Mike Portnoy, James LaBrie interview (excerpts)

Vanessa Warwick: Before we talk about the album, I’d just like your views on the convention: is it heavy metal heaven or heavy metal hell?

Mike Portnoy: I love it. This is actually my fourth year coming, and it’s great because not only is everybody from the industry here – all the record company people, and the magazines and radio and all other band members and stuff – it’s a great opportunity for bands to showcase their new material. So many bands through the years have played here: Alice in Chains, Pantera, Soundgarden. So it’s great for the bands with albums coming out, but it’s also great for unsigned bands that come and meet people and make contacts and give out their demo tapes and stuff like that. It’s a great thing.

VW: It is but I think the first point of talking about the new record is that Kevin Moore has left the band. Could you explain what happened with Kevin? Why has he left?

James LaBrie: [joking] Actually he was eating too much of the rider food, so we had to get rid of him. [Mike laughs] No, it was something that gradually started to emerge over maybe the last year, year and a half. He’s just been listening to a lot of different styles of music and he’s been influenced by them greatly, which has taken him away from the band – of the direction that we’re going musically. It was becoming quite apparent to us that if it kept this way, it would just start to take away from the band. So it was best that he went his way; we’re going our way. Right now we’re just going to start auditioning keyboard players. We have a temporary keyboard player tonight; he might become the member – who knows – but we’re taking our time. We’re not making any hasty decisions and maybe it might be a month from now we have a member or six months down the road; we don’t know. But it’s all for the best, and we’re still friends with him, and we wish him the best.

VW: How did that affect the writing and recording of the album if you had somebody that wasn’t feeling 100% about what you were doing?

MP: Actually to be honest, he didn’t contribute as much to this album as he has in the past. Not to say his heart wasn’t into what went down. There’s a lot of compromising involved when writing the material, so what ultimately ended up on the album, he’s happy with and proud of. But he wasn’t contributing like he used to; his heart wasn’t into the direction and he lost his passion, and if you don’t have that, it’s not going to do anybody any good. He felt it was best for us to step aside and get somebody that will be passionate about the music the way we are.

VW: Of course, that’s very very important. Talking about Dream Theater in the live environment, you have a lot of like freeform jamming and improvisation. I think that comes across on this record as well, because there’s some jazz fusion-type things going on, but there’s also very heavy parts as well. Would you say that the contrasts are more than on previous efforts?

MP: I always say this, but it’s like this album is filled with every contradiction in the book. It’s like the heaviest album we’ve ever done, but at the same time the most dynamic. It’s the most progressive album we’ve ever done, but at the same time the most simplistic. So they sound like contradictions, but it really is just...

JL: ...out-of-the-box composition.

MP: It’s just diverse. I think it’s the most complete album we’ve ever done so far as styles and diversity. It just really runs the gamut.

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VW: You guys are what I would describe as a musician’s band because you are also talented in your own right as musicians. When you have that talent, do you have to walk a fine line between being self-indulgent, and being spontaneous and going with the flow? Is it a temptation to always push yourself as musicians to the limit?

MP: There’s a time and place for everything. For us, through the years we’ve realized the importance of a song, and there’s moments where you have to lay down and the song is the most important. There’s times like on the new album there’s an instrumental, so that really gives us a chance to just go nuts; there’s really no limits with an instrumental. And live we have our little improv jam sections and stuff, but there’s got to be a balance. You gotta be able to write a good song that people can appreciate and incorporate the musicianship into it.

JL: I was just going to say I think you’re aware of what’s going on around you at the same time, too. With Dream Theater, it’s really important that we evolve, we grow with each album to album. So you’re gonna be aware of being accessible to a wider range of people, but at the same time staying true to yourself, and the priority being that you’re giving it your best and you’re presenting the people with what you’re proud of musically.

VW: Maybe we could talk a little bit about the lyrics as well, James. Are you inspired by the music or do the lyrics come first, and what sort of topics have you broached on this album?

JL: With this band, everybody contributes to the lyrical writing. Myself personally, how I go about writing lyrics is I’m influenced by a lot of the literature that I read right. And obviously like everyone else, I’m affected by my environment my surroundings. So I think that’s where I get my inspiration for writing lyrics and I think it’s stuff that happens to you, stuff that you read; it’s always constant knowledge.

VW: ...your travels around the world?

JL: That definitely influenced all of us. Even with the musical direction that we went with this album, we were influenced by traveling the world and touring. It just lends itself more to give.

VW: Do you feel that you took any risks with this album, or do you feel that you didn’t really have to, that you had the blueprint and that you could follow on from Images and Words?

MP: Well, we didn’t want to repeat ourselves, of course. No band wants to do that. One thing I keep hearing constantly about this record – from people that have heard it already – they say it sounds nothing at all like Images and Words, but yet it’s still totally Dream Theater. And that’s important to us: to constantly be able to go in different directions. But you don’t want to do the same thing, you want to constantly grow and incorporate new styles and sounds and stuff.

VW: So the all-important question: when can we see Dream Theater touring Europe?

MP: We can’t wait.

JL: February or March we’ll be over in the UK and throughout Europe, and we’ll be rocking! [laughs]

VW: You always do whenever I’ve seen you! You’re a great live band and I really enjoy the show. Like I said, we’ve had so many requests for all your videos on Headbangers Ball. I know that people are really looking forward, so any final message to end on to viewers out there in Europe?

MP: We didn’t do any Beavis and Butthead impersonations this time, and we’re not going to! [laughs]