Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
In a recent interview with Mark Strigl, Disturbed bassist John Moyer confirmed his role as producer for the forthcoming third and final installment in the renowned “Operation: Mindcrime” album series, originally created by former Queensrÿche vocalist Geoff Tate, as per blabbermouth.net.
I recorded these songs during the summer between tours. [Disturbed] finished [the North American leg of] our ‘The Sickness [25th Anniversary] Tour’ in the spring. I spent the summer in Europe recording a bunch of these songs. Then we went to Europe to tour with Disturbed, so I took a break from the songs. Now I’m in the final stages of mixing and putting everything together.
Moyer elaborated on the process of assembling the material for “Operation: Mindcrime III,” providing insights into its development.
Obviously [Geoff is] not in Queensrÿche anymore. ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ was released under the Queensrÿche name years ago, the first two records. Well, when the band split up, basically Geoff got all the rights to ‘Mindcrime’. That’s his story to tell. And so anything that moves forward with ‘Mindcrime’ is his to do with as he wishes. I know some people are, like, ‘How can he do that? That was a Queensrÿche thing.’ Well, ’cause it’s his; he owns it. That’s his baby.
So, ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’, he has these songs that he’s been working with a handful of great songwriters that have been guitar players for him. And so these songs he’s been sitting on for, like, four or five years, and they’ve been sort of percolating over time. And then he sends ’em to me, and I’m, like, ‘Oh my God. These songs are great, Geoff.’ And [I was] really blown away by ’em. And he sends me another, and I’m, like, ‘That’s another great song’, and ‘another great song.’ And he’s just been holding on to these songs ’cause he knew that these were the songs for a future ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’.
Even though he’s had other releases and has put out other material, these are the songs he’s been saving for this record. And so he sends ’em to me. I start going through ’em. And then I worked with one of his guitar players, Amaury Altmayer, in France. Amaury and I combed through the material. We redid all the guitars, we re-polished everything. [We] basically took the demos [and] rebuilt ’em from the ground up through a producer’s eyes. And then I went to Italy and I recorded Geoff on a handful of songs. We are eight songs in right now on the record. It’s gonna be a full 10-song album. We have pretty much final mixes on three of ’em. We have rough mixes on all the other ones, on the other five. And so we’re just going back and forth with our mixer. We’re using Juan Urteaga, who mixes Testament and other bands like that, a West Coast guy. ‘Cause I wanted that older-school sound, I wanted to go back to sort of that era. And I love what Juan does.
Regarding the musical direction of the new album, Moyer shared his perspective on the artistic approach taken.
I have a handful of friends who I’ve played it for, and when anyone listens to it, they go, ‘It sounds like ‘Operation: Mindcrime’, but modern. A lot has happened since the late ’80s with sonics and technology and how we record things,” John explained. “Obviously, to me, that’s the greatest concept record of all time. So, to me, that’s why it’s so important that we do this record correctly. So a lot of it is continuing the story of Dr. X. And ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’ basically is ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ but from Dr. X’s point of view. I just got chills saying that, but that’s exactly it. So it’s a darker, heavier, kind of a more evil-sounding record, but with all of the themes from ‘Operation: Mindcrime’. It very heavily is influenced from ‘Operation: Mindcrime’… The lyrics are so incredible on this record. He’s really bringing it. I’m so honored to be a part of it.
He also addressed the delay in the project’s completion, noting that it has taken longer than expected after the initial announcement over a year ago.
There’s a lot of pressure on this record, I’m not gonna lie to you, that I put on myself, that I feel me and Geoff both feel. And we want it to be perfect, but we also want it to be timely. We don’t want it to sit here, like, ‘Hey, ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’,’ and then three years go by, nothing comes out. But at the same time, things that are great sometimes take a little time. So it’s not that the record’s not being written; it’s that it takes a little time to make it what we want it to be. So there’s remixes sometimes. Sometimes we get something and we’ll re-record a little section. Just we’re, like, ‘That’s not quite perfect,’ and we’ll go back and we’ll re-record it. But it’s getting there. Honestly, I feel like we’re 85% there, if not 90% there, done with this record. I’m about to get another track from him, in the next two weeks, which will make song number nine. And the song number 10 is out of my hands. Song number 10 is a song that the way it’s put together and his vision for it and my vision for it are a little different. So I told him, I said, ‘Okay, for this song in particular, I want you to work with someone else on this song.’ I feel like he and I are just gonna battle each other too much about it. And right now, he and I have a cohesive vision on these nine songs. And we’re killing it. And then when he and I kind of discussed song number 10, which is sort of… It’s a thing. [Laughs] Some of these songs are things, man. It’s not a song; it’s like a dramatic movement. It’s like a operatic storyline. And I hear it a totally different way than he hears it. And so I was, like, ‘Okay, for this one song, I want you to go back to the original songwriter,’ who’s a producer of his own right, and I said, ‘Why don’t you just work with him? And you guys finish that song on your own.’ And his name’s Kieran [Robertson], and Kieran’s out with Geoff right now anyways touring. So I’m just, like, ‘You’re already out with Kieran. Just work with him and do this last song.’ So I’ll end up doing nine songs on the record, production-wise.
Finally, Moyer expressed his enthusiasm, stating that he is “so excited” for audiences to experience “Operation: Mindcrime III.”
The first single is so fricking good, I can’t get over it,” he said. “Everyone I play for just goes, ‘Wow. Geoff Tate is back and he’s killing it.’ And it’s so ‘Operation: Mindcrime’, bro. It’s with all the vocals and everything over it, the sound effects. There’s this one song… And a lot of the songs are sung… It’s basically sung from Dr. X’s point of view. So Geoff really gets into character, and you can hear this menacing tone and sort of this ‘do as I say, I know what’s right’ attitude that happens throughout the record. It’s reallypowerful. I’m so proud of it and I think it’s gonna do very well, and I think it’s something the fans have been waiting for.
