QUEENSRŸCHE Drummer On Court Case: No Matter What Happens, We're Still Gonna Keep Making Music

The Todd La Torre-fronted version of QUEENSRŸCHE was interviewed on this past Wednesday's (July 24) edition of the nationally syndicated radio show "Rockline" with host Bob Coburn. You can now listen to the program at RocklineRadio.com. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On what the band has been doing since parting ways with singer Geoff Tate in June 2012:

Scott Rockenfield (drums): "It's been a great years for us. It's been an interesting year. A year ago, we made a transition in the band and we moved on from working with Geoff, and we now have our [new singer] Todd in the band, who's on with us tonight. And we just basically carried on as QUEENSRŸCHE. And that's what we've been doing for the last year — playing shows around the world — and then during that process, which began last summer, we started writing new material, which has become what you now have in your hands and everybody else in the world seems to have, which is our new record, titled 'Queensrÿche'."

On what their expectations are from the court case in November which will determine which version of QUEENSRŸCHE gets to keep the name:

Scott Rockenfield: "I think for us, most of us just feel, we're really confident that we're doing what's best for QUEENSRŸCHE and what we feel is the essence of what QUEENSRŸCHE is good at doing. Unfortunately, in the last years, we've really steered from that, at least we felt we did, and we really wanted to get the band back to what we felt we were good at and what we felt like our fans were wanting to hear. So our confidence has been so good, the fans seem to be supporting us around the world overwhelmingly, and that's been a really great thing, and they've really welcomed Todd into the band, and we've moved on. And so, with that confidence, I guess what I'm trying to say is that, whatever happens in November will be what happens, but we feel good about what we're doing. Really, in the big picture as well, we kind of feel like, listen, no matter what happens, we're still gonna keep making music together, and no one can deny us that; nobody can take that away from us no matter what happens. And I think we have a great chemistry together now amongst the five of us and we're really proud of the new record. And we've moved on now and are starting to write new material. So I think we just keep our chins above water and we look towards the light at the end of our tunnel and we're just having a good time while we're doing it."

On when it became apparent that Geoff and his bandmates were growing musically apart:

Scott Rockenfield: "For me, it's been like a ten-year struggle, to be honest. It's one of those things where it wasn't like an instantenous thing, but it's a building process where things just start to separate and people start going in different directions. And Michael [Wilton, guitar], Eddie [Jackson, bass] and I were kind of on a direction — we always knew what we wanted to do and we were trying to get that to happen, and then, unfortunately, Geoff had a different direction in mind. And we just did not see eye to eye. It just kind of started to get worse and worse as the years went on. So, I guess, long story short, it was kind of building process, which ended up becoming the final thing last year when we just decided it was better for us to separate and for us to carry on as QUEENSRŸCHE."

Photo credit: Savoia Photography Live