QUEENSRŸCHE's MICHAEL WILTON Says 'Condition Hüman' Is 'An Evolution' From Self-Titled Album

On the episode 553 of the "Talking Metal"podcast, Mark Strigl talks with guitarist Michael Wilton of QUEENSRŸCHE. You can now listen to the chat using the Spreaker widget below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether QUEENSRŸCHE consciously tried to capture the band's classic sound on QUEENSRŸCHE's new album, "Condition Hüman":

"Well, it's just kind of the way it comes out of us, because we're deep rooted and we are the three guys that originally started QUEENSRŸCHE, so you're gonna get that, whether you're listening to QUEENSRŸCHE new or old. But with producer Chris Harris, a.k.a. Zeuss, he really wanted to capture the magic of the recording of the instruments in those older recordings, in the '80s and '90s, so we did do our inspirational research. So, yeah, there was a little bit of that — just trying to find the fluidity and to keep the arrangements more in the QUEENSRŸCHE style."

On the QUEENSRŸCHE songwriting process:

"QUEENSRŸCHE, as you know, is a band again, and everybody is involved in the writing process. Everybody can put their creatvitity out on the table and everybody will work on it and build it to a certain point. And then we just keep doing that process. That's kind of what made QUEENSRŸCHE so special in the early days — we were all pooling together ideas. So when this was done, we had probably over 20, 25 demos, and we had to whittle down, with the record company and the producer, 15 of those, and those are the ones that we worked on for this record. But everybody really puts their creative input into these songs, and [there are] a lot of ideas from everybody."

On how "Condition Hüman" compares to QUEENSRŸCHE's 2013 self-titled album:

"Obviously, the QUEENSRŸCHE motto, the alchemy of QUEENSRŸCHE has always been to evolve with each album, and that is what we're doing. This is an evolution from that last album, and it kind of paints a picture. We had two years to write it on the road, basically. That's where we spend our free time when we're touring — writing music, rather than partying all day. And that's kind of what we do. It's just kind of a magical thing that happens. You have, obviously, a situation with the band now that it's less chaotic, there's less distractions, so people in this band are able to focus on what needs to be focused on, which is the creativity and to keep QUEENSRŸCHE moving into this modern age."

"Condition Hüman" will be released on October 2 via Century Media. The CD was recorded in part at at Uberbeatz Studio in Washington with producer Chris "Zeuss" Harris, who has previously worked with ROB ZOMBIE, HATEBREED, SOULFLY and SHADOWS FALL.