_________________________________ | Screaming in Digital
        ________________*________________ | The Queensryche Net Digest
                       ***                | queensryche@pilot.njin.net
        __________*__*******__*__________ | Volume 046, 07sep92
                 ******* *******          | Edited by Dan 'Shag' Birchall
              *********   *********       | 
        ____************_************____ | Anonymous FTP site:
          **** ******************* ****   | glia.biostr.washington.edu
         ***   ***  *********  ***   ***  | 
         **     *     *****     *     **  | 
        _*____________*****____________*_ |   The editor is liable only
                    *********             | for his errors.  Submission
                   ***********            | constitutes license to use.
                  **  *****  **           | Editorial right is reserved
                  *   *****   *           | regarding grammar, length,
        ______________*****______________ | decency, and redundancy.
                       ***                |   Screaming in Digital is 
                       ***                | edited by member 7302 of the
                       ***                | Queensryche Fan Club, who
                        *                 | does encourage membership.
                        *                 | Write Queensryche, Box 70503,
        _SiD_1992_______*________________ | Bellevue, Washington 98007.
        _________________________________________________________________
        _Screaming in Digital______________________________Editor's Note_

                By now, almost everyone should be back in school.  If
        anyone finds new students who are fans of Queensryche, I'd be
        glad to subscribe them, of course.  Also, anyone who mentions the
        digest on campus VaxNotes or similar small-audience, high-use
        systems gets 5 karma points. :)
                Going out this week - nicely laser-printed, thanks to a
        friend's college - are letters to EMI and to Metal Sushi, and 
        yes, the idea of an Unplugged release is mentioned in both of
        them.  I'll be calling EMI again soon too, I hope... I'm out of
        state for the long weekend, so it'll wait until I get home.
                In this issue: The last chunk of the 1988 interview from
        Guitar for the Practicing Musician, hurricane-proof cheerleaders,
        digitized sound bites, early videos, guitar styles, and boots.
        (No sex, this time.)

        _Speak____________________________________________Correspondence_

        steinare@ifi.uio.no (Steinar) writes,
                I am a Norwegian Queensryche fan.  Actually, I started
        listening to them just after the release of "The Warning."  
        Besides Metallica, they're the only band that hasn't let me down
        so far.  (The latest Fates Warning and Crimson Glory albums 
        nearly broke my heart.)
                I have seen Queensryche live three times.  First as
        support for Metallica in Norway, and later on their own tour in
        England (I used to study in Manchester) and the Monsters of Rock
        show at Donington.
                As for my opinion about their songs... well, it's nearly
        impossible to pick any as they are all outstanding!  I guess my
        favourites are 'Take Hold of the Flame,' 'I Dream in Infrared,'
        'Neue Regel,' 'Eyes of a Stranger,' 'The Mission,' 'I Don't
        Believe in Love,' 'Della Brown,' 'Silent Lucidity,' 'The Thin
        Line,' and 'Anybody Listening?'
                Do you know when their next studio album is due? I can 
        hardly wait.
                        {Toward the end of the year... we hope.  -sh}

        jlee@weird.miami.fl.us (Jason) writes,
                Live from post-hurricane Andrew!  Yes, a glancing blow,
        no structural damage and I've got power and phone lines back, as
        you can tell.  I missed issue 44, Andrew took it for me.  Other
        than that, the only thing I can think of to say is, "Wouldn't a
        Queensryche benefit show for the survivors of Andrew be nice?"

        _Spreading the Disease_________________________________Resources_

        dzz8420@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov (Dean) writes,
                I have a couple of sound bites I digitized off the
        "Operation: mindcrime" album.  They're in MS-Windows .wav format
        and sound pretty cool.  I tried uploading them to Glia, but got
        a "permission denied" message.  What site can I put them on?
                I'll make more .wav files as time permits, and also take
        requests.
                        {The directory /pub/queensryche/incoming on Glia
                        _should_ be world-writable, so that you could put
                        any files in there.  They'd then be moved into
                        /pub/queensryche/sounds, where there are already
                        some Sun audio files.  Oh, I should mention that
                        utilities are available to convert those Sun 
                        files so that they can be played by PC's, with
                        or without SoundBlaster cards.  -sh}

        cuz@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu (Brandon) writes,
                I've been thinking about the video (short form) releases 
        of Queensryche, but, due to the fickle opinions of the eMpTyV 
        executive board, I don't know much about the early video 
        releases.  I do know that 'Queen of the Reich' was released off 
        the EP, 'Take Hold of the Flame' was released off "The Warning," 
        and 'Gonna Get Close to You' was released off "Rage For Order."
        I have also heard rumours of a video for 'Walk in the Shadows.'
        Is this true, and are there any other releases off of the first 
        3 recordings? 

        _I Will Remember_________________________________________History_

        Cynthia.Beckett@ebay.sun.com (Cyndi) writes,
                The High Road by John Stix (Part III)
                From: Guitar for the Practicing Musician, Oct. 1988
                (Interview with Michael Wilton and Chris DeGarmo; 
                copied without permission)
        
                It seems that every electric band loves acoustic guitar. 
        Was 'Waiting for 22' written with the acoustic in mind?
                CHRIS: I wrote it.  It's got an acoustic with electric 
        underneath.  I was using a lap steel slide for the slide effects. 
        That was also off the cuff, inspirational.  I had this acoustic 
        piece I had played for the guys.  They said, slap it on and let's 
        see what happens with it.  I didn't know what I was going to do 
        with it.  When we were recording in Montreal we had gone down to 
        this record store one day because I needed a string and here's 
        this 1952 Gibson lap slide thing that looked like your 
        grandfather's uke.  It looked like something somebody had thrown 
        away because it had rotted in their attic.  We had talked 
        loosely about doing some sort of lap slide thing.  Everybody was 
        keen on it.  We brought it back more as a joke.  We plugged it 
        in and Paul Northfield, our engineer, said, let's plug it into 
        the Marshall and slap some things on it, and there I was with 
        this lap steel and a wooden slide and I barely had ever played 
        slide guitar.  I'd certainly never played something sitting on 
        my lap.  That instrument inspired that slide section on 'Waiting 
        for 22.'  That was competely ad-libbed, inspired by the moment 
        and pieced together over 20 minutes.
        
                Have there been any sounds from other guitarists in the 
        last year and a half that intrigued you?
                CHRIS: From an inspirational standpoint, Trevor Rabin 
        has been someone who I've been listening to diligently for his 
        creative use of different textures and layers.  He is not in the 
        same genre as me.  He is doing a whole separate thing, but I'm a 
        big fan of what he's doing with his guitar.  My guitar doesn't
        sound anything like Trevor Rabin's, but within trying to create 
        different sounds for different songs and a different texture to 
        capture an attitude, he's been inspiring.  90125 was a heavy 
        listen for me from a guitar standpoint when it came out. On the 
        new one, Big Generator, the first six songs are particularly hot 
        but the rest pales for me.  From our genre perspective we're 
        trying to be uniquely derivative.  We're not trying to sound 
        like anybody else, but it's great when you can have a sound and 
        someone goes, that's them.  I don't know if we're there yet. 
        We're sort of chameleons.  Our thing has been changing with each 
        time.  I don't have the guitar sound I had in '83 when this band 
        formed.  I think that's good.
                MICHAEL: I agree with Chris about Trevor Rabin.  I love 
        listening to Yes.  He blatantly uses 5ths and 3rds, having the 
        machine do it.  Having that machine edgy sound influenced me 
        because it's so new.  I don't get off on guitar synthesizers. I 
        thought what Steve Vai got out of his guitar on the PIL record
        and Eat Em and Smile was amazing, his solos and bar technique.
        
                Do you listen to players before you record?
                MICHAEL: I won't listen to George Lynch or Jimi Hendrix 
        to get ideas for my solos.  I just create.  Once you get on a 
        roll you have a vibe and go for it. 
                CHRIS: I listen in phases.  When we were writing and 
        recording this album I wasn't listening to much of anything but 
        focusing on this project.  Once the ideas started snowballing 
        on what we were doing all of us closed everything else off so 
        we wouldn't be influenced by anything except the snowballing
        effect of our own ideas.  Now that the record's done I'm 
        suddenly opening my ears to everything else out there. 
        Surprisingly enough, a lot of it isn't the next hottest 
        guitarist on the block.  Before the record I was listening 
        heavily to 90125.  At the same time I'm listening to Magical 
        Mystery Tour and Sergeant Pepper, great albums that have been 
        around forever.
        
                When you do a record do you think of how hard it might 
        be to duplicate live?
                MICHAEL: I'm still trying to learn the solos I played. 
        In the studio it's just create, and the ability to play it live 
        is the last thing on your mind.  The majority of the solos are 
        just a pass.  Give me four tracks and I'll do a pass on each 
        track.  Whichever one feels good we'll use that or a combination. 
        I'm very aware of the rhythm that's going on.  Before I play the 
        guitar I listen to the rhythm and hear something in my head, hum 
        it and try some different ideas.  In the studio I'll try all the 
        ideas and whichever one seems to fit I'll use.  The best solos 
        were when I would go out skiing first and go straight to the 
        studio and my blood would be pumping and hot.  I'd do one take 
        and leave.  I'd say, let me do it again.  I can do it better.  
        The producer would say get out of here.  If you get something 
        all worked out on your home deck and get used to hearing it that 
        way and go into your studio and it sounds different, old, and 
        not as good, you're put on the spot.  You've got to be flexible. 
        We just focus on making the album.  That's where we're at right 
        now, figuring out what we spent the last four months doing, and 
        getting ready to present it to the public.
                CHRIS: It makes us have to work harder. We could sit 
        there and say I'd love to do this guitar thing except how am I 
        ever going to play it live?  'Waiting for 22' is a perfect 
        example, an acoustic piece where I kept layering all this stuff 
        on top of it.  Geoff didn't say, 'Chris, it's cool, but how are 
        you going to be able to do it?'  He said 'Do more.'
        
                What's the most successful song on record from your 
        vision to reality?
                MICHAEL: I like the way 'Spreading the Disease' turned 
        out and 'Speak.'  In writing them we had parts but they were 
        never full complete songs and in the studio the missing pieces 
        came together with the help of a producer.  We needed someone's 
        outside opinion to spark some creativity.  It was argue and 
        agree and it got me going.
                CHRIS: The front of the record we hit the way we wanted 
        to.  The intro into 'Anarchy-X' into 'Revolution Calling' is a 
        solid opening statement.  The whole album in retrospect sounds 
        like we laid a bullseye on the wall and spent a great deal of 
        time working at it.  I think we all feel we hit the bullseye.
        
                What is Queensryche's classic?
                MICHAEL: 'Queen of the Reich' is always going to be 
        the classic among metalers.  It will take a few years for new 
        stuff to become a classic.  
                CHRIS: This record is going to be in retrospect a major 
        turning point for the band or our first real serious 
        achievement musically as a vision.  Something where the band 
        jelled.  From the beginning we've done stuff we're proud of.
        Each record has elements we're proud of.  But this one seems to 
        be where it went click and everything about every song is 
        there.  I can listen to this album and like every song on it 
        and think this album is what it's supposed to be.  There's 
        other records where we can say that album isn't what it's 
        supposed to be.  Each record that we've done to this point 
        somebody said we could have bettered this in a certain area. At 
        the end of this album we all looked at each other and said we 
        did it.
        
                So the next time we meet you'll live or die by this 
        album?
                CHRIS: If we die by this record we'll still make 
        another record.  If this winds up in the discount bin we'll 
        make more records.  We'll still look back and think this was a 
        major accomplishment for the band.  We clicked creatively.  
        Whether this album is where the public taste is in 1988, who 
        knows.  Who cares?

        _The Whisper__________________________________________Discussion_

        rob@gumbo.noarl.navy.mil (Robert) writes,
                I recently saw a request in issue 44 for discussions 
        concerning Queensryche guitar playing.  I'm a guitarist (since 
        age 7), and I absolutely love their work.  Here are some of the 
        things I've learned/concluded since becoming a Queensryche fan:
                In an interview in Guitar World (November 1990) with 
        Chris & Michael, Chris says his work is panned to the left 
        speaker and Michael's to the right, unless the passage is "a 
        key melodic guitar line," in which case they "center it up."   I 
        have found, however, that they seem to consider most all of the 
        guitar work as "key melodic guitar lines," so I try to 
        distinguish their work by their styles as:  1) described in 
        interviews and 2) I have observed while watching my copy of 
        "Operation: LIVEcrime."
                Michael's style is aggressive--he's what I would call a 
        "shredder" (Although there are plenty of George Lynch, Marty 
        Friedman, etc. fans who would say that Wilton can't compare to 
        "real shredders."  Screw 'em; Michael's a damned fine guitarist 
        in that genre!)  Chris has a smooth, methodical, sultry style 
        (but I wouldn't label it "bluesy" as I've been reading a lot 
        recently).  He plays more slowly than does Michael, but I've 
        noticed that he is capable of keeping up with Michael when they 
        do fast parts in twin-lead passages.  Some of their textural 
        techniques include "chord stacking" (playing two different 
        chords simultaneously to create a unique, full sound (I think 
        such is the case in 'Anarchy-X' from "Operation: mindcrime") 
        and exquisitely creative timing involving anticipation and 
        hesitation "punches." (check out Michael's timing of his power 
        chord rhythms in 'I Don't Believe in Love' while Chris is 
        arpeggiating in some rather non-standard open chords built from 
        the Dm-Bb-C-Bb chord progression.)
                In my assessment, these guys started really playing 
        superbly (as opposed to merely fabulously) together on "Rage 
        for Order."  For those who haven't heard it yet, "Rage" is a 
        guitarists' dream - it is a riff-laden album that really shows 
        how two guitarists can produce one synergistic sound.  They 
        play so well together on this album that your mind will 
        sometimes fill in "ghost notes" when Chris & Michael aren't 
        actually playing.  Some great examples of the "2 heads, 4 
        hands, 1 sound" Queensryche style from "Rage" are:  'Walk in 
        the Shadows' (intro especially), 'I Dream in Infrared' (listen 
        carefully to the riff following the first verse: "Did you 
        notice the tear-stains lining you face were mine..." See how 
        many sounds your mind _thinks_ it hears, and then go back and 
        carefully count them!),  'Neue Regel' (killer intro following 
        the acoustic lead-in), and 'I Will Remember' (a great example 
        in the acoustic motif).  While bleeding-on about "Rage," I'll 
        go ahead and mention another DeGarmo/Wilton technique that 
        occurs rather frequently.  Often during a guitar solo, they'll 
        play together for a few bars and then hand the lead solo back 
        and forth so that each of them displays his style for a few 
        moments.  They will sometimes then come back and play twin 
        lead again to finish the guitar solo off.  The song 'London' 
        is probably the best track on which to hear this--it's a great 
        showcase displaying their style differences!  'Walk in the 
        Shadows' and 'The Killing Words' also provide great examples 
        of this technique from "Rage."
                I'll stop now to hold the file size down.  I'll add 
        something next week about "Operation: mindcrime" or "Empire." 

        _Anybody Listening?______________________________________Adverts_

        mckinzie@math.wisc.edu (Mark) writes,
                I'd like to trade tapes with other 'Ryche collectors - 
        I'm seeking the empty-v unplugged set, and any other live 
        thingies (especially songs not on "Operation: LIVEcrime").  In 
        return, I can trade some interview tapes, and a tape of four 
        live tracks from Queensryche in 1984.  Or some obscure Rainbow,
        Steve Vai, Satriani, Zappa, Uli Roth, Queen, etc...

        _________________________________________________________________

                That's about it for this week - have a good week, don't
        forget to write, and, of course, as usual,

                                                'Ryche on,

                                                        -Shag