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Creatively speaking in regards to writing music, how is it different now as opposed to Warning, Rage when it came to writing songs? MICHAEL: Well obviously I am older now. Back then, I was in my early twenties. But now I am seasoned. I can hear things, feel things, and see things more clearly and instantaneously. With technology, I can get it into the computer faster before it disappears. I never feel like I’ve made it or I perfected what I had done. I am always figur- ing out and learning something new so I think that keeps me going because I can’t master it. Photo: Gary Brown Reported by RTFX Neue Regel Radio [email protected] Do you feel that the vibe is still there like it used to be when you punched a button and hit a track whereas today we have all of this technology? MICHAEL: Well again, with all the technology, it’s changed. The artists now don’t have to spend huge amounts of money to rent studios now. Al- though, people still use them. A lot of bands, like us, tour a lot. When you tour on the weekends, it’s kind of hard to open up six weeks of time to record so a lot of it is fragmented. So you can do differ- ent portions of the recording, go tour, come back and do more recording, and then come back and finish it. We’ve found that a lot of bands are start- ing to do that now. All of a sudden your recording time is during the time when you just got added to the M3 Festival or something that you can’t turn down. So producers are more flexible now. They’re mobile and I think they have to be to con- stantly have work and you have to be flexible as well. When it’s work time, you’ve got to get in that zone and shut everything off. How’s Scott doing? How’s the new addition doing? Have you talked to Scott? MICHAEL: Yeah. He’s loving it. He’s kind of at that point where he has given so much to music and Queensryche and everything, he just wants a little time to see his kid grow. He wants to be there when he takes the first step because he missed that with all his other kids. He’s doing good. My daughter had a baby boy so now I’m a grandfather. The circle of life it just keeps going on. But yeah, we’re all doing good. The kids are all healthy and it’s an amazing thing. Continued on page 43: TAKE ME THERE NOW! Inset Photos : (top left) Kimberly Ann Page 11 Page 11