Dream Theater: Scenes From Memory Bliss

Billy Lenoir

September 04, 2000

Exclusive Interview: Pure Rock Patroller Billy Lenoir Goes One On One With Dream Theater’s James LaBrie To Uncover The Memories Behind The Dream

It all started in 1985. Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, and John Myung were all attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. The three of them jammed together as often as possible in the practice rooms of Berklee and during the school breaks they would jam with keyboardist Kevin Moore. Playing day and night, the band began to take form, eventually crowning themselves Majesty. Majesty forges ahead and gets signed to Mechanic Records, adding vocalist Chris Collins.

During their practices and the writing sessions of their upcoming album the band realizes that Chris does not have the vocal range they need. In addition to replacing the singer, the band changes their name to Dream Theater. Brining in Charlie Dominici to replace Chris, the band cuts their debut album When Day And Dream Unite. Despite critical acclaim, the band was never happy with Charlie and he was subsequently fired in 1990. The band continued to write songs and play on as an all-instrumental band hoping to run across the vocalist they envisioned.

Fast forward to 1991 and enter Kevin James LaBrie, the perfect vocalist for Dream Theater. They record their sophomore effort Images And Words and the single “Pull Me Under” is released to college radio. A huge success at college the level, word gets out to the national market and “Pull Me Under” goes skyrocketing up the charts! Many tours follow and the group finally begin to get the recognition they deserve.

Cut to August 1994. Halfway through recording their third album Awake, keyboardist Kevin Moore decides to part ways from the band. Dream Theater calls on Jordan Rudess for a one-off show before taking out Derek Sherinian on the road on the tour to support Awake. In April of 1995 the band goes back in to the studio and records an EP called A Change Of Seasons, the title track being a 23 minute epic and the rest cover songs the band had been performing live. Finally, on September 23, 1997, their fourth album, Falling Into Infinity , was released. With its following growing greater with each album and tour.

Again in January of 1999 the band would make another lineup change, releasing keyboardist Derek Sherinian and replacing him with Jordan Rudess. This year would prove to be one of the biggest for Dream Theater fans around the world. The band releases their next album, Scenes From A Memory, an intense progressive album and one of their strongest to date.

In the midst of a world tour to support Scenes From A Memory, KNAC.com had a chance to hook up with Dream Theater singer James LaBrie on August 24 2000 in Dallas, Texas at the Bronco Bowl. When I arrived, I was greeted by Pete, the band’s manager, who led me to a room where there sat James waiting for me. This was a huge event for me, since I have been following the band for 10 1/2 years! I walked in the room, was introduced by Pete to James and away we go!

KNAC.com: So how’s it going James?

James: It’s going great!

KNAC.com: So how’s the tour going?

James: It’s going well, I mean you have to take into consideration that it’s the summer. There’s a lot of bands out there and people only have so much money, but you know we’re doing really well. I mean I expected the numbers would be really light and actually it’s pretty steady, it’s pretty strong. This whole tour, we’ve been out for 10 months now, and we’ll be done near the end of Oct finishing in the UK. But it’s been going excellent, the last time through the states was pretty well sold out everywhere.

KNAC.com: I remember you guys played in the Canyon Club next door and you guys were visibly upset about it!

James: Ohh, absolutely! It was really upsetting to us because that room we had played in sold out in one day and when it had gone on sale we still weren’t going to be here for another month. They could have sold this place out! That’s why we were a little ticked. It was all the same. We were playing over in that little club, and this is where our dressing rooms were one here, one down the hall, and we’re seeing this big empty room just sitting there. We were going, what the hell! We could have understood if we came here and all the other rooms were booked up. But the fact this big room is just sitting here empty, that’s really what got us. We were like, wait a minute, you guys could have easily said, “Here’s additional tickets on sale, the concert has been moved to the Bronco Bowl” and it would have worked out great, we would have had a blast!

KNAC.com: And you guys weren’t able to use all of your setup were you?

James: No way! We maybe were able to use 1/4 of all our equipment. We had a ton of equipment, a whole sound system, like you’ll hear tonight, a whole lighting setup, and here we are going to play in a closet! (laughs) It was really stupid, but you know that’s the way the industry is sometimes things happen, or I should say a lot of times things happen and they just don’t add up.

KNAC.com: So how do you go about before a show, warming your voice up?

James: I think one of the most important things a vocalist can do is get a lot of sleep. I try to get up to 10 hours a night. Vitamins, exercise, and obviously drinking a lot of liquids are very important. I drink a lot of water, and a couple of hours before the show I start to drink tea & honey, which works really well for me. Then about 30 minutes before the show, I start doing what’s called “Clept” scales. I just start warming up very slowly, starting at low tons and then working my way up the scale.

KNAC.com: Did you have anything to do with John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy’s backup vocals?

James: No, I think it’s like anything. I think once you do it a bit more often you become a little more comfortable with it. You figure out ways to sound better vocally. The only thing we would have done is just go thru it very, very few times in the rehearsal studio. But they basically have guided themselves. Sometimes John will ask for a tip to warming up, but you can’t really communicate in a 10-minute conversation what they should be doing vocally. It’s not that simple, you either feel it naturally as a singer or you take the time and put a lot of hours into it. Otherwise you sit down with an Opera coach or some kind of vocal coach. You dedicate yourself to it and learn how to envision the notes being properly placed. I was taught “The Mask” in opera it’s where you learn how to use the diaphragm, for your breathing and control and projection of your notes. You then learn how to with that energy and power to distribute your notes correctly and properly thru the bone structure in your face, which again is called “The Mask.” That’s how you get your notes to sound clearer and open and thick.

KNAC.com: Oh yes, I’ve seen you guys before and every time you get even more incredible, and the whole band just has more energy than anyone can imagine.

James: Thanks! It’s great. I think what’s really apparent on this last World Tour is we’re all really having a great time. You know most bands go thru ups and downs, because that just seems to be the natural unfolding of most businesses. No matter what you’re involved in, this tour, this album has been very well received worldwide. Add to that the fact that we have someone like Jordan in the band now, keyboard player extraordinaire, and we all get along really well. I mean there’s 5 different personalities, 5 characters (laughs) in the band. But at the same time, we really have a mutual respect for each other, and we just really love going out on stage and playing and getting all that feedback from our fans. That just ignites it and propels it even further.

KNAC.com: I would say you have a stronger fan base, number wise overseas, but the more passionate fans are here in the States.

James: Yeah.

KNAC.com: You guys don’t get the radio airplay you deserve, no publicity.

James: No, we don’t. You don’t hear us on the radio. You don’t see us in the magazines, the big national magazines, aside from Metal Edge. Paul has been a big supporter of us and a complete believer since day one. It’s great to have someone like that on your side, but unfortunately you know we’re not in a lot of big magazines. Some people who couldn’t care less about music like ours, because it’s not the in thing, the flavor of the month, and we don’t have the big hit on the radio. So we learn to deal with that, we’ve come to accept it. Obviously, like anyone else you hope you can get on the gravy train as well, but doing it on your own terms. The only way we would want to see something that goes to radio and be something that was significantly big would be like what happened to us with “Pull me Under.” No one foresaw that, we just put it out there at college radio, and all of a sudden all the national radio stations jumped on it. They got incredible phone calls, and it went thru the roof. So if that happens in the future, it would be great, but it will be because we’re doing the music that we want to do.

KNAC.com: Right. You had Falling Into Infinity which a lot of people thought was a step back. Then you come out with Scenes From A Memory, and everyone says, these guys are amazing, they never cease to amaze us. Then we think you can’t take us any higher, you go higher. Now you add someone like Jordan to the band. Besides being an incredible keyboardist, what does Jordan bring to the band that wasn’t there before?

James: Well definitely his technical abilities are unprecedented. He went to Julliard since he was 9 years old, he’s just incredible. He brings to the band his exceptional grasp on composing. When it came time for us to start writing/recording SFAM, he had a lot of great ideas. Then you put the five of us in a room with that input was just really exciting, we just found that things really came about. I mean as challenging as that album was for each and every one of us, it did seem to come together quite miraculously. It was a really fun time, a challenging time, a stressful time, but it was all those things together and Jordan he’s just exceptional in his playing and his writing. We knew that going in doing this kind of album, a concept album, if there was anybody that could bring in as much as anyone else in the band, it would be Jordan. He’s totally in that mindset. He has that education and the background when it comes to be very diversified. His styles of music and types of music are unprecedented, so if the song called for something classical, jazzy, progressive, he was there, he immediately understood, and was able to acclimate even suggest and move on.

KNAC.com: What would you say your hardest song to sing on this tour is?

James: From Scenes?

KNAC.com: From Scenes or the older material?

James: Scenes is pretty comfortable for me. Actually, I would say like when we go back and sing songs like “Another Day” from Images and Words. Those days I was singing in the stratosphere (laughs). You know, when we’re doing songs like “Voices,? it’s a very dynamic song so you have to be very concentrated and focused so that you are delivering the right vocal. I mean, you really want to convey the expression or emotion that’s trying to be set in any given song, not to make myself sound like what I’m doing all night is amazing. What I’m doing all night is, I need to stay focused on every song that we do. That’s one of the most enjoyable situations being in a band like this. The music is of the nature that all these different styles of music thrown into a big pot. With the way our music is, it really allows me to be incredibly expression in so many different ways, because the music is always changing, it’s not just one style of music. It really allows me as a vocalist, to show all my colors what I’m capable of throughout the night. That’s what I’m hit with it, you know? When we’re bouncing from album to album, back and forth to the present. It’s really exciting for me, but at the same time I need to be really focused.

KNAC.com: What do you do during songs that have long instrumental parts when you go offstage?

James: I usually do stretching exercises to keep myself loose and limber. I’ll sip on some water, sing a couple of soft notes, to keep the voice loosened up. I really keep myself very active, even doing jumping jacks just to keep my energy level up, and then that’s it. When it’s coming to the end of it, I go back out on stage and continue.

KNAC.com: Will Dream Theater ever perform a (song from your other group) Mullmuzzler live?

James: I don’t think so. I’d like to keep that completely separate. I mean, the fact that the guys do songs from Liquid Tension, I think that has a lot to do with three members that were in Liquid Tension are now in Dream Theater and its nothing for John Myung to pick up on Tony Levin’s bass parts and play them. So, no, I wouldn’t be into that because I feel it’s a separate entity. I mean, if the three Dream Theater members were involved in Mullmuzzler then maybe it would make more sense to pull out a song. I’m going back in November to record the next Mullmuzzler and hopefully be out in Feb 2001. I got Elektra’s release so this will be called James LaBrie’s Mullmuzzler. So now people will know this is my project and won’t be sitting there saying, who is Mullmuzzler? Now they can identify my name with the project.

KNAC.com: Very cool!

James: What I would like to do is some select shows, a few shows in the States, and a few shows in Europe and Japan if possible, because I’ve already had contacts of people interested in me doing some shows.

KNAC.com: Maybe you’ll come to Dallas, Texas?

James: We’ll see. Definitely in New York. L.A. would be great. A Texas date would be great. Definitely in Chicago, because Chicago is a really great city for us. But there are a lot of great cities in the States for this band, but I would only like to do five or six shows in the States and the same in Europe and Japan, but that would be it. But then I’d have two albums to bring to the people. Obviously in the show somewhere I’d do a couple of Dream Theater songs or people would get pissed off at me (laughs).

KNAC.com: Yeah I know what you mean!

James: But yes I might do that, we’ll see how it works out. There’s a lot of things that need to be done, record the album of course first and then see where it goes from there.

KNAC.com: Will it be the same members?

James: I’m working with the same writers as the first album and I have all the players. Mike Keneally isn’t for sure yet, he wants to go out with his band Beer For Dolphins so I’m trying to work that out with him. But everyone else should be in with this.

KNAC.com: Will this be sending demos through the mail again?

James: No actually, I’ve been getting together with the guys this time. I’m actually sitting in the room, working things out, showing them where I want to take it, giving them parts that I feel that make the most sense for the album. I think it’s going to be great! I’m really excited about the songs, they’re really powerful and cool.

KNAC.com: I actually posted on MikePortnoy.com and DreamTheater.net that I was doing this interview with you and some people asked about MullMuzzler 2.

James: Oh that’s great! Yes I’m definitely doing it, on Magna Carta again. They’re pushing me to have it out by February 2001. I’m doing everything I can to make it happen. Hopefully people will like it as much as the first one. I’m pretty excited it’s amazing!

KNAC.com: Well if it’s as good, if not better than the first one, it’s going to go over the top!

James: It’s really cool!

KNAC.com: Last question for you. What’s the latest on the next Dream Theater CD?

James: Well without going into too much detail, we’re hoping by late January 2001 that we can start getting into writing and we would like to approach it the same way as Scenes. The way we went into the studio and we’re writing and recording at the same time.

KNAC.com: Will the label give you free reign again?

James: I’m pretty sure they will, because Scenes has been pretty successful for us, and they see that it worked very well for us. I can’t see them trying to change something that worked so well. It just wouldn’t make sense for them to go back on that. But, yes, like I said, late January. If you’re curious where it’s going to go musically, all I can say is that it’s going to be once again, very musically intense and progressive. You know I just can’t really say what we have in store. I will say that we are definitely going to keep it very interesting.

KNAC.com: That’s the one thing all of us Dream Theater fans are really happy about is that you’re never going to sell out. You’re always going to kick our butt!

James: And the beautiful thing about being in a band like this, and the people that have come to know us as we are. It allows us the freedom to experiment and be creative and take risks. Whereas if you’re in other bands that just became famous and had an explosion in a career. If they try to change in any way people don’t accept them, they accept them as that one album that got them into it. So we’re in a really cool situation, just like Rush, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, everyone has their favorites and accepted them where they went. They were able to go in with an open mind as well as their listeners and say where did you go this time, what did you do differently?

KNAC.com: It will be really interesting to see where you guys go after Scenes. Since this will be songs and not a concept album right?

James: No. I think at this point, we’ve taken the concept as far as we can. Not to say five to 10 years down the road, maybe we could go back. But at this stage, I would definitely say for the next little while, it will be albums with songs.

KNAC.com: ‘Metropolis Part 3’?

James: (laughs)

After the interview I went out to my seat where I witnessed the greatest concert I have ever seen as well as the best live performance I have ever seen of Dream Theater. The lights go out and the crowd goes insane. Then the band hits, the first sounds coming from the stage. It’s “Metropolis: Part One.” The band comes out to a roaring crowd and the band playing full force from the start. You could definitely feel the energy flowing all through the venue. The band played right into “Overture 1928,” flowing right into “Strange Deja Vu.” The band was on their “A” game the entire night, playing songs from every one of their albums. The biggest treat of all was their encore rendition of their opus “A Change Of Seasons,” a 23-minute song that fans have grown to love from the day it was released.

A show full of old and new material, a 23-minute encore song that no one had ever seen performed live since it was recorded. What more could you have asked for? Personally, nothing at all. It was an intense progressive hard rock show for the ages! If you haven’t seen the show yet, you are in for the thrill of a lifetime!