The final act of the Operation:Mindcrime trilogy called ‘A New Reality’ comes this Friday December, 1st. Fans have journeyed with the characters through the discovery of the key and its loss, the resurrection of H the protagonist, and now they get to discover what is this new reality. Metal Wani had the pleasure of talking with founder of Operation:Mindcrime and former Queensryche vocalist, Geoff Tate about the final installment of the trilogy.
We started our talk by asking Geoff how he felt with final puzzle piece of the trilogy in place. He mentioned that he is very happy with the final outcome of the trilogy and has enjoyed listening to the finished product in total. However, he did mention that now that this project is complete, he is searching for what is next on his horizon. Geoff said that we are living in very interesting times and that it is great time to be alive. The implication being that there is much in this world to spark the writing process.
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Fans have had a taste of ‘A New Reality’ with the videos for the songs “Wake Me Up” and “Under Control”. We were intrigued with the song “My Eyes” and the line “eyes starring backward”. This song and another one entitled “It Was Always You” suggest that the enemy/the other is ourselves. We asked Geoff if the felt we are our own worst enemies and he felt that this could be true given your perspective.
We wondered if Geoff felt that fans would puzzle over the final song “The Same Old Story” and its implication to ultimate tale that the trilogy has unfolded. He felt that some fans would surely ponder this and some would or wouldn’t see the implicit irony as well.
We talked about whether the story is the key element with the music adding a thematic backdrop or if the story relies on the music for context. Geoff hoped that both the story and music worked in concert. The main story theme was developed first, however the specific lyrics and music were developed together to flesh out the details for the trilogy.
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This winter Geoff will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Operation:Mindcrime album with a tour in Europe. The first part of the show will feature the Operation:Mindcrime album in total and then they will play some of the new songs from the trilogy. Geoff indicated that he was very much looking forward to playing the Operation:Mindcrime music. He also said that he would need to get into character to really express the anger that lies within that album. This tour will swing into the United States later in 2018.
We chatted a bit about the news regarding Helloween’s Pumpkins United tour where Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske would be touring with the band in 2018. We posed the question to Geoff if he would ever consider such an option if offered by the guys in Queensryche? He said he would never say never. Perhaps we can see a Mob of the Ryche tour in the future?
With the trilogy complete, we were interested in whether Geoff would continue to develop music in the Operation:Mindcrime collaboration or create a new vehicle to explore his musical path. Geoff said he was not sure. He currently has no new music plans. He mentioned he was in “sponge mode” soaking up all that is going on in our world and using that to form new creative ideas.
Finally, we wanted to get Geoff’s take on a recent interview that Bruce Dickinson did with “Trunk Nation” where Bruce mentioned that he had originally wanted Ronnie James Dio to be part of the rumored “The Three Tremors” / “Trinity” project. Geoff said he did not know that Bruce had felt that way. He also mentioned that the project was never really a project. It was a conversation over dinner that the media picked up on and has cycled around each interview cycle.