Former Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo, who left the band in 1997, is featured in a new interview with Billboard discussing his new project The Rue, a collaboration with his daughter Rylie. An excerpt from the story by Christa Titus is available below:

Although he just turned 52 on June 14, Chris has never forgotten that magic of discovering music. And as a father, he naturally wondered if his daughter Rylie and younger son Preston would also pick it up. So when Rylie, 22, joined a vocal ensemble while she was in high school, he kept tabs on her activities, but he didn't push her about it -- he'd shown her a few things on the piano when she was younger, but he never gave his kids formal music lessons.

"There's something really cool about 'I discovered this, and it's meaningful to me,'" says Chris. "I thought there was chance [Rylie might pursue music], and it was no biggie if it didn't go that way."

Just the same, when she heard him noodling on an acoustic one day when she was around 15 and said, "Wow, Dad, that's really cool. I think I've got something for that," Chris admits, "I'd just been waiting years for that."

That was the spark for them to start casually collaborating as time permitted between Rylie's school schedule and Chris' profession as a private jet pilot, which he embarked on after leaving Queensryche in 1997. Years later, their shared love of music has resulted in their debut recording as The Rue.

A lot of young women wouldn't feel comfortable singing about love and longing when their dad is backing them on guitar. But Rylie, a French studies major who's currently residing in Paris as she completes a marketing internship, describes their relationship as "best buds." Their playful affection for each other was apparent as they talked with Billboard via conference call from two vastly different time zones. 

"The things that he and I talk about anyway are loaded enough and intriguing enough and fascinating enough and challenging enough for me that I can go there, and I don't need to write about risque stuff that tends to sell," says Rylie with a laugh. "We don't sing about [things like] twerking."

The pair essentially collaborates by having Rylie devise vocal melodies and lyrics, with Chris using the guitar to try to "create a musical picture" around her. He feels that the sound of The Rue is also a metaphor for the personal relationship they share. "There's not a bunch of window dressing and high-production value," he says of The Rue's style, "but it's heavy on an emotional connection and [has] a directness to it."

Go to this location for the complete story.

Go to this llocation to check out audio samples of The Rue's self-titled EP. The tracklist is as follows:

"My Illusion"
"Honey?"
"Sweet Love"
"Love Song"
"Fool Me"
"Sap"