2012
In the midst of the band turmoil, Geoff Tate puts out a solo album, Kings & Theives.
I have listened to this album and I am very disappointed. Great bunch of musicians, great vocalist. Horrendous musical direction…….including rap.
I will let Geoff Tate himself tell you a song by song rundown:
She Slipped Away
If you’ve ever been married or in a relationship, you’ll have these conversations while you’re driving somewhere. It’s dangerous to generalise but when a man who’s driving is having a heated discussion with a woman, he’s concentrating on driving while trying to field questions that are
difficult to answer. It’s a subject that kind of fascinated me. I wrote the Queensryche song Drive about the argument and She Slipped Away is an extension of the subject. I have the third part of it – I hope to have that on my next album.
Take A Bullet
It has a passion about it that really came across. The subject matter is betrayal of trust. What would you do for a loved one? How far would you go? When I’m your friend I’m your friend for life. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep that friendship going. Heart-to-heart sessions, going to counselling, or something deeper – I’ll commit. I’ve been to counselling many times; it can help, but it’s dependent on the parties involved, how willing they are to be honest. You have to be able to look at yourself objectively. Most people in creative fields are not the most stable people, and you have to give that to them – but it’s not an excuse to trash people. You don’t have cart-blanche to be an asshole.
In The Dirt
I love American blues. My mother’s side of the family is from New Orleans and I spent a lot of time there in blues clubs and jazz clubs. I wanted to do a track that has that kind of swaggering, sleazy blues. Usually those lyrics are sexually oriented. The vocal take is a one-take.
Say U Luv It
Kinky sex? Well, yeah, of course I’m into it! It depends what your definition of “kinky” is. We all have our lines in the sand. But at my age, I don’t know what it is, I’m more interested in sex now than I was in my 20s. In my 20s and 30s I was more interested in pushing my career, more concentrated on accomplishment. Now, all I wanna do is ****! Luckily my wife is up for it – she’s at a wonderful age too. We’re having a great time now the kids are grown. I have African-American heritage and I joke to her: “I’m African-American from the waist down!”
The Way I Roll
I get criticism because I have an expansive taste in music. I like rap. I like the energy and the wordplay, and the macho posturing. I wanted to experiment with that. I love rhythmic singing and on this one I really got the chance to do that a lot, because the track is real open. There’s a lot of room for the vocal to work inside the holes. It drives my backing vocalist Jason crazy. I’ll write something then say, “Come in and work on this.” He’s got to learn what I did because he doesn’t think the same way. “How are you counting that?” I don’t know – most of the time I’m just going on how I feel. It’s one thing to record how you feel, it’s another to work out the mathematics.
Tomorrow
It was originally composed with piano and vocal only. I wrote the track that way and gave it to Kelly, who took all the piano out and replaced everything with guitars, drums and bass. But he kept the vocal and the song has a desperateness to it. I love that feeling of tension. We’re always looking for a note or a chord that adds tension so you can have a release.
Evil
For most of the tracks there hasn’t been much rehearsal. It sounds kind of raw. That’s one of the things I wanted: to be raw and emotional and unrehearsed. Evil was a first or second take, and it had an effect I really like. There always comes a point in a writing session where you think, “Have I done this before?” Especially after years of writing albums, you do start repeating yourself in certain aspects. I don’t think it’s a bad thing; it’s the nature of the work. There’s a kind of danger you can get into a comfort zone where you find a pattern that works and you subconsciously go there. You try to break new ground – sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t.
Dark Money
The class struggle is something that’s new for America and it’s booming more and more apparent that is exists. People are starting to talk about it more and more. It’s a lot more evident since the 2008 financial meltdown. I don’t know how it is in the rest of the world, but in America we’re still reeling from 2008. It’s a global shift in wealth and there’s a definite line between the have and have-nots, and unfortunately most of us are in the have-not category. I don’t have a solid prediction of what will happen. It’s a very tumultuous time – I don’t know how often I’ve said that through my career, but this one feels different to me. It’s a lot more desperate. The internet has drastically changed everything economically. We’re all having to find new ways of doing things. You can’t do it the old way because no one’s there any more. It’s an interesting time to be living through.
Glory Days
It’s all based on perception: you can see the glass half empty or half full. You could see the time we’re in as one of desperation and tragedy, or one of opportunity. If you can push that button and find a way of doing things and making a living, it’s a glorious thing, it’s glory days.
Change
Lyrically it’s based around the concept of “You can’t really change the world until you change yourself”. That’s where the most effective change happens, changing your own viewpoint and way of doing things. When you get into that zone you can affect change in other areas of your life. But you have to change yourself first. It’s very emotional; it tugs at the heartstrings and probably speaks to people who have lived some life and are looking at how to change.
Waiting
I use David Lynch as references when I’m describing how I want a song to feel, or how it makes me feel. It is what it is. There’s nothing else going on there; it’s just one of those songs that tries to keep you in the moment. It doesn’t try to take you anywhere different, and that’s what I like about it.
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