QUEENSRŸCHE Guitarist Says His Side-Project Has Been Compared To ALICE IN CHAINS And TOOL

August 12, 2004

QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton has spoken to Straight.com about SOULBENDER, his side-project with ex-MY SISTER'S MACHINE vocalist Nick Pollock. SOULBENDER are scheduled to open for the DEVIN TOWNSEND BAND at the Showroom Cabaret in Vancouver, B.C. on Saturday (August 14).

"A lot of people are apparently comparing it to ALICE IN CHAINS and TOOL," Wilton said of his new project. "It's a little more freeform [than QUEENSRŸCHE], and it's not operatic. It's more kickin' with it, you know."

Wilton told Straight.com that he and Pollock have been trying to get the project off the ground for a while but that he's had to work on SOULBENDER in between QUEENSRŸCHE duties. "So it's gonna be kinda like Maynard of TOOL," he said, referring to vocalist Maynard James Keenan, who pulls double duty in TOOL and A PERFECT CIRCLE. "I'll do a little tour here with one band and a little tour there with the other band."

The SOULBENDER CD is available on Wilton's "pseudo record label", Licking Lava, but the group are shopping it to the majors, and the guitarist is confident one of them will snap up the group. The quintet has only played three shows so far — all of them sellouts — but Wilton expects many more. "The band is willing and ready to tour," he explains, "and once we get a good marketing plan and get a bunch of people behind us, we certainly will. We've already had interest over in Europe, so..."

Regarding QUEENSRŸCHE's upcoming North American tour, which will see the group perform the 1988 concept album "Operation: Mindcrime" in its entirety, Wilton said, "There'll be a few surprises in there as well. And then eventually, when we get off the road and have some time to write, we'll tackle the next album, which from a lyrical standpoint is going to be a continuation of 'Operation: Mindcrime'."

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