The Interview with Parker was taken by Aefa on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 @ the LKA Longhorn in Stuttgart
(with support from Marcela/Romania ;-)

Over the past few month many people have asked me who the new guy on guitar was, and as Geoff would say on stage:

"It's Parker Lundgren, baby!"

So I figured it would be a great idea to introduce Parker to the European audience. So here it is, the German Empire proudly presents Parker's very first European interview - and what a fun guy he is :-)

Tell me about your musical career: When did you start playing the guitar? Did you play in any local bands before you joined the band? I started playing when I was about 13. Right after that I started in a band, figured out a couple of cords and started playing with other friends who were just as bad at music as me at the time. I am from small town... ...are you from the Seattle area? It’s a really small town, about 3 hours away from Seattle. There was nothing to do, so I just practised guitar a whole bunch and the rest is history. I’ve been in probably 50 to 100 different bands *jokes*...

What music do you listen to privately? Do you have any favorite bands and influences?
I use the whole saying: A chef doesn’t really want to cook for himself when he gets home. It’s the same thing: You play metal, you practice and you play 4-10 hours a day. When you get home you don’t want to listen to Queensryche or Metal, you burn out on it. I don’t listen to a whole lot of rock, except for classic stuff that I grew up on, anything with good guitar, jazz guitar players, even country guitar players.

Do you have a favorite band, favorite guitar player? Favorite guitar player would have to be Django Reinhardt, a jazz guitar player. Have you been a Queensryche fan before you started playing with the Geoff Tate band? Of course, living in Seattle, I knew a lot of their music and I got the opportunity to audition for Geoff’s solo band. It was great playing in that band, and then when Mike Stone left Queensryche, I was at the right place at the right time, so it’s a dream come true. How did you get to join the Geoff Tate band? Did they have a regular audition? I was friends with a couple of people that were going to play in the band - or thought they were going to play in the band - but they ended up not making it. A drummer that I knew was friends with Geoff and he asked me to play guitar. So they put together this band, out of that whole band, everybody else got the boot, except me. And then he started filling in other people, Scott on drums. It was a weird situation with my friends, they asked me to play with them and then they ended not being in the band. Did you have any other career objective before you became a rock musician? I knew I was going do something in music – you really can’t get too many good day jobs with a tattoo on your neck *laughs* ...a banker maybe *lol*? That was a motivation tool. Before Queensryche I was working in a recording studio and also I taught guitar. I figure - you’re 23 now? Out of school, I don’t think you saw yourself become a rock star that fast? Oh no, I never thought I could play music for a living, which has always been my goal.

When Queensryche announced you were touring with them, did you have a certain time frame in which you had to learn all the songs, or did you know how to play them long before you joined the band?
I kind of expected it. I saw what was happening with the band. I got wind that Mike Stone might be leaving so I learned a lot of the material beforehand. I never really played with Whip or Ed, and Scott and Geoff wanted me to be in the band. Whip didn’t really know me and he had a bunch of people that he wanted to play in the band. Of course they know a lot of great musicians they’ve met over the years. He probably called a lot of guitar players, but the time frame was really short. So there wasn’t a whole lot of opportunities because nobody can learn three albums in a month, it’s really tough.

It is a big step to perform with Queensryche who have been around for so many years. How did you handle all the outside pressure? It was looking back when Mike Stone and also when Kelly Gray joined the band, I heard there was going be lots of critical people, so it was kind of expected. I actually thought that people were a lot more accepting than I had expected... ...the Fanclub people are pretty much accepting... Yeah, I think they respect Queensryche’s decision – that helped a lot. I really just wanted to try to play the material as best as I could and try not to make any mistakes. After that, now that the band is tight, you loosen up and have fun. The question everyone is curious about - how is it to be on tour with Geoff Tate who is your future father-in law? I am sure people out there cringe at the thought of touring with their father-in-law, but when your father-in-law is Geoff Tate it’s not bad at all... ...I was not suggesting it’s bad ;-). But isn’t it more difficult? Not really. It’s like dating your best friend’s sister. That’s the kind of relationship – there are certain things you are not going to say in front of them, but everyone in the band and the crew, we are all good friends. We tour the road, have fun together. This last tour Geoff brought out three of his daughters, his wife and their three dogs. It’s like the whole family is on tour, it’s like a vacation. We separate family and business and everything has been great so far. I don’t know if this is a silly question – but I have been wondering: why did you and Whip change sides on stage? It had to do with the techs. On this tour Jason [Ames] Saunders is playing guitar, too. Most people have a tech assigned to each band member, but we just have two really good techs, they can do it all. One tech in particular can only do drums, we had to switch sides so he can cover me and drums and Ed on bass.

There has been some confusion about your status in the band. When they first announced you were going to join Queensryche, they announced you to be filling in for the tour. Then I was quite surprised that when the autographed Fanclub pictures were sent out, you were part of the band. So what is the current status?
Queensryche is always going to be a four piece band and they are always going to have a fill-in guy. So I don’t see myself as part of the band at all and I don’t think anybody else does. I guess the photos are just for the tour, for the time being. If you look back at the Fanclub photos...