QUEENSRŸCHE Drummer And Singer Talk About Inspiration Behind 'Operation: Mindcrime II'

QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield and singer Geoff Tate spoke to 411Mania.com about the group's current tour and their forthcoming CD, the next chapter to the 1988 ground-breaking concept album, "Operation: Mindcrime", tentatively titled "Operation: Mindcrime II". Several excerpts from the interview follow:

On the inspiration behind the upcoming "Operation: Mindcrime" sequel:

Scott Rockenfield: "It's an interesting world out there right now. But in having that, we've tended to write some of the coolest records of our careers based around what's going on in the world. 'Mindcrime' was [a result of] one of those movements in time, and there's another time going on now that's kind of relative to 'Mindcrime', so what a perfect year to write 'Operation: Mindcrime II'."

Geoff Tate: "After [the 9/11] incident, paranoia and emotions ran high in this country as well as all over the world. And it seems that our media — including television, the thing we seem so locked into — is driven to sell us everything, and now there's an obvious emphasis on safety. Because of that, there’s a push to fuel that fear, which makes us erratic.

"President Bush acted irrationally with Iraq. The United Nations — and almost the rest of the world — was telling us not to do it, and we did it anyway. As a result, what took generations to build, in terms of our relationship with the UN, was undermined. We were striking out at our fear of our 'enemy' and went to war with a small nation. Our government has deep roots in the media, which added fire to that fear and paranoia. In essence, we bought the commercial."

On the current tour:

Scott Rockenfield: "We made the decision late last year to put this together again and go back out and relive this whole thing again. It's been a little over 15 years since the first 'Mindcrime' and we thought it'd be a cool thing to do — to give the kids and our longstanding fans something they've never seen before. The record's been our signature and probably the most popular we've ever had.

"We started this tour about three weeks ago and the response has been great. We really wanted to put together something different for the show, and now it's a rock opera. We re-did some of the music to it and added some brand new video footage and have a couple actors representing the characters on stage...it's come off really great.

"Part of the big picture was that we wanted to do something new for our next record. Then we started thinking, let's revisit 'Mindcrime'. Let’s give people what they're constantly asking for — 'What happens next? Where does it leave off? I've got to see Part II and know the rest of the story.' And all these other things like politics were really telling us that now would be a great time to do it. And after that the tour fell into place and we decided to get this out by 2005.

"I think the story will take off from where the first one leaves off, either directly or indirectly. But I really can't give a definitive answer on exactly how it's going to start or the particulars of what you’re going to get. It will, however, definitely be a continuation of 'Operation: Mindcrime'."

Read the rest of the interview at this location.

In other news, TribeOfBuda.com has posted several photos from QUEENSRŸCHE's October 7 show in Vancouver, British Columbia. Check them out at this location.