It was co-written, and originally produced and mixed by Jason Slater, who has previously also produced Queensrÿche's albums Operation: Mindcrime II (2006), American Soldier (2009) and Dedicated to Chaos (2011).
It was revealed to the public on 28 April 2014 that Geoff Tate lost the rights to the Queensrÿche trademark. After the settlement was announced, Tate changed the name of his version of Queensryche to Operation: Mindcrime.
Queensrÿche's twelfth album, Dedicated to Chaos, was released in 2011 to a mixed reception, with some critics giving positive reviews, and others panning the album due to great stylistic differences to previous albums.
Furthermore, it became apparent that there were tensions between lead vocalist Geoff Tate and the rest of the band. These tensions openly manifested themselves at a concert on April 14, 2012 in São Paulo, Brazil, when Tate, who was irate over the firing of his wife and stepdaughter as the band's manager and fanclub manager, respectively, allegedly physically assaulted and spat on drummer Scott Rockenfield and guitarist Michael Wilton. After hoping to reconcile with Tate, the other founding members Rockenfield, Wilton and bassist Eddie Jackson decided to fire him. Meanwhile, Jackson, Rockenfield, Wilton and guitarist Parker Lundgren had been working with another vocalist, Todd La Torre, under the name "Rising West", playing material from the first five Queensrÿche albums. Following Tate's expulsion from the band, La Torre was officially announced as Tate's replacement.
Tate subsequently filed a preliminary injunction lawsuit, disputing ownership of the band name, that resulted in a verdict that both Tate and the other band members were allowed to use the band name until the next court date, scheduled for November 2013. Tate subsequently started his own version of the band featuring former Queensrÿche guitarist and producer Kelly Gray, guitarist Glen Drover (Eidolon, King Diamond, Megadeth), bassist Rudy Sarzo (Blue Öyster Cult, Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake), drummer Bobby Blotzer (Ratt) and keyboardist Randy Gane. Drover was later replaced by Robert Sarzo, and Blotzer with Simon Wright (AC/DC, Dio). Tate's band went on an "Operation: Mindcrime Anniversary Tour", and lost the name Queensrÿche to the other remaining band members in April 2014.
The title, release date, track listing and artwork of the album were announced on March 4, 2013, a few hours after the original Queensrÿche, with Todd La Torre on vocals, announced the release date of their album, Queensrÿche. A press release states that "F.U. might be perceived as a fitting tribute and salutation", and later clarifies: "Coincidental abbreviation? Unlikely." The abbreviation "F.U." is further emphasized on the album artwork, and is often used in English as a synonym for the profane expression "Fuck you". Todd La Torre, the frontman of Queensrÿche in Tate's place, feels that the artwork is "below the belt" and said that subliminal insults are "not what Queensrÿche was about", further emphasizing by saying "when one talks about devaluing the name or the brand of Queensrÿche, it's so obvious that when you're putting a fist with an 'FU' in a clever way to say that's Frequency Unknown, but we know what it's really likely to be standing for, (...) that doesn't add credibility or respect to the name and brand of Queensrÿche."
However, when Tate was asked how he came up with the title Frequency Unknown and whether the FU or the Frequency Unknown? came first, he said: "I’ve been trying to come up with an answer for that because I knew I would be asked. I haven’t really come up with one yet." When Eddie Trunk inquired about the F.U. initials being aimed towards his former bandmates, Tate responded: "Oh gosh, people read so much into everything. It's kind of funny, isn't it?"
In later interviews, Tate did explain the title. In May 2013, he said:
"When you are making music and you are putting a song together you have all these different parts that are supposed to work together. Sometimes when you are listening back to it something’s doesn’t click. There is a theory in the engineering world if you dial in these unknown frequencies nobodies knows what it is you find the weak spot of the song. It kind of gels together and all of a sudden it is now great. Like there it is it all comes together because I dialed in this frequency. But no one can tell you what this frequency is. It is an unknown thing. That became a little studio phrase that got thrown around while we were working on the project and that became the title of the record."
Later, he called it...
"...this certain frequency of equalization that brings all the notes and the whole mix together; it becomes incredibly focused at that point. It’s this unknown frequency that you’re always looking for, and nobody knows what it is. You just start fiddling with the dials until it sounds good to everybody."
The fist on the album cover would originally be Tate's own fist, but a different hand model was used because Tate wanted a more masculine-looking fist with hair on the knuckles.
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