James LaBrie: Vocal Injury Caused Strain With Mike Portnoy, Rest Of Dream Theater Was ‘Behind Me 100 Percent’

In advance of Dream Theater's imminent release, 'Distance Over Time,' frontman James LaBrie opened up about the band's evolution, its impact, the latest album and 'the darkest place' he'd been as a performer and its effect on the band.

Dream Theater is perhaps the most well-known and widely acclaimed progressive metal band on the face of the Earth, having skyrocketed to fame on the heels of 1992’s Images and Words and having maintained a high profile ever since. As a lifelong metalhead, Dream Theater always spoke to me – and legions of others – on a visceral yet emotional level, layers of meaning and metal wrapped up in an unerring musicality.

Lead vocalist James LaBrie has fronted the band for nearly 30 years, beginning with Images and Words and providing soaring performances throughout the band’s entire discography – up to and including their most recent album, Distance Over Time. I recently had the opportunity to sit down and speak with James, our conversation spanning topics ranging from the band dynamic to the MeToo movement to the stirring poetry of Carl Sagan, the latter of which spawned the song “Pale Blue Dot” on their most recent release.

Scheduled for a February 22 release, Distance Over Time is a powerful album, the tracklist frenetically conjuring the breakneck energy and technical wizardry for which the band has become famous. From the darkly stirring “At Wit’s End” to the dynamic and daring “Fall Into The Light,” virtuoso-level musicianship and poetic lyrics combine to make this release one of their best in years.

My conversation with the voice of Dream Theater was earnest yet casual, at once light-hearted and dreadfully serious. Words – and their meaning within the context of the band’s lyrics, as well as the wider world – were discussed at length, teased out, and laid bare. And by the end of it, I’d come away with the sense of having spoken with a man of intellectual curiosity, creativity, and great empathy. All essential traits for the frontman one of the world’s leading metal and hard rock groups.

Don’t take my word for it – continue reading and discover the truth for yourselves.

Nicholas Morine: I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today. I’ve been a fan for years and years, since Metropolis Pt. 2.

James LaBrie: Oh wow! So you’re going to have to see this tour, seeing how we’re doing that album in its entirety.

NM: Very stoked to see how that pans out for you guys!

JL: For sure!

NM: So, Dream Theater’s next album is slated for release February 22 – what can you tell me behind the creative process behind ‘Distance Over Time’?

JL: It was a little different from what we’d done previously, inasmuch as we actually lived together. We were in a house, about 100 meters from the studio. I think that really provided the environment that was necessary – or that we thought was necessary – to create the type of album that we ended up with. In the sense that we were isolated. We severed ourselves from any of the other domesticated things that go on in everyone’s lives. And we were able to just mainly focus on the whole writing process and the whole creation of this album.

I mean, that being said, there would be a few days here or there where someone would have to leave. But not enough where this would interrupt someone else working, or a couple of guys working other parts out. But for the most part, it was all of us there from beginning to end – just being focused on the songs, on the writing on the songs.

I think that the fact we were able to gather, it just allowed us – whether it was a glass of wine, or whether we were out back barbecuing steaks or burgers – to have a conversation that always came back to the music. It was a constant cultivation of ideas. Whether it was something that we were presently working on or something that we felt – a direction that we felt we needed to go – being around one another all of the time was an advantage.

We haven’t done the living together thing since Images and Words. Difference being, Images and Words was already written. It was just a matter of living together while we actually recorded the tracks. This was different in that everything, from beginning to the end, writing and recording was done there.

Although, myself personally, when it comes to recording the vocals – I always do that in a remote location. Usually up around Toronto. The rest of the guys, they record it at the studio. That’s just the way I like to work. Myself and the engineer – and leave me alone! [laughter] You know?

NM: I think that’s the artist’s prerogative if I’m not mistaken.

JL: Yeah! No, absolutely. Absolutely. And everyone has their comfort zone, so. Over the years we’ve all come to respect that. The other guys are fine with being in the studio and recording the parts. We had James Meslin – who we refer to as ‘Jimmy T’ – he was our engineer throughout the entire process. So those guys would work with Jimmy T at the Yonderbarn, which is where we wrote and recorded.

Myself, I worked with Rich Chycki. If we go back to the ’80s I was in a band called Winter Rose with him. He went on to be an extremely successful engineer, and he’s worked with Dream Theater over the course of the past three albums – engineering and mixing. But I’ve been working with Rich off and on for the last 30 years, you know? So we have an almost unspoken language. When I go in to do my vocals, he knows exactly where I’m coming from – and I know where he’s at. It’s just a very productive session.

NM: Right on. That’s interesting, it sort of ties into my next question – which is how does the creative process behind ‘Distance Over Time’ compare to writing and recording ‘Images and Words’ given the time that has elapsed in the interim?

JL: With ‘Images and Words,’ let’s put it this way. This album was my inception into the band. They had recorded ‘When Dream and Day Unite’ in 1989, and that was with Charlie Dominici. You know, as history says and everybody knows, they parted ways with Charlie.

They had about a two year period where they were working on material, writing material, that ultimately became the material for ‘Images and Words.’ In fact, ‘A Change of Seasons’ was written with the intent that that was going to be on ‘Images and Words’ as well, but the label at the time said ‘absolutely not. We can’t invest in you guys doing a 24 minute opus.’

So they basically said no to that, so that eventually did come out on its own. But they had two years there to kind of write that material, so that’s completely different from this session. This took us almost 19 days to write, ‘Distance Over Time.’ The other thing was that when we were actually recording ‘Images and Words’ – as I have been mentioning – the material was written. Everything was set in stone. It was just a matter of getting the tracks done.

Nowadays anyone can be anywhere and lay down any kind of recording that you want due to technology. You know, Pro Tools – you could set it up in your closet [laughter].

Aside from drums, you can record anything and get a great take. With this album and what we’ve been doing recently is, we always have a Pro Tools system running. As the ideas were being formulated, and once we felt that a section of a song was exactly where we need it to be, then the guys – the instrumentalists – would actually rehearse it. Get it to a point where they felt – ‘Yeah. This is great. Let’s go for it.’

Whether that section was a minute long, 50 seconds long, a minute and a half, whatever – they’d record it as a band. Then lay that down, and then work on the next section, and then piece it together to the point where we have an entire song.

That’s the beauty of it, though. At the end of the day, we could sit down and crank anything that we had written that day out of these speakers – and really be able to reflect upon whether we were going exactly where it was that we wanted to go. So you can move forward quite quickly because of technology.

NM: Almost like an instantly iterative process.

JL: Yeah! There you go.

NM: To have that feedback immediately, and work with that. Instead of sending the tape away to be mixed, put together, brought back to be used maybe weeks later.

JL: Absolutely. Exactly.

NM: On the second part of that, sort of on the social side of that experience… James, I saw you quoted as saying that the whole experience was sort of like ‘going back to summer camp’ – which of course sounds awesome. What sort of mischief, both productive and perhaps unproductive, did you and your bandmates engage in during that time?

[shared laughter]

NM: Had to get you with that one. Had to.

JL: I would say that the mischief, if anything, would be that maybe a couple of nights here and there we had a little more wine or whiskey or whatever than was intended. But, you know, for the most part, we were extremely focused.

You have to remember, we’re going into these sessions, Nick, at 12 noon or 1 o’clock in the afternoon. We were usually in the studio until about 10 or 11 or even midnight. You’re fried by the time you’re done. You’re just like ‘Okay man, see you guys later. I’m going back to the house!’

You get a little snack and then you go to your room – we each had our own bedrooms. If you want to read or watch something on the tube. Then you crash. I would think it was more than 90 percent extremely productive.

As I said, we were very focused. We were there to finish something and accomplish something. We originally thought it was going to take, let’s say four or six weeks. Maybe at most eight weeks. Like I said, we were done in a few weeks and we were kind of looking at each other going, ‘Holy sh*t!’

Basically what we have left to do is, let’s write the vocal melodies – which John and I, and Jordan also got involved toward the end – we wrote the melodies very quickly. And then it was a matter of whoever is going to do the lyrics for each song, and boom.

I would never suggest a band doing what we did if the relationships are under somewhat under strain. You hear a lot of horror stories in bands. I don’t know if it would be a good idea if bands were trying to get through that process, which would be unfortunate to begin with – to start living together.

But we’ve gone through all of our growing pains. We’ve come to accept all of our idiosyncrasies and our OCD qualities here and there. So we respect one another and we realize that we’re all the same at the end of the day – we all have our things, we all like things a particular way, a specific way. It just seems natural now. It’s an unspoken language that seems to flow quite easily.

It was a great experience, and there were a lot of great times. We were having fun, we were able to let our hair down and just – as much as we were there for the musical end of things, we were also able to remember that we also are great friends. Having those conversations, you know. Whether it be about our families, whether it be politics, whether it be the social issues at hand around the world.

It was a great experience. I think we will probably – as we loved it so much – end up doing it again.

NM: Awesome. Very important to maintain those relationships with the people you work so closely with over the years.

JL: It’s imperative for sure.

NM: So this year will mark 20 years since the release of Metropolis Pt. 2, and your history with the band goes back much further than that. How has the dynamic of the band changed or evolved in the years since?

JL: It’s always been pretty much a collective effort, which I think is healthy for any band. Everyone is involved, some more than others, but the fact that it is a collective effort helps to really represent who and what we are as a band. That with the exception of ‘The Astonishing,’ which everyone knows John and Jordan went in and wanted to create this theatrical, epic rock opera.

I was mentioning earlier, Nick, when you come into this business and then you start having success – and we’ve had a lot of success, and we’re very fortunate to be where we are and to have been doing what we do for as long as we have – it doesn’t happen without learning how to deal with one another. How to keep that interaction respectful. How to cultivate those relationships. Because, without them, then the band doesn’t exist, and we see that happening all of the time, where bands are splitting up.

That probably is the most difficult thing for any band to do. We’re fortunate enough that we’ve been on a great wavelength for quite some time as far as relationships go. I think that dynamic in itself – if you don’t have to contend with any contempt or any kind of animosity, you can really focus on the things that matter.

I would like to think the only dynamics that are happening in this band are musical. [laughter]

NM: Getting back to ‘Distance Over Time,’ I just wanted to say that one song which really stood out to me was the epic-length ‘At Wit’s End.’ It’s actually become one of my personal favorites. Could you elaborate on that particular tune at all?

JL: Yeah – now that song at the end fades out and it comes back in. Did you know that when it fades back in, that the recording is then live off the floor?

NM: I did not!

JL: We just thought it sounded so cool, and that we would put a little Dream Theater easter egg in – is that what they call them?

NM: Yeah!

JL: It’s interesting. I remember when we started on that song. We were all feeling that vibe, that this is really shaping itself into a classic Dream Theater song. I remember when we were getting near the end of it. For the next two days that’s all we were hearing were all of the sections coming to life, playing it over and over and over again.

I remember we were all really stoked – like ‘Oh man! This is gonna be ridiculous when our fans get their heads wrapped around this.’

Then I had a really cool concept, and that’s why I said ‘I gotta write the lyrics to this, guys. I’ve got a really cool idea, and the way that it’s hitting me – the energy – it’s very sobering.’

It just seems to have a very dark kind of mode to it. The movements in it. It almost seemed like tragedy meets beauty. And so that’s why I wanted to write what I wrote about – basically a girl being defiled. Basically raped. How relationships, unfortunately, never do survive such a horrific situation.

Also being inundated nowadays with the MeToo movement and that, I think subconsciously, was something of a vehicle for me to want to write about such things. How women are still being looked upon as objects instead of intelligent human beings.

I think the world would be completely different if they were our leaders. It’s really cool that you’re focusing on that. I think another one on this album that really strikes me in the same vein would be ‘A Pale Blue Dot.’

NM: Incredible. It has a very ethereal presence. Of course based on Carl Sagan’s infamous speech of the same name.

JL: Oh yeah, oh yeah! Absolutely.

NM: One of the most stirring and philosophical pieces of prose. I’m a huge fan of science fiction and have encountered that speech many times. I did feel that sonically ‘Pale Blue Dot’ paid proper homage to what he was gesturing towards.

JL: Right! His big message was, ‘Be kind to one another. This is what we’ve got. This is it.’ No one has the definitive answer as to why life is what it is. If you think about even Neil Peart in Rush – ‘Why are we here? Because we’re here, roll the bones.’

Nobody’s ever going to be able to come up to you and go, ‘You’re here because this is a stepping stone to the next dimension…’

Yeah, really? I don’t think anyone has had that kind of knowledge and enlightenment. I don’t remember anybody coming back to tell us what’s awaiting each and every one of us.

When you hear his [Sagan] talk, and like you said – his philosophy – on who we are, what we are, why everything is what it is. The planet itself, and how isolated it is. Earth is literally an isolated speck in the vastness that surrounds us. That’s Dream Theater, let’s face it.

So many of our fans are completely into that. Not only the musical depth, but being able to talk about things that are a little more profound, lyrically. That’s something that has enamored our fans worldwide as well.

NM: That kind of leads into another question I have for you, which is – what kind of impact do you believe Dream Theater has had on the metal genre? And what do you hope to continue to do, and do in the future, with regards to the metal genre?

JL: Quite simply we want to be able to continue to build upon what we’ve already done. What we’ve already built. We want to continue to grow as a band. We still feel that there is so much more for us to accomplish musically – and I think the beauty of it is that we still all love doing what we do.

I think as far as what we’ve left and what we’ve created has really provided a lot of inspiration. It’s much more evident today than it was, let’s say, 10 or 15 years ago if you and I were having this same conversation. I would say ‘Well I’m hoping worldwide that we are leaving a mark.’

Well, now I know that’s undoubtedly true. You wouldn’t believe how many musicians or bands are saying something in the press – or when they meet us in person – telling us, ‘Hey, you know. When I was in public school. Or when in Grade 8. I was listening to you.’

And you start saying, ‘Oh my God! I have been doing this for a while!’ [shared laughter]

But I think it provided that catalyst for bands – young bands coming up – to say, ‘Hey man, there’s nothing wrong with me wanting to be more musical,’ and not necessarily thinking: ‘The only way I’m gonna make something of this is if I write something in the more pop direction or whatever direction seems to be more commercially rewarding.’

I think what happened is we helped to set something up where people can say ‘Well these guys did it, and look at that!’

How rewarding is that? How satisfying and gratifying is that? When you release something like that you will be able to stand behind it 100 percent because that’s exactly who you are. If success happens to follow, then beautiful. But if it doesn’t – so what? We’re still doing it on our own terms.

If you look around and you see the bands that are out there today – like a Periphery – they’re doing it. They’re making something of it, and it’s on their terms. They’re a young band, and they’re phenomenally talented, and they show it all of the time. How they write, and how they play.

I think it’s a great thing to be able to look back, reflect back. When we came out in 1992 with ‘Images and Words,’ we stuck out like a sore thumb. Grunge was still huge, and then for us to get a major label behind us – to say ‘we’re gonna get behind this and see what happens.’ Most people in the industry that were aware of that album and its release, truth be known, they thought ‘this is crazy! Who’s gonna resonate with this?’

And then it became a huge success, mainly on the basis that ‘Pull Me Under’ became a huge single. But that opened that door for us to be able to follow up and create such a long career as we have.

NM: Very true! We’ll talk about John [Petrucci] for a bit, switching gears. So John’s served as the band’s primary lyricist over the band’s last couple albums – and somewhat throughout the band’s discography – but I see you were credited with the lyrics on two of the tracks on ‘Distance Over Time.’ As a vocalist, does performing lyrics that you have composed yourself have a different meaning to you?

JL: You know, I’ve been asked that several times. Obviously, I’m going to feel a little more connection with it, because I wrote those words. But I’ve always said, for any vocalist who is singing, it’s up to them to be the most sincere and the truest interpreter of those words.

I think you have to internalize it. It has to become you in order for you to be able to translate it – and convey it – with absolute clarity. So that everyone gets it. Aside from the words, what the voice basically translates is emotion. For me, you know, if you’re really sinking into the subject matter – then you become that. You become whatever it is that is being spoken of. That, to me, has been my motto with everything. Whether it’s my lyric or someone else’s lyric.

NM: I think that makes sense to me. In terms of being an artist, it’s not just about the lyrics – it is – but about the method of conveyance, the tonality, the personality.

JL: Yeah! If you think about it, we go around the world, and there are many countries that we play where English is not their first language. But I think they still get it, just by how it’s being received. It’s the whole perception of the tonalities, the inflections, nuances in the voice that creates an understanding.

NM: That’s definitely true. I’m a big metal fan, of every subgenre there is. I don’t really discriminate in that fashion. The extreme metal subgenres for example, a lot of the lyrics – to many – would be considered unintelligible. But the voice is acting purely as an instrument, right?

JL: Exactly. I even do that with my solo albums. Peter Wildoer, the drummer, he’s doing the guttural voice. And to me, people say, ‘Why do you put that in?’

And I say, ‘Because it’s an added element. It’s another instrument to convey the emotion. To convey the frustration, or even the passion that is coming out.’

Because someone believes in what is being spoken at that particular moment. Everything, whether you actually can decipher the words or not, is a tool. It does become an instrument.

NM: So 25 years ago – this is a bit of a diversion, but still on the subject of vocal delivery – you ruptured your vocal cords and weren’t at 100 percent for years. In a recent interview, you mention that it may have affected your range for some time. What effect did that have on you mentally and emotionally as a performer?

JL: [deep breath] You think of the darkest place that you could go? That’s where I was. You have to remember, Nick, before that incident – it was food poisoning, my wife and I were down in Cuba, and I got violently ill. I don’t know if you’ve had food poisoning, but you’re literally delirious. You feel like hell, you’d probably be better off to actually lose consciousness.

At one point I think I did black out. My wife said, ‘You seem like you went out.’ I don’t remember actually blacking out. But anyways, it’s a horrible experience in and of itself.

Prior to that accident, I was able to sing anything effortlessly. If I got sick, yeah, I’d have to be smart and not try and push myself vocally – which is what every vocalist does when they do get ill on the road. You have to compromise with some of those notes. You have to befriend them [laughter] so to speak.

It was so severe. I bled onto my vocal cords. It wasn’t irreparable, but the ENTs that I’d met with had told me, ‘Actually, you shouldn’t be singing for six months. You shouldn’t be doing anything, you should be as quiet as you can.’

I was singing within 16 or 17 days afterwards. I was in Tokyo, Japan, screaming my guts out on the ‘Awake’ tour. It was probably the worst thing that I could have done.

I went to a really bad place. Before that – I’m not patting myself on the back, I’m just telling you the truth here – I was winning vocal accolades around the world. People were talking about it, everything was great. And then, from that moment on, people were saying ‘What the hell happened to LaBrie? What’s going on with his voice? How can it turn around so fast?’

And for the longest time, I was quiet about it, because I thought ‘I’m gonna recover. I’ll recover. And this’ll be yesterday’s news.’

And it took me a good 8 to 10 years before I felt that I had come back to a place that I had been, at one time. It was a horrible experience. It created strain – primarily with myself and Mike Portnoy. Just because he was like ‘Hey man, you used to be this f**kin’ world-class singer, what’s going on?’

So him and I, we started butting heads. It created a lot of friction there. The other guys, they were just – they were behind me 100 percent. They realized what I was going through. It’s everyone’s interpretation – how you interpret something, and how you deal with it.

It was bad. Even today I have to watch it. If I get ill on the road, I have to be very, very careful. I’ve found ever since then that my voice becomes more fragile than it might have been if I hadn’t had that accident. So when I do get ill, if I get a really bad cold or a sinus infection on the road, I am severely compromised. I have to barge my way through it to get myself to health again.

If I’m healthy? Not a problem. I’m able to stand up there and deliver the goods.

It definitely changed who I was as a vocalist, there’s no doubt about it. I felt where I was going before the accident I was going to be able to take it – there was no limit to where I was going to go vocally.

It was an unfortunate reality.

NM: At the same time, I would suggest that the success you’ve engendered since… having mounted that hurdle… having crossed that dark river…

JL: Yeah.

NM: … would’ve imparted so much understanding. In terms of both the composition of the work and the delivery of the work. There’s obviously a lot of emotion that goes into that, and to cross over to the other side – and to see even greater success on the other side…

JL: I’ll tell you what – it made me a stronger person. Everyone says when you go through the difficulties in life, you become better for it. I truly believe that.

But, you know what, though? I would say that I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Maybe I’m a stronger person because of it – but I would rather not have had to deal with that.

NM: I have just one more question for you if that’s okay. Do you have any advice to young men and young women who are looking to enter the profession – to join the heavy metal brotherhood and sisterhood themselves?

JL: Well, sure! My son has a band going on, so what I say to them – he’s in a band called FALSET – and they’re recording their first batch of tunes for their first album.

I said to him, ‘Listen, it’s a difficult industry that you’re walking in to. It’s different than it used to be. You’d put an album out, and it was based on sales. You’d get out there and support it.’

Now the way you sell yourself is by continuously touring. We’re fortunate that we don’t have to tour like some other bands. But I told him, I said, ‘All that it comes down to – if you love what you’re doing, and you truly believe that you have something here that’s unique and identifiable – that’s all that really matters. Make the best of it and do it 100 percent. Stick with it each and every day, and put your all into it. And you’ll more than likely be rewarded.’

NM: Thank you very much James, I really appreciate your time today.

JL: Thank you, Nick.

NM: And keep doing what you’re doing. You’re kicking ass and all of your fans are loving it man – at least I am.

JL: Love it. Thank you, appreciate it. Take care.