  What was it that made you want to be a musician in the first place?

I heard music [laughs].  I found it to be incredibly inspiring and emotional and the more I learned about it the more I became enamored with the act of creating music and how you could completely lose yourself in your imagination and surround yourself with this noise that you’ve created that you could manipulate and design to carry out the message of what you’re thinking about.  Music is a playground in a sense and you get to create these different places for you to go and for other people to go as well.

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The latest Queensryche album Frequency Unknown turned out to be quite the conversation starter.  There was even a contest not too long ago where you had people video their thoughts on the album.  What was it like watching people make such fools of themselves?  Was there a little reverse psychology going on there?

[laughs] Well, I think that’s a really astute observation on your part and I think the videos kind of speak for themselves.  There’s really not much to say beyond that [laughs].

You released your 2nd solo album Kings and Thieves in 2012.  I thought it was such a great album and a departure from the Queensryche sound.  Did you enjoy touring for that album?

It was great.  We had some amazing shows.  I love touring.  I love performing and playing music live.  I think it’s one of the best things about a musician’s life to be able to do that.  It was really great for me to be able to perform the solo material live.  I haven’t been able to do that much because I’ve been really focused on Queensryche and I’ve been devoting the majority of my time, my thinking, and my life to that really.  This was like taking a step away and breathing in some fresh air and trying a different approach to things which I really enjoyed.  I loved playing that material.

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I wanted to talk about the song “The Way I Roll” from Kings and Thieves.  This song was such a strong statement and even became kind of an anthem for me.  I’m an outspoken, opinionated person and that song really clicked with me.  I almost feel like that song is me getting things off my chest.  What was the fuel behind this song?

That was pretty much it actually.  I think it’s important to express your individuality, to be proud of it, and to be confident in the uniqueness of you.  There’s nothing wrong with expressing that, “This is me.  This is what I’m all about.”  I like different things than what you may like and that’s cool.  I respect that you like different things than I like.  We don’t all have to think exactly the same.  It’s impossible for everyone to think in the same way.  You can take any subject there is and the more people you get involved in the conversation the more and different opinions you have about it.  That’s the beauty of humanity.  It’s diversity.

Another song I wanted to ask you about is the song “Say U Luv It.”  Is this a voyeuristic look into your private life or was this just something to get the people talking for more of a shock value.

[laughs] Um, you know?  One of the great things about writing music is that you get to indulge in areas of fantasy and imagination that a lot of times people don’t get to indulge in.  I think that the relationship that happens between two consenting adults is really up to their own interpretation and imagination as dictated by that.  I think people should have fun with that and that was just a fun song about that kind of a relationship.

That song really seemed to get people talking a bit and what I loved about that is that I saw what everyone was saying and I said, “This is art.”  I mean, when I think of art I think of how one person might see crap thrown on a canvas but someone else might see the most beautiful thing they’ve ever seen.  Good art makes people talk.

[laughs]  I agree with you.  That’s the function of art.  It has several functions and I think that’s dependent upon the individual.  First and foremost it’s a means of expression.  Secondly, it’s there to be viewed and it can be taken in so many different ways.  One person’s art is another person’s waste of time.  It’s really all very subjective and I think art should push people’s buttons.  It should get them talking about “it” and creating conversation is very important especially these days where we don’t converse too much anymore.  We spend a lot of time tapping it out in text messages rather than having conversations.

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You are so right about how we just don’t seem to converse like we used to.  It’s like we’re pounding it out on the internet and on forums as opposed to a good old fashioned open debate over coffee or lunch.  That relationship with other people seems to be broken somewhat.

It really is.  I worry about that because I wonder where the future’s going to take us in regards to conversation.  There’s an intimacy with conversation that you can’t get with the written word.  There’s an immediacy about it that is inspiring.  I worry that it’s missing now and that it will be forever and diminishing as time goes on.

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Looking back say 20 years ago, has technology surpassed where you thought it would be for the better or even for the worst?

Well, for me, technology means specifically computer based technology and the communications that it opened up was always incredibly interesting to me.  When I first became aware of computers and what they could do it just astounded me.  My imagination went crazy and I saw all these different possibilities for utilizing these tools.  Over time I think that all of those things have come to a realization and now everything we do is based around computer technology.  It’s become more of a standard as much as it can be in our capitalistic society.  It’s where we’ve taken it as far as communication goes that’s really the mind blowing thing for me and how people have adapted to it so easily and completely.  We’re always plugged in now and in fact it now takes effort to become unplugged [laughs].  The discipline to pull yourself away from the social sites and the shopping and the information that is found on the internet you actually have to discipline yourself not to partake in it.  The whole idea has now changed.  Instead of indulging in it 24/7 now I find myself pulling away from it as much as I can [laughs].

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Speaking of the whole communication and technology thing, I have to say that Promised Land is hands down my favorite Queensryche album. 

Why?

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Well, that album just seemed to really hit a chord with me.  Not so much when I was younger but maybe about five or six years ago it just really captivated me.  I turned 40 this year so while I remember life without all of the technology we have today, I vividly remember the time it was starting to come alive.  Promised Land captured that moment in time where technology was evolving and the Internet was really starting to come alive.  It’s almost like Promised Land captured this kind of promise and excitement of where technology might take us and what kind of doors it would open. 

Again, Don, this is beauty of art but for me that album is a midlife crisis.

I hope I didn’t insult you by stating my love for that album. 

[laughs] Oh no, not at all.  I like hearing how albums and songs affect people in a different ways.  It’s really interesting to me.  It’s a bit of anthropology [laughs].  For me that record was about finding myself in a place in life where I had achieved everything that I’d ever imagined.  I was at a point of not having a clear view of what the possibilities were of what was next.  I couldn’t see it and I didn’t know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go.  Before that I had always had a clear vision of where I was at.  Promised Land was just me opening myself up to the fact that I didn’t know anymore.  The band had gotten to where we always talked about getting and I had more success and fame and money than I had ever dreamed possible.  All of those things that I thought would make me feel fulfilled didn’t.  That’s what that record is about.

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Maybe that is what made that connection with me as I was at this time at a crossroads in my life.  I was an adult, I was looking to make a career change at the time and maybe I just connected with the feeling of being kind of lost yet optimistic that this album had.

Yes.  It’s kind of a like a marker.  It’s like when you leave your adolescence or your childhood behind and now you’ve come to this point to where the real story starts happening [laughs].

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Let’s talk about the upcoming Queensryche tour.  Queensryche is touring for 25th of Operation: MindcrimeOperation: Mindcrime has been QueensrychePhoto2013B&W2byPeterEllenbysuch a strong, primary focus for Queensryche for so long.  Is there another QR album that you look at and say, “I wish that album had got the attention that Operation: Mindcrime received?”

All of our records for me have been very important.  They are documented journeys for me.  When you’re listening to a Queensryche record you’re listening to my life, my hopes, my fears, my joys, my challenges, all of these things that make up a life.  For me they are all incredibly important.  I don’t know as a musician and as an artist that you can expect that your art is going to be appreciated or paid attention to at all.  I feel very fortunate that some of our music has made its way into people’s heads and affected their lives in some way.  If you ask me, have we hit the nail on the head artistically throughout our career, I would say yes we have.  Operation: Mindcrime, Rage For Order, Promised Land, American Soldier.  Those albums to me are incredible statements of what they are.  They’re very unique and different and filled with a lot of information and done in a way that is very unique and should be looked at and experienced by other people.

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You said earlier that you enjoyed going out on your solo tour and doing those songs.  Why go out as Queensryche now as opposed to going out there as Geoff Tate and diving more into that solo side of your conscious and creative side?

Honestly I feel like I’m in an incredible position right now where I can do both.  I used to think, and this was my way of operating and my way of looking at the world, that Queensryche has no limits.  We can create anything that we can imagine and we define what we are by what we create.  There shouldn’t be any kind of limitations set upon us, especially limitations that are thought of by outside people.  We shouldn’t be influenced by what other people think we should be.  I think I’ve come to the realization that this isn’t possible anymore.  The world has changed and the world doesn’t want non conformity.  They want black and white art.  If they fall in love with an artist or band, they want that artist or band to continue creating exactly the same thing over and over again.  We’ve created genre upon genre of sub genres now by breaking everything down into tiny boxes to digest and to sell.  That’s a difficult thing to swallow as an artist because I’ve always felt that art is something that reflects your life and your life isn’t a static thing.  It’s constantly moving and changing.  You’re experiencing different things and those things should be talked about in your art.  The solo work gives me the chance to branch out from things that are Queensryche.  When I have material that I feel fits within the confines of what Queensryche is I can release that material in that format.  Other material that doesn’t fit into that I can release as my solo work.  I feel like I’m in the right place to do both things.

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Is this also why you’ve said that you don’t really want to be in a band anymore and that you’d rather work with a revolving door of musicians?  Do you feel this will allow you more freedom as opposed to having to conform to normalcy I guess you could say?

Well, having the ability to collaborate with a number of different people gives you the freedom to create in a much more open way without being limited to the abilities of a given group of people so yeah, it gives you a lot more freedom to express yourself and to experiment.  Also, having spent 30 years with the same people was an endeavor that started out with the best intentions.  It was a band of guys getting together as friends and creating music, one for all and all for one.  I honestly never thought that we would deviate from that and unfortunately I was proven wrong.  I don’t ever want to be in that position again of putting my heart and soul into something and having the good of the group in mind with every decision I make only to have one or two people within that group turn against me and betray me.  I can’t live with that anymore so I don’t want to put myself in that position.  I don’t honestly feel like I need to be in that position anymore.

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At some point that can also prove to be detrimental to your creativity.

Absolutely.  I know we didn’t want to talk about the QR vs. QR thing.

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Geoff, this is your floor man so talk about whatever you want.

Well, I won’t get too into it but I have to say that I am really looking forward to this whole thing winding down and coming to an end so I can get on.  I want to live in that creative life that I’ve been used to and I can’t do that right now.  I can’t put myself into that frame of mind with this situation still looming over my head.  It’s just not conducive to a positive, creative experience.  I’m just waiting for the end of January to be done with [laughs].

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Geoff, I’m glad you’re moving forward and I have to say that I’m really looking forward to seeing Queensryche here in Atlanta on January 10th at Center Stage Theater.

Yeah, I’m very excited about that show.  Atlanta’s always been a great rock town and an incredibly supportive audience.  It’s always a great time.

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Finally, finish this phrase.  If I wasn’t a musician I would be ____________.

[laughs] I’ve never been able to finish that sentence.  I never had a plan b.  I’ve always wanted to be a musician.  I don’t know what else I could do or want to do.  I find incredible fulfillment as a musician and as a writer.  I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do that.

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Geoff, thank you so much for taking the time out to do this interview.  Happy New Year to you.  Thanks again for all the years of great music and again, it’s been a real pleasure talking with you.

Well thank you Don and hopefully we’ll see each other in Atlanta.

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Geoff, that would be great.  Is there a particular beverage I can bring you?

[laughs] Well, you know I’m a wine fan.  I like all kinds of different kinds of wine.  I’m always interested in what other people like and what they find interesting.

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Well, that’s cool.  Now the pressure is on to find a wine that Geoff Tate will like.

[laughs] Good luck.  I’m not that hard to please.

 

For more on Geoff Tate, please head on over to https://www.facebook.com/GeoffTateOfficial

 

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