Just finished reading Building An Empire and I really enjoyed the book. The trajectory of the band was wild and it seems like they are times were their own worst enemy coupled with bad luck. The book left curious what would've happened had Chris DeGarmo stayed in the band.
Thank you for reading it. The bolded is true, particularly after DeGarmo left. Some very bad decisions, IMO.
As for the bio itself, the writing broke down as follows:
Beach wrote the first draft of the narrative. I went through it, re-wrote sections (for example, the ending of the main narrative - the last several paragraphs - is something I wrote) and in some cases, whole chapters (the F.U. chapter is one I remember re-writing entirely). I added a lot of the detail nuggets about songs, things done live, etc., that you see throughout the book. When it gets very specific, or tells things more in-depth, most likely that is me telling those things and writing those paragraphs. The "cutaway" or "sidebar" sections are authored as we had in the bylines. Generally speaking, Naron was the main researcher on the book (finding things we needed), and wrote little bits here and there. It was a fun project that was both difficult and rewarding at the same time. I'm proud to have worked on it. I actually worked on it much more than I thought I would. Initially, I was just going to write an Afterword and do some minor contributions. But I felt like I needed to step in and take on a bigger role, writing-wise, to get it to a place where I thought it was as accurate and detail-filled as it could be. Really appreciate Beach and Naron giving me that opportunity.
The one thing (only thing, really) we ever disagreed on was the beginning. Ha! I felt like it took way, way too long to get to "The Mob" and "Queensryche." I wanted the detail about all the Northwest metal bands, but there were a lot of long passages that I would have personally cut out (and did, on my initial edit/re-write), but I got outvoted on those changes. It seems like folks are split a bit on the opening. Some very much enjoy the granular detail about the connections between bands of that era in the local scene with the QR guys, and other people feel like it went too in-depth on them, and delayed getting to the "story." But it is what it is, and the three of us are immensely proud of the work we did.
And...watch this space in a couple weeks for a related announcement. I have something to share with folks. Something that many of you will be interested in, if you dug the bio. And that's all I am allowed to say at the moment.
re: original lineup, etc.
JD sums it up nicely, as he always tends to on that description. But in this newer era of QR, Eddie Jackson has very much stepped to the forefront, creatively. So while Wilton and TLT do some steering, a lot of it is built on Eddie's ideas.
As for classic, original lineup QR, yeah, there was a special chemistry between all of them. I felt that the Tribe material that had all five of them involved (Open, Desert Dance, Falling Behind, Doin' Fine, The Art of Life, and Justified) really showed a continuation of the evolution from HITNF, and going in a more "earthy," organic direction. Whereas Q2k and Mindcrime II, AS, DTC, etc., all really feel like "one offs" because of the way the songs were written. There was a very logical evolution and flow while Chris was in the band, that wasn't there at all when he left.
I've seen QR with TLT many times now, including the first two shows as Rising West. They are a solid metal band. Do justice to the catalog. But the band is very, very different than what the original lineup was together. Tate's solo band is also decent and he is sounding okay these days, despite dropping the key significantly. And for me personally, that's all okay. That original lineup of Queensryche is very much on a pedestal as my favorite act of all time. And even HITNF, which many are critical of, is absolutely a Queensryche record, through and through, filled with tons of their sonic hallmarks.
I did a podcast on it with the guys from Focus on Metal last year for HITNF's 25th anniversary, if you're interested in hearing me badly babble and "um" a lot:
https://focusonmetalpod.com/queensryche-biographer-brian-heaton-debates-the-merits-of-hear-in-the-now-frontier-on-this-weeks-focus-on-metal/I make the case why HITNF is a quintessential Queensryche album that folks need to appreciate more. The host, Ritchie, disagrees, and it made for a fun discussion.
Anyway, always happy to see QR discussion here. Thanks again, Reaper, for reading our biography. And like I said, announcement coming in two weeks about something else folks who dug the bio will really (I hope) be excited for.
Topic: Official Queensryche thread: Kickstart the next album (Read 695674 times)
