Suite Sister Mary: With Just One Song, Pamela Moore Creates An Iconic Character
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Blistering.com: Until I saw the band tour the album, I didn’t realize that it wasn’t Geoff on the album singing your part until I saw the video screens of you. I thought they kind of mixed his vocals a bit to pitch them up.
Moore: That’s funny; I had a lot of people say that too. ’Cause our voices, kind of funny, but they match, like naturally, they match really well. [He has] got some interesting pronunciation thing that he does, but being with him for all these years, it’s easier for me to match with him . . . and he has quite an impressive range.
We enjoy working with each other. We kind of push each other a little bit too with our range. ’Cause I think that’s why it’s worked so well, ’cause he has a very unique voice, so as a professional singer, you’re always trying to make the other person look the best they can. But he’s always given me license to kind of stand up right next to him and I’ve always been very grateful for that, instead of just being just the background person.
Our voices do match. I do know that when I first toured with them a lot of people said, “God, I always thought that was Geoff singing that.” That would always crack me up. [laughs]
Blistering.com: How would you compare the band back then to today?
Moore: I was with them right as they were moving up the hill, you know, getting more and more popularity and looking at their record sales and it was really exciting, because I was right there when things were really popping for them. So I would say that I had the wonderful chance of experiencing all of the fruits of their labor in a really great way as they were going up the ladder. So that kind of part was very exciting, but I have to say, even now, the way that they treat their job, I would say they’re maybe even better now.
All of us when we’re younger, we’re youthful and we have all this energy, but they really haven’t lost their energy . . . there’s a lot more growth inside of them. They’re a lot wiser. Not that they ever did anything stupid back then. I think all I’m trying to say is that they know their job even more now and they handle it with the same respect that they did back then, and they really work hard. I mean, they are traveling, a lot. Even with the family that they have they do a lot of shows, they put out a lot of records. They have a great fan base. I mean, even now. Sometimes it’s not 10,000 people that you’re performing for; however, there is times when we do that. The fan base is always very strong, and we actually have a new, fond appreciation from the younger kids or the people that are bringing their kids out, and that’s always kind of a delight for me to see.
But as far as how different they are, it’s just probably the fact that back then I got to be with them and experience their excitement of what they’d been doing and going up the chart. Now, they’re still just as much fun to be with, but they have this really smart business sense, and they’re really a bunch of great guys to hang with . . . I’m not saying there’s no excitement now, ’cause when we did the Operation: Mindcrime one and two thing, that was very exciting for them too. Because it really was embraced by their fans and even created newer, younger fans by doing that. So I got to experience it twice with them for a nice spot to be in, to be able to hang with them and feel how excited they are about doing what they’re doing.
Blistering.com: Did singing on Mindcrime lead you to any other gigs?
Moore: It is, still to this day. I get hired for a lot of commercials and I’m being asked to sing on a lot of independent-label bands. Recently, even more-so.
Back then I think I just did that show and then in the 1990s, I was doing a lot of my own things with another band, I was working with a band called Radar out of New York right after I finished that, and we released something in 2000, but it was kind of slow for me after that . . . I kind of kept myself under the radar and worked a lot more on my songwriting and worked with different people, different bands and just kind of emerged. I put out a couple of really early records before them, but then afterwards I did some stuff with Radar and I have a brand-new record I put out in 2006/2007. So I’ve been doing a lot of independent, I do a lot of vocal guest work with different bands. Most of them have been Europe too. So it’s been really keeping me in the loop, so to speak, which has been great.
In answer to that question, yes, I have been doing a lot of stuff, but maybe I mostly wanted to work on my craft myself and kind of get my own sound out there. Kind of utilized what fan base I actually have with that to kind of get my own kind of stuff out there too.
Blistering.com: To this day, you have people come to you and hire you off the strength of your Mindcrime performance?
Moore: Yes. In fact I’m doing a session [April 26] and write a song for a band. I really don’t know what label they’re on but they’re based out of Germany. Early last year I sang on another record, two or three songs for a band called Solna. They were supposed to have something out this year, but I’m not really sure. So I've done that. I've been doing a lot of commercials. But a lot of the stuff has been on the strength of just what I've been doing with Queensrÿche really. So that's a good thing.
Blistering.com: If you could do anything differently to "Mindcrime, what would you do to it?
Moore: I wouldn't do anything differently. I don't think you wanna mess with something that works. Really, I don't think I would do anything different. It's fine. [laughs] I kind of like the fact that it came back to life . . . I would have probably asked them if I could sing more [laughs] the first record, but I had no clue it was going to be such a legendary success. That's pretty neat.
Blistering.com: What did you think when you found out they were going to do Mindcrime II and they approached you to come back and sing some more?
Moore: I was touring with them at the time. We started kind of playing with bringing that back again after so many years. I was on tour with them for a couple years on and off, and then they had told me they were gonna do this conceptual sequel, and I was like, "What? Why are you gonna do that?" I was thinkin', "How are you gonna do that?" 'Cause it's such a success, it's like when you watch a big success with cinema and sometimes the sequel doesn't set up the same as the first.
Just the whole approach and how they went about it I thought was great. For me, because I'm an actor and singer in this part . . . this one I was approaching as a love story between Nikki and Mary, not so much a revolutionary-type record . . . I was just thinking that the sequel made perfect sense to me, because here's this guy who lost his love of his life and [it] just kind of made perfect sense to have him always be thinking about Mary in the back of his mind.
Blistering.com: And you got to sing a lot more on it.
Moore: And that's the best part. [laughs]
Blistering.com: What is it about Mindcrime, do you think, that has made it endure?
Moore: I think that it is intelligent, and it gives people in the story line, it will give people different facets of things to think about, as far as political, to a love story, back and forth, and there's a lot of people that told me that for whatever reason the stories or maybe the "Sister Mary" song, in general, saved their life, for whatever reason. People see different things. They'll get an appreciation out of different things and see through their own eyes something that they can attach themselves to.
So I think that it's because it was intelligent, it was well-produced, well-written. It came out at the right time. The same old story is in the music business there's so many great people out there you kind of have to be in the right place at the right time and I think that actually was perfect timing for it to come out when it did, and even now with the second one . . . And also the music is brilliant, especially at the time that it [arrived].
