QUEENSRCHE Drummer Talks New Album, Composing Music For Movies

Marko Syrjl of Metal-Rules.com recently conducted an interview with drummer Scott Rockenfield of Seattle rockers QUEENSRCHE. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal-Rules.com: What does the "Dedicated To Chaos" mean? I mean, is there any deeper thoughts behind the title?

Scott: For us, the title was strictly I think our big reason for the title is just the world we live in, our band world and our lives together for a long. They've been basically chaos. Being in a rock band, and making music and making a career and trying to make a living out of that requires There's a lot of chaos. It's a lot of stuff making records, and touring the world; it's chaos. And I think current chaos has a lot to do with that with just people in society, social networking, and cell phones. You can't run away anymore, the Internet. Our kids are living that now with their own cell phones. And it's never going to go away. I think that's a lot of chaos. And I'm kind of thinking that's a lot of the inspiration behind the record for us.

Metal-Rules.com: After you've been doing QUEENSRCHE almost thirty years and having all those platinum albums, world tours and so on, what's actually the main goal for you guys at this stage of career?

Scott: I actually achieved a goal last year that was a lot of fun, which was video games. I like to compose music for movies and stuff, but I got asked to do some music on the Call Of Duty: Black Ops video game last year, and then also play all the drums, write all the drums and play all the drums with the orchestra because they wanted to make it a rock thing. And that's a really big franchise. That game is a huge, huge deal. And so I was really honored when they called me and said, "Do you want to do this?" And I also I got to compose some extra music for the game that was used all during the game if you play the game. So that was a big thing for me. That was a lot of fun. And it's a hard industry to get into. But that was a nice goal. So I'd like to do more of that. Personally, I'm looking to do more of that. And I got some film scores that I'm being offered this year. Some big action movies that I'm being asked to compose all the music for. And to be honest for me, that's a huge goal for me to get more of that.

Metal-Rules.com: How long do you think that you could carry on doing QUEENSRCHE? I mean, physically there are some limits which are getting closer every day, you know what I mean? Have you ever discussed the subject between the bandmembers?

Scott: You know, we talk about it over glasses of wine now and then. Geoff [Tate, vocals] and I do. And it's really I think more just I think we'll be able to keep going as long as we can still have an audience that wants to see us because we have to make money doing it. Otherwise I have to make a living somewhere.

Metal-Rules.com: You already mentioned the game world and the Internet. Have you noticed that there are lots of young kids in the audience who come to see you because they've find out about you from that new type of media?

Scott: Absolutely. It's a great tool if you embrace it and learn how to make it work for you and keep embracing it. I think you can win and l I think that the ability is really great. There are obviously all sorts of great avenues and mediums with the Internet, and social networking. I mean, everything out there, it's a whole different world than when [we] first started. Record companies are few and far between and only signing so many things. They don't throw a bunch of money into careers. And you got to Our legacy has helped us with the record companies, I know. And so there are great avenues. I just think you have to invent and reinvent.

Read the entire interview from Metal-Rules.com.

Photo credit: Andy Batt