_________________________________ | Screaming in Digital
        ________________*________________ | The Queensryche Net Digest
                       ***                | queensryche@pilot.njin.net
        __________*__*******__*__________ | Volume 048, 92Sep21
                 ******* *******          | Edited by Dan 'Shag' Birchall
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        _*____________*****____________*_ |   The editor is liable only
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                  *   *****   *           | 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_

                Hi, gang!  Right now I'm effectively bouncing off the
        walls.  I got back in touch with EMI, and, even though they don't
        seem to know who I am - either they didn't get my letter yet, or
        nobody remembers reading it - well, let's just say it was an
        interesting chat.
                If you sent something in and you don't see it, that's due
        to my file of contributions somehow getting nuked.  I sent out a
        message as soon as I realized it had happened - thanks to all who
        managed to re-send things already.
                Due to administrative concerns about space on the Glia
        archive site, the Queensryche image directory is being "weeded
        out" somewhat.  As of next Monday, all images in the directory
        will be VGA-compatible GIFs, and where possible they will all be
        compressed using the JPEG compression algorithm.  This reduces 
        the space used by 75%, without losing most of the good images.
        If you want any images that are there, get them NOW.
                In this issue: the RIP interview with Geoff, hurricane-
        ravaged Florida pleads for Queensryche, related sounds, Eddie as 
        a possible producer, guitar strings, some explanation of 'Roads 
        to Madness,' a mis-dated boot, and, oh, an upcoming release.  :)

        _Neue Regel___________________________________________What's New_

                EMI informs me that they have a release scheduled for
        October 20th, of an item called "Building Empires."  The lady I
        spoke with thought that it was a new album; personally, I suspect
        it is the rumored [video?] compilation of "Empire" material.
                If I'm right, it might include broadcast material, live 
        material from the tour, material from the _making_ of "Empire," 
        and, since they've certainly had enough time to work it in, 
        perhaps even something from the Unplugged show.  
                That is all just conjecture on my part, but there _will_ 
        be a release by that name, on that date.  More information as I 
        get it, of course.

        _Speak____________________________________________Correspondence_

        rts@online.com (Randy) writes,
                Eddie may produce my band's next album!  We are pretty
        good friends with the guys, and they give us backstage passes for
        Seattle shows, et cetera.  Eddie comes to watch our band a lot -
        when he can, anyway.  I told him there is somewhat of an 
        "underground" in the computer networks that cherish Queensryche.
                        {Coolness!  I've been wondering when Eddie's
                        name would show up on something - no one ever
                        seems to interview or photograph him!  -sh}

        jlee@weird.miami.fl.us (Jason) writes,
                Live!  From Hurricane Andrew's aftermath.  I survived it 
        OK, but here's an idea. There've been _country_ music shows down 
        here in Florida to raise money, I even hear Paul Simon is coming 
        down here to do a show to raise money.  AIEEE!  Gag me with a 
        sledge hammer already!  How about some _rock_ fund-raisers?  
        Maybe a certain band, maybe it comes from Seattle!  Okay, okay, 
        I'm dreaming, but at least they could get _one_ good show down 
        here.
                        {Well, if there's a concert-hall left standing,
                        they'll probably stop by on the next tour.  -sh}

        _Spreading the Disease_________________________________Resources_

        bjross@mailbox.syr.edu (Brian) writes,
                Recently, I picked up a bootleg concert performance (of 
        Queensryche, obviously).  Of course, I was excited about finding 
        something like that, so I failed to think about what it was dated 
        as.  Anyway, the location/date given is Milan, Italy on April 4,
        1981.  After I had gotten back to my room and was listening to 
        it, I realized this dating problem.  Anyway, it has four songs:  
        'The Prophecy,' 'Queen of the Reich,' 'Blinded,' and 'The Lady 
        Wore Black.'  Adding to the question, is the fact that Geoff 
        refers to the Queensryche EP as the band starts playing 
        'Blinded.'  I would appreciate it if somebody could substantiate 
        either the date that was given, or give me an appropriate date 
        that Queensryche could have been in Milan, Italy.
                        {From the material included, I'd say the disc is
                        from no earlier than 1986.  'The Prophecy' - as
                        it is known outside the US - was, I believe,
                        recorded about that time.  -sh}

        _I Will Remember_________________________________________History_

                Queensryche - Big Man Tate
                Interview with Geoff Tate by Lonn M. Friend
                Rip Magazine, April 1992 [Copied sans permission]

                For the second year in a row RIP readers have voted 
        Queensryche's illustrious Geoff Tate Best Vocalist.  The king of
        croon and his merry 'Ryche men have spent the last year on the
        road, supporting "Empire" and recounting the "Operation: 
        mindcrime" saga with a show that included unbelievable theatrical
        visuals and effects.  Their massive Building Empires tour spanned
        the globe - with appearances at Rock In Rio, the Monsters of Rock
        festival in Europe, the Bay Area's annual Day On The Green - and
        concluded in their hometown of Seattle, at the Coliseum, on New
        Year's Eve.
                After a long, hard struggle, these masters of metal have
        finally garnered the success they deserve.  RIP captured Tate,
        the most elusive member of the group, during a break on the
        Monsters tour, and sat him down for a chat.  The soft-spoken, yet
        opinionated vocalist had a lot on his mind, as you will see.

                RIP:    How long have you been out?
                Tate:   Since october of 1990.  In September of that year
        we started rehearsals five days a week, so I'm really sort of
        burnt out.  I'm ready for a vacation, and to start on the next   
        record.  My energy level is pretty low.  I'm trashed.  I'm not
        used to this long touring.  This is the longest tour we've ever
        done, and a two-hour show every night can really wear you down.
        But when I say I'm burnt out, I don't mean I can't perform well -
        that's sort of what I live for.  Everything off stage, though, 
        I'm not interested in.  The beginning of a tour is the roughest,
        because you haven't hit your stride yet, and you're not honed to
        that fine performance edge yet.  After the tour gets along, you
        get really good, and the band gets real tight.  Of course, we're
        our own worst critics.  We sit there and tear apart each show.  
        Someone will miss a note or do a little blooper, and it's, "Oh!
        We were on the way; it was going to be a perfect night!"

                RIP:    This has been a great tour for you, though, as
        far as exposing you to a wider audience.
                Tate:   Yeah, it was.  It was a very good tour for us.
        The album ["Mindcrime"] didn't move hardly a thing on the whole
        tour, though.  It was the video that really blew it out, "Eyes of
        a Stranger."  Although I hate to admit it, I guess we are sort of
        an MTV band.  That's what really pushed us into the level of
        platinum and all that.  We try to be very conscious of that.  We
        try to keep art in the videos but, after all, it _is_ a 
        commercial.  That's all it is, a commercial to help sell your
        product.

                RIP:    You don't look at it as a creative film-making
        venture?
                Tate:   Maybe in some respects.  We have so little to do
        do with it anyway.  All we do is pick the director, and most of
        these directors, they're picked because they're really good at 
        what they do.  You kind of have to let them have free reign, you
        know.  You can say, "Well, I really don't like this idea here and
        this idea here," but it's all done in the script room, at the
        drawing board.  That's where you get to do some editing.  But,
        really, you don't do much.  It's not like a record, where you pay
        hands-on attention to detail, and you have time to be in control
        of every aspect of it.  You're on the road.  You're too 
        side-tracked to sit there and edit for two weeks.

                RIP:    But what if the product they come up with isn't
        suitable?
                Tate:   Then you work from there.  But, hopefully, you've
        picked the director well enough, and you've communicated with him
        well enough in the beginning, that you don't have that problem.
        Take, for example, Matt Mahurin, who did "Silent Lucidity."  He
        drew out this storyboard, these little squares.  Inside he drew
        these little pictures to convey what the different scenes were.
        Well, when we got the video, the rough cut of it, it was nothing
        like the little boxes he showed us.  It was completely different.
        So he decided, at some point, to throw out everything we had
        discussed and take it on his own.  We were bent.  We were pissed
        off about it.

                RIP:    That was pretty ballsy of him.
                Tate:   Yeah, it was.  Maybe he was just on a roll, but 
        look what happened to it.  It got incredible amounts of airplay -
        Top Ten single, Number One AOR track.  It was huge.  So you can't
        really sit there and slam him for it.  But, at the time, it was
        like pulling hair.

                RIP:    Who is the "Jet City Woman"?
                Tate:   "Jet City" is kind of an interesting story.  Jet
        City was the nickname of Seattle for years, coined from the fact
        that Boeing companies are so prevalent there.  Then, about three
        or four years ago, they had this huge debate.  They thought the
        name didn't really fit the city, being that we're so 
        environmentally conscious up there.  We have this beautiful,
        pristine environment, so they thought of the Emerald City - 
        emerald like the trees.  There was a huge debate that raged for 
        probably two years - Jet City or Emerald City.  Well, according
        to the Seattle Times, the Emerald City was proclaimed the       ]
        nickname in the end.  Those of us who have been in Seattle for 
        years and years, we always liked the nickname Jet City; so we 
        decided, on this album, that we'd sort of continue the debate a 
        little longer by writing a song that would, hopefully, become 
        very popular.  Also, it's just a song about being separated, 
        being away from someone or something that you love, which is very 
        common with bands on the road, or anybody traveling.

                RIP:    What about the next record?
                Tate:   I think this one was really light.  I'd like to
        take a look at something a little bit more heavy on the next 
        album - not the sound, but the whole thing song-wise.  We chose a
        more mid-tempo approach to a lot of these songs.  I don't know 
        how to explain it; it's just more accessible, pretty.  I'd like 
        to do something dark and scary, a little heavier; something in
        the vein of "Mindcrime" - parts of it, not the whole thing again.
        Something with a little more weight to it.  It would be a nice
        balance.

                RIP:    Was the more-accessible sound of "Empire" an
        artistic decision or a commercial decision?
                Tate:   We just sat down after the Mindcrime tour and
        said, "What do we want to do?" which is sort of standard 
        procedure for us.  Everyone started talking about what kind of
        musical directions they wanted to explore, and what we wanted to 
        do with the next tour, and the whole game plan for the next 
        couple years.  This is the direction we all chose.  We wanted to
        write really solid songs and get away from writing theme records
        - sort of take Queensryche in a different direction.  Instead of
        being in left field, we wanted to go right for a while and see
        what happened.  I think it's just a balance thing.  One thing 
        we've always stressed in interviews is that we do change.  We're
        not out to be an AC/DC.  We want to explore and take risks, 
        challenge ourselves.  That's why we got into this.  We obviously
        didn't go in with the 'Girls, Girls, Girls' vibe.   

                RIP:    Thinking man's metal?
                Tate:   How about thinking _person's_ metal?  If we have 
        to have a title, I'd rather have that one.  Monikers and labels
        and categories are there to help sell you and describe what it is
        you do.  It always seems sort of strange to me that people have 
        to write about what a song is about.  It's a very strange idea.  
        A song was made to listen to.  I've always tried to stay away 
        from slagging people.  Anybody who gets this far is pretty
        happening in some aspect.  They're not just idiots who were 
        lucky, especially if they have a continuing career.  You don't
        maybe relate to or like what they do musically, but you have to
        respect what they've done as far as their career goes.

                RIP:    Are you quick to judge people?
                Tate:   No, and that's probably a fault.  I get taken
        advantage of a lot.  I sort of have an accepting outlook on the
        way people are and act.  The classic situation is with me and my
        wife.  Maybe she's standing behind me, talking to someone, and
        someone else is being Mr. Smiley and yessing me to death.  My
        wife will come up, and they'll just shun her, be completely the
        opposite to her.  The business side of it sucks, doesn't it?  I
        hate it.  Thank God Chris likes to do that stuff.  I don't think
        he likes it, but he tolerates it.  He's very good at the business
        side of things.  I'm not good at it, so it's a waste of time for
        me to try to be at this point in my life.  They'll load you up
        with interviews and meet-and-greets five minutes before you go
        onstage, if you let them.  They have no respect for your 
        preparation for the show or anything like that.  "The show?  Ah,
        the kids'll just love ya anyway.  They won't notice you're
        completely losing your mind up there."  That's the wrong 
        attitude.  I always think, "People are paying good money to see
        me perform, and I owe it to them and myself to be prepared, and
        to do an incredible show every night."  I've tried to perform 
        well all my life.  I can't do it if I'm swamped with stuff to do
        right before I go on.  I need at least an hour by myself, doing
        my thing to get ready for the show.  It's not like I can just go
        on and do it.  I can't do that.

                RIP:    Do you care how people perceive you?
                Tate:   Yes and no.  I don't like people to think I'm an
        asshole.  I don't think I am.  I just try to demand a - how do I
        say it?  I have a way of doing things that I would like people to
        respect.  If they don't, then I don't show up or I don't
        communicate.  I bend, at times, depending on the situation.  I 
        just have certain ideals that I live by, and part of me expects
        everyone to live that way as well.  Realistically, people don't.
        They have their own ideals; so I can't go around forcing what I
        believe on other people.  But I can believe the way I do, and
        try and stay in that direction.  I would never ask anyone for an
        autograph.  Never.  I never have.  I understand why people want
        my autograph, but I don't like to give my autograph.  I think 
        it's, well, I'm not going to say what I think it is, but I just
        don't enjoy doing it.  I especially don't like it when I'm 
        eating dinner, and they come up and interrupt me; or if I'm
        talking to people, and they jump in the conversation.  That's 
        just rudeness.  I won't do anything with those people.  I won't
        sign bootleg albums.  But that's just my problem.  It's all in
        how they approach you too.  If they're polite, and they want your
        autograph, but they wait for that opportune moment, then, sure,
        I'll do it.  If I'm not in a hurry to do something on a deadline,
        I'll stop.  But I don't like the rude people who think you owe
        them something.

                RIP:    Why do they think that?  Because they bought your
        record?  'Cause they waited for eight hours for you to come out
        of the hotel?  Do you know what the fan mentality is?
                Tate:   No, I've never been a fan, so... I hate getting 
        my picture taken.  If I could exist in this rock business without
        ever being seen, I'd love it.  I don't like all the visibility -
        not being able to go places without having to check for a 
        separate entrance.

                RIP:    It's the price you pay for success.  What about
        material things?  You must have some baubles.
                Tate:   If it all ended tomorrow, I wouldn't be upset.
        Everything I own, I've paid for.  I don't have any bank loans or
        anything like that, so if it's all gone tomorrow, all I have is
        what I own right now.  I don't have any money saved, nothing.  
        I'll just live on my boat and take off sailing, and the world 
        would be a happy place for me.

                RIP:    Do you like to read?
                Tate:   I read anything I can get.  Everything I've 
        learned to do in my life, I've learned through reading.  When I 
        was a kid, I built my first sailboat from reading a book.  That's
        how I learned to sail, by reading before I actually did it.
        Singing was the same way; I read instructional pamphlets and
        medical diagrams on how the throat works.

                RIP:    You appreciate it more when you do it yourself.
                Tate:   I do.  I have to do it myself.  That's why it's
        so much of a drag on tour.  There's so many things you can't do
        by yourself out on the road.  You hire people to take care of
        this and ease the load of your responsibility.  You forget how to
        take initiative and make dinner reservations when you're home.
        You forget how to prepare your own food.  You have to relearn how
        to live when you go back home.

                RIP:    You like doing things for yourself, huh?
                Tate:   Yeah, I like it.  I get satisfaction out of it.
        That's why the bigger we get, the more frustrating it is for me;
        because I don't have my hands in all the pie anymore.  I don't
        get to sit there and think up T-shirt designs anymore.  I get all
        these people throwing stuff at me, and I just go, "Okay, that's
        nice; that's not."  No hands-on anymore.  The only thing we
        really control, I feel, is our records.  We're getting ready to
        put out this live video of the Mindcrime show, and I haven't even
        seen the artwork for it yet.  I told the people in charge of it
        that I want to see the artwork before it goes out.  I haven't 
        seen the tape yet either.  I haven't been able to watch it, 
        because it's on a different system than we have here in Europe.
        We've been traveling.  We spent our day off in Berlin, doing a
        stupid lip-syncing TV show.  I'm only going to do one more of
        those, and that's it.  No more.  That's why I hate doing videos.
        Lip-syncing, lip-syncing, lip-syncing.  It's not a performance.
        It's stupid.  It's ridiculous.  This live "Mindcrime" stuff, for
        the video, it's all live.  There's only two vocal bits I fixed in 
        the studio, and those were where I sang the wrong lyrics for a 
        couple words.  There were two little guitar bits each for Chris
        and Michael.  Ed had a perfect show, and Scott had a perfect 
        show.  It's very cool, and I'm very proud of that.  We pride     
        ourselves on being a good live band.  We can play our 
        instruments.  When you can get a performance like that, where
        there's very little wrong with it, it's obviously good stuff.

                RIP:    What's your biggest complaint about touring?
                Tate:   The communication barriers.  Eddie, my wife and I
        are vegetarians.  They don't know what vegetarians are in 
        Germany.  The only place you can really eat if you're a 
        vegetarian is in California.  In London we do really well, 'cause
        there's a lot of Indian restaurants there.  The midwest is sad.  
        Two areas I really looked at this time on our American tour were
        the environmental issues and trying to eat.  And it was so
        difficult in America, of all places, to find food that I felt was
        healthy for me, which was no animal products at all.  No dairy,
        no milk, cheese, butter, no meat products at all, no fish - 
        anything that's living, I don't eat.  It's very difficult.  The
        meat industry, especially the cattle people, have such a hold on
        our country, it's scary.  I respect the fact that people don't 
        want to eat the way I eat or have the same views on it, but I 
        must say that I feel that, like any business, the cattle and beef
        industry, are there to sell you their product.  They pay off the
        AMA to get their "Everybody Needs Milk" campaign out.  And in all
        those health classes we had when we were kids growing up, the 
        three square meals always had meat in each meal.  That's heavy
        payoffs to the AMA.  They start at a very young age to propagate
        this plan for your diet, how you should eat.  You know who the
        longest-living people on Earth are?  The Japanese.  They live ten 
        years longer than Americans.  They don't eat much meat.  What 
        they do eat is fish, and they don't eat it at every meal.  As for
        environmental issues, the South - oooh, bad shape.  East Coast?
        Terrible.  Pollution.  No recycling.  They don't even know the
        word yet in most places.  Heavy plastics everywhere.  Landfills.
        You go down the Mississippi River, and it's just a big slab of 
        goo rolling out to the Gulf.

                RIP:    That pisses you off, huh?
                Tate:   Yeah, it does.

                RIP:    Does it upset you, or does it make you mad?
                Tate:   Both.  I do things about it.  I changed my
        lifestyle drastically.  I recycle.  I even go to extremes.  I
        moved.  I centralized my life in an area where I don't have to
        drive my car anymore.  The only time I have to drive my car is
        when I go out to visit Scott, who lives 30 miles from me.  
        Anywhere else, I can walk to.  A lot of people can't do that, 
        but I can.   

        _The Whisper__________________________________________Discussion_

        dwb4025@zeus.tamu.edu (Dave) writes,
                Geoff said that when he wrote 'Roads to Madness,' he was
        going through a terrible bought of insomnia, and felt like he was
        going mad because he just could not go to sleep. I think that was 
        partly the inspiration for the song.  

        corum@uscn.bitnet (Paul) writes,
                Judging from BURRN's chart, they overlooked Helloween, 
        who bear a striking resemblance to older Queensryche, 
        particularly vocal-wise.  I can recommend "Keeper of the Seven 
        Keys Part 2" highly.

        browning@symcom.math.uiuc.edu (Howard) writes,
                I have heard Dream Theater's latest, "Words and Images," 
        and it is pretty good.  Sounds a bit like Queensryche's "Empire" 
        sound with a bit of the old stuff thrown in.  I liked it.

        jlee@weird.miami.fl.us (Jason) writes,
                I happened to come across a friend of mine who seems to 
        be subscribed into every rock magazine there is, and also happens 
        to be in deep, deep love with Chris DeGarmo.  Anything that's 
        been in the magazines with Chris or Queensryche on it, is on her 
        wall.  Needless to say I was pretty impressed, and a bit shocked 
        at all the glam around the "Rage for Order" time, sheesh! 
                I also noticed two guitar string ads which I recall 
        there had been some controversy over, how Chris and Michael 
        switched companies or whatever.  I don't know for sure, all I 
        know is there was an old picture for the GHS strings, and then a 
        fairly recent looking one with "TRADE UPS" on the top and a 
        picture of Chris and Michael in like baseball cards saying 
        "Chris DeGarmo, Queensryche, Former GHS player."  Kinda neat ad, 
        actually.
                        {The "Trade Up" ad is for Dean Markley, the brand
                        of strings Chris and Michael now use.  -sh} 

        _________________________________________________________________

                That's it for this week... hopefully next week I'll have
        more information on "Building Empires," and maybe even other news
        to pass on.  Have a good week, enjoy the beginning of Autumn, and
        as usual...
                                                'Ryche on,

                                                        -Shag