Queensrÿche
Feb. 8, 2008
Nokia Theater. New York, N.Y.

Queensrÿche’s Feb. 8 Nokia Theater show was full of surprises. The band has primarily played its Operation: Mindcrime repertoire during its last few years on the road, so for the Hits and Rarities tour, the group pulled out songs seldom heard live, such as Gonna Get Close to You and Bridge. It’s also been a while since a supporting act opened on a QR tour, and Don Dokken filled the slot by acoustically performing his classic catalog. Topping the night off was contest winner Bill McKiernan joining Queensrÿche to sing the Police’s Synchronicity II and watching him earn the crowd’s love. Before capturing the night’s action, The Killing Words visited backstage for a few photo ops that resulted in our current favorite Queensrÿche pic—where Michael Wilton, Mike Stone and Scott Rockenfield seem to demonstrate the ethic of “Speak only rock, hear only rock, see only rock.”

To read Christa Titus’ live review of this concert for Metal Edge, click here.

(Music that is referenced in this article is hyperlinked to Amazon.com for your purchasing convenience. If a product is not hyperlinked, Amazon.com did not offer it at the time of publication.)

The Nokia backstage cafeteria also doubles as an ad-hoc photo studio.
(From left: Universal Music’s Kevin Chiramonte, Queensrÿche manager Susan Tate, Geoff Tate, Michael Wilton, Mike Stone, Eddie Jackson, Scott Rockenfield and radio personality Eddie Trunk.)
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Mike Stone suddenly receives a transmission in his headphones.
(From left: Eddie Jackson, Geoff Tate, Michael Wilton, Stone and Scott Rockenfield.)
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

It’s rumored that these Rÿchers share the same stylist.
(From left: Eddie Jackson, Geoff Tate and Michael Wilton.)
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

We don’t know what’s funnier: Michael Wilton’s sudden urge to growl, or Scott Rockenfield’s reaction to it. Mike Stone is just pleased that his triryche zipper coordinates with his bandana.
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Patiently taking another photo.
(From left: Eddie Jackson, Michael Wilton and Scott Rockenfield.)
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Geoff Tate
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Geoff Tate
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Michael Wilton, left, and Mike Stone.
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Michael Wilton, left, and Mike Stone.
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Eddie Jackson, left, and Scott Rockenfield.
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Eddie Jackson, left, and Scott Rockenfield.
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Another favorite from the night’s shots. Geoff Tate sings Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine.”
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Yet another fave of Geoff Tate.
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Mike Stone
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

The following series makes it clear how much these two love jamming together.
(Michael Wilton, left, and Mike Stone.)
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Michael Wilton, left, and Mike Stone.
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Michael Wilton, left, and Mike Stone.
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Priceless.
(Michael Wilton, left, and Mike Stone.)
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Geoff Tate keeps on wailing.
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Geoff Tate
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

Geoff Tate listens to the crowd: The sound of a job well done.
(From left: Eddie Jackson, Michael Wilton, Tate, Scott Rockenfield and Mike Stone.)
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

The big finish.
(From left: Eddie Jackson, Geoff Tate, Michael Wilton, Scott Rockenfield and Mike Stone.)
Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

By: Christa Titus

(Music that is referenced in this review is hyperlinked to Amazon.com for your purchasing convenience. If a product is not hyperlinked, Amazon.com did not offer it at the time of publication.)

To recap the intro to this article’s sister feature, Queensrÿche made a rock’n’roll fantasy for some very lucky fans come true this winter and hosted a contest that let them sing onstage with the quintet. The promotion for the band’s Take Cover album landed grand-prize winner Vincent Solano of Florham Park, N.J., an appearance on QR’s next studio record and lifetime bragging privileges.

Queensrÿche is getting down to business on studio effort before touring Europe this June. When the band wrapped the U.S. leg of its Hits and Rarities tour in Seattle a few weeks ago, Seattle Times writer Patrick MacDonald mistakenly reported that former member Kelly Gray was onstage instead of guitarist Mike Stone. According to a QR MySpace bulletin, an “overwhelming response” from the ‘Rÿche’s friends list quickly righted the wrong. The outpouring underlines fans’ admiration for Stone, who’s weathered being the new kid on the block with laid-back grace since joining in 2003. (Gratuitous self-promotion ahead: To read Christa Titus’ most recent concert review of Queensrÿche for Metal Edge, click here.

Stone suggested the Jesus Christ Superstar song Heaven on Their Minds for the Take Cover sessions, and it’s one of the album’s best experiments. Hunkering down with Michael “Whip” Wilton at Wilton’s own Watershed Studios and riding a caffeine buzz, the two guitarists dashed off their tracks, sometimes almost on a whim, so they could finish on time. Here, Stone recounts the thought process behind selecting material for the record and why he’s tickled to have turned a Broadway classic into a rock jam.

The Killing Words: You brought Heaven on Their Minds to the plate. Where did that come from?
Mike Stone: I just always loved that record. A long-term goal of mine is to be in that show like on Broadway one day, at least in some production of it. I just love that record. It’s been a huge influence on me as a songwriter, as an arranger. What it’s saying in that whole concept of that whole album, it just sucked me in when I was young and I’ve always loved it, I don’t know why. It’s not like I’m a religious person by any stretch, you know? [laughs]

TKW: It is a rock’n’roll play.
Stone: I always thought that song [if it had a] rock, heavier treatment it would be cool. What’d you think of it?

TKW: I liked it. I could hear the Broadway influence in it. That was one of ‘em where I was like, “They’re doing what?” But then with U2 and Peter Gabriel and of course Pink Floyd, I thought they sound really natural . . . The Pink Floyd song [Welcome to the Machine], I asked Michael [“Whip” Wilton] if, lyrically, does that song really resonate with you guys, having been musicians for so long.
Stone: You know, it’s funny that you mention it because I’ve been familiar with that song for years. And until we actually started recording it, I never really listened to all the lyrics. [laughs] And I thought about that when I listened to it, I’m like, “I get it.” [laughs again] And I understand what they’re trying to say there.

Mike Stone.
Feb. 8, 2008, at Nokia Theater in New York, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

TKW: Innuendo, because that happens to be a favorite song of mine from that Queen album, and of course Geoff is a Queen fan, I thought that was a really interesting interpretation that you guys did.
Stone: Yeah, I thought that one came out great. I think Michael did a great job on that one too.

TKW: What are some of the songs that you suggested?
Stone: I suggested a bunch. A number I suggested were [David] Bowie songs that we couldn’t get approval on or something, but Jesus Christ Superstar was one . . . The O’Jays tune [For the Love of Money], Geoff kind of threw that out there originally and I kind of said, “Yeah, that would be cool, ‘cuz no one would see that one comin’.” And then everyone’s familiar with the Bullet the Blue Sky; I said, “We could just do this a totally different way.” I guess that was like kind of one of my choices.

TKW: You and Whip, you sounded like you really had fun with the guitar.
Stone: We had a blast. I mean, we recorded all the guitars over at Michael’s studio. And you know, we’d get up early and walk in there with our coffee and just start diggin’ into it. We were really under the gun. We started from scratch and we had literally like 12 or 13 days to literally do like everything. So, it was cool in the sense that we didn’t have time to overthink anything. We just went in there and what felt right to us, it was one of the funnest recording experiences I’ve ever had . . . because you don’t have to write the song, some of the pressure’s off, you just get your guitar creative hat on. And it was cool. We both really enjoyed it.

TKW: With Bullet the Blue Sky, that was recorded live. What was up with Geoff that night, with that rant he was doing?
Stone: I honestly can’t answer that, because that was an old track from before I was in the band . . . It’s Kelly [Gray] on there, I believe, not me . . . That’s from ‘99 or 2000, at least. Like a little before my time, so I have no idea.

TKW: I’ve never heard him quite that vocal.
Stone: I will say that I’ve enjoyed listening to it. Changing certain words around occasionally and laughing really hard. He was just spellin’ it. He was feelin’ it and went on his rant, and God bless.

TKW: Were there any songs where you thought, “Wow, it’d be cool to do it, but from an artistic standpoint, we’re not even gonna touch that one.”
Stone: No. I think it’s obvious we weren’t afraid of that. [laughs] Actually, we wanted that. We wanted to go in directions that people wouldn’t expect us to. You’d think we’d do this, these different various metal covers, or this’n’that. And we just decided, “Let’s do what’d be fun and different and fun to dig into.” So yeah, there was nothing too taboo to bring to the table.

TKW: Out of the songs, the “youngest” is the U2 one. The other ones, they’re more like in the ‘80s or earlier. Was there any reason you refrained from more recent material?
Stone: We just kind of dug into stuff we liked. The older music’s where everyone got a lot of their influences and fell in love with music, and I think that’s why it ended up like that. There was never any conscious thing to go after any period and that’s just where we ended up.

TKW: When I talked to [Twisted Sister’s] J.J. French about the Monster Ballads Christmas album that you guys contributed to, I asked him, “What songs do you think really came together well?” And he said, “Queensrÿche’s White Christmas is awesome.” He really sung your praises on it. [French co-produced the album.] What did you guys do with that one?
Stone: It was Bing Crosby’s version, and I was staying at Ed Bass’ house, and that evening I just kind of put an arrangement together and kind of back-engineered it, and then I sat there with Eddie and I threw down a scratch acoustic to a click [track], and then we built it all around that.

TKW: Is Geoff doing the crooning kind of thing?
Stone: No, he’s beltin’ it. It’s pretty much the exact same arrangement as the Bing Crosby. I worked out all the chords, there’s little bit different chord changes, then you got with Michael and then we put the rest of the guitars together.

From left, Eddie Jackson, Michael Wilton, Mike Stone and Geoff Tate.
Feb. 8, 2008, at Nokia Theater in New York, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

TKW: You guys have been doing an evening with Queensrÿche for the past couple of years because of the Mindcrime material. How are you with not playing that night after night now, having done it for so long?
Stone: I’m just fine with it. [laughs] The whole Mindcrime show is definitely a head space, and it was very different than just playing a normal rock show, and I enjoyed it immensely. If we were gonna do it again, I’m cool with it. It’s always fun to do things a little different.

TKW: It was a break for you guys: 40 minutes and out.
Stone: It was. It definitely was. Wow, I don’t even have to wash my clothes this week.

TKW: How’s it going with the new record?
Stone: Everyone’s been in a really great creative place for the last year, and we’re just compiling lots and lots of things . . . It’s gonna be a concept album of sorts, it’s not going to have anything to do with Nikki or Doctor X. [laughs] Whole new moves. It’s in its formative stages, but we have a ton of material like up and running we’re kind of sorting through and deciding what’s gonna go where.

TKW: Do you have an idea when you are going to start actually recording?
Stone: There’s a lot of demo things floating around right now . . . I think probably in March we’ll actually sit down full-blown and just bang it out. I think it’s gonna be very hard-hitting. I think it’ll be cool.

TKW: Of course, it’s gonna be cool. [laughing]
Stone: [joining in] Another chapter in the Queensrÿche saga.

TKW: Anything you want to add?
Stone: Take Cover is cool in a sense and different for a Queensrÿche record, ‘cuz I think it’s like the only Queensrÿche record that, for a lack of a better term, is kind of fun, ya know? It’s like, “Wow, they did this.” It’s more of a fun listen, where most Queensrÿche is very dark and serious and it’s a lot more ominous in vibe. And with this, it’s just rock-me tunes. So I think from a consumer or buyer or fan perspective it’s different in the sense that it has that kind of fun layer to it and then it was just also a lot of fun makin’ it. And as always, it’s an honor to be jammin’ with the Rÿche.

Queensryche.com

To read sister feature Time Crunch Fuels Michael Wilton’s Creative Fire On ‘Take Cover,’ click here.

To read Fantasy A&R: If Queensrÿche Wants To Do Covers, We’ve Got Suggestions, click here.

To read The Killing Words’ review of Take Cover, click here.

To read Christa Titus’ review of Welcome to the Machine for Billboard, click here.

By: Christa Titus

(Music that is referenced in this review is hyperlinked to Amazon.com for your purchasing convenience. If a product is not hyperlinked, Amazon.com did not offer it at the time of publication.)

Twenty years ago, if someone had told us Queensrÿche was doing an album of covers and hosting a promotion that gave you a chance to sing onstage with them, we would have said that the crack you were smoking was definitely giving you your money’s worth.

But back then, metal was the music industry’s golden child, and anarchy would have ensured if an arena act hosted such a competition. As the Internet repeatedly teaches us, different eras call for new methods of promotion. In 1988 the idea of the nation texting its pick for the next “American Idol” was as remote a concept as rehab being the place you went to salvage your reputation instead of tarnishing it. Queensrÿche put its twist on “AI” by offering a shot at replacing Geoff Tate for a few precious minutes and singing a tune from its Take Cover album during the U.S. leg of its Hits and Rarities tour. Then QR sweetened the pot by rewarding the grand-prize winner a performance slot on the band’s next album. Vincent Solano of Florham Park, N.J., now gets to forever brag that he recorded with Queensrÿche. To show our pride in a fellow Garden Stater making good, we are bitterly sobbing into our hands for quitting music lessons back in college.

During a break from the road before its summer European tour, Queensrÿche is working on the aforementioned album that will have Solano as a guest. In the meantime, its version of Welcome to the Machine has been getting airtime on rock radio. When The Killing Words chatted with guitarist Michael “Whip” Wilton about the covers project, he admitted that QR handled the Pink Floyd classic with care. In this Q&A, Wilton divulges how massive amounts of coffee fueled the on-the-fly sessions for Take Cover, as well as how it feels to be finished the marathon live dates of Operation: Mindcrime and what’s cooking on the next Queensrÿche record.

The Killing Words: Your tours have pretty much been an evening with Queensrÿche for a while. [For the first time in years, the band brought a supporting act, Don Dokken, with it as a guest.]
Michael Wilton: Right. Well, as you know, we’ve been hammering out both Mindcrime one and two, and there was basically no need for an opening act, and in the past, we’ve done that. In Europe we do it, let the promoter put an opening band, his favorite band, that kind of thing, do favors. And so [on the 2007 Alice Cooper/Heaven and Hell tour we didn’t] do a three-hour show. [laughs]

TKW: Is that a relief?
Wilton: Kind of, yeah. I think doing that tour, I think it aged me a bit. [laughs again]

TKW: It’s a lot of work.
Wilton: It was. It’s a lot of brain power, and playing ’specially Mindcrime one, it’s so guitar-intensive-orchestrated, you gotta have your ‘A’ game every night, and it just goes, “Bam bam bam, song song song”; there’s not too much room for breaks in that thing.

From left, Eddie Jackson, Michael Wilton and Mike Stone.
Feb. 8, 2008, at Nokia Theater in New York, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

TKW: And I guess after playing it for almost 20 years, you’re like, “Yeah, here were are again.”
Wilton: Yeah. It was very interesting, because you get used to just playing a three-hour set with a little break in between the middle, and [on] the Heaven and Hell/Alice Cooper/Queensrÿche tour [we played] 40 minutes. We haven’t done that since the early ’80s.

TKW: Did it feel like a break to still go out and play but not have to do that whole night?
Wilton: Yeah. For me, it was so much fun. We’re hittin’ ’em with the hard, heavy hits, and seeing all the fans for those other two bands, and they recognize our tunes; it was a great experience. Kids dressed up in the front row like Alice Cooper and rockin’ to Queensrÿche, that’s a great opportunity. We got that every night. “Oh, you guys were so great—but your set was too short.”

TKW: Did you do Neon Knights at all while you were on the road with Heaven and Hell?
Wilton: We’d sound-check on it, mess with it, but I don’t think that would go over with Tony [Iommi] and Ronnie [James Dio] if they heard that, so we were very professional on that, didn’t want to step on any toes in that aspect.

TKW: Who came up with the idea of doing this record? I was chatting with someone who pointed out that Poison also did a covers album, and Def Leppard put out a covers record. We were wondering if there was a trend in the rock world to put these out again.
Wilton: Well, there might be in the rock world, but basically our main fella at Rhino came to our sound check, and we’re always messin’ with other people’s songs because we get bored playing our own, and he goes, “Oh, you guys should put out a record like that.” “What, covers?” So that’s how the seed was planted: Someone at the record company heard us playing other people’s songs just jokin’ around . . . And then, lo and behold, there’s an offer on the table. “Let’s put this out in the interim before we put out the next Queensrÿche opus.”

TKW: Was it easier than doing an original album since you’ve already got a framework, or in a sense was it harder because you’re trying to figure out a way to redo the songs?
Wilton: Well, the main issue that was difficult was a time-based issue. We went to Japan when we got the idea, and when we got back, we had basically a month to learn the songs and try to rewrite ’em and get ’em ready, and it didn’t take a month, it took a couple, but the whole issue, I think time was the crusher. So some of the tunes are our own rendition, kind of a staying close and respectful to the original but maybe shifting the arrangement a little bit to make it a little more ours. And then some of ’em, for instance, you mentioned Neon Knights. I mean, that’s such a classic; what are ya gonna do different about that? It just rocks. You have songs that are completely our interpretation, then you have songs that are just super-charged Queensrÿche versions of the original.

TKW: In listening to the guitars, it sounds like you and [guitarist Mike] Stone were just really having fun with it.
Wilton: This was recorded at Watershed Studios, which was my personal studio here in Seattle, and Stone was staying at my house, and literally we had two weeks to get all the guitars done. I think we ingested so much coffee, it was 15-hour days of just goin’ through and getting everything ready; we were totally under the gun.

TKW: I understand you brought in Innuendo by Queen.
Wilton: Yeah, Innuendo and Neon Knights, and [drummer] Scott [Rockenfield], he’s got a heavy, early influence of Stuart Copeland, so we’ve got Synchronicity II and Red Rain. I picked Innuendo just because I loved listening to the song and I thought, “Gosh, kind of an homage to Freddy Mercury.” I understand that that was one of his last songs that he wrote, and it’s an epiphany of where his state of mind was at that point. It wasn’t the traditional Bohemian Rhapsody, although the song has kind of a crazy middle part that is very muso, and I’m kind of a muso guy myself, personally, so that’s why I dig that tune.

Michael Wilton, foreground, and Eddie Jackson.
Feb. 8, 2008, at Nokia Theater in New York, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

TKW: What made you decide to take an opera song [Odissea] and go rock with it?
Wilton: That was 100% Geoff’s pick. [laughs] Geoff obviously is heavily influenced by operatic music. His style of singing and delivery is that of more of a classically operatic, the way he sings. He’s not a screamo guy, he’s melodic and pulls influences from opera. I’ve heard him listening to certain works of opera on the road, he likes to listen to that on his free time to ease his mind and stuff.

TKW: They say when people are learning how to sing in Spanish, they have people teach them how to speak it and where to put the emphasis on the words so people who speak the language, it’s making sense to them.
Wilton: Yeah. And the truth will be told when our Italian fans get a hold of that and they’ll say, “Brilliant!” or they’ll say, you know how we say “broken English”? It’s broken Italian.

TKW: Were there any songs that you guys thought, “No way are we gonna touch that one”?
Wilton: We did this really fast, and looking back, it’s like, “God, why didn’t I think of this song? Damn! Why didn’t I think of that song?” I think the main idea, because we knew that certain bands had done cover albums, [we thought], “Let’s make ours a little more interesting and unusual, and let’s not make it a copy of all metal tunes. Let’s just make this unpredictable.” That was the main focal point.

TKW: When you did Welcome to the Machine, considering how long you’ve been in the music business, was the lyrical content appealing?
Wilton: You know, everything about that song is appealing to me. It’s one of my all-time classic songs that I love to listen to.

TKW: How is it going with the new Queensrÿche album?
Wilton: We’ve been doing so much touring that we’ve been a little bit fragmented in our writing. There’s been songs written on the road, songs written, certain breaks. Basically, we’ve got about 40 ideas that we’re just tryin’ to trim down and just trying to get the arrangements right now. So I guess we’re in a giant preproduction right now, between these tours. And so it’s a lotta work. And talking to Geoff, he’s heading in a thematic, conceptual way, which is always exciting, because that’s his forte, in my opinion, and we’ve got the vibe, you know, the feel of what we’re going [for] and it’s just a matter, it’s like you’re kind of halfway there, but you can’t say, “We’re doin’ this!” or “We’re doin’ that!” It’s kind of gettin’ it together. A lot of stuff, you know. It’s like an artist. We got a lotta colors on our thing and we’re just throwin’ ’em at the wall and waitin’ to see when the art happens.

Queensryche.com

To read sister feature After Waiting A Lifetime, Mike Stone Gets To Rock ‘Heaven,’ click here.

To read Fantasy A&R: If Queensrÿche Wants To Do Covers, We’ve Got Suggestions, click here.

To read The Killing Words’ review of Take Cover, click here.

To read Christa Titus’ review of Welcome to the Machine for Billboard, click here.

By: Christa Titus

(Music that is referenced in this review is hyperlinked to Amazon.com for your purchasing convenience. If a product is not hyperlinked, Amazon.com did not offer it at the time of publication.)

If former Nightwish singer Tarja is having the last laugh, she’s keeping it to herself.

Well, maybe not quite. Her animated spirits punctuate our conversation with lighthearted giggling, her energy unflagging even though it’s past 6 p.m. and she’s been on the phone all day doing interviews. Her voice is so melodic she nearly sounds as though she’s singing; it softens the stiff constructions she sometimes makes with her English.

Tarja is elated by the success of her solo debut, My Winter Storm, in her homeland of Finland and elsewhere in Europe. When it was released last November, it entered the Finnish album chart at No. 1, the first record by a solo artist to debut atop the list. It’s now platinum there (30,000 copies), gold in Russia (10,000 copies) and nearly gold in Germany (100,000). Finland also nominated her for an Emma Award (the equivalent of a Grammy) for best Finnish artist, and Germany nominated her for an Echo Award for most successful newcomer. Since its Feb. 26 release in the United States, it has sold 4,000 copies as of March 17, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

After her firing from Nightwish in 2005—via an open letter that pulled no punches in accusing her of diva attitude and behavior—the reception for My Winter Storm probably feels doubly warm. The album wasn’t thrown together in a fit of revenge, as Tarja had already been making a name on her own doing classical/operatic concerts and making guest appearances on albums by such artists, even doing some Christmas and chill-out music. The artwork speaks of her investment in the record. Photographs depict Tarja as four characters: the Queen of Ice, the Dead Boy, the Doll and the Phoenix, each conveyed with elaborate costuming. The Doll is stiff, staring and waxen-faced under a mop of blond curls; the Phoenix is awash in golden-orange light in her multilayered gown. Tarja explains of them below, “They are part of me and my personality, and they are like a fantasy on the other hand.”

“Fantasy” is a good descriptor for My Winter Storm. The first deep orchestral notes of lead-off track IWalkAlone indicate that a grand story is about to unfold, one fit for the silver screen. Instead of sticking with Nightwish’s trademark symphonic metal, Tarja has moved in the direction of popera, combining accessible song structures with choral arrangements. The sound remains dramatic—whether she’s singing a requiem for a lost child in BoyAndTheGhost or letting notes effortlessly waver in the beautifully sad Oasis—but with less guitars and practically no drums. She traverses from the me-against-the-world stance of IWalkAlone to a dark ballet on The Escape of the Doll
/MyLittlePhoenix, then flicks the rock switch for the punchy, climactic DieAlive, alternating from mood to mood without a hitch. It’s an entertaining experience theatrical enough to warrant popcorn.

Promotion for My Winter Storm has Tarja touring Europe in May and likely again at the end of the year, as well as South America in July/August. She divulges, “I can’t tell you for sure, but hopefully I’m coming in September to U.S.A., which is a very big dream of mine. I would really love to go there.” She’s also planning a run of live classical dates with friends from her study group; they anticipate visiting Asia around 2010. “That’s a rough plan, but I do not want to forget classical music,” she says. “That is very, very important part of my life.”

Despite her packed schedule, Tarja is already working on material for a new album and anticipates it arriving next year. She says with a laugh, “It sounds crazy, because the new album just got out, but in a way, I feel very energetic and I want to keep on going . . . I feel that it’s very nice to start the process for the new album. I have lots of ideas already, [but] not to change that much the direction or anything like that.”

She adds, “I have been working very hard and I keep on working very hard, and that is what I’m really loving to do, and now it’s my time in a way to show myself and show my personality and my interest in music for the people for the first time on my own, so this means a lot to me. And of course, all kinds of little success and all kinds of little positive things that happened of course makes me like . . .” She inhales deeply. “ ‘Ahhhhh! This is great!’ Because everything that I am facing every day, there are new stuff and I’m learning so much out of them, so I’m very happy.”

The Killing Words: On your Web site you mentioned you had a lot of songs to pick from for My Winter Storm. Do you think any of the ones you didn’t use will end up on the new album?
Tarja: Yes, I will work in these songs that I left out now for the first album. I will work on them a bit more. I didn’t have that much time to really concentrate. They have a certain feeling that is really touching me and they have this kind of message that I want to come up with, but they were not good in that time [when] I was really deciding which songs I definitely want to put on the first album.

TKW: You do concerts with classical pianists and other singers and you sing with symphonies, so you had already started to build your name as a solo performer, but was it more in the opera world that you were doing it?
Tarja: Yes, I have been touring with kind of a classical lineup and on my own before. I have been touring in South America, but basically doing only classical music and also in Europe, so yes, people knew me in that direction already and of course they knew me from Nightwish. But in a way, now, with My Winter Storm album, it’s my music now for the first time.
Seriously speaking, I love classical music, that is one side of me, but that doesn’t tell the whole story about me and my interests in music. So yes, I have done things before. I have been performing in musicals. The variety of people that have listened to me, the ages of the people, of the circumstances or the places or the situations, they have been very different. I have been going through situations that I was performing in a rock festival the day before and then next day I was in a church concert . . . so I have [laughs] been kind of doing interesting things, but that has been the biggest challenge for me, which I really love that, that I can do that. I makes me healthy, it keeps me going.

TKW: What is it that you enjoy about opera, and what do you enjoy about doing rock?
Tarja: They are so different situations, and of course, in both of them, music speaks, and that is for me also very important. The music touches me. I love that feeling and I love to flow with the feeling and emotions. So when I’m singing opera, I can be myself in a way that everything is going to be heard. There are no microphones, there are no amplifiers. There’s me and my voice . . . I love the difference when I go to rock concert or metal concert and performing there. It’s a show, there are many things that people can see and follow and yes, I can play around so much more with my voice. I can like, have so much fun. So, different situations. But they are very hard to compare. What is the thing that I really love most, or are there some similarities involved? Yeah, the music is, and the feeling is, and the performance itself in this case is, but, very, very different situations.

TKW: Was this your first time writing material for a record?
Tarja: Exactly. Seriously. Yes. I have been doing some songs for some other artists. For example, there is chill-out artist Schiller from Germany. I have been making songs with him. Small things here and there, but nothing seriously like album-wise or for myself. This is the first time for me to make songs and I got help from many other songwriters on this album.

TKW: How do you feel about being the person in control of the whole project—not just the songwriting: the artwork, the performances. You’re in charge of the band that’s with you.
Tarja: Yes. Yes. Yes. I wanted to see if I could do this because so many things, as you said, there’s so many new things I need to face, even though I have been in the music business, for God’s sake, for over 10 years, and I’m very happy that I know so much about it already, how the business is going, how things are working.

TKW: The album isn’t a complete concept album, but there are some loose concepts going through it?
Tarja: Yes. I can’t call it a concept album, no, but the image and the music itself, they are very much connected, like story-wise and music-wise, they are connected. When I was writing the songs and I was [with] other songwriters, when they were offering me songs, I was in a way directing them, “OK, I have a story for myself that I want to change for the people to listen, even though there is not such a story in the album you can really truly follow.”

TKW: What can you say about the four characters that are depicted in the album artwork?
Tarja: They are part of me and my personality, and they are like a fantasy on the other hand. All these kind of things, I have been writing like a painting of pictures and thinking about the nice images and that way I could go connect it because they were really inspiring me. And you know, where I got these four characters, they came from the first of hundreds of hundreds of songs that many, many songwriters were giving me . . . [when] I said, “OK, I’m gonna make a first album,” so many songwriters approached me and gave me their songs. And from those lyrics I read through hundreds of times and I listened to their songs many, many times. I got an inspiration and I took those characters. They just appeared there and it was for me a nice way of having a story, in a way . . . I took the idea from that then to make a video, and I gave the directions for the director of the video that I want to have this kind of story, and then the artwork and all the pictures that I’m appearing in these characters there. It has just been so much fun. I love movies, and this is for me a kind of a movie, you know? [laughs] A soundtrack of my life.

TKW: Which would you say out of those for characters is the most similar to you?
Tarja: I think I’m the Phoenix more than anything else, yes. I think it’s for me, in this case, is a very strong character, it’s very delicate character, enjoys of all the beauty in the world in a way after seeing lack of these things in life or after going through a struggle or something like that. And in my life, I have gone through those kind of things, in my personal life, in my career life, so it’s a good thing. I’ve been like more connected into this.

TKW: Besides songwriting for the first time, what were the biggest challenges in getting the record together?
Tarja: The whole organization of the people, getting everybody involved. That was the kind of the biggest thing, and maybe even more challenging was making people to understand what I really was looking for sound-wise for the album. When I started to speak about cineomagraphic sound, as I told you before, I’m a big fan of films, so my goal was to approach a kind of a cinematographic sound.

TKW: You having done many different things musically. What other kind of musical ambitions you have?
Tarja: To be honest, my wish would be to explore a bit more film music . . . That would be lovely, because depending on my mood, I’m listening a lot of film music nowadays, and it gives me goosebumps. I just love to relax with film music or instead of film music, classical music, but really too, I feel that I would be able to do music like that myself because I’m so much, I’m a very emotional person. I feel lot when I’m listening to music, I always get very, very emotional with the music, so it is something that I have already tried out. But seriously, I would love explore a bit more if there would be a chance.

TKW: What would you say music brings out of you emotionally?
Tarja: I’m very emotional person, so depending on the music and my mood, what kind of music I put on my CD player. [laughs] Very different. I’m listening to rock or metal, of something very energetic in the mornings if I feel tired [or] that I am not ready for the day. I listen [to] that kind of music, make me feel more powerful or happier or ahhh! And then if I want to relax, [it's] with something more quiet without any words and just orchestra music.

TKW: Considering that you’re working to get established on your own, do you think you’re going to be doing any Nightwish material?
Tarja: Yes, I have been doing already, I have for sure. I wouldn’t see any reason not to. [laughs] I was touring already in Europe in so-called warmup tour last year in the end of the year and I was doing Nighwish songs, of course. Yah, it’s for me, it was a very important part of my life, Nightwish and their music—and our music. It was really, really important part of my life and I do not see any reason not to take some songs out of our repertoire. We had many, many albums done and I was part of them and I’m really proud of those years. So yes, I will be doing some, but it’s basically anyway my own concert and I’m very happy about my own material, so [laughs] definitely there will be some [of it] somewhere there, but mostly it’s about my music now. [laughs again]

TKW: Can you address anything about your leaving Nightwish? How do you feel about it now as opposed to when it occurred?
Tarja: Yeah! Yeah! Well, time has passed by. If I go back into that time when it happened, I got that letter from the band and all the media hassle after that, and it took weeks in Finland. It was really not [an] easy period of my life at all. I would say that it was a terrifying, terrifying month in a way, only that one month, that I was trembling the whole month. I was really having a bad time of my life and it was not easy . . . that public pressure that was so big and never expected . . . But on the other hand now, I have been growing as an artist, as a person, also a lot after those times, and I have seen life from the different perspective . . .

TKW: Do you think there might have been something that gave them the impression that they had, even if that was not the impression you were trying to give them, or do you not see anything like that? Do you think they misinterpreted things you were doing?
Tarja: Oh, that is something that I will question all my life, I think. [laughs] There were many, you know, I can’t just think that all of this happened because of me, that there was so many problems in the band already for several, several years, and we were never able to communicate between the band members, you know. There were always lack of communication, and the way they decided to have its end, so it’s very, very difficult, difficult situation and I still don’t understand, but the thing is that, I leave them as the subject is, I leave it as it is. I don’t want to get into that because it was enough difficult for me, so, I believe that time tells.

TKW: Have you spoken to any of them since that happened?
Tarja: No. No. We are not in contact now, not at all.

TKW: I couldn’t help but noticing with your mentioning of the Phoenix character and its song, and IWalkAlone on your album, if they were drawn from what had happened.
Tarja: No, actually not. There is not such a song at all about what happened between me and my band before, because I didn’t wanna go into that any more. I was, of course, it’s about me also. As I said, I’m writing about my own person and what has happened to me in my life and my interests and my personal things, but the thing is that IWalkAlone song talks about my fans and that is the most important [thing] . . . I didn’t write [the song] myself. It was a song that was written by a couple of Swedish guys, and I discovered even the whole title from my album My Winter Storm through that song. [The album] began through that very important song for me, as when the record company said this could be the first single, I really agreed with them because My Winter Storm is my fans, and they have been really keeping me going.

TKW: What song on the album best represents where you are in life at this point?
Tarja: I have to tell you that the whole album as it is, it’s very personal, and if I should only pick up one song from the album that could represent me right this moment, maybe, still I would say, lyrical-wise, maybe that is TheReign. It’s very beautiful story of going somewhere new in life and still I am heading to somewhere new. Like in a way, everybody of us is heading to somewhere new and unknown. I’m also doing that, so let’s see what will happen. [laughs]

Tarjaturunen.com

RPWL, The RPWL Experience
Tempus Fugit/Inside Out (Arrives: Feb. 29, 2008)
By: Christa Titus

(Albums that are referenced in this review are hyperlinked to Amazon.com for your purchasing convenience. If a product is not hyperlinked, Amazon.com did not offer that product at the time of publication.)

“They are a German band
They’re trying to play the music of Pink Floyd
And so they make their way
Unable to come up with their own style”

The words above aren’t a critic slagging off Germany’s RPWL. They’re lyrics from the band’s self-deprecating rant “This Is Not a Prog Song,” the most lighthearted piece of music to be found on new album The RPWL Experience. We’re guessing the band has heard this criticism so much, it decided to tip a big wink (or jauntily wave a one-fingered salute) to naysayers with this pop tart song, giving it a wannabe rock star narrator who says, “If it was up to me they could kiss my ass goodbye/To be quite frank they make me fucking sick.”

RPWL does cut close to the Pink Floyd bone. Singer/keyboardist Yogi Lang’s voice could pass for David Gilmour’s, sans the slight rasp. (In fact, an English affectation flitters through Lang’s singing, while U.K. native Gilmour hardly has a trace in his vocals.) It also trades in the highly accessible psychedelia that Pink Floyd pioneered, the kind that invokes the vastness of the universe and the interconnectedness of man. But the band’s rock is more low-key than Floyd’s, even when it’s booming forth; its experimentation isn’t too far out to grasp and its tracks don’t get long-winded. RPWL stands on its own for its innate simplicity and doesn’t need heavy production to make its points, such as with a cut like “River,” which calmly trickles from an acoustic guitar alongside Lang’s voice before descending into murky waters that gurgle with discord.

Save for the comedic interlude of “This Is Not a Prog Song,” The RPWL Experience runs along seamlessly. Forget that song’s camp observation of, “This is definitely just the sort of music that can only be a mildly pleasant background noise while you’re doing something else.” It’s a carefully woven record that should be experienced as a whole, one soothing listen at a time. If you’re forced to choose a few tracks for the sake of introducing RPWL to someone, offer them “River,” “Silenced,” multilayered jam “Stranger” and lonesome centerpiece “Masters of War.” “Silenced,” a close cousin to Porcupine Tree, demonstrates the moderate pacing the band usually follows, and as the album’s first song, it immediately signals how conscientious the lyrics are. Corruption, consumerism, eternal love, existence itself—if these chaps ever toured with Rush, we could see them whiling away many nighttime hours on the bus engaged in deep conversation with drummer Neil Peart about the human condition. The perils of war and violence are especially referenced, and get their sad due on the mournful, fist-shaking “Masters of War,” a “War Pigs” for the new millennium.

So far, RPWL has announced only one U.S. concert performance for this year: May 3 at the Rites of Spring Festival in Glenside, Penn. The progressive music event has very limited tickets—about 1,300—so those attendees will be the chosen few in North America who will be lucky enough to hear RPWL perform in 2008. The rest of us will have to content ourselves with spinning The RPWL Experience until the band can mount a U.S. tour. Since it’s got a good sense of humor, maybe it should give Gilmour or Roger Waters a call.

myspace.com/rpwl

By: Christa Titus

(Music that is referenced in this review is hyperlinked to Amazon.com for your purchasing convenience. If a product is not hyperlinked, Amazon.com did not offer it at the time of publication.)

Remember that straight-faced gospel reading the Rev. Jesse Jackson gave Dr. Suess’ Green Eggs and Ham on “Saturday Night Live”? The following five songs were picked with the idea of Queensrÿche letting down its hair a lot more while recording Take Cover and noodling on top 40 hits for shits and giggles. Consider the band, ironically or not, giving these hits the Ryche treatment. Each song is paired with another that The Killing Words would actually love to see Queensrÿche cover (hint, hint), along with suggested production tips for a plan of attack.

For laughs: Oops! . . . I Did It Again by Britney Spears
Strategy: Rectify Brit’s diva bragging—and the saccharine production—by scrapping the arrangement and completely recasting it as a regretful ballad, because this song has as much testosterone potential as a convent.
Biggest challenge: Dignifying the lyrics.
For real: Bravado by Rush
Strategy: Rush is one of Queensrÿche’s long-ago heroes who has since become a peer. This soaring piece on being humbled by Pyrric victory is tailor-made for the Rÿche with its strolling guitar lines and complicated patterns—especially Scott Rockenfield, who counts Neil Peart among his personal influcences.
Biggest challenge: All Rush material requires great TLC, lest millions of devotees riot.
Keep an ear open for: How Rockenfield would pace his drums.

Scott Rockenfield (on drums) and Geoff Tate.
Sept. 8, 2007, at Jones Beach Ampitheater in Wantagh, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

For posterity: White Lines (Don’t Do It) by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel
Strategy: Either let it ride, or turn it into a warning call like “Empire.”
Biggest challenge: Singer Geoff Tate loathes rap.
For real: Master of Puppets by Metallica
Strategy: Throw themselves into this headlong like it was a drunken bet on which they accidentally wagered everything they own.
Biggest challenge: Reaching the speed threshold.
Keep an ear open for: How guitarist Michael Wilton would live up to his nickname of Whip.

For crossover: Brick House by the Commodores
Strategy: Forget any attempt at giving the song any depth, and have bassist Eddie Jackson bring the funk.
Biggest challenge: Keeping a straight face while performing.
For real: Face Down by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Strategy: The song’s composition is broad enough for Queensÿche to follow pretty straightforwardly. The guitar squeals can easily convert to metal, and the lyrics are a message the group can get behind.
Biggest challenge: Not letting emotion get in the way of performance. (The Ryche is parent to quite a few daughters.)
Keep an ear open for: How the band balances Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ pop aesthetics with the song’s outrage.

Eddie Jackson.
Sept. 8, 2007, at Jones Beach Ampitheater in Wantagh, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

For Seattle locals: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
Strategy: A combination of the attack for “Oops . . . I Did It Again” (reinterpretation) and “Bravado” (reverence). A good start would be following the lead of Patti Smith’s shuffling rendition, but build it into an explosive crescendo.
Biggest challenge: Giving both guitarists enough to do throughout the song.
For real: Teenagers by My Chemical Romance
Strategy: Let the thinking rock band wag its finger at teens’ homicidal quirks, but stick with the camp attitude. The rollicking licks should let QR relax into their groove like a rocking chair. Add audible fingersnaps to the verses. Bonus points if the band records it live with a crowd singalong and Tate vamps it up as much as Gerard Way.
Biggest challenge: Keeping it from sounding preachy.
Keep an ear open for: How guitarist Mike Stone would freewheel with the good-time party vibe.

For a curveball: Bye Bye Bye by ‘N Sync
Strategy: Boot the fuzzy synths. Extract the bubble gum from the vocals. Swap the programmed beats for a huge wall of percussion. Instead of this song waving buh-bye, it needs to flip the bird.
Biggest challenge: Giving this tripe balls.
For real: Separate Ways by Journey
Strategy: Follow it exactly, right down to the last note, except for Jonathan Cain’s keyboards. Have Wilton handle them as the rhythm guitar as Stone does the soloing.
Biggest challenge: Rocking it harder than the original without going over the top.
Keep an ear open for: How Tate would hit Steve Perry’s money shots.

Geoff Tate.
Sept. 8, 2007, at Jones Beach Ampitheater in Wantagh, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.