Downtime Not An Option
September 19, 2008 by Kevin Scurlock
Anxiously engaged: Downtime not an option for Queensryche frontman Geoff Tate
By Doug Fox of Daily Herald (Salt Lake City)
As if Geoff Tate wasn’t already busy enough. The Queensryche lead singer is in the middle of putting the finishing touches on the band’s latest studio concept record, for starters. Additionally, he’s in the process of mixing and dubbing a new solo album that will be released later next year. He’s also gearing up to shoot a role in an MTV-produced movie in October.
On top of all that, Tate and his wife are launching their own brand of wine — called “Insania.” It’s actually the wine project that led Tate to form a side band that will perform a limited number of dates on a mini-tour that kicks off tonight at the Depot in Salt Lake City.
There is a promotional barrel tasting for the wine on Saturday in Walla Walla, Wash., and Tate’s wife suggested he also do a show there.
“That sounded like a fun idea,” said Tate in a recent phone interview from his home in Seattle, “so I just called everybody that I’ve been hanging out with lately. ‘Hey, you want to get together and play some songs?’ And it kind of turned into a show.”
Tate ended up putting together an eight-piece band that includes a few familiar faces — notably Queensryche drummer Scott Rockenfield, vocalist Pamela Moore (who sang the role of Sister Mary in Queensryche’s “Operation: mindcrime” production), and former Third Eye Blind bassist Jason Slater. Rounding out the band are vocalist Jason Ames (an Italian pop star), keyboardist Ben Anderson, and guitarists Parker Lundgren and Joe Mulkern.
“It will be really fun,” Tate said of tonight’s Salt Lake appearance — the opening date on the four-show promo tour. “One thing that is kind of neat about this show is although I’m doing a lot of my solo material, I’m also doing a lot of Queensryche stuff. What we’re doing is, we’re doing kind of re-arrangements on some of the familiar songs, and then we’re also playing songs that Queensryche doesn’t normally play live. Kind of giving our Queensryche fans something special, you know.”
Any band that has churned out as many hits as Queensryche — which reached its commercial peak in the 1990s with songs such as “Silent Lucidity,” “Jet City Woman,” “Another Rainy Night,” “Empire” and “Anybody Listening?” — faces the same dilemma in concert. Namely, feeling locked into a certain number of songs that fans expect them to play.
“It’s more like demand that you play,” Tate said with a laugh, noting that it’s been a lot of fun working up some of the band’s deeper album cuts in rehearsals for this tour. “It’s actually very satisfying because they’re songs I’ve always wanted to perform live, but never had the chance to — and the same with Scott. This is really a treat for us as well.”
As for the stage show, Tate said fans should expect “an elegantly casual presentation,” and not the elaborate visual productions that Queensryche is known for.
“We just kind of all got together and started jamming out stuff and working on some of the songs from my upcoming album and also playing some of the solo stuff,” Tate said. “And then we said, ‘Hey, let’s throw some Queensryche stuff in there and see what that’s like.’ And it was really fun to play these different versions, you know, different people’s interpretations of the songs, which I always like. In fact, when I hear cover bands do our stuff, I love hearing that — other people’s versions of it, because it’s very difficult, apparently, from what I’ve been told, to cover Queensryche.”
After this short run of solo dates, which ends Sunday in Spokane, Wash., Tate will simply pick up one of his many other irons in the fire — completing the next Queensryche album, currently titled “Bob.”
“Bob?”
“Yeah, ‘Bob.’ It all started years ago when we recorded our first demo on a cassette tape that belonged to this guy named Bob,” Tate said. “And he’d written his name in, like, really dark pen, and he wrote it, actually, on the case that the cassette was in, so it never came off. So after that, we always put each demo in that same case, and we called it “Bob.” And it became this weird tradition that every album is called “Bob” until we actually have a title.”
An Average Joe
September 16, 2008 by Kevin Scurlock
Who Is Joe Mulkern?
Joe is a self described average guy. He sits in a cube all day as a Technical Account Manager for a major software company. But Geoff Tate changed all that when he asked him to play guitar on his upcoming Insania Tour.
Joe, originally from Southern California, came of age during the 1980’s metal explosion. He was inspired by Randy Rhodes and Eddie Van Halen to start playing guitar when he was 14. He played guitar for many different bands hoping to one day to make it big. Reality quickly set in. He cut off his long hair, got a degree in Electronics Engineering and a regular job. He eventually moved to Washington with his wife to pursue his career and started a family, and subsequently set aside his guitar for many years.
One day he heard about a suburban dad garage band needing a guitarist and decided to dust off his guitar and join the band. Soon, a friendship between his wife and Susan Tate led to an invitation for dinner and opportunity to jam with one of Queensryche’s guitarists, Mike Stone. An evening of blues jams and Joe felt invigorated again. He began taking lessons and re-discovered his passion for playing.
Both Geoff and Susan remembered that evening when they were beginning to look at guitarists for The Geoff Tate Band. They asked Joe if he could learn 30 songs in six weeks and take some time off of work to go out on tour. After careful consideration of what that would mean to his average life, he decided to take the chance. He’s temporarily trading in his small cube for a smaller bunk on a bus. Instead of typing on his laptop all day he’s playing Geoff’s riffs. He may be an Average Joe, but he’s living the dream!
Frontman dabbles in Insania
September 15, 2008 by Kevin Scurlock
By David Burger of the Salt Lake Tribune
Geoff Tate, the talented frontman of the multiplatinum progressive metal band Queensryche, will perform at The Depot Sept. 18 with an eight-piece band of virtuosos backing him.
But enough about music. Let’s talk about the wine.
Tate’s touring to promote Insania, a Bordeaux-style wine he developed at Three Rivers Winery in Walla Walla, Wash.
“I’m a wine collector but not a wino,” Tate said in an interview from his home state of Washington. “I’ve tried it in so many countries that I’ve come to appreciate it.”
Several years ago, Tate met Holly Turner, a winemaker at Three Rivers Winery. They struck up a friendship, and eventually Geoff Tate in concert at The Depot. Turner offered the singer the opportunity to try his hand at crafting a wine blend.
“He had been thinking of making his own wine,” Turner said from the vineyard, harvesting grapes as she talked on a cell phone. “There’s no reason not to do it.”
Tate had loved the Bordeaux wines he sipped while on Queensryche tours in France, so he worked with Turner to make a Bordeaux-style wine blend of four grapes – Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot – cultivated in Washington state.
After trial and error, Tate said, he found a flavor that “expresses how I feel about wine,” which he said was a great dark fruit, with a nice, long finish. “When you taste it, you’ll know why it’s called Insania,” Turner said.
Futures of Geoff Tate’s Insania Red Wine are available at $35 per bottle by contacting the winery at 509-526-WINE. Wine will be bottled and shipped in February.
It will still be in the bottling process when Tate comes to perform at The Depot, so the wine won’t be available, but speaking of music, his one-of-kind, soulful voice will be.
He’s bringing an eight-piece band that includes the drummer of Queensryche and a member of the 1990s rock band Third Eye Blind. Together, the musicians will perform much of Tate’s 2002 solo album, as well as some Queensryche material the group has never performed live before.
But even with the winemaking and solo tour, Tate still has time for Queensryche. Right before he arrives in Salt Lake City, Tate and Queensryche are schedule to record their next album during the day, with Tate rehearsing his solo band at night.
And, if the mood strikes him, he’ll stop and sip a glass of wine.
David Burger writes about popular music. Contact him at dburger@sltrib.com or 801-257-8620.
Who is Jason Ames?
September 14, 2008 by Kevin Scurlock
Take from Jason’s website:
Jason Ames Saunders Born July 21 in Denver, Colorado, grew up in Seattle, Washington USA.
1989-1993
The first real band I sang in was called Terra’s Love Child born in late 1989 in a still pre-grunge fame Seattle. It was a hippy-trippy-bluesy thang. Then our sound changed and was a little heavier, and we later changed our name to Mama Troll and made a 12 song “demo” in 1992. During the early period of playing in the local Seattle clubs, I had the pleasure to perform as the opening act for such bands as Alice In Chains, members of the future Pearl Jam, other members of Nirvana (not Kurt!) and we played whenever and wherever we could…usually for free! When grunge hit big all over the world, so did the club scene in Seattle. It was a great time.
1994-1996
Ah, now enter the post-grunge era, 1994/95 I experimented with some different types of music. I called this “experiment” Tea for Twelve, I wrote some songs, recorded them and then realized that they were basically…crap, so I took a bit of a break. I started to attend Blues Jams at the local clubs only to find the true source that fuelled one of my all-time favorite bands, Led Zeppelin….traditional blues. Blues music was not all too foreign to me, but I dug into the past and found the beauty and talent in some of the earliest blues recording artists dating back to the 1920’s and its evolution into electric blues. Albert Collins and Elmore James really had an impact on me at this moment in time. Then in 1996 I formed a blues group called the Voodoo Roosters. Also having a soft spot in my heart for funk, I incorporated that style into my sound a little bit. We prepared songs and made a demo recording of the new material and gigged endlessly.
1997-1999
In late 1997 I quickly recorded one song on a soundtrack for a computer animated video called Televoid for Mirimar Records. A project led by Queensryche drummer Scott Rockenfield. The song called “Chasing Blue Sky” written by singer Geoff Tate & Scott Rockenfield (both of Queensryche), exists in two versions, my version on the Televoid soundtrack and the other with Geoff’s vocals on the Queensryche greatest hits CD. Televoid was later nominated for the 1999 Grammy Awards for best long form video. 1998 the Voodoo Roosters signed a recording contract with Full Scale Productions and we began recording a 12 song CD titled “Heavy Loaded”. These sessions took us to San Francisco, California to record the horn section of Tower of Power on 9 of the tracks, watching them record was…incredible. After the release we toured the western United States and performed with many blues greats such as Koko Taylor, Jimmie Vaughn, John Mayall, Pinetop Perkins & James Cotton (Muddy Waters band), Delbert McClinton, among others.
2000-2002
To start the new millenium, I was asked to do a studio project. It was Hard Rock…and I accepted. It was a project co-produced and mixed by Ron Saint-Germain (Soundgarden, Creed, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin…). It features guest performances by bassist John Giblin (Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Simple Minds), drummer Alan White of Yes and I sing a duet with Ann Wilson of Heart. The final result is a loud 12 song CD called “Spinning” under the group name Treason on the Waterstreet Media label (released in 2001). In 2000, Full Scale Productions changed format, and me and my Voodoo Roosters were orphans. Then while in Italy (2001) doing some gigs, I met my future producer, Luigi Brigida. Even though I was playing blues and rock, he liked my voice and said he worked with J&Q records, a dance music label…. I said, ‘I don’t dance!, BUT I would be interested in making some music, I like all types of music. Why not?’ We wrote and recorded a bunch of songs in a 6 month period until J&Q Records gave us the green light.
2002-2003
June 2002 I signed with J&Q and by November the first single “Looking Back” produced and mixed by Fargetta was released. This brings us to now, and the new single “Yesterday”. So, I leave you to help me write the rest of “the story”.
The New Geoff Tate Band
September 14, 2008 by Kevin Scurlock
Members of the Geoff Tate Band
(from left to right)
Joe Mulkern – Guitar
Jason Ames – Vocals
Scott Rockenfield – Drums
Parker Lundgren – Guitar
Ben Anderson – Keyboards
Pamela Moore – Vocals
Geoff Tate – Vocals
Jason Slater – Bass
New Solo Dates Announced
September 14, 2008 by Kevin Scurlock
QUEENSRYCHE SINGER GEOFF TATE TO PERFORM SERIES OF EXCLUSIVE SOLO DATES AS PART OF “INSANIA” WINE PROMOTION BEGINNING IN SEPTEMBER
Hot on the heels of his Insania wine collaboration with Walla Walla, Washington-based 3 Rivers Winery (www.threeriverswinery.com), Geoff Tate of Queensryche has announced that he will be performing a series of exclusive solo shows in conjunction with its slated release.
On Saturday, September 20, a special performance will take place at 3 Rivers Winery with three additional performances taking place the Thursday and Friday before and the Sunday after at the Depot in Salt Lake City, Utah, Knitting Factory in Boise, Idaho and the Knitting Factory in Spokane, Washington, respectively.
The September 20th show at the winery will include dinner and there will be a pre-show wine tasting for those interested. http://www.threeriverswinery.com/events/?event=119
The forthcoming September shows will mark his first solo performances since 2002 and it’s likely that more promotional tour dates surrounding the official launch of the new red wine signature blend will be announced shortly.
Joining Geoff on stage will be his 8 piece band with Scott Rockenfield on drums, Parker Lundgren and Joe Mulkern on Guitars, Jason Slater on Bass guitar, Ben Anderson on Keys and Jason Ames and Pamela Moore on Backing vocals.
Orders for “Insania” (a Latin word meaning insanity, irrationality, madness) are now being taken by the winery although the wine will not be available until sometime early next year.
“Insania is a creative project similar to the process of making music,” comments Tate who has been deeply involved in the wine making process with 3 Rivers Winery. “Wine has been an important part of my life and the creation of Insania is yet another avenue to express my creativity and give my fans something more they can enjoy. With a limited production, I hope everyone who loves wine will join me in this wonderful new venture.”
Geoff Tate’s “Insania”
September 14, 2008 by Kevin Scurlock
ROCK SINGER GEOFF TATE COLLABORATES WITH 3 RIVERS WINERY IN CREATION OF NEW SIGNATURE BLEND CALLED INSANIA
Queensryche front man Geoff Tate has teamed up with Walla Walla, Washington-based 3 Rivers Winery (www.threeriverswinery.com) to create a new red wine signature blend called Geoff Tate “Insania.”
“Insania” — a Latin word meaning insanity, irrationality, madness, folly — will likely be unveiled in the fall and initially available to the general public by next year.
Tate — who has been deeply involved in the development of this special blend with 3 Rivers Winery — states, “I’ve come to realize that creating wine is similar to creating music and that I love both… The creation of ‘Insania’ is something I’m insanely passionate about… We hope people will enjoy this truly unique blend.”
Winemaker Holly Turner of 3 Rivers Winery is equally excited about the new offering. “Geoff Tate simply rocks and so does his love of wine,” says Turner. “We share this passion for wine and have put together a powerful blend that represents Geoff. We feel so fortunate to be working with such a well-respected artist that is also a friend.”
Just recently, 3 Rivers Winery has received numerous accolades including a 90 point rating for their 2005 Merlot from Wine Spectator and two spots on the Wine & Spirits list of the 2007 Year’s Best Syrah.
In addition, the Wine Advocate recognized five 3 Rivers wines with 90+ scores!
Geoff Tate and 3 Rivers Winery hope to launch “Insania” at a concert event slated for September 20, 2008 at the winery.
With mutual respect for the artistry of wine and music, the bond between Tate and Three Rivers was instantaneous.
“Here’s to fine wine and Rock and Roll,” comments Tate. “Cheers!”
House of Eternity
September 14, 2008 by Kevin Scurlock
Fires at Midnight Films has officially announced the start of preproduction on the supernatural thriller House of Eternity.
The story revolves around the mysterious disappearance of Danielle Sykes and the desperate search that ensues amid the deep North Carolina woods. The search party, led by her husband, Jeremy, quickly discovers they are in no ordinary woods, but a terrifying haunting ground. And even as Jeremy desperately fights his way against impossible odds towards her, Danielle is locked in a mortal struggle to save her own soul.
Queensrÿche frontman Geoff Tate makes his long-awaited acting debut as Alder Grayson, the film’s antagonist, husband to Emily Grayson, portrayed by Candice Night, lead vocalist of Blackmore’s Night.
The movie will feature new music by Candice Night and Blackmore’s Night. Additional artists TBA. The official movie website can be found at www.houseofeternity.com.
Fires at Midnight Films, LLC is a New York based independent production company formed in 2007 by J. Andrew Colletti and Jonathan Williams. House of Eternity marks the company’s first feature film production. The production company’s website is www.firesatmidnightfilms.com.
