PROFILE: DREAM THEATER

Dream Theater Lineup: James LaBrie, vocals; John Petrucci, guitar; John Myung, bass; Mike Portnoy, drums

Label: East West Records

America Producers: Duane Baron and John Prudell

Album: Awake

First single: ‘Lie’

James LaBrie talks about:

First tour: “We did 194 shows in 127 cities and 17 countries. We sold out more than one show in a lot of towns when we toured with our debut album, Images and Words.”

Being the frontman: “I’ve never studied theater but I took some jazz dancing around the age of 20 years about the same time I was studying opera. I studied opera for four and one half years with Rosemary Patricia Burns who’s an incredible teacher and singer herself. I studied ‘The Mask’ which is the Italian way of teaching for the voice. Funny you mention acting because my manager wants to get me into some roles. We’ll see. I don’t want to just be a walk on. If I was ever going to approach acting I’d want to do something a little classier in a movie. There is this preconceived notion of rock and roller guys who got into movies..just give them a word and they won’t screw up.”

Signing with East West: “Derek Oliver got us signed and he’s our father. He’s good ole’ Pops. We’re playing New York tonight and a ton of people are coming to see us. Lucy Sabini has done incredible things for us too.”

The recording: “Actually it was eight weeks of recording and then two to three weeks of mixing and mastering. Images and Words was recorded, mixed and mastered in eight or nine weeks. Words was only 59 minutes and our new album is 75 minutes long.”

Producers: “We all thought that with the new album we’d move on to some new producers. We took our time in deciding who we thought would be best for us. We wanted to get some guys with a track record that sonically could give us a really heavy sound and that’s definitely noticable on Awake. We wrote with the harder sound in mind, more edgy and more agressive. As well, we kept in the classical, jazzy feel which is Dream Theater’s signature. What I did differently is the way I’ve always sung but on Images I sang totally clean. I wanted to bring back some of the way I’ve always sung even before Dream Theater and that is more dimension to the voice. I’m singing low, singing really high, singing clean and raspy which adds more character. There’s a lot more character to the voice when you listen to it for the listener.”

First record with a trained sounding voice: “I started singing when I was five and I had a teacher through elementary school with me. My father had me singing in a barber shop quartet when I was 12 and 13. My father has a beautiful voice. Throughout my teens I was in rock and roll bands and then at the age of 20 I studied opera. When people listen to this album they really hear the diminsion of my voice. In fact I’ve been asked if I sing on all the songs on this album. Emotionally the communication comes through really well what I’m feeling inside.”

‘The Mirror’: “When we play this song live people go nuts. When John comes in with the guitar the audience is really with us. The tune is really energetic and raw and people soak it in.”

‘Caught in the Web’: “Our next single. I really dig this tune. I came up with the concept lyrically and I wrote most of it. John Petrucci came in and wrote the chorus section. If I thought something was weak lyrically I’d speak up but melodically I partook in every song. What I do which is the job of any vocalist is to sit down with the lyricist and have him tell me in very few words what he’s getting at on the song even though I generally have a pretty good understanding myself. I always want to hear from the horses mouth and then what I’ll do is take that in and sit with it so when it’s time for me to really sing that song I can really interpret for the listener even if they didn’t understand every word. The listener can still feel it in some sense through the voice. I think that is very important for the vocalist to do that. That’s their job.”

Length of the songs: “One of the most gratifying things is when I do ‘Bump in the Sand’ or ‘At The Shore’ around shows or just walking through malls is that fans come up and say things like ‘I read the lyrics to such and such a song and it was incredible to read and it made me feel so much more in tune with the world or myself. To read it from someone else who was thinking what I’m thinking really makes me feel comfortable.’ The fact that we’ve touched something for them and made them feel better of themselves really is the best compliment in the world.”

Lyrics: “I think people are paying more attention to lyrics. I think for the most part the industry doesn’t give people enough credit. People have to be treated more or less on a cerebral sense. I believe people are being dictated to by shallow lyrical content. There’s nothing wrong with that but a lot more people out there especially with the way the world is going is that want something more meaningful said and more realistic.

There’s a lot of room for the fun lyrics but I think especially with a band like us it’s more on a serious note. We don’t want everything taken literally either because then you’re missing the gest of the music. It’s supposed to be taking you away on a plain of your own so that you can get away from everything.”

‘A Mind Beside Itself’: “That’s the trilogy. It’s a 20 minute, three song trilogy featuring an opening instrumental. We slowly composed it to the point where it is now. What we did, the way we write a lot of our music is in a rehearsal studio and jammed it out. We have a tape running all the time so if we land onto a cool groove or cool section then we take it step by step and build onto until we get to the point where we’ve completed the idea or message. It takes time. It’s was trial and error. For the most part, I’ve got to tell you that on this album we had so many ideas going on inside each guy individually and then as a band just getting together. We were so ready to go to write new stuff that the excitement and electricity was there just to lend itself to writing. Everything was written before we got together with the producers.”

‘Voices’: “Cultural Revolution is Prix-mo’s band. We were working at Devonshire Studios and I had finished my vocal tracks. There’s this section that really called for a low, deep, resonant voice so we asked one of the assistant engineers if he knew anyone and he told us about Prix-mo. We had the words written down and he came in and narrated the section in time with the music. He was great we had to give him credit.”

Kevin Moore: “He played an important part on this album. He’s an incredibly talented person. We saw it coming for a while. We didn’t really want to admit it. In retrospect we look back and when we talk now we knew there was something there that wasn’t right. For maybe six months Kevin was going in a different direction. His musical direction was very much different from ours. We were more and more separated in our ideas to the point that it was obvious that he had to move on with his stuff. We needed to find someone who was more understanding and in synch with where we’re going musically. We’re all still great friends and we wish him the best. I talked to him recently and he’s doing great. He’s in Santa Fe writing music. It’s all for the best when you have any negativity within a band sooner or later if it’s around long enough it starts to pull everyone else down. We have Derek Sherinian touring with us now and he’s a very talented keyboardist. He studied at Berklee School of Music as well and he’s working out great. We haven’t decided if he’ll become a full member or not but we’re going to have a keyboard player for a member. Everything is pointing in that direction. Six months down the road after touring that much longer if we still feel the same then he’ll then become the new member of Dream Theater.”

Stage show: “It’s pretty impressive. The lighting and visual aspects of the show are very stimulating as well as the audio which is most important for us.”

Favorite track: “My favorite song is ‘Scarred’. I really get to express myself on this one.”

The cover: “Once again we all sat down and started thinking conceptually of what we could put into the artist end of things that would lend itself to explaining the album lyrically and musically. It all says Awake!

Touring: “It’s really going to be great coming through all these different territories and playing new material as well as from Images and Words. So far the response had been incredible. This new material really lends itself to a lot of energy and excitement off stage. It’s really exciting. We’re out with a Canadian band called I Mother Earth and they’re great. I don’t mind supporting my Canadian brothers at all. Half way through the tour we’ll pick up Fates Warning for the rest of the tour beginning November 10 in St. Louis.”