Former QUEENSRŸCHE and current OPERATION: MINDCRIME singer Geoff Tate was interviewed by rock journalist Mitch Lafon for a recent edition of the "One On One With Mitch Lafon" podcast (Facebook page). You can now listen to the chat using the Spreaker widget below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On the next OPERATION: MINDCRIME release, which will be the second album of an ambitious trilogy: Tate: "'The Key' is the first album of a trilogy. The second album, I just finished it now, and I turn it in in June, to be released in September. [Musically we're] going off the deep end, man. Really. Kind of pushing envelope as much as possible. It's not actually pushing the envelope; it's just where my head's at. It's really no constraints, no holds barred, just going for what I feel the story that I'm working on needs." On whether there is anything else left he would like to do musically that he hasn't had a chance to do so far: Tate: "I'd like to make a jazz album. [Laughs] In fact, I have one in the works. It's songs that I've composed, and they include all the kind of traditional jazz instrumentation — piano, drums, saxophone, bass, a little guitar and vocal." On whether he would put out the jazz album under his name or call it something else: Tate: "Oh, God. I don't know. That stuff just bores the crap out of me. You know, trying to figure out how to sell stuff. Honestly, I'm just not into that. I'm not into trying to figure out how to sell myself. I'm just a musician, man. I write music. That's something I live and breathe, and I put stuff out. And there you go." On being classified as a certain kind of band while he was a member of QUEENSRŸCHE: Tate: "All that stuff is just other people's perspective, and it doesn't mean anything. It's like, what's truth? There is no one truth. There is a billion truths. And what people think of you, what they call you, how they try to classify you, all that stuff doesn't mean anything. It's the effect that music has on the individual that's important to me. And you never even know what that is. You just have to write what it is you're interested in, and not worry about all the other stuff. All the, 'Well, has it got enough kickdrum? Does it have enough guitar? Is it heavy enough?' I hate that question. 'Is it heavy?' What is that? What does that mean to anybody? It's a billion different stories." "The Key" sold around 2,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD was made available on September 18, 2015 via Frontiers Music Srl. Joining Tate on "The Key" are a hard-hitting cast of familiar faces and new collaborators: bass players David Ellefson (MEGADETH) and John Moyer (DISTURBED, ADRENALINE MOB), drummers Simon Wright (AC/DC), Scott Mercado (CANDLEBOX) and Brian Tichy (BILLY IDOL, OZZY OSBOURNE), guitarists Kelly Gray (QUEENSRŸCHE) and Scott Moughton (Geoff Tate's solo band), keyboardist Randy Gane (MYTH) and vocalist Mark Daly (THE VOODOOS).
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