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Todd LaTorre may be best known as the frontman who helped resurrect Queensryche but his musical DNA stretches even further. Todd recently released his first solo record, Rejoice in the Suffering, which shows facets of his musical personality not seen on his three records with the band. Recently Todd took some time to talk about his record, his approach to lyric writing, and much more.
Please press the PLAY icon below to hear the MisplacedStraws.com conversation with Todd LaTorre –
On recording his first solo record – It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. My friend Craig (Blackwell), who co-wrote the album with me and played guitar and everything on it, we had some ideas that had been lingering for the last several years. But when the pandemic hit and I called him and said, “Hey, we’re not gonna be on the road for a while it looks like. So this is a perfect time to really dig into the ideas we have and continue writing and get this album done”. So it was, just kind of seizing on the opportunity of the downtime… Craig and I did the whole album. We have a friend, a local guy here named Al Nunn who did some keyboards on the bonus track “One by One”. Then Jordan Ziff is a good buddy of mine, he plays in Ratt, he did the second half of the guitar solo in the song, “Rejoice in the Suffering”. :57
On getting the opportunity to play drums – Oh, it’s a lot of fun. I mean, that’s my primary instrument. That’s what I’ve always done. It’s a comfortable place for me to be. I’m a little rusty. So it took some practice and working out some parts again. I think I have a torn rotator cuff, so that’s been giving me some trouble. But otherwise, it’s a lot of fun playing drums. I use it a lot and songwriting and lyrical phrasing, percussive type phrasing. It was a lot of fun to play on The Verdict. It was fun doing the drums for this stuff. So it’s just what comes natural to me. 2:22
“Critical Cynic”
On having the freedom to record a solo record that’s different from Queensryche – There’s a certain sound that Queensryche has that kind of needs to stay there. So, me trying to inject stuff from, say, my solo record into Queensryche just wouldn’t be the right thing to do. And so this gives me an opportunity to do whatever I want, however, I want, without a producer saying, “Change this, shorten that”, or other band members saying, “I don’t like that idea. Let’s try this”. It was just me and Craig and I got to do whatever I wanted to do, and that’s exactly what we did. There is a lot of freedom in Queensryche, but there are still certain vocal things and musical things and drumming things that wouldn’t be appropriate. It was a great outlet for me to do that. A lot of people think it’s it’s really heavy. It’s a heavy record, but to me, it’s not like grossly heavy. It’s a good heavy record, but I think it goes back to all of the elements of metal that Craig and I like that we miss hearing today because today there’s so much overplaying and so much screaming happening, there’s not a lot of melody happening in vocal and a lot of the more heavy metal sounds out there. This was a little more spacious and a little breathable, but still has the shred in there and a lot of vocal acrobatics. 3:38
“Vanguards of the Dawn Wall”
On the style of metal found on Rejoice in the Suffering – There are maybe some power metal things on the record of mine, but it’s more groove-oriented. More like Fight, some Pantera-type riffs, a lot more thrash, a couple ballads on the record that are still dark and kind of heavy. I do see kind of a lot more older-sounding, traditional metal things out there happening. But one of the things that I really wanted to stay away from was the heavy symphonic elements on this. I didn’t want to go there. I didn’t wanna go prog because the prog stuff bores me a lot of times. It’s just too much happening. I just wanted good, headbanging grooves that make you wanna move your body and some good hooks and really memorable guitar riffs. That was kind of the headspace we’re at with this. 6:00
“Crossroads To Insanity”
On finding lyrical inspiration from the good and bad in the world – Usually the bad. It’s a lot easier to write about these things. I’m an outspoken atheist. I like to talk about subjects and I’m not trying to persuade anyone to not believe in God or what to believe. But I do like to highlight some of the dichotomies that exist, and the song “Dogmata” is an example of picking certainly the Abrahamic religions and saying, “Look, there’s a lot of poison in here. There are some things in here that aren’t so moral and pretenders”. You have a lot of evangelists out there and snake oil salesman and charlatans they’ll do anything for a buck and try to sell you blessed holy water and put it under your pillow at night. Like the tooth fairy for adults or something. These are topics that I’m passionate about. I like talking about geopolitical issues, sociological issues, “Critical Cynic” is a perfect example of a lot of the science-denying that we see happening with the pandemic and a lot of people not even believing their own eyes and ears. They think everything is bullshit. Everything is fake. They think that they’re researchers because they read a little bit on Google versus real researchers that spend decades of their lives in laboratories and analysis and have a doctorate degrees understanding this stuff. Those are topics that I write about. Queensryche, also, as you know, is always written about social issues and injustices and finding justice. So even though I might start out in a dark place, a lot of times I will try to come out on the other side of it with an optimistic perspective. It’s not all gloom and doom. 7:32
You gotta peel back the layers. I remember when we did “Blood of the Levant” and we put that video out. That was about the Arab Spring and about how the Syrian war started with the two kids vandalizing the school and saying, “You’re next doctor”, and all of this kind of stuff. When we showed the video, there were actually comments that said, “This guy’s a socialist Lib-tard commie, and is he bashing our military now?” And I’m like, “Wow, dude. You missed the whole point.” And it’s like holding the flower, “What an idiot. Why is he holding a flower? ” And I’m like, “Well because the peaceful protesters had a bottle of water and a flower while the military in Syria is pointing their guns with live ammunition at these people”. It was like a call, like extending the olive branch. It’s like people want you to chew their food for them. Listen, we’re highlighting ideas, and if it just gets you to think about it, that’s all that we’re trying to do. That’s all that I’m doing. There are things that I am a little more literal on my own stuff. Look, there’s a right and wrong. You can’t split everything down the middle and be like, “Oh, I’m not choosing a side”. I’m clearly choosing a side when it comes to dogma. I’m clearly choosing a side when it comes to extremism in religion, where faith-based initiatives are now infringing on the rights of gay people having the right to marry or whatever. So to me, there is a clear line in the sand between right and wrong. That being said, I’m not trying to cram it down your throat. You don’t even have to listen to it. I don’t write songs about fast cars and hot chicks. If you listen to the old Queensryche stuff or Megadeth or even hell stuff from the whole Vietnam era. Like all that stuff still holds up today. And it’s sad because you think that we would have learned from history. Sadly, we find ourselves a lot of times, back where we started. That’s what the first verse of the intro to the song “Vexed” is about. Here we are again, like haven’t we learned?? Can’t we just have a conversation? 10:11
There are certain little nuances in there, like in the song “Critical Cynic”, where it says, “Don’t you plead the fifth when you pull the trigger”. I mean, I’m not talking about somebody shooting something, I’m talking about when you have a position you should be willing to waver from it. But at the same time, don’t deny that that’s your position. You should own it, have conviction with it. Don’t throw a smoke bomb in somebody’s room and then haul ass. Stand in front of the situation and talk about it. What’s always curious to me is not so much trying to change someone’s mind, because some people just are not going to change their mind, but I’m curious why people think the way they do. Why do you think that? Why do you believe X, Y, and Z to me, that’s kind of getting to the root of a situation. What’s the cause of your methodology? 13:30
“Darkened Majesty”
On the possibility of playing solo shows – I would love to do that. Queensryche will always come first. As I’ve said a lot doing these interviews, people ask that, the honest answer is if there are times where Queensryche does not have any obligation and we’ve got a month off or a couple of weeks off, if I can go do a show or two or something and play some of these songs live, I would love to do that. I just think it would be a lot of fun. I think by the time that would ever happen, the people that would attend are already gonna know these songs, which is cool because a lot of times when you start a tour, it’s right when the record drops. So, they’ll know the two or three singles you put out promoting the release of the record. Up to that point, they’ll know that. But if you play another new one that hasn’t been released, they just don’t know the songs yet. So I think by the time I can ever do something live with this, people are really gonna know these songs, and it’ll just make the experience so much better because they’re singing along and they’re not just standing there with their arms crossed like it’s the first time they’ve ever heard it. 15:15
On the status of the next Queensryche record – We’ve been doing writing, really heavy writing sessions. We’ve got 20 or 25 song ideas in front of me that I have to start writing lyrics and melodies for now. Michael (Wilton) and I think Eddie (Jackson) might be, I know Eddies trying to get his vaccine I think within the next week or two here he’ll feel comfortable traveling, but our producer Zeuss (Chris Harris), will be coming down if Parker (Lundgren) can make it. He’s got a really busy guitar shop that he’s been running, his own business. So, we’re gonna be reconvening again in another month, and we’ve got a ton of song ideas for the next record, and hopefully, we can get in the studio by the end of the year and sometime next year, put out a new record. That’ll make sense anyway because there’s no point in putting a record out this year when you’re not gonna tour anyway, so that’s what’s happening with Queensryche right now. 16:40
“Hellbound and Down”
On who is drumming for Queensryche – I suspect that Casey (Grillo) will be drumming on the record. In my opinion, he deserves to play on the record. Scott (Rockenfield) hasn’t communicated with us. The guy that shows up every day is the guy that’ll be playing drums. So, that’s the short end of it. Casey shows up for writing, he shows up to record if needed. He’s involved in this record, writing and tracking demo ideas for us. He’s the guy that shows up to tour so in every sense of the word…who’s drumming for Queensryche? You see who’s drumming with us so. 17:55
On if this is the start of a solo career – My headspace with this record was I just want to write some cool songs and put it out. And it wasn’t like, “I’m gonna develop the solo career”. It was just like, hey, I wanna do a record. I’m gonna do another solo record. Again, Queensryche will always be number one for me. But in the event that one day, they just are too old to tour. They don’t want to do it. It would be nice to have my own material where I can say okay, Queensryche has retired, of course, by the time that ever comes because I don’t see this band, I see this band doing it until we’re dead. This is what they do. There are no plans or slowing down for those guys. I think that certainly, the two can co-exist because I’m never going to try to book shows or do things that would infringe or compromise the touring possibilities for Queensryche. But right now, it’s just hey, have fun with this cool record. I’ll write songs. I have some other songs for another one down the line, and I’ll put another record out at some point. But, it was really just the musical expression of it all. 19:05
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