Queensryche: Stalwart In Seattle
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If the new studio album wasn’t enough new product for the fans, their former label E.M.I. has just re-released their first eight albums with a wealth of unreleased tracks as a bonus, deluxe packaging and a full re-mastered sound. “What’s really cool is that we have kind of the best of both worlds. On the one side, we have our current deal with Sanctuary, which means we get our albums released globally. And on the other hand, we have major catalogue support from E.M.I. That gives us a great opportunity and enthusiasm to future the benefit the future of Queensrÿche. On the Sanctuary side of things, they simply tell us to make a record, without having any involvement from their side creatively. They don’t want to change a thing. We’re the music makers, and they simply put it out there. That’s awesome. That gives us a future to keep making records, and putting them out there. And then we have the E.M.I. side who, god bless them, support our past catalogue. They do it so well too by pushing themselves in different ways to better what we’ve done in re-mastering the albums and repackaging them. They called us about six months ago and talked about reissuing our old albums, so we were totally involved in those re-mastered albums. We wanted quality sound clarity in the re-mastering, while pushing it even further. We also suggested adding the extra tracks and redesigning the artwork in the booklets. We also made ourselves available for the interviews that make up the liner notes in the booklets. We added so much stuff, but that’s what people want. They want to feel like they’re getting something special. They want something more than a record that’s redone. They want something added. They’re very good for asking for our input. It went back and forth, until we thought it was ready to go. So like I said, we really do have the best of both worlds.” With all these new reissues coming out, the one item that has yet to be cleaned up and released is the 1994 video ‘Live In Tokyo’ (Although you will find the complete concert in audio form as the bonus tracks on the reissue of the E.P.). “You know, anything is possible. I can’t believe you remember that thing! I’m really surprised! (Laughs) You’ve stumped me, because I don’t have an answer for you. It would be a cool thing to re-release that on D.V.D. with extras and surround sound. There are all sorts of options that you could do with a package like that. All I’ll say is that anything is possible, but it hasn’t been discussed yet! (Laughs) Having said that, there is one thing we are doing. On this tour, Queensrÿche as a band, have purchased a huge film package with heaps of equipment, and we’re talking all this film stuff (Including cameras and film recording equipment) on the road with us. We’re going to catalogue this whole tour, including backstage, during the show and different aspects of the show. It’ll include some footage with Dream Theater, without them and all over the world. Hopefully sometime at the end of the year, we hope to put it all together and release it as a D.V.D. package. It’ll be a ‘This is Queensrÿche’ sort of deal. We’re always looking for things to do with new technology, and with all these D.V.D. mediums out there, it’s really expanded the capabilities of what a band can do. We’re definitely into that type of thing. It should be fun.” One of the years most anticipated tours has to be the latest Queensrÿche/Dream Theater co-headlining jaunt. If that wasn’t enough, Fates Warning is the support. “I’m currently in Milan (Italy) doing promotion for ‘Tribe’. We’ve been doing lots of interviews, and have been in Europe since last weekend, and every day it’s a different country. First we went to Finland, Sweden, Germany, and now we’re in Italy. Tomorrow we go to France, and then on to Amsterdam. Then we play five shows on out own, and head back to the U.S. for the Dream Theater tour. That runs for about six weeks, and then we jump back to Europe as a headliner, and other parts of the world. You can see it’s a vicious cycle of events! (Laughs) But you know, it could be worse! We’re ready to do another massive long-winded world tour! (Laughs) We also hope to get to South America, and hopefully go to all the other places we’ve never been. We will kind of let that evolve into whatever becomes of it. Whether the Dream Theater thing can be a part of that or not, is still in discussion.” The combined co-headlining tour with Dream Theater (With Fates Warning in support) is surely a progressive rock fans dream, and it’s coming together couldn’t have been easier. “It came about because we’ve known about one another for quite a while, and I think it’s an interesting combination. We have some commonalities. One is musically. We have common roots in regards to influences, and I think we also share the same fan base. We have a kind of fan base that also like s Dream Theater, and vice versa. Fates Warning is also a part of that, and I think they have a heritage of being influenced by us, and also the influence from some of the other bands we’ve been influenced by also. The second we started talking about doing it, fans soon started talking, and they just went bonkers. Tickets were selling out so fast in the U.S. It’s turned out to be a cool thing. Musically, we’re not similar, which I think is good. That will make for an interesting show. We’re similar in our philosophies though. They push themselves in what they do, and challenge themselves as musicians and songwriters. We both work really well, and it’s going to be a cool package.” What’s also a bonus is the band has also found new management, which means that they’ll also be touring countries that have yet to witness the full Queensrÿche event. “We just signed a new deal with a huge agent on a worldwide level in the U.S. called Monterey Peninsula Artists. They work for Aerosmith and they do all sorts of deals for very large people on a global scale. They came to us, really wanting to expand our territories. It’s been really great so far. We’re playing Greece next week, and we’ve never played there before. We plan on going back to Spain later in the year, along with a bunch of stuff in South America. After twenty-two years, you tend to ask yourself how many more times can I go to the thirteen different countries in Europe and all over the U.S. I want to see them all again, but I also want to see all the other ones. That’s why going to Greece will be so cool. It’s cool, and we have fans everywhere. We get mail from everywhere in the world. We’ve never been to any of the Asian territories either. There are a lot of places. It’s just time for us to expand on a global level, and now we have people in place to help us do that. But the unfortunate thing Justin is that we’ve never been to Australia! We’re going to change that this year. Australia is huge on our list of places we have to go to sometime this year. So we’re working on that. We’re just keeping our fingers crossed and get to as many places as we can. In the past, it’s always kind of been a business thing. Our agents needed to figure it out, and for whatever reason, it never happened. We came so close to coming down a long time ago. It was all planned, but then it all changed when our tour overseas got extended. The scheduling just never got worked out, and that was an unfortunate thing. Now we’re trying to assist our agents and tell them the places that we need to go to. We’ve all got to work together to make it happen. My wife keeps suggesting to me that Australia is where we should end the tour, so that way she can be flown down and we can stay around for a little while! (Laughs)” Related Link
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