(Official Queensryche Promo Shot)
Since Covid-19 has brought gigs to a screeching halt we are flashing back to some of the best of the best content here at DailyBOOM.
ICYMI-
Queensryche's latest release, "Dark Reverie", off of their forthcoming album The Verdict (out March 1) has the band's longtime fans dying to hear more. The buzz on this effort is nothing but positive and the guys are counting down the days until they get to hit the road to support their newest "baby". Steve and I had a chance to chat with Queensryche founder Michael Wilton this week and his excitement is more than a little infectious!
DailyBOOM: The last time we spoke you were finishing up work on the new Queensryche album and you were dying for everyone to hear it. You now have two singles out, "Man The Machine" and "Dark Reverie" and they are just beyond fantastic. How are you feeling now that we're actually hearing the new music?
Michael Wilton: My expectations have been flooded. The response is way more than I could have ever anticipated and it has taken off so much better than I could have ever hoped for. We knew we had something special and it becomes your baby, you just never know how people are going to actually perceive it. So it was released to the press and all of the interviews that I've done have just been filled with positive vibrations, which is just incredible. I'm just beyond words.
DailyBOOM: You said that you guys knew that you had something special, so take us back to the studio. How did this one come together differently?
MW: The whole beginning process was an arduous task because when we started pre-production with our producer Zeus there were only a couple of songs that were in demo form and near completion. Everything else was in scattered bits and pieces of riffs and everything so that in itself was a big challenge. It was also one of the most gratifying experiences that I've had since the early '80s. Going through each song, just pulling the deepest and most creative elements out of each individual and building each song with lots of thought. Getting it to the point where everybody was happy with the sound took probably the first two weeks of pre-production and then the next two weeks were spent learning the songs before finally recording the songs. It was quite a task.
Making things more challenging was the fact that Scott (Rockenfield) couldn't play on this album so we had to get a drummer. Todd LaTorre had to get the rust off his drumsticks and he had to write the album on the drums as well as the lyrics. You can imagine the organizational nightmare (laughing) but you know, we believed in it. Zeus was the guy kind of orchestrating everything and we had to get a midi drum kit into the studio so Todd could play along and learn or write the parts. It was just mind-blowing but during this whole process, the ideas and energy were fantastic. It was all of us at the top of our game just devoting so much of our own creative elements to this album. You don't realize until after you're done that these songs are turning into monsters. We're just so proud of them.
(Official Queensryche Promo Shot)
DailyBOOM: It sounds like Todd has really stepped up his musical game this time out.
MW: Yes! As a musician, he's growing like you would not even believe. He's more comfortable and it shows. Todd has definitely stepped up his game obviously because he had to write drum parts now too. He gets to really let loose (laughing). The writing process with everybody is amazing. I think the band as a whole believes in our own creativity and so we're really giving our all. It's crazy but when all is said and done we can sit back and say, 'Wow! We created that!'
DailyBOOM: Do you foresee Scott returning to the band?
MW: We don't know. He is on a different path right now and raising a child so we'll wait and see. The door is always open. People change and they want to do different things so they need some time and their privacy. Casey Grillo has been on tour with us for the last two years and he actually played drums on two of the extra songs included on our bonus cd. We did acoustic versions of "I Dream in Infrared" and "Open Road" and he did all of the percussion on both those. He's a great drummer, really well-rounded and he has a wide palette in his musical style. He's filling big shoes and he's doing a great job. The fans really love him and he is scheduled to be on the road with us again this year.
DailyBOOM: I have to say, "Dark Reverie" has us really excited. It just seems like every note is so perfectly placed and balanced.
MW: It's the same with everyone that I talk to! I've heard that the flow of the album is great and that listeners can really tell that each song has so much thought that has been put into it. So many different positive comments and it's just mind-blowing to think that we've actually accomplished exactly what we set out to capture with this. I think that on March first when The Verdict is released, it's really going to impact the fans just as it did us last year.
Check out Queensryche's official site for tickets, merch & more!
