Queensryche is not your typical heavy metal band. In some ways, that moniker does not truly fit them. Some call them progressive metal, others hard rock and some just plain old rock n’ roll. This difficulty in describing the band has both helped and hurt them over the years. It has helped them to remain working, interesting and relevant. It has hurt them because their main fan base has been metal fans, and, lets face it, the most success they had was with albums like Operation Mindcrime. Queensryche has taken the tag that used to be used to describe Blue Oyster Cult, “The Thinking Man’s Heavy Metal Band,” to a new level. Now, they may be stretching some of their hardcore fans patience to the limit with a daring new album that barely sounds like classic QR.

Geoff Take explains the reason the band changes musical direction in the interview below. He also discusses why they do what they do and how album sales are secondary to being a musician. A true artist, Tate understands that Dedicated to Chaos is not your Mother’s Queensryche. It is something new, out of the ordinary and kinda funky. That said, it works…just don’t expect “Revolution Calling.” 　

Geoff: That funky stuff is our bass player, Eddie Jackson. He likes real funky stuff.

Geoff: [laughter] We really made a conscience decision to go away from the concept album this time. We had done two concept albums, back to back. We just wanted to make this a collection of songs.

Geoff: Before each record, we all sit down to discuss what we want to achieve. These conversations can go on for days and days and days. Sometimes, they get pretty intense. Everybody goes away from the meeting and they come back with what their version is for what we decided.

We wanted to steer clear of what we have done in the past. We wanted to break new ground, musically. We wanted to approach what we have done with our instruments differently. We wanted to focus on our rhythm section, the bass and drums, and use that as a bed track to build off of.

In the past, we would build off of a vocal or a guitar riff. We really wanted to steer clear of that. We wanted to give ourselves something different to do. We wanted a new approach.

Our drummer, Scott Rockenfield, really got into the idea. He set up his drums completely different than he has ever set them up before in order to force himself to play differently. That was a real challenge for him. I did sort of the same thing by moving my studio to a different location and having a different atmosphere to write in. It was just another one of our experiments where we tried to push ourselves and move in another musical direction.

Geoff: It was different, then, primarily because Chris [DeGarmo] was back to record some guitar parts but he wasn’t really back in the band. It was a confusing time.

Chris was one of the main songwriters in the band. He worked with everybody in the band, individually, and he was very organized in his approach. Without him, we had to learn how to operate. We are a different band now. The band has changed. People will realize that we have taken a different approach to things on this album. That may be what you are hearing.

Geoff: What brought Queensryche together, in the first place, was our love of music. We all came from musical backgrounds and we all had a lot of different musical styles that we appreciated. If you had looked at our record collections then you would have seen that we probably owned every record that was ever made. We had thousands and thousands of records. The first time we ever met to discuss things we brought records in with us to reference things. We were referencing everything from Blue Cheer to Black Sabbath to Liberace to John Coltrane; we had it all in there. We all fell in love with each other’s taste in music. That is what really has held us together all of these years. The pure joy of creating music is what drives the band. We couldn’t stay together if we played the same style and just regurgitated our greatest hits and all that stuff. I don’t think that would be very satisfying, creatively.

Geoff: This is a very exciting time, as everything is filled with change and transition. I am not just talking about the music business. Industry to politics to business, we are in a global transition. On one hand, it is frightening and scary because we have to figure out how to make it work. On the other hand, it is exciting and challenging. The world is your oyster now as nothing is defined. I think you can reinvent yourself and be anything you want to be and not have to adhere to the old ways of doing things, which in our case was the record industry way.

They put you in a box and called you a “genre” in order to market and sell you. You can market and sell yourself now. The idea of genres is changing. I think the end of all record companies will come in a few years. They just can’t make money. It will be a good thing for the artist, because we can reinvent ourselves, but it will be a bad thing because it will put a lot of people out of work.

Geoff: We went with them because of Tom [Lipsky]. We have known him for years. We were with him at Sanctuary. Tom said he could do this and that and then he waved a lot of money in front of us – that never hurts.

Geoff: We are offering to let people buy a bunk on the tour bus and go out on the road with us. We’ve done that before. We had six people out with us the tour before last. We had a great time; the people are fun. It really makes a life memory for them. A lot of that stuff comes from Susan [Tate], our manager. She dreams it up and works it all out with the label and makes it happen.

Geoff: That is probably true. All of us in the band are pretty hard workers. I have always been that way. One of the things that attracted me to the guys in the band, way back when, was the strong work ethic everybody had. We all were willing to roll our sleeves up and do what it took to market the band.

Geoff: Kelly has been a friend of everybody in the band for years. Scott went to school with Kelly. I was in a band with Kelly before Queensryche. He has done a couple of albums with us and we really love working with him. He takes things very seriously and he knows everybody in the band. He has lived at my house before and I have lived at his house. We’re old friends.

Geoff: He is a man of very strong beliefs and he articulates them very well. If he believes in something then he is not going to hold back.

Geoff: I have always been into group collaborations. I like hearing different ideas. Usually, a group idea is stronger than an individual idea. I have learned to trust that when working with everybody. You learn what everybody in the bands likes, and what they don’t like, and what they can, and can’t do.

Geoff: I am sad that Priest is going to quit. They’re a very creative band and I like a lot of what they do. We are very honored that they asked us to tour with them.

Geoff: Our 30 year anniversary is here. We are going to do a retrospective and play songs from every album we have ever done. We have a really cool visual show that looks back at where we have been, where we are at now, and where we are going. The band is going to be able to play a lot of different music so it should be enjoyable. We are going clear back to the EP days.

Geoff: [laughter] That is unfortunate.

Geoff: I don’t really think in terms of numbers. I’m not a math guy; I’m a musician. Record sales have dried up for everyone. I remember days where if you didn’t sell a million records, then you were a failure. I have now seen record company guys jumping up and down and high-fiving each other if they sell 2,000 records. It’s kind of a weird thing to think about. The whole industry is going to fold and there will no record sales. There will be some type of new technology out there that will come about; we just don’t know what it is yet.