Queensryche
Home Again (Building Empires Tour)
Coming home. A lovely thought for road weary travelers. After spending the past year+ on the road, Queensryche returns to the Jet City to wind down the final leg of the Building Empires tour. When we last spoke to the ‘Ryche (Nov. 1990), they were about to venture forth on their first European leg. Guitarist/songwriter/spokeman extraordinaire Chris DeGarmo fills in the blanks of the year between.
“Last year, when you spoke with Michael (Wilton), we were doing our first headlining tour there, which was very successful for us. We brought our own production and headlined our own shows all throughout Europe and you know? It’s great to show up in a place like Zurich, Switzerland and sell the place out.”
I can imagine. Any other old world tour stops that you articularly enjoyed or care to discuss?
“Hungary. We played Budapest, which was beautiful, just an amazing city.” Any political viewpoints to share if we perhaps draw back the iron curtain a bit?
“Yeah, it was very exciting to play Poland, but certainly an eye opener (I think) to see the place and meet the people. We played a coal mining town there that was really behind in environemntal protection. It was one of the most polluted cities in Europe. Really pretty tragic in that respect, but the crowd was great!”
Offering more personal insight in relation to the other side of the Atlantic he continues, “It’s quite interesting, Europe was initially our strongest market as a whole, but since then the states has become the strongest. It’s definitely a little tougher over there. There’s not the rock radio network like we have in the U.S. and although MTV’s pretty thoroughly received  throughout Europe now, it’s a very different programming schedule and different music that you see. A lot of European artists.”
On their initial headline tour last fall, the boys were extremely fortunate in the fashion that they traveled and how the tour itself was orchestrated.
“First, we were flying and there were, like, four days off between gigs. So we had time to thoroughly check out every city and do a lot of sight seeing and getting to [truly] meet people. It was great. It was actually like a paid vacation and we were playing huge rock gigs at the same time. It was, by far, the best way I can think of to see Europe.”
They finished that leg in early December with a show in Madrid, Spain. Then, “We were home for a little while last Christmas before going to Japan, but wasn’t really very long.”
The break was spent tweaking out the stage production and enjoying home life (ever so briefly) before placating their legion of loyal Asian fans.
This summer gave them their “first real taste of the whole festival experience. Really the first time we’ve played with more than two other bands.,” and sent them across the Atlantic yet again. This latest visit was spent building empires in the best of company.  On the legendary Monsters Of Rock Castle Donnington stop they, along with AC/DC, Motley Crue, Metallica and The Black Crowes, played to an audience of 75,000 British fans. A few festivals later at an air base in West Germany attendance approached 90,000. But of course, the most phenomenal gig this year had to be the Hard Rock day at Rock In Rio when they shared the bill with the likes of GnR and Judas Priest in front of 130,000 screaming tanned faces.
All this excitement, which has included appearances and accolades at most every year-end music or video award show is due (forgive me for stating the obvious) to the incredible success of their fourth studio album.
“What happened with Empire has been just the latest pillar in an ongoing foundation that we’ve been building really. Operation: Mindcrime opened a lot of doors for us. What happened musically with Empire is a result of us continuing to try to push the chemistry of the band and do something a little different.”
“We were very happy with Operation: Mindcrime as an album but to do something like that again would just be too predictable. I think trying to take a different turn with Empire is what led to the songs on there.”
“With our songwriting this time, we focused very strongly on melody, streamlining the arrangements a bit. We were trying to make an album that was completely different yet still very much like Queensryche and something we felt good about.”
Obviously there are a lot of people, the world over, who also felt good about Empire, judging by it’s multi-multi-platinum status.
Now, with the conquering completed, it’s time for a well deserved rest.
“Everyone’s really excited to just come home and not do Queensryche for a while. Off the road, at home, is really my only private time. I just kind of disappear.”
With the winter off, they won’t begin writing for the new LP until the ground thaws, leaving time for family and personal pursuits. It’s pretty well known around here that Geoff is an avid sailor, but what sort of avocations puts the wind in your sails, Chris?
“I’m a pilot. I enjoy flying. I guess if I had a hobby, that’s what I enjoy doing.”
So now that time schedules and worldly success collide favorably, is there a plane in the plan for the DeGarmo’s Christmas?
“You know, I am working on that. So far, there hasn’t been a lot of time to justify my owning a plane yet, but with this time coming off, I’m considering it pretty strongly. My biggest thing is that I’m just so psyched to be home. I get to be with my wife and pet the cat and stay at home for a while and just be in Seattle, you know? It’s been a long time.”
After a heartfelt endorsement like that, I thought it might be a good time to inquire on a subject that has long been lingering in the minds of many Seattle citizenry, “Why is it we haven’t been treated to a local ‘Ryche performance for about three years or so?”
“It’s not so much that we haven’t wanted to play Seattle, it just that on some of those other tours, when we were opening for bands, we had to go according to their schedules. We had to just accept the tour for the sake of getting exposure across the country and unfortunately, on those tours we just didn’t get to Seattle very often. At home we’ve had time constraints, pressure to write or whatever, so that we couldn’t really put together a show that we felt good about. We didn’t want to just go and jam in a club or something. We feel a real strong attachment, from this standpoint, and I’m just so glad that now we can finally bring the show that we want to bring to Seattle.”
“We’re getting to play multiple shows [in advance, as primers] and our home town’s really gonna see us the way that we want to be seen. It feels really good. Just seeing the response when the tickets went on sale really makes the band know that we’ve got our home town behind us. It’s gonna be great.”
I wasn’t able to pry any particulars from Chris but he did admit that they are, “…organizing a bit of a special performance for Seattle, although it’s, in most respects, certainly the same show but we’re adding some extras in for Seattle which I won’t really go into. It’s our home and we’re finishing up the tour there [there’s actually one more ‘final’ show on the roster for Spokane] so we’ve got some special things in store. We’re really looking forward to it.” And why shouldn’t they be?
Queensryche (and we) are fortunate enough to be from the thriving Northwest Pugetropolis that plays host to a seemingly endless spring of cultural diversity and natural talent.
“Seattle’s always been a great rock mecca although there hasn’t [before] been a time like this where you see so many bands doing well with record deals and such. But I think even before all this was happening, concerts were always really well attended here, there’s always been a strong rock radio station support felt in Seattle. It’s just a great rock city!”
Amen to that, brother, and one final, lucid word from one of the great rock city’s great rock legends.
“I think, as far as the band’s concerned, we’ve got a good friendship with everybody here and we [work well as] a big team. We enjoy writing music together and we’ve brought it, with a lot of hard work, up to the particular stage we’re at now. I think we’ve got a lot of albums left in us. We’re all pretty young and are feeling like we’ve got a lot of material left, so I’m sure we’ll stay at it for quite some time.” Good, and we’ll keep listening. See you at the Coliseum!