In a new interview with Chile’s iRock.cl, QUEENSRŸCHE singer Todd La Torre was asked how the band’s sound has changed since he joined the group 13 years ago as the replacement for QUEENSRŸCHE’s original vocalist Geoff Tate. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I think that the band kind of got its sound back, more of the roots, the heavier kind of sound that QUEENSRYCHE was known for early on. There was a long period of time where the music got more adult contemporary and less hard rock and heavy metal and progressive and all of the different elements that QUEENSRŸCHE was kind of known for. So I think me being in the band — I mean, it could have been any other singer — has allowed these guys to completely write whatever they wanna write without it being turned down as being too heavy, for example, ’cause that had happened.”He continued: “I love the old classic stuff. We perform all the songs in the standard tunings like they were recorded, so there’s nothing downtuned that changes the way they sound. I think that’s helped contribute to kind of the resurgence of the band. But we just write songs, and sometimes I think, ‘Oh, I wanna write a masterpiece of a song like ‘Roads To Madness” or a great song like ‘Take Hold Of The Flame’ or — I don’t know — songs off of ‘[Operation:] Mindcrime’, for example. But we all have a great time and the chemistry in the band is perfect. We all are super, super close. We all get along off the stage so well that it really kind of… I think that the contribution that I bring in is the jokes, the laughter, the creativity with music and art idea, artistic ideas with album covers and video concepts and that kind of thing. I don’t know. That’s the best way I could answer it, is I’m just one fifth of QUEENSRŸCHE. But the band is in a very healthy state.”Regarding how he sees the future of QUEENSRŸCHE, Todd said: “Oh, man. I kind of see the future as kind of what we’re doing still. A lot of bands have retired, and we’re still out there. There’s nothing in the future that I see of the band retiring. I mean, we play about a hundred shows a year. So probably more of the same — just performing live shows, writing new songs and making new records and promoting our art that way. But, I mean, really it boils down to the live concert. That’s really what we are now.”Earlier this month, Todd was asked by Brazil’s Monsters Of Rock which “unexplored musical directions” he would like to see QUEENSRŸCHE go in on the band’s upcoming follow-up to 2022’s “Digital Noise Alliance” album. He said: “[We’re] kind of [doing] the same thing as what we’ve been doing. I mean, we don’t go in writing a record with a preconceived idea. We just get in a room and [go], ‘Hey, show me your guitar parts. What do you have in your mind?’ And we kind of all get together in a room and just see what happens in real time. So as far as unexplored musical directions… Personally, I’d love to hear more clean guitar on the next record, maybe some more spacious stuff, some more clean guitar. Orchestration is always fun to work with. It’s very huge and cinematic sounding. So those are fun things to play with. Maybe some different percussion things would be interesting to play around with again.”But, gosh, after 40-plus years, I think without completely changing the band, the band’s style of music, I don’t know that there’s really any too much unexplored musical directions,” he continued. “I mean, QUEENSRŸCHE’s kind of done a lot within the large space that QUEENSRŸCHE has to run around in. I mean, if we were to do something — we wouldn’t write a hip-hop song, we wouldn’t write a death metal song. So within the confines of what QUEENSRŸCHE kind of is, as diverse as it as it is, I don’t know what kind of unexplored musical directions there would be. On the next one, I mean, I would love to, like I say, play around with some other clean guitar sounds, maybe some more interesting percussion things — like the song ‘I Am I’ had some really neat percussion things going on.”Guitarist Mike Stone, who rejoined QUEENSRŸCHE in 2021, contributed guitar solos to the band’s latest studio album.Since late May 2021, Stone has been handling second-guitar duties in QUEENSRŸCHE, which announced in July 2021 that longtime guitarist Parker Lundgren was exiting the group to focus on “other business ventures.”Stone originally joined QUEENSRŸCHE for the 2003 album “Tribe” and stayed with the band for six years before leaving the group.For the past eight years, drummer Casey Grillo has been filling in for original QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield, who stepped away from the band’s touring activities in early 2017 to spend time with his young son.In October 2021, Rockenfield filed a lawsuit against guitarist Michael Wilton and bassist Eddie Jackson, alleging, among other things, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful discharge. A few months later, Wilton and Jackson filed a countersuit against Rockenfield, accusing him of abandoning his position as a member of the band and misappropriating the group’s assets to his own personal benefit. That dispute has since been settled out of court.[embedded content]