QUEENSRŸCHE's TODD LA TORRE Says His Upcoming Second Solo Album Will Be 'More Musical' And 'Bigger'-Sounding Than Debut

In a new interview with Canada's The Metal Voice, QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Todd La Torre confirmed that he is still putting together ideas for the upcoming follow-up to his debut solo album, "Rejoice In The Suffering", which was released in February 2021 via Rat Pak Records. "I'm writing songs, writing ideas and riffs and recording things every day for my solo record," he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

Regarding the musical direction of his new solo material, Todd said: "The ideas that I'm coming up with are… There's some thrashy stuff, for sure, but I think it's gonna be more musical sounding than the first record I did. The first record I did, I love, but it's a lot of… I want way more clean guitar, I want more soundscapes, I want more… There are so many great libraries that you can use that have different orchestrations and different-sounding instruments and choir things and vocal things. And I want it to sound bigger, more layered guitars. My first record was much more raw and stripped down, which I thought was great; I love the record I did. This one is gonna be — I guess I just wanna say more musical. If I hear a song like 'Catch The Rainbow' with [Ronnie James] Dio from RAINBOW, that's something I would love to have on my record. So I really don't care about having anything with continuity on this record. It's gonna be everything I didn't get to do on the first record. And there'll be heavy things on it, for sure, but I would say, where I'm at right now, more musical, I don't wanna say more proggy, but potentially a little proggy. But I'm just hearing a lot more breathing room on this record and better, cooler intros that kind of start out with clean guitar and take you somewhere. And so that's kind of like the ideas that I hear in my head. I'll hear these ideas all the time and I'll literally grab my guitar, set my phone right there and pull it and play the part. Now, basically, what I need to do is start taking pieces and making songs out of all of these ideas that I have. That's kind of where I'm at."

As for the possibility of taking his solo project on the road, La Torre said: "Just to kind of clear any confusion, I don't see myself [doing], like, what I would call a tour. I mean, in QUEENSRŸCHE, we tour where we go out for four to seven weeks at a stretch. The last run we did, we were gone for ten weeksI haven't established my own value as a solo artist. I'm always with QUEENSRŸCHE. So that's something I'm very pragmatic about and I'm approaching things in an experimental sense, like, hey, maybe I do a couple of shows in my own backyard here in Florida and see how that works out. And then maybe a couple, a few months later, I go do four or five shows out in California and Vegas or something, and then I go over to New England and do a handful of shows later in the year. So at the very most, maybe I would go out for like 14 days, maybe. Select shows, exclusive shows playing my own original material. Maybe for fun I would throw a few covers in there, just so stuff everybody definitely knows, just for fun. No QUEENSRŸCHE music. People can see me year round performing QUEENSRŸCHE. I don't feel right performing QUEENSRŸCHE music without the guys right now, even songs that I've written with the band. I remember telling this to Eddie [Jackson, QUEENSRŸCHE bassist], and I was, like, 'Hey, this is what I wanna do.' And he was, like, 'Oh, okay, well…' And I told him I'm not gonna be doing any QUEENSRŸCHE songs. He goes, 'Really? Not even the ones that you wrote with us?' So he was even supportive if I wanted to. And I was, like, 'I don't think so, dude. I just wanna do the solo stuff and stick with that.' So that's kind of where I'm at."

When Todd first announced that he was working on music for his second solo album back in January 2023, he said in a social media post that he was "looking to do something with more open chords, a more classic distortion sound, and a little less palm muted riffs. Open chords and space always allow for a more diverse vocal to be created, and without a good vocal melody, you don't have anything memorable or worth a damn. Less is more in many cases.

"While I love 'Rejoice In The Suffering', I am not exactly wanting to do another record just like that," he explained at the time. "I believe Craig [Blackwell, longtime friend, guitarist and collaborator] and I can do something even better, and much more musical (the word that comes to mind). The best songs were never with overplaying or too complex. I just want to write great songs, whatever that ends up being. Maybe this idea will turn into a great chorus idk, but it doesn't hurt to at least capture the ideas."

The idea for a debut solo album was always in the cards for Todd. With QUEENSRŸCHE tour dates postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world events offered Todd the opportunity to explore his ideas for the effort. Todd teamed up with Blackwell, alongside producer Chris "Zeuss" Harris, to create a diverse heavy metal album that draws influence from different styles. These styles surprised fans who only know La Torre from his previous work with QUEENSRŸCHE or CRIMSON GLORY.

In a February 2021 interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, Todd said that his solo material and QUEENSRŸCHE are like "apples and oranges. They're totally separate things. I don't write guitars, really, in like a QUEENSRŸCHE way. That's not where I shine in QUEENSRŸCHE. I think my lyric writing and my vocal phrasing and delivery and that sort of thing, that's kind of my asset to the writing process for QUEENSRŸCHE music. I would never try to push this kind of style or sound into QUEENSRŸCHE's music. I don't really write music- I mean, I co-write stuff with them, and I might have a guitar riff idea or something, but they're totally separate things, and I would never, never want to pollute the waters of QUEENSRŸCHE what I'm doing. [Laughs]"

He continued: "I think because I've been able to get this first [solo album] out, I think that my eagerness to do things with QUEENSRŸCHE definitely takes a back seat, because I have this other outlet to do those things. So, I feel less inclined to be like, 'Oh, I need to scream here and show people what I can do on this.' I really want to just respect what QUEENSRŸCHE's sound is and not change. I don't want to change the style and sound of what QUEENSRŸCHE is and should be. I very much draw a line in the sand where, you know, I can experiment and try some things that might be fitting for a QUEENSRŸCHE song, but as far as pushing that on to them, I feel, because I got that done, I'm more relaxed doing the QUEENSRŸCHE stuff where I don't feel like I have to try to sneak in something heavier, because nobody's got to hear that from me. Now they get to hear a plethora of styles from me on this record."

La Torre joined his first band BLACKWELL as the drummer, performing in high school talent shows and entering into the club rock music scene in Tampa Bay, Florida. In 2009, Todd was suggested to CRIMSON GLORY guitarist Jon Drenning by a mutual friend to help with some vocal rehearsals in preparation for a CRIMSON GLORY memorial concert. This would pave the way for more collaborations with the band, eventually joining as the band's new permanent vocalist. La Torre was the lead singer for CRIMSON GLORY from late 2010 until resigned from the band in early 2013. In 2012, Todd became a household name in the metal world when he officially became the new lead vocalist of QUEENSRŸCHE. The band immediately began touring globally and started writing new material for the self-titled 2013 album "Queensrÿche". To date, QUEENSRŸCHE has released four studio albums with La Torre: "Queensrÿche", "Condition Hüman" (2015),"The Verdict" (2019) and "Digital Noise Alliance" (2022).