MICHAEL WILTON Wouldn't Re-Record Any QUEENSRŸCHE Classics With New Singer

Nev Pearce of Australia's "Rabid Noise" podcast recently conducted an interview with QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton. You can now listen to the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On how QUEENSRŸCHE's songwriting and recording approach was different on the band's new album, "Condition Hüman", to how it was on 2013's "Queensrÿche":

"I think we had more time to get together all the songs and demos. When the record company called and said it was time for another record, we had to put on the table probably about 25 tunes and we dwindled that down to 15. We got the producer. It was more of a… 'Let's follow the tradition of QUEENSRŸCHE,' and I mean kind of like the first six albums where each album was an evolution from the last one. Something that we didn't wanna carbon-copy the previous one, so we always did something different. So that was the main thing that we really wanted to do. We wanted to evolve from the 2013 self-titled album. And it was just a matter of really delving into the arrangements with our producer, Zeuss [Chris Harris]. 'Let's make these as interesting and let's make these as badass, with attitude, as we can.' He was one that really kind of brough to the front, 'I really wanna bring the inspiration of the way you guys recorded your instruments back in the early days. I really wanna touch upon that.' Obviously, our answer to that was, 'Well, hey, you've got the three original guys who started this thing, so that's ingrained in our DNA, so it's gonna actually sound like that when we play and record. So you just say the word and we're on it.' And that was kind of the vision. We all had a clear way that we really wanted to take the arrangements. It's, like, 'Hey, guys, we've got the freedom. Let's not write the standard pop-format arrangements. Let's build these songs to the arrangements that the song deserves. No limits, and let's make it interesting and fun and badass. And that's kind of the attitude of the whole album — in heaviness and also in eclecticness."

On whether he would ever consider re-recording any of the early QUEENSRŸCHE material with new singer Todd La Torre:

"The offers have come, yes, but as of right now, it's just… If the record company wants that right now, you've got licensing issues. Some of the older songs, we have to figure out what control do we have over them. But I would tell you… I mean, in my opinion, I would never re-record a studio album with Todd. If it was a live album, sure — I'd welcome that. I would love, on record, CD, or whatever, the fans to hear Todd singing the old songs, 'cause he's just badass and he sounds great."

"Condition Hüman" debuted at No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart, having shifted 14,000 equivalent album units in the week ending October 8.

The Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

"Condition Hüman" was released on October 2 via Century Media.