QUEENSRŸCHE Drummer SCOTT ROCKENFIELD: 'I Believe The Right Choice Will Be Made In November'

Ruben Mosqueda of the Oregon Music News recently conducted an interview with QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Oregon Music News: What's your take on the current rift in the fan base? It seems like the majority of the fans have chosen sides.

Scott: It has caused confusion having two bands out there using the same name. We feel very confident that we have done the best thing for the band and also what the fans have been wanting from the band. We feel so good about what we've done and the response that we've had with the record. It was just released the day before yesterday and the response has been overwhelming. The fans are really enjoying what we're doing — whether they want to choose sides that's not really important. We just continue to get more support and people really seem to enjoy what we're doing. We feel good about that.

Oregon Music News: The writing sessions for the new record must have been refreshing.

Scott: It was incredible. There were a couple of occasions that, to me, were musically life-altering. This will shed a little more light on how this collaboration worked: The song "A World Without", I wrote all the music for that song. I threw it out there to everybody via e-mail when I first composed it in my home. A couple of hours later, I received a call from [singer] Todd [La Torre], the guy was practically in tears. He was at home in Florida. He said, "The song is done, check your email." I checked my e-mail — within two hours, he had written the lyrics and recorded the vocals for the entire song. That's basically what you hear on that tune. The following week I did the same thing when I wrote the last song on the record, "Open Road". Again I was home, I wrote the music, I sent it to Todd and within two hours he sent me a message saying it was finished. We've never had that — that's a really unique thing to have.

Oregon Music News: How important was the sequencing of the record? And how involved was the band in this?

Scott: Great question. The sequencing was very import to us. Here's the record, we have 11 pieces of music recorded. We want to take the listener on a journey. We wanted to make sure when they put the needle down it will take them through a dynamic journey till the end. We want to have a beginning, the middle, then the end — it's like the unveiling of a visual. I feel great about the sequencing of the album because I do believe that goes through that perfect dynamic that I was talking about earlier.

Oregon Music News: I don't foresee this taking place but if you lost the right to use the QUEENSRŸCHE name would you revisit Rising West at that point?

Scott: [long pause] We don't focus on that possibility — we're living in the now. If that were to happen, I don't have a confirmation of what we would do in terms of what we'd call ourselves. I can tell you no matter what happens we'll still continue to make music because the five of us have something — we feel so great about it and we're having such a great time. That can't stop us and nobody can take that away from us. That's a confirmed thing that we own now — which is our chemistry together. We know it so well. I do believe that the right choice will be made in November which will be the best decision for QUEENSRŸCHE.

Read the entire interview from Oregon Music News.