QUEENSRYCHE’S Promised Land(CD-ROM for Windows, Windows 95, or Mac) (1996)
Promised Land is my favourite ‘Ryche album, so when this came out I had to have it. Somewhat a companion piece to the album, it is also a game on its own. There are two discs: One, a virtual tour of the cottage where the band recorded the album, and Two, the Promised Land video game.
The object of the game: Explore five different fantasy lands (one “world” for each member) that “reflect the thoughts, dreams, nightmares, humor and values of the members of Queensryche.” There are puzzles in these areas and a lot of places where you just get lost, but there’s also cameos by the band members and snippets of original music. The goal of the game is to find all five pieces of the Queensryche totem. They’re hidden, one per world, and if you get them all you unlock a Queensryche song called “Two Mile High”. This song, a brief acoustic number with an electric DeGarmo solo, was recorded specifically and exclusively for this game. Unfortunately you won’t unlock it in any worthwhile format, you’ll sit and watch a Quicktime video instead.
The other part of the Promised Land package is a lot cooler. On the disc labelled Big Log, you can explore the cabin studio where Queensryche recorded the album. You can move from room to room and click objects to unlock videos.
Unfortunately, with Geoff Tate out of the picture, it seems unlikely that a DVD release of these video segments would be high on the priority list for the band.
Anyway, it seems kind of pointless to give a rating to a game like this since it’s unlikely you’re currently rushing out to buy a 1996 PC video game. If I had to put myself back in the day and how I felt when I got it, I’d rate it like this:
I called it weeks ago and now the split is official:
Geoff Tate is OUT of Queensryche.
He has been replaced by Crimson Glory/Rising West singer Todd La Torre.
After the now-infamous “knife incident” news, this really comes as no surprise. The only consolation to fans is that Rising West (which is now actually Queensryche considering the membership is now identical) played exclusively material from the first 5 QR records. Hopefully this means a return to the metal, and an end to stuff like Tribe….
Todd LaTorre reports that he is in both Queensryche AND Crimson Glory, as both prepare material for new albums! He also states: “Queensryche enters a new chapter; buckle up.”
Time to wrap up my four-part Eddie Jackson interview from 2001!
This has been the complete, unedited text of our 1-hour conversation. This has never been seen by anybody before. In case you missed the three previous parts:
EDDIE JACKSON INTERVIEW, OCT 30 2001 (Unedited – Part 4)
Q – [NOTE: We had just finished talking about the recording of the Promised Land album.] Now the next album, Here In The Now Frontier, was different. In the liner notes to the new live album, it’s pretty much just skipped over completely. And only one track appears. Were you disappointed in that album at all?
E – No. That’s interesting that you bring that up, because we were working on a couple of the other songs, but I don’t know why there was only one song recorded for the Live Evolution. That’s just interesting you bring that up because I kind of noticed that. I go, “God, there’s only one song from that album, I wonder how that happened?”
Q – I guess it’s the same problem you talked about before, where you can’t fit in everything you ever played.
E – Again, I think we were really focusing on a lot of the older stuff. Throughout our touring, these last few years and whatnot, we kept hearing a lot of “Hey, are you guys playing anything off The Warning or anything off Rage For Order, or anything off the EP?” So right then, that kinda sparked the idea of, “Hey, let’s go back. Let’s really give ‘em something that they’re gonna really enjoy. Who knows if we’ll ever get this opportunity again? Why not just give ‘em a variety, a potpouri of Queensryche material from the beginning to the present, you know.
Q – Listening to the live album, and trying to pick out influences, I think I hear a bit of Steve Harris and Geezer Butler. Were those guys influences on you or am I just hearing things?
E – Since the beginning?
Q – Just bits here and there.
E – I’m sure, especially from the earlier days, there were some major influences from Geezer Butler, Steve Harris, a little bit of Geddy Lee. If there’s times that it sounds like that then you’re probably right. At that given moment, I’m sure I was influenced. We were all influenced by what was out at that time. Especially with the EP, and The Warning. When you’re listening, like I was saying before, you’re relearning the songs. And then when you start hearing the instruments, you go, “Wow, doesn’t that sound like that one band back then?” I don’t you’re really aware of it up until a few years later when you listen back you know!
Q – Is there anybody out there right now who just frightens you on the bass?
E – Oh heck, there’s tons of them! I take more of a simplistic approach, but that’s just my style. I love funk, I really like a really hard driving sound. I tend to focus more on the sonic end of it than the performance end. I’m really into experimenting with sound. As you can tell, actually on the Mindcrime album, I’ve had guys come up to me, and they go, “Hey, how did you get your bass to sound like a truck?” I go, “What? Where’d that come from?” you know? So obviously there’s a little bit of fretless in Promised Land, and Real World, there’s some fretless on there. So heck, you know, some 5 string here, some whatever, here or there. I’ll experiment with anything. I think I really love approaching the sonic end of it, trying to come with a really cool sound, something that’s very distinctive.
There’s a lot of bands out there with a lot of talented bass players that I’m just listening to this thing and go, “How the hell did he get that sound? That is so cool! What is he running? Some sort of an effect? I wonder what he’s using!” You’re just reaching and guessing, it’s a lot of fun though, hearing a lot of these bass players. I tell you, you learn a lot just from listening and I was really a big, big Grand Funk and especially Alice Cooper fan. I mean, [Dennis] Dunaway [Alice Cooper] back then, that guy was an amazing bass player. And then, what’s his name? Sure? Sher? From Grand Funk? Heck, I forgot his name…Mel Schacher. Yeah, he was an amazing bass player. I kind of enjoyed a lot of their bass work back then. You don’t really hear it in my style, I just liked hearing it. The performance, you know.
Q – I know when you put on the Promised Land video game, there’s some definite funk influences there. Funky backgrounds and colours too! Do see yourself for that aforementioned solo project doing some funk, big horn sections and stuff?
E – Oh yeah yeah! That was just a little piece I wrote for that Promised Land CD-ROM game. Yeah, that was kinda fun. And if you noticed, I’m using a different coloured tie on each musician. Each instrument that I’m playing. I dunno, that’s not a big deal but it was to me. You know I go hey, I wanna put a different tie, I wonder if anybody will catch it. But yeah, that was a lot of fun. I tell ya, you’re almost kinda acting your parts out, especially when I was the secretary at the front desk there. It was kinda weird, putting all that makeup, and dressed in drag.
Q – I guess it’s a chance to lighten up because Queensryche are not the kind of band that is really known for joking around.
E – Yeah, I mean, some levity here and there, it doesn’t hurt.
Q – Running out of time here, I’d better start wrapping up! I wanted to ask you if there’s any questions out there that you’ve been waiting to get, but nobody’s asked it yet.
E – Oh geez! That is a great question! Oh geez! You got me on the spot here! This is cool!
Ummm…oh geez. That’s good. I don’t know, you got me here! I just don’t know what to think here! I mean, what question? Oh geez…how about uh…this might be little cliché, or a little simplistic, but how about “How is my son doing?”
Q – And how is he doing?
E – He’s doing wonderful.
Q – How old is he?
E – He’s eight months. Other than that, I can’t think of anything else. Do you have anything you want to ask?
Q – I don’t know…now I’m on the spot here! How about…what can I say…do you remember playing Toronto in ‘95 at Molson Amphitheater?
E – Yeah.
Q – I was there at that show, I thought it was a great show.
E – That was with AC/DC.
Q – Type O Negative.
E – Type O Negative, you’re right! The Molson Amphitheater or Labbatt’s? Yeah, that was back in, yeah with Type O Negative.
Q – Was that the last night of the tour?
E – Yep.
Q – I seem to remember you guys messing around, like a big roadie with a wig playing the part of the nurse during that one song…can’t remember the song.
E – Yeah yeah, well that was our crew, kind of putting in the finishing touches of the last show of the tour. And with the brawl, the bar brawl, yeah, normally that really didn’t happen except for that night. It was the last show of the tour and they wanted to screw with ya.
Q – One of those examples of Queensryche’s sense of humour.
E – Yeah, you know, and I’m sure it throws the audience for a loop, because they just like, “Is this part of their show?” You can just look at their incredulous looks you know. I can just imagine what’s crossing their minds, like, “Wait a sec, what’s that guy with that wig doing onstage?” Oh, get this! We had that same production through that whole tour, with the bar scene, and the lounge band. We were in Dallas, and every night there’s guests that can win seats to sit in, on stage, during the Promised Land song, and that’s when the bar comes out, and we’re the lounge band. The winners would go up onstage with us and stuff. And there were these two girls, and they had to have been peelers! During that song, they started to like, make out! It almost took away my whole emphasis of performing. I’m just looking at this, and looking at Michael, and next thing you know they’re on the floor just like, rubbing each other body to body and I go “Oh my God! Here I am and I’ve got some cousins and aunts and nieces here!” And I go “Oh my God, what the hell are they going to say after the show!” It was just nuts! That was very entertaining that night! They were just…yeah, they were going for it! I’m surprised we didn’t get arrested.
When I talked to Eddie Jackson back in 2001, for the release of Live Evolution, he gave me so much material that 80% of this has never been seen before!
I had so much material that I had to break it up into four parts! In case you missed them:
Part III is below. Stay tuned for the fourth and final part!
EDDIE JACKSON INTERVIEW, OCT 30 2001 (Unedited – Part 3)
Picking up where we left off: Discussing unused song ideas.
Q – Who remembers these ideas when it comes down to jamming for a new album? Is it something that you’d dig up on old tapes, or you just say, “Remember this old bit?” and you play it?
E – Stuff like that just happens. What we normally try to do is just create something fresh. But it’s always fun to go back and take a listen to something that you’ve worked with in the past, on the last release or the release before. Because there’s always some ideas there that you can possibly use.
Q – There’s certainly enough stuff out there to collect with the Japanese bonus tracks and stuff.
E – Yeah, I mean, Promised Land had “Chasing Blue Skies”. That was on the Promised Land CD that was released in Japan. [note: it was actually Hear In The Now Frontier that had that song] And it also had “Someone Else?” but with the full band version.
Q – And some of those made it on to the Greatest Hits.
E – I think so.
Q – What about solo projects? Have you ever pondered that?
E – Oh yeah, oh yeah. I mean, Geoff ‘s [Tate, vocals] working on a little solo project for himself. Scotty [Rockenfield, drums] and Kelly put together something. Michael’s kinda working on that. I’ve always wanted to do something like that, kind of like step away from Queensryche for the day and then do something on my own. I’m always coming up with ideas and I eventually would like to put something together like that.
Q – Do you have any ideas for a direction? Obviously it would have to be different from Queensryche.
E – Yeah, you know, my listening taste of music is so eclectic. It’s like from Abba to Zappa. I love pop rock, I love hard rock, I love jazz. I think one of the last albums that I actually bought was the Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe. That was one of the last albums, I mean it grew on me like fungus! It’s just got some angst and attitude. Stylistically that would be a fun little approach. You never know, it’s always up in the air when that time comes. You could always think about, “Alright, this is a direction I’d like to approach,” but when that day comes, you could always have a different idea.
Q – One thing you notice when you listen to the new live album, is from about Empire onwards, there are a lot of strong grooves happening, especially on Q2K. A lot of the older stuff is faster, more riff-oriented. Which of the two do you prefer to play live?
E – When it comes to the era?
Q – Just which style of songs do you prefer, the faster or the groovier?
E – Oh jeez I’ll play anything! I’m serious! I mean I love a lot of the groove. Yeah, I mean, heck, I’ll play just about anything, just about any type of a groove, you know. I mean that’s what makes it interesting. You got a band like AC/DC. They are one of the few bands that can get away with writing 3 chord progression songs with the same 4/4 beat and still create something that’s very good! But they’re one of the few bands that can get away with that. I dunno what it is about them. Sure, there’s other bands that might have released one album, and then a next one and it’s kind of similar, might have a lot of the same grooves and stuff…sometimes it doesn’t work for them. I’m always into the idea of creating something different. But you can only go so far because everything’s pretty much been done, I feel. I think you have to continue to be creative with what you have to work with. You know, you’re obviously gonna hear a song that’s gonna sound like somebody else. There’s something about that song, you know, “God, that chorus sounds just like band that was out in the 80’s,” or “that intro sounds just like this band that just came out last year,” you know. What can you do? You try to be creative. It’s really difficult to be original anymore. Especially now. I dunno, there’s a lot of musicians out there that are very talented, and there’s a lot of bands that have been very successful doing what they’re doing. You just have to credit them with their talents and whatnot. It’s tough to be extremely original nowadays.
Q – You notice a lot of bands today resorting to electronic sounds to make something new. Moby, or whoever. Do you ever see Queensryche experimenting with something like that?
E – Like more instrumental?
Q – Yeah, I guess on Rage For Order you guys experimented a lot with electronic sounds.
E – Oh yeah, I mean we actually created some of those sounds ourselves! Yeah, you know at the very end of “Walk In The Shadows”? That big ambient reverberated sound? At the very end, “Walk in the shadows…walk with me! POW!” That’s a door slamming in a parking garage!
Q – It’s always something you don’t expect!
E – Exactly! Nobody else knows that unless you’ve been told about it. That’s why that album to me is the most memorable one. We ended up putting something together, like I was explaining to you in regards to coming up with our own sound. Our own little ideas. I don’t know what triggered us into doing that, but I think we were just trying to pull out all the stops when it came to producing the album. For the production side.
Q – I find that album, even though sonically they’re nothing alike, to be akin to Promised Land just for sonic experimentation.
E – Oh yeah! From banging on top of these big garbage cans… What else did we do?
Q – There’s some really neat electronic vocal effects on Geoff’s voice on “Damaged”. “The broken parts, of my machinery…” And then it sounds like an electronic overload or something.
E – And believe it or not, those were effects that I don’t think we could ever do again. Seriously, because…”Well, that was cool, did you record it?” He goes, “Yeah.” “Well let’s try it again!” And we could not recreate that! It was weird! So again it was like one of those one-offs. That’s why the tape is always rolling because you never know what you can come up with, and you can use.
Q – The band was experimenting a bit with different instruments…sax, cello, and piano, on that album. Do you play any different instruments?
E – I’ll tinker around with a little bit of keyboard, a little guitar here. I’ll tell you what I really love the most, it’s really kinda rivaling playing bass. It’s singing.
Q – Oh really? Well you’ve always sung backups live.
E – Yeah, I love singing! And I’ve noticed since Chris has left, I’ve had to cover a lot of his parts, and I’m telling you they’re up there sometimes. But still, it’s something that you don’t really think about. Through all these tours that we’ve been performing on, I’ve never realized how much he actually sang. Because you’re so busy playing your bass and singing your parts. But you’re aware that he’s singing his parts too, but since I’ve covered his vocal parts…gee whiz! I’m like, holy cow, I’ve gotta sit down and remember all this! But yeah, it’s pretty interesting you know, but I just can’t believe how much he actually sang.
Q – I notice the Q2K material…it’s funny that you say you’re singing more, but I think the live versions have stronger harmonies. Do you hear that as well?
E – I think maybe a lot of that could be for the fact that the harmonies are riding a bit hotter than on the album. The harmonies are probably still there on the album, but they might have been recorded a little hotter on the live mix.
Q – I just thought they stuck out a bit and I thought, “Hmm, well somebody’s singing more!”
E – Yeah, well, that’s Kelly and I. And for the fact that I love singing, I have no complaints with what was thrown at me with regard to all the backing vocals and whatnot. I mean heck, I’ll sing anything.
Q – Do you see yourself singing lead on a Queensryche song? I think Chris sang a lead on Hear In The Now.
E – You know, I don’t know. That’s never crossed my mind, but again you just never know! With Queensryche, heck, you just never know, we’re always branching off into some sort of new territory whether it’s sonically speaking, producing, writing or whatever. I guess at times you could say it’s a conscious effort, but there’s times where you know, you’re aware, and you just try to create something for that moment. At least for myself, I don’t normally like to look back and listen to what we’ve done in the past. Because then you start getting influenced by it, you know? And there’s gonna be ideas that might sound like something in the past. There’s nothing wrong with that, but…
Q – But when an interviewer asks you, “Hey do you remember that electronic part in Damaged” and you haven’t heard the album in 5 or 6 years…!
E – Believe it or not, you’ll be surprised, especially when you hear a lot of these songs that we had recording for this Live Evolution, it’s amazing how much more you remember. When you play “London”, or “Screaming In Digital”, or “Suite: Sister Mary”. All of a sudden you just start reminiscing, and you just start thinking back at the time when it was recorded. I mean we were in Philadelphia, Rage For Order we were up in Canada…
Q – Where were you in Canada?
E – Up in Mushroom Studios, was it? Up in Vancouver? We’ve recorded in many studios. We recorded in that one, was it in Montreal?
Q – Yeah I read about that, in the dead of winter.
E – Yeah, O:MC. Operation:Mindcrime.
Q – I think the most interesting location you’ve recorded in was the cottage for Promised Land.
E – Oh geez, talk about tranquility and isolated! It was this small little island up north up by the San Juan Islands. Yeah, you’re right. We got away from everybody. Fortunately it was only like a 3, 4 hour drive, but still, just within those 3 or 4 hours you go from a live environment to a very tranquil and quiet environment. There were times at night when we would take a break, we were recording until 12, or 3 in the morning, however long it took us to record whichever song. But we’d be taking a break outside and you can hear the whales! It was pretty wild. There was a couple of little wildcats out there. We definitely didn’t leave any food outside!
Q – I think it’s safe to say that the environment must have impacted on the sound of that album. It sounds like it was recorded in a cottage, in the woods.
E – Do you think the influence was there? Do you think there was a lot of influence?
Q – I think so.
E – Well, there was this doctor, and I can’t remember his name, but he owned this cabin. It was actually sort of a…not a bed and breakfast, but like a summer retreat sort of thing. He would hire the cabin out for people that would wanna head out to San Juans and stay there for the weekend, or for the week, or for the two weeks, or month, whatever. So what we did is we just basically told him, “Listen, we’re a band…” And that right there obviously…”Wait a sec! Before you even continue!” That kinda scared him a bit. But no no, we’re not type kind of a band. We respect our environment we don’t start thrashing things for no apparent reason. But if the shitter stopped working in the middle of the night, then you’re going to hear from us! We kind of worked out a deal, and we were there for a few months, and we ended up just hiring out…we moved in to both units. So it was a massive cabin, it was pretty cool. We were just living and breathing that album there.
I have to give Geoff Tate credit for a good answer to a tough question. Regarding “knife incident” and the rumoured Queensryche split, Geoff said, “I’m thinking, I’m not gonna really dispel too many of the rumors because it’s hardly ever that Queensrÿche gets any publicity, so this is great. All 43 people on the Internet are talking about it.”
That’s a great answer. He also says the band plan to tour in 2013.
With all this drama (hopefully) behind them, I’ll take you to Part 2 of my October 2001 chat with bassist Eddie Jackson. This is the unedited transcript, never before seen anywhere by anybody.
EDDIE JACKSON INTERVIEW, OCT 30 2001 (Unedited) Part 2
Q – Now the album packaging [Live Evolution] is pretty cool here, but what the heck does that say under your picture?
E – My credits? It’s backwards! All the letters, the words are backwards! They’re spelled backwards! The words are spelled in reverse. So let’s say you come up with the word “happy”. I start with the letter Y first, and then a P and then a P and then an A and then an H. You know, heck, gotta be a little goofy every once in a while! What I original wanted to do was to have it printed out so if you put it up to a mirror, then you would be able to read it correctly. But I didn’t think about that until after.
Q – Next album right?
E – You’re like the second or third person who asked me about that. [One guy said] “What is that, Spanish?” No, it’s not! I think you’d know if it was Spanish or not. You know, heck, just going a little goofy. Some creativity there.
Q – Are you “cyber-savvy” at all? Are you into the internet and stuff like that?
E – A little bit, you know.
Q – Do you see the internet as a way to reach new fans?
E – Oh, absolutely!
Q – Are you doing that? Are you noticing that?
E – I think so. Especially with our fan club. A lot of that is, instead of sending mailers out, we just send ‘em e-mailers. Not only is that a cost effective approach, but it’s a lot more efficient, I think you can do a lot more than just a letter or a flier. I think it’s done wonders. Obviously it’s been the wave of the future for a few years and I think it’s a great tool.
Q – You’ve got bands like Marillion who pre-sold their album online before even a note was recorded It’s just amazing how the dedicated fans will seek you out.
E – Oh absolutely, yeah yeah! Well again, we’ve been very fortunate to have this type of fan base. They’ve allowed us to evolve and grow as a band. And they’ve evolved and grown as individuals as listeners, as fans. What more can you ask for? [They’ve] given us the freedom to create and I think that’s great, and also by being able to communicate with them through our music and also through cyberspace. It’s great!
Q – Let’s go back to LIVEcrime for a minute. You’ve got more than one new release coming out, LIVEcrime is being reissued on DVD and album.
E – I don’t know if it’s on DVD though.
Q – OK, I’ll have to check. [Note: It is coming this month]
E – I was only told it was going to be the live CD, but you may be right.
Q – Now, the live CD is going to have some bonus tracks on it. Are these the same versions as on Live Evolution or are they with the original lineup?
E – Those are with the original lineup. Those two songs, “Road To Madness” and “Lady Wore Black”, those were recorded at the time LIVEcrime was recorded.
Q – From the same gig?
E – From the same gig. I mean, we recorded the whole show! But we were mainly focusing on LIVEcrime. Yeah, I mean, there were a few other songs through that whole set that we performed. Yeah, we recorded the whole show, but we just figured, OK. A lot of that was pretty much EMI’s idea. And so it was kinda interesting to hear about EMI releasing this. And here we are, just doing the groundwork on Live Evolution, and we’re just thinking, “Wait a second!” You know, are they going to conflict with one another? But I don’t think it has, I think it’s great because for the collector and for the hardcore fan out there, even though most of that LIVEcrime is the same as that released before, with the exception of those two extra tracks, that’s what makes it interesting. But yeah, that was pretty much our very first live recording. With the exception of The Warning tour. You know, that had the live video.
Q – Which is also pretty much impossible to find. If you ever talk to EMI about getting something reissued…
E – Yeah, good luck finding that one! But then again, that was only released on video, that was never released as a live audio. And then Live Evolution was our very first full length live recording from start to finish, and a lot of people ask us, “Why’d it take you so long?” But I don’t know! As you’re evolving through your career, and recording and touring and all that, I guess for me it doesn’t really cross your mind because you’re so busy and you’re so tied up at that moment doing what you’re doing. Whether it’s recording or touring that it never really crossed my mind. There are times when you release a new album, by giving it an extra [live] track or two which Japan loves…they love that type of thing, when you can add a bonus track or two. That’s always fun but I don’t know why it’s taken us so long to release something like that. Look at the Greatest Hits, [it] was released last year! A lot of people said, “Why’d it take you so long?” Well, why are you complaining? (laughs) Stop bitching about it, there you go, it’s right there! (laughs).
Q – Well here’s another release you can ponder. You guys did a video game, Promised Land a few years ago. There’s an exclusive track on that called “8 Miles High”. And it’s never been released anywhere else as far as I know on CD.
E – Have you heard it?
Q – Yeah. I couldn’t beat the game though, I had to, uhh…cheat.
E – Well I’ve got the cheat sheet for that thing.
Q – But it’s a great track and it would be nice to get it released, like you guys have collected a few B-sides and live things and remixes that you can release on a rarities album. Is that ever gonna be in the cards?
E – You know, anything is possible, but again, I don’t know if we’ve taken it that serious, to do something like that. Maybe perhaps the majority of the reason if, how satisfied are we with the results of that particular song? There was reason why it wasn’t added to the new album, or whichever album was released. Perhaps stylistically it didn’t coincide with what we were doing. Sonically, maybe it didn’t work. I dunno, that’s an interesting point, I mean, would we ever put something like that together? Anything’s possible. I think it would be fun. We have quite a few songs in the vaults. We’ve archived quite a bit of ideas, there’s even songs that we have from The Warning days. From Operation:Mindcrime days. Just a couple of songs that are floating around doing nothing. You never know, there’s actually been a couple of songs…let’s see, what was it. Which album was it? Promised Land I believe? There were two songs that we had used ideas from a song that was written back in…Rage For Order? Or Operation:Mindcrime? But we kinda took theintro or the middle piece of those songs and just kind of created a whole new song with it.
With the Geoff Tate “knife incident” having fans wondering what the hell is going on with the band, I thought I would bring us back to happier times. Back to 2001. Back to times before the knife incident and break up rumours. Times before Tribe. 11 years ago, I had the chance to speak to bassist Eddie Jackson for Global Bass Magazine. He gave me over an hour of his time.
Today I’m bringing you Part I of the complete unedited transcript. It’s long, but enjoy, there is so much great insight here! Eddie was a fantastic interview, and I hope all is well with him and the band.
This is so massive that I have to break it up into sections. So, here is Part I!
EDDIE JACKSON INTERVIEW, OCT 30 2001 (Unedited)
Q – Live Evolution is your first really definitive live album. Before you had Operation:LIVEcrime which was basically just one album’s worth of material. So this is a big deal, how much input did you personally have on the set list and the mix of the album?
E – The set list was pretty just a group effort there. Individually we all came up with certain songs that we thought we would like to perform that night. But you know, at the end of the day it was putting something that was gonna be something different from what we usually do, and that [something different] is go back several albums and perform some of these songs from The Warning, from Rage For Order, because a lot of the time these past few tours we’ve been focusing on from Operation:Mindcrime forward. With the exception of maybe “The Lady Wore Black” or “Take Hold Of The Flame” from the earlier albums. But this time around we just wanted to give them something…you know, you figure it’s a live album, a live DVD, let’s give ‘em something refreshing like some of the older stuff.
But with the mix…?
Q – Well you always hear horror stories about bass players in the mix. The legendary John Entwistle story of him turning up the bass sound on Live At Leeds, all these stories. Is that a struggle for you?
E – Not necessarily. The thing is, are you talking the mix in the front of the house, or on stage?
Q – On the actually released album.
E – Basically no different than the way we’ve been mixing our albums. You certainly want at least to be somewhat audible so you can at hear some of those lows, kinda compliment the rest of the mix. I’m not really a flashy type of a bass player, I kinda like ride with the groove, you know. And play along with the groove there, but as long as it’s somewhat audible enough, to where you can hear it. Granted, there’s gonna be some times where when you perform a song a little bit more up-tempo, you’re gonna lose some of that. That’s to be expected, that’s just the nature of the song and the instrument. As long you can hear everything, it’s really tough to isolate everything and make it sound studio-like, especially when it’s a live recording. Kelly [Gray, guitar]’s the one who actually mixed the live CD, and we thought he did a really good job with it.
Q – I agree. Obviously the first thing you notice when you buy the album is that you’ve got it organized into “suites” and it’s basically almost laid out chronologically. So that kind of presents interesting problems, you don’t have the traditional “Silent Lucidity” during the encore. So what made you guys decide to lay it out almost chronologically that night?
E – Well, again that’s where the Live Evolution title came from. We just figured, OK, we’re going to put together a set list and then we came up with the idea, hey, why don’t we put this together in suites? And kind of, starting from the beginning to the present. The first suite was the songs from the first couple of albums, the second suite from the next following set of albums, and so on. It was just an idea that we put together, and we thought it would be kinda fun to do. It definitely makes sense when you look and it and then when you hear it. Actually, it kinda came up, I can’t remember who brought up the idea, but spontaneously it just came about. We wanted, like I said before, Live Evolution, from the beginning to now. That was a given there, because we obviously had start with the songs from the past, from the first few albums and so on, but with the suites it just kinda made it more interesting.
Q – Where there any songs in the early stages that were eliminated, that you were sorry didn’t get on to the album?
E – There were a couple of songs that didn’t make the album. Let’s see, one of them was “Enforcer”, [sic, “En Force”] and “No Sanctuary”. And I can’t remember the other songs, there was just a handful, not many. The thing is, it’s really tough to sit down and try to perform everything that we have on paper. Because first of, we’re limited for time, and second of all, we’re limited on disc. There’s only so much time you can record, there’s only information that those things can record. I’m losing my train of thought here.
Q – (laughs) That’s OK, we can come back to it if you want.
E – Let’s actually go ahead and finish this. I was just thinking about something else about the show. Oh, about the songs. Yeah, it’s a long set, it was just trying to put together a good variety of songs that will not only please ourselves but also the fans. And again, if we were to play all the songs that we had written down on paper, heck, we’d be up there like 3 or 4 hours! So we had to kind of shave a few of the songs. I think selectively speaking we kinda chose songs that pretty much covered at least something from each album. That’s basically pretty much it.
Q – Were there any tunes that you knew, “I’m never playing this tune again, I never want to play this tune again!”
E – Well, not really. The funny thing was as we were writing these songs down on paper to choose from, and as we were learning these, it took me just a couple of days to remember these songs from The Warning! We hadn’t played some of these songs in 15 years, 16 years! And we’re just listening to them thinking, “God, what key is this in?” “Oh my God, that’s right I remember this part!” And then you start reminiscing about the times when you recorded ‘em. So it was more fun than we actually anticipated because you’re just sittin’ there listening to these songs, remembering the time when you recorded it, and the place where we recorded it, so it kinda brought back a lot of memories. It was a lot of fun! But again, I guess the fun part was relearning a lot of these songs.
Q – On the DVD you also say that playing the old songs brought back memories. Is relearning them the pleasure itself?
E – Absolutely. Yeah, because we’re proud of everything that we’ve done you know? And to go back and learn these songs that you haven’t played in 15, 16, 17 years, not only did it bring back memory but…it might sound kinda odd saying this, it’s refreshing even though they’re old songs. It was a refreshing approach if you know what I mean.
Q – It sounds like you rearranged some of the tunes slightly, like I think “Revolution Calling” has a new intro.
E – Yeah, well, we figured we did release LIVEcrime [a boxed set from 1991] as you know, a few years back. So some of those songs we’ve played them [in the past] verbatim to the original recording. We just figured, if we’re gonna play some of these songs, especially the songs that we normally play on tour, let’s kinda spice them up a bit, and we kinda did that with “Lady Wore Black”. We did that with “Revolution Calling”, just to name a couple. It’s nice to rework a couple of the songs so to make it sound a little different and interesting, but still obviously in context. You know, again, that’s another side of the joy of not only working on songs from the past, but also working on songs that are more current, than [to] rehash them.
Q – Now you mentioned Kelly mixing the album. He’s got quite a few production credits under his belt. You’ve got a producer in the band now. Is that a huge relief to you?
E – Yeah I think so! He’s a very talented individual you know? Like you said, he’s done producing work with a few bands, Candlebox, Dokken, Sven Gelis [sic] I think that’s the name of the band [Sven Gali from Toronto] just to name a couple of them you know. What’s the other one, Second Coming. He’s a very talented individual. Not only is he very talented when it comes to playing a producer role, but also as a musician, you know. He’s a good songwriter, a good guitar player. That guy, he wears many hats. It’s kinda a blessing in a way to work with someone like that because you’re killing two birds with one stone. Being a guitar player, a writer, but also coming in and helping us produce as well as mix. The last album, it was pretty much the band that had produced it. But he pretty much took the credit of engineering. I think it’s a major plus, when it comes to writing and then recording.
Q – Do you think you’ll ever go back to, say, Peter Collins or any other outside producer?
E – Perhaps. Doors are always open. You know, we’ll see! This last album, the Q2K release, was pretty much “ours” as a whole. With the exception of some of Kelly’s insight as a producer, the majority of that was pretty much the band’s production and ideas and whatnot. So, you never know. Working with Peter Collins, or Jimbo–James Barton, the doors are always open should we ever cross paths and if the idea ever comes up there’s always that possibility.
Q – One thing about Kelly is that he’s replacing someone who was in the band for a long time. On the live album I was really surprised by how seamless the new guitar parts are. It sounds like they should be there, it sounds like the old Queensryche. Now, making the transition, did you guys feel you had to shape him in any way to play like Chris [DeGarmo] used to?
E – Well, not really because Kelly has a little more of a bluesier background as opposed to Chris’ style. But I think you can tell, Q2K without Chris, stylistically it’s a little different than the songs Chris has worked on. He [Kelly] had some tough shoes to fill, but I don’t think it was that difficult for him to fit in. If you think about it, he’s playing pretty much Chris’ parts so it’s still gonna represent, especially speaking of the older songs, you’re still gonna hear the older style. You know, when he’s playing the songs that Chris had worked on. Yeah, but that’s almost inevitable. There are times when he would change maybe a solo here and a solo there so he’s not playing exactly what Chris wrote. I think he compliments Michael [Wilton, guitar] quite well stylistically and again he’s a very talented guy.
Q – As far as you being a bass player and getting a new guitar player in the band, did you have to make any adjustments? Did he come to you with harmonic ideas or anything like that?
E – I don’t know so much about that sort of an approach, but really, honestly, we just kinda let it happen. We really didn’t sit down and try to educate him into, “This is what Queensryche sounds like. This is what we want you to play like.” We just let him have free reign over it and not really…if you think about it, he’s not coming in to replace Chris. He’s coming in to replace a guitar player. By coming in to replace Chris, that can be a little tough on someone. Of course, you know, people are going to see that and they’re gonna question that. And obviously they’re gonna “A and B” the two guitar players stylistically or just as musicians in general. But that’s inevitable, that’s gonna happen. It happened on its own, we didn’t sit and dictate it, or educated him into sounding like someone that was no longer with us. We just let it happen, he let it happen, and we think he’s done a pretty good job so far.
Q – I just wanted to bring something up here that’s totally irrelevant. But I found a Bob Rivers Twisted Christmas album the other day, and Kelly Gray’s name is listed as a producer.
E – He has produced and mixed many of those.
Q – I just think you need to tease him a little about that (laughs).
E – Kelly, you’ve made it big! Someone just recognized your credits on a Twisted Radio CD! I’ll bring that up to him.
Maybe I’m reading too much into this. But why would the other four guys form a new band without Tate? While not unprecedented (see: Talk Show/Stone Temple Pilots) it’s certainly rare, and raises eyebrows.
DOUBLE UPDATE WITH GRAVY: The Queensryche camp are denying any trouble saying that the band are just staying busy with side projects. Sure. A side project with everybody except the singer? Playing all Queensryche tunes from the EP to Empire? Bullshit!
Back in 1985 or so, MuchMusic was the window through which we discovered the vast majority of heavy metal. For a while there, my sister had good taste in music. Her favourite band was Motley Crue. She was obsessed with their tall, tall hair. I taped her the first two albums, Too Fast For Love and Shout At The Devil on two sides of a 90 minute tape.
Together, we watched a shitload of videos. Our favourites were often the ones where the band seemed to be on some sort of quest, or adventure! Some of these videos I haven’t seen in years, so forgive me if the memories are hazy…
Motley Crue – “Too Young To Fall In Love”. It seems like some little kid is telling Motley Crue something important, and then they kick some ass. My sister used to say to me, “I think that kid is telling Nikki Sixx to stand up.”
Lionheart – “Die For Love”. You gotta see this one. Dennis Stratton, ex Iron Maiden. This evil guy in a white suit and a wheelchair has a pretty blonde girl captive! The band must come to the rescue! I hope their hair doesn’t get mussed! Good song though. Great song, even. SERIOUSLY funny video though, like those poses…the singer jumps around…they kind of dance-fight with the bad guys….
Queensryche – “Queen of the Reich”. The Queen turned them to stone!
Thor – “Knock ‘Em Down”. Thor (Also known of Jon Mikel Thor) was this musclebound metal singer, and his video was hilarious. This evil space-witch named Pantera enslaves the population of the world below! Thor, riding in his space ship (which is obviously a Millenium Falcon model with some battleship parts glued to it, and crewed by nothing but big-breasted women), beams down! The evil space-witch shoots him with her red eye lasers, but Thor reflects it back with his mighty hammer! The space-witch is defeated!
Dio – “The Last In Line”. That video actually scared me a little, with the monsters leaking fluid and stuff. I’m glad the kid got out of hell, although it looks like Dio has to stay.
Dio – “Holy Diver”. Always the hero, Dio awkwardly weilds a sword that is obviously too big for his tiny frame. But he does slay an ugly dude who doesn’t put up much of a fight. Is that Jimmy Bain? George used to say Vinny Appice is the guy forging the sword. Is this true?
Grim Reaper – “Fear No Evil”. The band ride into action on an armored APC (Asskicking Personnel Carrier), with spikes and tusks! They must free the slaves of the evil minotaur. Steve Grimmitt breaks the chains of the slaves with his bare hands!
Armored Saint – “Can U Deliver”. At least the beginning part, they seem to be looking for a sword in a desert! A techno-coloured desert!
And of course, Kiss – “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose”. Gene doesn’t seem too impressed with Paul’s swordplay. Vinnie looks less like a chick than in the previous video. The post-nuclear holocaust seems to have somehow increased the size of women’s breases, if this video is to be trusted.
We were pretty slow most evenings. You could study for exams at work most nights. Fridays got busy, but Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights were dead. That didn’t mean we doing nothing. Rule #1: “If there’s time to lean, there’s time to clean.” We had scheduled to do something every night. Mondays was cleaning the mirrors which lined the store walls. Tuesday was putting away new stock, which always came Tuesdays. Wednesday was checking the security tags on every cassette in the store. Every fucking cassette.
For the first 2 months or so, it was just me and the owner. Once September hit, he hired this other guy, Trevor. I didn’t like him at first, he was the “other guy”. He was the same age as me, also finishing school at the same time as me. We shared similar musical interests. Influences we shared: Guns N’ Roses, Van Halen, The Four Horsemen, Kim Mitchell, Rush, and any bands with amazing drummers. Over the course of the years, he introduced me to: Steve Earle, Oasis, Metallica, Megadeth, Max Webster, anb Buddy Rich. I give him a lot of credit for expanding my horizons during those days.
A lot of memorable releases came out that first year. Superunknown and Purple were already out, but I was on board for some major ones. Nirvana Unplugged was the biggest release of the fall 1994 schedule. There was an Aerosmith hits disc, a Bon Jovi hits disc, and the Eagles reunion album which was absolutely massive.
The new Tragically Hip, Day For Night, came out on a Saturday. We sold out by Sunday. The boss drove down to Scarborough to get more on Monday. Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy came out on vinyl the week before the CD was released. We got just five in. He didn’t expect it to sell, but we sold out before my shift even started. Interestingly, none of the customers planned on playing it. They either a) didn’t even have something to play it on, or b) were keeping it sealed as a collector’s item. It definitely was a cool package.
Some poeople have a “swear jar”. We had an alarm jar. If you forgot to de-tag a customer’s purchase and thusly set off the alarm, you had to put a dollar in the jar. We would use the spoils on our annual Christmas dinner. It created some friendly competition between us. That first Christmas is when I started working directly with Trevor, and I started to like him due to his excellent musical taste. But in the alarm jar game, we were always about equal. Sometimes you just forgot!
One lady may well have stolen something and set off the alarm, and I’ll never know, because, well…. As she was walking out the alarm went off. I asked her to come back in the store and check to see if she had something from another store that may had set it off. She was so upset at the alarm, she really wanted to show me she had nothing on her person. So, she removed her top. “See I’m not hiding anything in here!” Covering my eyes, I told her it was quite alright, I believed her, and she could go. First time I’d been flashed on the job. Not the last.
She wasn’t even drunk. They actually used to serve alcohol at this mall. There was a licensed restaurant right next door to the store. The regulars would start in the morning and keep going. You’d see them in there every day, and they’d wander in completely plastered.
We had a few regular psychos at that mall. There was Johnny Walker, who would just walk around the mall talking to himself, all day. Literally, all day. The story goes that he was quite rich. He didn’t need to work, wasn’t capable of work, and just came to the mall and walked around all day, talking to himself. Sometimes he would argue with himself and he had been ejected from the mall a couple times. He came into the store a couple times but never caused any problems on my shifts. One time, he even bought a cassette. It was like the madness turned off. He spoke to me, bought the tape, and walked out. Madness set back in, and he’s off arguing with himself. I wonder what happened to Johnny Walker? He’d been walking the malls since grade school, sometimes changing malls when he got permanently ejected from one.
Then, there was Sue. Sue had been in an accident years before, and had a walker. She moved very very slow. She had a bit of a crush on the owner. She stalked him relentlessly and gave him Christmas gifts. She’d park her walker right there in front of the counter and talk his ear off for hours. Hours!
One day, a large Japanese woman was shopping. The owner said, “Go ask that lady if she needs help. Then he stood back and waited. I didn’t know it, but he had just given me my first challenge.
“Hi, can I help you find anything today?”
“No thank you though,” she answered, then almost immediately, “Do you have Soundgarden?”
I showed her what Soundgarden we had both new and used. We also had the latest copy of M.E.A.T Magazine, and Chris Cornell was on the cover. I’ll never forget that detail.
“Do you like Chris Cornell?” she asks.
“Yes, he’s actually one of my favourite singers.”
“Oh! Really! I love Chris Cornell. He’s sexy.”
It was too late now. I had opened Pandora’s box. She opened the magazine to his picture inside. She went on: “I like when he wears his sexy black boots. Chris Cornell wears black Doc Marten boots. Do you know the boots? Chris Cornell wears black Doctor Martens boots. Do you like Doc Marten boots?”
I was on my own. The boss just stood back. I couldn’t even figure out a way to improvise my way out. I was a rookie I decided that this woman was most likely a lil’ crazy and I played the polite card.
“Yes, I do…”
“Chris Cornell is sexy. Did you know that Soundgarden had an original bass player who was Asian?”
I did know that. “Yes, his name was Hiro Yamamoto…”
“Yes Hiro Yamamoto. He is Asian. There are not many Asians in rock bands did you know that?”
This went on for a good 20 minutes. After she left (not without asking my name, fuck!) my boss came to speak to me.
“That’s your first lesson. Don’t get into conversations with customers.”
And of course we had the drunks. I remember one jolly drunk came in that first Christmas Eve. We all wore ties Christmas Eve, that was the tradition. It was a tradition I kept every year to my last year at the store, even when I was the only one left who still did it. This drunk came in, a big Grizzly Adams dude just reeking of alcohol. He was definitely in great spirits though. First he asked us why the ties? The quick-witting Trevor answered, “I’m wearing mine because it makes me feel important.” We laughed. I then went over to see if he needed help finding anything.
“Hi there!” I began.
“Not yet, but I will be when I get home. Hahahaha!” he answered.
Ultimately the jolly drunk guy couldn’t remember what to buy, so he bought $100 in gift certificates for his grand kids. That was a great sale, and the best part was that it turned out to be $100 of pure profit for the store. The bearded drunk guy probably lost it, because all my years with the store, they were never redeemed!
After Christmas, the owner confided in Trevor and I that he was going to be opening a second location. This location would be in Waterloo. It would be easily accessible by one high school, two universities, and one college. He would be splitting his time between our store and setting up the new one. Ultimately this meant he’d be in much less and we’d be getting more hours, and also bhe was bringing a new guy in.
I walked in one Tuesday to see this black-bearded behemoth behind the counter. It was kind of awkward because the owner didn’t introduce us at first. I looked around for an hour, stealing glances at this big grizzly bear of a man with the thickest blackest beard you can picture. Finally he introduced me to Thomas, later to become Tom, the legendary founder of Sausagefest. Ahh, but that comes much later.
TOM
Tom was a wicked cool guy who expanded my musical tastes even further than Trevor had. Tom and I had many influences in common. I had met another kindred spirit. Influences: Black Sabbath, Dio, Rainbow, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Van Halan (not Van Hagar!) and Johnny Cash. Music he would introduce me to: Miles Davis, Willie Nelson, Fu Manchu, and the whole stoner rock scene in general. His place was plastered with rare Marillion posters. Tom was serious about music.
Tom was so serious about music that it was actually hilarious. Kids, this is the difference between liking music and loving music. Nobody loves music as much as Tom. Dare I say it, Tom loves music even more than me.
One night in Toronto, we visited the big HMV on Yonge St. Tom was methodically working his way through every decent section of the store. Long after Trevor and I had finished shopping, Tom was just finishing browsing rock. With a handful of discs by Rainbow and Saga, Tom would then announce, “OK…I just have to check country.”
20 minutes would pass. “Alright…on to jazz.”
20 more minutes.
“I just have to check blues.”
10 more minutes.
“Oohh…I wonder if they have the soundtrack to the Godfather.”
Checkout. Trev, Tom and I usually checked out of that store $200 lighter. Each.
Then, repeat. We walked down the street to Sam’s, and finally to Virgin. Rock, country, jazz, blues. Every store. That was Tom, three stores, one night.
Seriously those early days at the store were the best times I ever had working. Working hard or hardly working? No, we worked hard. If there’s time to lean, there’s time to clean. We ran that store with the owner making guest appearances, adding to it with our own creative ideas.
I graduated school in the summer of 1995, and hadn’t decided on my next move. After that I was putting in increasingly more hours at the store. It gradually built up from a part time job to full time. When the new store opened, Tom split hours between the two of them so there were plenty of day and night shifts available, usually alone, which were the best times because you could play whatever you wanted!
I remember Tom walked in one night when I was playing Dio. Back in 1995 you could not play Dio in a mainstream record store. That would be like the equivalent of playing Michael Bolton in one today. He was so far removed from what was selling at the time. But I was rocking out to Holy Diver and Tom appreciated that I had the balls to do it.
Tom went to a lot of concerts. After we had bonded over the mutual love of metal, I joined him and many of my future Sausagefest friends at a Black Sabbath concert. It was Motorhead opening on the Sacrifice tour, and Black Sabbath headining, supporting their final studio album (17 years and counting!) Forbidden. They played at Lulu’s Roadhouse just down the street. A few weeks later we saw Queensryche in Toronto on the Promised Land tour.
Trev, Tom and I would have many adventures. Such as that time seeing Kiss in…ahh, but that’s another story. Before I talk about Tom and Trev again, I need to tell you a really shitty story.
QUEENSRYCHE’S Promised Land (CD-ROM for Windows, Windows 95, or Mac) (1996)
mikeladano.com 