QUEENSRCHE Already Working On New Material, Says Singer GEOFF TATE

Singer Geoff Tate of Seattle progressive rockers QUEENSRCHE tells Billboard.com that the band is already starting work on its next album despite having just released its 12th LP, "Dedicated To Chaos", in late June.

"We kind of have that practice, to jump from one to the next," he explains. "It's what drives us to get up in the morning, the new music, writing the music. If we don't do that, we're just resting on our laurels and playing songs we've played a million times before, and none of us want to do that."

Tate says QUEENSRCHE is currently "putting some sketches together and discussing direction and that kind of thing," and he expects some songs will start to surface while the group is on the road. "We have studios with us at all times," he notes. "If you come backstage at any given show, we have a room set up, everybody here and there, working away. It looks like a laboratory. That really keeps the music flowing, too."

"Dedicated To Chaos" sold 8,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 70 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous CD, the epic concept album "American Soldier", opened with 21,000 units back in April 2009 to enter the chart at No. 25. This was roughly half the first-week tally registered by QUEENSRCHE's "Operation: Mindcrime II" album, which shifted 44,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release back in April 2006 to debut at No. 14 on The Billboard 200 chart.

QUEENSRCHE's 2003 effort, "Tribe", sold 20,000 copies in the first week while 1999's "Q2K", opened with sales of 28,000.

QUEENSRCHE's top-selling album by far is 1990's "Empire", which was certified triple-platinum in October 1994 for sales in excess of three million copies in the United States. The original "Operation: Mindcrime" release (1988) attained platinum status in August 1991, while 1994's "Promised Land" reached the same plateau in December 1994.