{"id":29612,"date":"2016-04-26T23:12:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T13:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=29612"},"modified":"2016-04-26T23:14:01","modified_gmt":"2016-04-26T13:14:01","slug":"michael-wilton-queensryche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2016\/04\/michael-wilton-queensryche\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Wilton of Queensr\u00ffche"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"queensryche1\"<\/a>
\n\u201c\u2026the new foundation of the band is really solid, it\u2019s such a situation that it\u2019s a collaborative effort and it\u2019s exciting, everybody\u2019s throwing together ideas it\u2019s not like one person running the ship, everybody\u2019s pushing and pulling and it\u2019s kind of odd for some people to be together so long and still respect each other as friends and then to have new people come in and I guess we just got lucky\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: Having sold over 30 million albums around the world over the course of their storied 30-plus-year career,\u00a0Queensr\u00ffche<\/strong>\u2019s triumphant legacy of progressive metal classics is one of the most celebrated in hard rock and heavy metal and the band\u2019s revitalised line up has consistently delivered high-octane live shows combining the hungry fire of a new band with the tempered experience of master showmen.<\/p>\n

We gave Michael Wilton of Queensr\u00ffche a call to talk about the band\u2019s return to Australia this October, new fires, growth, the future, and much more\u2026<\/p>\n

We’re of course here because you’re finally headed back to Australia to see us in October. For those that may not have had the chance to see you before, how would you best describe a typical Queensr\u00ffche show?<\/strong>
\nWell I mean obviously the fans love obviously for the music, and it\u2019s a show, it\u2019s an event. Queensr\u00ffche is very proficient in their instruments and their performances and we put a lot of energy into the show and it\u2019s a lot of fun, so I think those attributes keep people coming back *laughs* so if you haven\u2019t seen us you\u2019ll be in for a real fun, cool time and it will indoctrinate you into the ways of Queensr\u00ffche. I\u2019m trying to remember the last time we were in Australia, maybe 2011?<\/p>\n

It has been quite some time and it now being your first time here with Todd can we expect more of the newer material or due to the time between tours will it be more of a hits type set?<\/strong>
\nWell it\u2019s a balance of songs, obviously we have a thirty plus year legacy and plenty of songs to play, so yeah, Todd is just a fireball, he\u2019s doing amazing, his respect for the songs is great and just got an amazing set of pipes that will just blow you away. This is the \u2018Condition Human\u2019 tour and obviously we\u2019ll be slipping in some songs from that album, but it\u2019s a good balance set of songs that work together, you know we try to bring songs from each of the albums that everybody wants to hear and fit it all in an hour and a half, so it\u2019s not an easy thing to do when you want to change a set list that\u2019s flowing really well, but you know what? We go with what works and we listen to our fans and it\u2019s just a big balance of what they want and what we want. *laughs*<\/p>\n

Oh so it\u2019s request time, do you or can you possibly play \u2018Another Rainy Night (Without You)\u2019?<\/strong>
\nYeah we have played that on the Queensr\u00ffche tour before this one we were playing that and it worked out really good. Those songs from \u2018Empire\u2019 are still today just a lot of my favourites and everybody\u2019s favourites and Todd did a great job on that one. That\u2019s a real fun song to play too\u2026<\/p>\n

OK, so feel free to throw that one back in the set\u2026<\/strong>
\n*laughs* OK, I\u2019ll put it to the guys.<\/p>\n

Do you have a stand out memory from a past tour here?<\/strong>
\nYeah\u2026 we\u2019ve been there a few times and it\u2019s just been whirlwind, all I can say is it\u2019s great fans and they\u2019re so appreciative of us making the long journey to get there to play, for us it\u2019s a great bunch of people that we get to meet and check out the cities. It\u2019s always been a lot of fun and the thing you realise when you get there is that the cities are really far apart, they\u2019re not like an hour drive or anything *laughs* but you get used to it I guess. When you want to go up north in Brisbane we\u2019re like \u2018oh yeah, where are we going next?\u2019 \u2018oh you\u2019ve gotta fly\u2019 and it was like a two or three hour flight. *laughs*<\/p>\n

With ‘Condition Human’ released late last year being your second album with Todd has the band really found their footing again and settled in?<\/strong>
\nOh yeah, obviously we\u2019ve bonded, the chemistry is really strong, it\u2019s set in and the foundation of the band, the new foundation of the band is really solid, it\u2019s such a situation that it\u2019s a collaborative effort and it\u2019s exciting, everybody\u2019s throwing together ideas it\u2019s not like one person running the ship, everybody\u2019s pushing and pulling and it\u2019s kind of odd for some people to be together so long and still respect each other as friends and then to have new people come in and I guess we just got lucky\u2026 Todd gets along with everybody, he\u2019s very easy going, doesn\u2019t have a big ego and he realises the idiosyncrasies of the band. He\u2019s really just become a mainstay and a friend, I think it\u2019s something that was a shot in the arm, right? Let\u2019s just see where this goes and wow, it\u2019s really taken off for us, we\u2019re really happy and the fans have really pushed us and really love what\u2019s going on right now with Queensr\u00ffche and we\u2019re just keeping that rolling and trying to be a bit innovative in each album that we\u2019re doing and keep touring and get to these countries that we haven\u2019t been to in a long time like Australia.<\/p>\n

I feel like it’s lit a fire under you guys too and the material just flows, can we expect even newer music sooner rather than later?<\/strong>
\nYeah and you know what? When people are really involved and really creative there\u2019s not stifling of creativity here, there\u2019s no outside writers, it\u2019s just band, but, we\u2019ve got so many people with so many ideas it\u2019s just great to see the energy and the enthusiasm to want to create Queensr\u00ffche music. So that being said, we\u2019re always writing, we\u2019re always coming up with ideas it can tend to be like a jigsaw puzzle trying to put everything together but I think the general consensus from the record label is that a year and half to two years to create records, so I think the end of this tour, the end of this year we\u2019re gonna probably get down in the dingy dark rooms here in Seattle and work on a new album.<\/p>\n

You’ve been part of this band now for thirty four years!! What keeps you driven?<\/strong>
\nWhat keeps me driven? You know what? It\u2019s just something I love doing and it\u2019s not like I\u2019ve mastered it or anything like that in a sense, it\u2019s something that just is ingrained in me and the fact that I can actually make a living doing it that in a sense is motivation right there. It\u2019s just something I love, I love that I can reach into my psyche and transcend ideas *laughs*and people like them, so it\u2019s just a wonderful situation. That keeps it going, that drive, I\u2019m doing more than I have in the last twenty years I\u2019m more energetic, I\u2019m more motivated and it keeps me going.<\/p>\n

Obviously over that time music and the industry is much different now but what for you over the band’s career has been the most notable shift or change with music?<\/strong>
\nWell what the biggest shift was going from analogue boards and analogue tape to the whole digital realm. That was the main thing, I mean once CD\u2019s came out it was like \u2018Ahhhh\u2019 it\u2019s the next wave and innovation of technology and from there it just keeps morphing and once it\u2019s set in motion there\u2019s not much you can do about it, right? You\u2019ve just got to hope what you do remains relevant and I think just the innovation in technology into the music recording platform, that\u2019s the biggest shift and that kind of happened in the late 80\u2019s early 90\u2019s and we say that and thought \u2018oh boy, here comes the future\u2026\u2019 you think people are gonna scream about copying cassettes I don\u2019t think so. Back then you didn\u2019t have the internet, you didn\u2019t have cell phones, it was very simple, your television maybe had twenty channels. All the press you did were in real magazines in real print and it was all at hands reach, now it\u2019s all fragmented, you\u2019ve got this program on the internet that\u2019s doing this and you\u2019ve got this program that\u2019s a little different from that one but you don\u2019t have to put much content, and this one you only get thirty words, and this one is only pictures\u2026 you\u2019ve gotta have somebody that runs your media content and monitors it, it\u2019s crazy. You know what? You roll with the changes, you have to and it\u2019s the new way of doing things and you have to adapt or disappear *laughs* so Queensr\u00ffche is always trying to be innovative as much as we can, and we\u2019re doing as much as we can on multimedia and keeping ourselves relevant on all the social media. Yeah, it\u2019s nothing like it was back in the 80\u2019s that\u2019s for sure\u2026 *laughs*<\/p>\n

Fifteen albums in, when you look back to ‘The Warning’ how would you say you’ve grown personally as an artist?<\/strong>
\nThe EP and \u2018The Warning\u2019 I was a kid, I think I was like twenty years old, twenty one years old, by today\u2019s standards that\u2019s pretty crazy, and so I attribute my growing up in listening to my father\u2019s record collection, and going to see bands at concerts and having a love for playing the bass and the guitar and it just kind of blossomed for me. So as far as my growth, I mean \u2018Warning\u2019 we were still pretty influenced by the whole British invasion and that was kind of a lot where our heads were at and I think it was the chemistry was just starting to mend there, the source of the power of the band was starting to become realised as co-existing as five writers, and you know what? Life was happening so fast, that\u2019s what I remember the most about \u2018The Warning\u2019. I\u2019m in my early twenties and I\u2019m flying over to London to work with the guy that recorded \u2018The Wall\u2019 and he\u2019s recording my guitar parts and I\u2019m like pinching myself. With each recording you learn your level as a musician, your proficiency gets better knowing how to relate to situations in the recording studio and it was a big eye opener and a big learning process for me, and cause I was about being a musician, I wanted to be a musician, I didn\u2019t want to be a rock star. I wanted to be proficient and it\u2019s been just a constant evolution of really refining and honing in on song writing ability as well as keeping the proficiency of techniques involved in the guitar playing. So yeah, I have the same fire that I did when we recorded \u2018The Warning\u2019 that I do now, but I\u2019m a little more proficient and I can\u2019t party like I did when I was back in my twenties that\u2019s for sure\u2026<\/p>\n

Lastly let’s look ahead to the future so finish this sentence for me. The one thing that Queensr\u00ffche wants to do in 2016 is…<\/strong>
\nTo play other countries that Queensr\u00ffche has never played before…<\/p>\n

Are you working on that?<\/strong>
\nYeah, we\u2019ve had interest in like India, they have a very up and coming progressive movement there and they like progressive rock, so that\u2019s looking good. China, New Zealand, I mean there\u2019s all kinds of places we\u2019d love to go. South Africa\u2026 I hope so. So it\u2019s just something we\u2019re rebuilding and rebuilding connections with people and it\u2019s all a lot of obviously fan support, but in the business side it\u2019s who you know and not burning any bridges. So we\u2019re reconnecting the connections right now and that\u2019s why all those opportunities are looking in and that\u2019s what we want to do, it\u2019s something that we want. It\u2019s such a treat, you know? Now you\u2019ve just got to make it feasible so you can get there *laughs*. You\u2019ve gotta build up the mileage plus awards, right? *laughs*<\/p>\n

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Queensr\u00ffche Australian Tour Dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday 11th<\/sup>\u00a0October \u2013\u00a0BRISBANE,<\/strong>\u00a0The Triffid<\/p>\n

Thursday 13th<\/sup>\u00a0October \u2013\u00a0ADELAIDE<\/strong>, Fowlers Live<\/p>\n

Friday 14th<\/sup>\u00a0October \u2013\u00a0MELBOURNE<\/strong>, Prince Bandroom<\/p>\n

Saturday 15th<\/sup>\u00a0October \u2013\u00a0SYDNEY<\/strong>, Manning Bar<\/p>\n

Ticketing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pre-Sale: 28th April 9:00am \u2013 1st May 5:00pm<\/p>\n

GA Sale: 2nd May 9:00am<\/p>\n

From:\u00a0http:\/\/www.metropolistouring.com\/Queensr\u00ffche<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Presented by: Tombowler, Metropolis Touring, and David Roy Williams<\/p>\n

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Essential Information<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Washington, USA<\/p>\n

Band Members:<\/strong>\u00a0Todd LaTorre – Lead Vocals; Michael Wilton – Guitar; Eddie Jackson – Bass; Scott Rockenfield – Drums; Parker Lundgren – Guitar<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.Queensr\u00ffcheofficial.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong>\u00a0Condition Human (Out Now)<\/p>\n

\"Apple<\/a><\/p>\n

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