Michael Wilton Talks New Queensrÿche Album and 2025 Goals
The guitarist reveals the band's approach to creating fresh material and reflects on their decades-long journey.
- Queensrÿche is working on demos for a new album, aiming to start recording in 2025, despite the challenges of a busy post-pandemic tour schedule. Chris ‘Zeuss’ Harris is expected to produce.
- Michael Wilton reflected on Chris DeGarmo’s departure in 1997, explaining how the founding guitarist left to pursue a career in aviation, marking a pivotal moment in the band’s history.
- The band continues to blend classic hits with new material during live shows, proving they’re still thriving after decades of evolution.
Queensrÿche guitarist Michael Wilton spoke with Robert Cavuoto (for MyGlobalMind). Touched on new record plans? Absolutely. Also reflected on the many twists and turns the band has faced over the decades (and there have been plenty).
He’s juggling the usual madness: tours (post-pandemic hustle) plus studio time. Who’s surprised when he mentions the challenges? No one. The man says: “Yeah, we have submitted a bunch of demos to each other, and we’re working on that. We hope to get Chris ‘Zeuss’ Harris, the producer, to do this one.”
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That’s not the only hurdle. Gotta find time for an album when the entire world demands live gigs right now. His words: “We’re in a situation of touring post-pandemic, where the bands have to tour a lot. And we do a lot of fly dates as well. It’s hard to pick a certain amount of time to get another album done. But we are gonna do another one. And hopefully, we can get it started or recorded in 2025.”
He also recalled the big change in 1997, when founding guitarist Chris DeGarmo left to become a pilot (people still talk about it). Wilton explained: “Yeah, I think we had reached a certain peak at that point. And he was looking for a change of pace. I mean, you could see in the last album he wrote — he was talking about flying a lot. So he literally started going to school for flying, and to this day that’s what he’s doing. But, yeah, I think we needed some time to just kind of refresh and see if we could go on without him. But anyway, we gave it our best shot, and it took a while. And now you’ve got all these different versions of the band throughout our career.”
That didn’t kill Queensrÿche (far from it). Wilton noted his chemistry with DeGarmo back when they crafted riffs together, scene of many a magical idea: “Chris and I were great writing partners. We just kind of knew what each other was thinking when we would write double solos or write parts for songs and just bounce ideas off each other. So, those were great times. But, yeah, it just kind of burned itself out.”
He claims the band is still going strong—classic tracks, new songs, the whole deal. His exact statement: “We’re doing great right now. We’re having a great time and still playing the old stuff but playing the new stuff as well,”
Might be a while before that new album drops (tour life, etc.). Talk is cheap, but if they pull it off, hey—it’ll be worth cranking up once the first riff lands.
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A raw conversation about the absence of faith, the freedom of no purpose, and the band's upcoming European tour.
