SleazeRoxx.com recently caught up with QUEENSRŸCHE singer and chief songwriter Geoff Tate, in which he offers an enlightening glance at the inner workings of the band. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

SleazeRoxx.com: Regarding what you guys have been up to lately, why has there been so much going on and how do you keep such a schedule?

Geoff Tate: "We signed with a new record company, Rhino/Warner Brothers, and work with some wonderful people who are very interested in putting out releases. It's a good team of people. We like to work and we like to put things out. It's a team of people who like to do that, who are very creative and motivated. I think we might have found a really good match. It's difficult because you would think that record companies would be interested in working, but a lot of times they can't get themselves together, as in the case of our last record company, Sanctuary. So I think that's why we've been so prolific

lately is that they're very motivated to work."

SleazeRoxx.com: Do you have any other creative outlets or things you do to relax? You are on the go so much, do you step away from the music and have other ways of expressing yourself?

Geoff: "I don't know how to relax. That's a problem. But I like to work. I'm always working at home every day, writing something, doing something with music. It seems to be something that I'm pretty addicted to, really. We've got four weeks off from touring right now, getting ready to go to Europe in November and we'll probably be there until after the first of the year (note: Queensryche's European tour has since been cancelled due to a "personal emergency"). We'll be

doing a lot of work then. We're actually working on a new studio album at the moment, finishing up the writing for that. We hope to be done with the writing soon, and plan to start recording in March for a fall release."

SleazeRoxx.com: In an interview from 1985, you described your approach to music: "...we put in a lot of changes in the songs, different flavours and feeling. It's more moving than 120 decibels in your face throughout a show because after a while an audience gets numb to that. We change the mood so it's not boring". Those words could easily have been spoken in 2007. How do you hold true to your vision, balance old and new ideas and retain your original audience while gaining access to new ones?

Geoff: "Well, I don't really look at it in those terms, honestly. To me music is expression and communication and that's what I focus on, just writing records. I love creating music, telling stories and structuring those stories so that they have some sort of message or a lesson I've learned, or some kind of presentation that perhaps causes someone to think about what I'm writing. That's kind of the way I've always approached it. I don't really think about access to audiences

or maintaining or retaining an audience. In fact if someone asked me how many records I've sold I couldn't tell you. I don't even look at the royalty statements; it's just not interesting to me. It's just another task that I'd have to do and I don't really do it."

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In other news, Queensrÿche's recent covers album, Take Cover, has sold 5500 copies in the US in its first week of release to debut at position No. 173.