QUEENSRŸCHE's TODD LA TORRE On Self-Titled Album: 'Quality Is Always Better Than Quantity'

Jeffrey Easton of Metal Exiles recently conducted an interview with QUEENSRŸCHE singer Todd La Torre. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal Exiles: Are you shocked that the core fan base received you so well even after the years of discouragement?

Todd: Yes, for a few reasons. I was taking over the position of an iconic, legendary vocalist who was a huge influence on myself and countless others for his singing ability. No matter how great you are, you are still not him, so I was wondering if these people would accept or even give me a chance. Once we announced those first RISING WEST shows, they were sold out before we rehearsed a single note. We went out and played all of this old material that people were wanting to hear, so it was refreshing, exciting and the fans themselves took a liking to it. Those are the people who started throwing "the real QUEENSRŸCHE" at us as and that is something we would never say. Videos were going viral of "Child Of Fire", "Queen Of The Reich" and "Roads To Madness" in its entirety with it not being tuned down. It was a whole breath of fresh air as QUEENSRŸCHE dropped off the radar for me after "Empire" because I was not feeling it anymore. It wasn't until recently I went back and gave "Promised Land" a fair chance because I was into the heavy stuff and it went into a totally different direction than what I was into. With all of this new energy and no outside songwriters, you're finally hearing the songwriting again from Michael [Wilton, guitar], Scott [Rockenfield, drums] and Eddie [Jackson, bass] along with Parker [Lundgren, guitar] and me.

Metal Exiles: The songwriting is indeed classic QUEENSRŸCHE, so with that in mind, how did you approach writing this album as a singer?

Todd: I live in Florida and they live in Seattle, so we were trading files of ideas, and as I added my parts, I would ask for opinions, and 9 times out of 10 it would be great. Eddie worked closer with me when I recorded my vocals, but Michael had a lot of input on my vocal melodies, but nobody ever told me to rewrite a lyric. The majority of the lyrics are mine, with the exception of Parker writing the lyrics of "Where Dreams Go To Die" and Eddie wrote the lyrics for "Fallout" as well as co-writing lyrics for "In This Light" with myself. We started writing that way, but when we played shows, we would build on songs in the hotel room and I would also fly out for a few weeks to work on the material as well. It was a stress-free process. These guys were so gracious and accepting all ideas from everybody in the band and even going outside of their instrument.

Metal Exiles: I know people complain about the length of the record. Isn't it quality over quantity?

Todd: Yeah, quality is always better than quantity. If you listen to it from beginning to end, it really does feel like a complete listen. I do not find myself wanting to skip tracks; quite the contrary, when I am done, I want to hear it again. I have a lot of albums from different artists, and they have a lot of stuff in them, and I either find myself skipping through them or I need a break from the album. It would be balls to the wall for an hour and I need to turn it off, but with this new QUEENSRŸCHE album, I want to hear it again. That's a good problem to have. There is a difference between wanting more and getting more than you needed.

Read the entire interview at Metal Exiles.

Photo credit: Savoia Photography Live