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.”
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.
