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Live Queensryche pics
(Fall 2003) by George Dionne
If you were to come up with a list of the greatest prog-rock bands of the
last twenty years, Queensryche would certainly be mentioned. Although grouped
together with the late eighties pop/hair metal bands, Queensryche had a distinct
sound. They constantly came up with new innovate music, and combined it with
thought-provoking, highly political lyrics. It’s hard to believe that
it was 1981 when Queensryche formed. In the U.S. the group went virtually
unnoticed with their first few albums, but they were slowly picking up steam
underground. In 1988, Queensryche broke into the mainstream with their conceptual,
ground-breaking release Operation: Mindcrime. It has been hailed as one of
the greatest releases in their genre. They followed that release with the
equally successful Empire, which spawned their most notable single, “Silent
Lucidity”. Over the next decade Queensryche continued to release great
albums. Here we are in 2003, and the group just keeps going. Currently touring
in support of their latest Sanctuary Records release Tribe, I had a chance
to catch up with bassist Eddie Jackson and speak with him about all things
Queensryche.
RIL: You just finished an arena your with Fates Warning and Dream Theatre,
for the second leg of the tour you're playing smaller clubs, how's that going?
EJ: Great. We started the Tribe tour last July, and we
played kind of the same venues that we're playing now, some were a little bigger.
Now we're
carrying it over on the second leg that started September 10th and ends November
3rd, and it's taking us through a couple of markets that we didn’t
hit the first time around. Some of the places we've never played before.
It's interesting because there have been some pretty bizarre venues along
the way. I don't think you even need money to have a band perform at your
place for the night. In Wisconsin there is this building that holds about
1500 people, and there's an indoor volleyball court. According to our sound
engineer, it was one of the better sounding venues, which was surprising.
There were other places that were like old school houses. We had to play
on the second floor to about 1000 people, and there were no facilities. Everything
was outdoors. If you needed to take a leak, you had to walk outside and use
one of the porta-potties. Like I said, they'll turn any building into a venue.
RIL: Wait until you play the Webster Theatre tomorrow. Have you ever played
there?
EJ: No.
RIL: It's in a scary part of town.
EJ: I've heard some things abut it, but it is what it is. I guess we can't
complain. We still enjoy doing what we're doing; put us anywhere and we'll
perform.
RIL: Do you prefer the larger tours or the more intimate tours?
EJ: Either. It doesn't matter to me. There's an electricity that the arenas
give off in relation to the capacity, definitely a vibe of its own. There's
also that intimacy of going in and performing in front of smaller crowds.
I think acoustically, it sounds better in smaller venues. We've been using
these in ear monitors since the Promise Land days, and that's what we rely
on for sound.
RIL: Have you changed the set list on this second leg of the tour? Is it
longer? Is it shorter?
EJ: It's definitely longer. That was one of the nice things about going out
on the second leg. Sure we had a great time going out with Dream Theatre
and Fates Warning, but all the band were limited for time due to the amount
of bands. Certain venues have a hard curfew; some have a softer curfew where
they'll give you an extra ten minutes or so. We had to play 75 minutes and
that was it on the first leg, now were playing close to two hours. A couple
of the songs I don't think we've played at all live or at least in the last
10-12 years.
RIL: The new album Tribe has been out for a few months now. I've listened
to it, and thought it was more stripped down than your prior albums, less
political, and more personal experiences and observations. Was that the bands
intention when they went in to write or, or did it just happen?
EJ: The way I look it at, there's a combination of
both. You have an idea, and you take that idea, and try to expand on it.
You try to stay within your
guidelines, but as you go along it never turns out the way you were originally
anticipating. It doesn't mean that it's bad or good, but everything’s
always subject to change. This time around, I don't see it any different
than the other albums, except maybe it's a different theme. Geoff [Tate]
took a lot of the 9-11 scenario, the whole economy downfall, and a lot of
those type of issues and put them together. Some of it's political too. [Geoff]
actually went out on a bike ride. He had a motorcycle and traveled for several
weeks along the U.S. highways and sparked a few ideas from that. We usually
have the music laid out. It doesn't necessarily mean we use everything. It's
usually what [Jeff] feels connects musically with his lyrics.
RIL: What's your most memorable Queensryche moment?
EJ: It's been almost 22 years, there's been so many. The one that really
comes to mind was the very fist day we got signed under a major record
label, back in 1983. To me, that was a dream come true. Though we hadn't
been together as a band that long, but we were sill after the same goals
as a lot of in the music business. We were very fortunate, lucky. Right
place at the right time. We've been very blessed.
RIL: What was your most disappointing moment?
EJ: I don't know if there's anything disappointing about all of this. I don't
think it could be any different that having a standard nine to five job.
You're still going to experience the same types of peaks and valleys. There's
times were you wish [something] didn't happen, but it did.
RIL: In your opinion, how has the record industry changed since you started
out?
EJ: I don't think they are as forgiving when it comes to going out and searching
for talent. Nowadays it's a little tougher. Way back in the early eighties
it seemed like there were quite a few bands being signed. Not to diss any
of them whether they were good or not, but the bottom line was, there was
an abundance of bands being signed then. Now when crunch time comes, be it
economic reasons, it seems the record companies pass on a lot more product.
Sometimes you have to create this buzz before they're even interested. That's
how I see it. I'm sure others may see it different.
RIL: What do you think of the RIAA suing people for downloading music?
EJ: That's a great question. Who wouldn't be upset? You've got people generating
revenue off your own product. You don't see any of it. Of course it's no
different than it was ten, twenty, thirty years ago. There was still bootlegs
floating around on the public streets. You still had no control over it.
This is more of a convenient way of receiving the product. It's easier
to download music and burn it to a disc, than looking for it on the streets.
It's a bit unfortunate, but there's always going to be ways of getting
around having to go out and buy something.
RIL: My theory on the subject is, if somebody is a true fan of a certain
band, let's say Queensryche is their favorite band; they're going to buy
their CDs no matter what. If they are downloading Queensryche's music, it's
because they can't wait for the release date, but in the end they're going
to buy it.
EJ: Right. It's interesting, I had a friend of mine approach me one day and
he said he went out and bought one of my CDs, because he had to replace his
old copy for some reason. It was the Promise Land CD. He asked me how I would
feel if he burned a copy of it. The reason he asked me was because he had
two vehicles, they both had CD players. He said I already bought one copy,
does this mean I have to purchase another one to accommodate the two vehicles?
That was a great question? I never really thought about it that way. You
already made your initial investment; I can't get upset about that.
RIL: When you heard the finished version of “Silent Lucidity”,
did you know it was going to be a hit?
EJ: It wasn't even going to be on the record [Empire]. We were talking about
it, we had recorded a few songs, and it almost didn't make the record.
RIL: Why?
EJ: I think Peter Collins, our producer at the time,
really thought it belonged with that group of songs, because of the way the
whole package in general,
song for song, it kind of coincided with what we were doing at the time.
There were other songs that didn't make it. As a matter of fact, “Last
Time in Paris”, which was on the Ford Fairlane Soundtrack, was scratched
off the record and replaced with “Empire”. We were going to
give the Ford Fairlane Soundtrack “Empire”, but we all agreed
that with Geoff's lyrics and everything, maybe we should keep “Empire” and
give them “Last Time in Paris”. So what do we do with [Silent]
Lucidity? We thought, if Peter Collins thinks that it should be on the
record, then we should really consider that. I don't know, you don't really
have any control on how successful a record or a song is going to be. We're
fortunate that it did really well for us.
RIL: Do you have a favorite Queensryche album?
EJ: I can't say that I have one particular favorite.
I do have memories of certain recording sessions, such as Rage for Order,
that to me were very
memorable. I think that it kind of created our own sound at the time. Whatever
sound that is. I thought at the time we pulled out all the stops. We created
our own sounds, from doors slamming inside a parking garage to a ten speed
bicycle wheel spinning around in circles with a little piece of material
making a clickety noise. I thought that was pretty cool. We kind of steered
away from your typical generic type of sounds. At then end of “Walk
in the Shadows”, that big booming sound is a door slamming in a parking
garage.
RIL: Was their an album that you thought you could have done better?
EJ: Every record. I think that there's always going to be something that
when you look back you're going to say, well what if we did this, or what
if we did that? You're caught in that moment, and you have this idea, you
take it as far as you can go, and when it's finished that's it. In retrospect,
when you listen to it five, ten years later, you say to yourself, I wonder
if I could have done this back then instead of that. I can't say there's
anything negative about any of the recording sessions. They've all be very
special.
RIL: What are Queensryche's plans after the second leg of the tour is over?
EJ: Some time off. Hopefully we'll start back up in February. There's talk
about going out on a third leg. Possibly a few more dates in the U.S.,
and then following up with some dates in Europe, but all that it tentative.
Once the new year comes around we'll have a better idea of where we're
going.
RIL: If I were in Seattle, where would I get a good cup of coffee? (I don't
think Eddie realized it was a wise-ass question)
EJ: Oh geeze, you could go just about anywhere. There's an abundance of shops.
Starbucks, Tully's, you're going to find coffee shops everywhere.
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