Geoff Tate Talks ‘Rough’ Split With Queensryche + ‘Musical Project’ Operation: Mindcrime
Geoff Tate’s split with Queensryche after 30 years fronting the progressive metal band has been well documented, and the acrimonious breakup is something that everyone involved is happy to have in the past. Now that the dust has settled and all the legal issues are behind them both Geoff Tate and his former Queensryche bandmates are moving forward with new albums.
In an exclusive interview Tate told us about the tumultuous split. “I have to say I’m glad it’s all over… definitely. Glad to be on the other side of it all,” states the vocalist, who adds, “There was a two-year stint in there that was a mind-bender to have to deal with all the legality stuff and to keep my creative sense going.”
Tate continued, “It’s a rough thing to go through for anyone I think, going through the courts and all that stuff. Yeah, I’m glad it’s over and glad to be on the other side and I feel really good about where I am at.”
Queensryche guitarist Michael Wilton also echoed Tate's thoughts about the split in our recent exclusive interview. He said, “It was kind of a chaotic time definitely and sometimes your head is not fully into what you’re doing just because you have that looming darkness of uncertainty in the background. You know, now that the agreement happened and we’re all pleased with the outcome.”
In the aftermath of Queensryche, Geoff Tate’s Operation: Mindcrime have released their debut effort, The Key, which is part of a concept trilogy album. The singer says he doesn’t consider Operation: Mindcrime a band. He explained, “Well after spending 30-plus years in a band where everyone was kind of thrown together and stuck together for years and years and tied together, you know financially, I didn’t want to be in that situation anymore.”
Tate added, “I wanted to have the freedom to work with whoever I wanted to and I also wanted to work with people that kind of looked at things in a similar fashion that I did and typically I found that those are people that like working with other musicians as well and are interested in a number of different kinds of projects. So, it’s worked out really well for everybody. You know we can come together and do a project or write a record and then everybody splits off and then we can come together and do a tour or not or somebody can take their spot. It really works out well. I really like it.”
He concluded, “I think there is a tendency that people throw around the word 'band' very easily. (laughs) You know they are just used to saying it and I didn’t think of this as a band, it’s more of a musical project.”
The musical project known as Operation: Mindcrime have released The Key, which fans can purchase at iTunes. Geoff Tate is planning a U.S. tour, which will kick off sometime in February. Stay tuned for our full interview with Geoff Tate.