QUEENSRŸCHE Drummer SCOTT ROCKENFIELD: 'The Rock Is Back!'

David Lowry of Live From The Music City last week conducted an interview with QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield. You can now listen to the entire one-hour chat using the audio player below.

Asked about what fans can expect from QUEENSRŸCHE's upcoming live shows, Rockenfield said: "Our plan that we've been doing for the last six months, basically, is really focusing on the material that we haven't really been able to focus on for quite a long time. One, that's kept us really excited and it's fresh for us and it's been a lot of fun to perform that type of stuff, but it's also… I think the fans are really enjoying that — that we're kind of revisiting old material. We're going back to the days of the cool stuff from the EP all the way up until the 'Empire' record. That's kind of the focus of the setlist that we're doing — we're playing songs that we haven't played in a long time, and we're playing songs that we haven't played at all, I don't think, ever in our history. I think it's good, it's fresh, it's an intense show, and basically, for us, the rock is back. And that's kind of our focus. Listen, our roots were always that. QUEENSRŸCHE's roots from the very early days was that type of music — the genre of metal and hard rock was really big for us, and I think that's what we're trying to revisit and have fun doing. It's fun for me, because I have to relearn all that stuff, just 'cause we haven't really performed a lot of that material for such a long time. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, 'cause you've gotta think about it; it doesn't just come second nature. So we've had to kind of dig in deep, but in doing so, you kind of remember why you did and why you enjoyed it so much back then. And I guess it's keeping us young."

Interview (audio):

As previously reported, the Todd La Torre-fronted version of QUEENSRŸCHE has finished recording the drums for its new album at London Bridge Studios in Seattle, Washington with producer James "Jimbo" Barton — the man who engineered and mixed the band's classic 1988 LP, "Operation: Mindcrime", and its 1990 follow-up, "Empire", and co-produced 1994's "Promised Land". The rest of the music and vocals are being laid down at several different facilities on the West Coast.

In a recent interview with Metal Assault, Rockenfield stated about QUEENSRŸCHE's renewed collaboration with Barton: "It's a great thing — we're really excited about it, he's really excited about it. We've wanted to work with him for a while, but for whatever reason, we just hadn't gone there yet. This is a great time for us to do that, though. We all discussed who we wanted to do the record with, and he was one of the first names that came up. It was easy for us to pick up the phone and call him. It was like our relationship picked up right where it left off, so it's gonna be a lot of fun. He's a very creative guy that did some great records with us in the past. I think that's one of the most important things when it comes to why we want to work with him."

Asked if fans will see a return to the progressive metal sound QUEENSRŸCHE had in the '80s, Scott said: "What we're trying to do, and what has been really interesting since Todd has jumped into the band, we're trying to revisit the old QUEENSRŸCHE catalog — stuff off of the EP and "The Warning". That's always been a part of what we are, so yeah, definitely! I think in my opinion, we're really revisiting that vibe of why that music was special back then for us. There will be a modern flair to it, though, just because we're in the modern age. The fun thing about Jimbo being a part of it is that he can help tie together the two sides. He does come from our past and some of the great records and some of the great sounds that we're known for, but he's also living in the modern age and doing some interesting things as well. I think it's going to be a really great QUEENSRŸCHE record. People are going to go, 'Wow, that's QUEENSRŸCHE! That sounds just like what we've known them to be, and what we would expect them to now be.' That's what I think peple will get out of it."