Dream Theater: Interview With James

“From the age of five lead singer James already knew that he was destined to be a musician, and well, he wasn’t wrong. By being determined and passionate about this career choice, he went on to become a part of one of the biggest metal bands In the world right now, Dream Theater! So take a read, as we discuss the road to being a rockstar, the story behind their outstanding new album ‘Distance Over Time’, whilst looking at the 20th anniversary of ‘Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory’! It’s an exceptional time for this band, so get up to date right now!”

Firstly before we talk about the present, can you tell us about how you came to join Dream Theater back in 1991?

Long story short, I was in a band in Toronto, Canada Winter Rose and we were touring with a female artist, her name was Lee Aaron and she was the metal queen of Canada so she took a liking to me as a singer and a performer and she asked for one of our demos of Winter Rose. I thought she just wanted to listen to it and then she put that CD out to some labels and eventually the CD ended up in MCA Records in New York. MCA Records were associated with Dream Theater who had been looking for a singer for two years. So essentially Kevin Moore called me up and asked if I would come down and do a jam with the band and I said “Yeah sure!” Mike Portnoy was talking to me at the same time and making arrangements for me to hook up with the band.

I came down and had a big jam one night and the next day we started demo-ing. After this they asked me to be in the band. BOOM, that’s how it happened. So that’s how it went down but it was pretty cool because I didn’t see it coming. They said that I should listen to their first album ‘When Dream and Day Unite’. I did, and I didn’t know what to expect, I heard that they were progressive but I wanted to hear it before I believed it and when I heard it, it reminded me a lot of Rush and Iron Maiden so I was immediately captivated by it. I was like “Holy sh*t, these guys are amazing”. I knew right away that this was definitely something that I wanted to be a part of.

What inspired you to want to be a singer and did you ever think you would be where you are today?

Well since the age of five. I started singing when I was five, and I also played drums until I was about seventeen. My mum and dad always told me I would be walking around the house singing to the radio and I do recall doing that all the time. I had an affinity for music from a very tender age and then in elementary school I had a music teacher and she took a liking to me as she could see when I was in music class that I was very much into music and singing. She got me into a singing contest. I went to music festivals and stuff like that and I just loved doing it so by the time I was twelve I was already starting to put my first band together. I was the lead singer and drummer then I continued to be the lead vocalist until I was seventeen. I always knew I was eventually just going to end up being a singer because as good a drummer as I was I knew that that wasn’t something I wanted to be a part of, I wanted to be a frontman and a singer so that became my main focus.

By the time I moved down to Toronto when I was eighteen, that’s exactly what I was focused on and it was my primary goal, but I would say around the age of thirteen listening to guys like Robert Plant, Steven Tyler and Steve Perry, these guys I just remember being like “That’s who I want to be” my all-time favourite was Freddie Mercury, listening to Queen was a thrill for me, the way he expressed himself. So that’s what I aspired to. I still remember my father at the age of ten saying “I noticed you’re listening to some pretty cool music and I always hear you singing to it, just remember create your own sound because we already have one of them.” That was indelible to me, it really left a mark and I still remember it like it was yesterday. If I don’t create myself then I’m just a jukebox hero right.

Onto the new album, can you tell us about the writing and recording process for ‘Distance Over Time’?

So I guess it was the first time we were living together to actually write and record the album. We did record ‘Images and Words’ when we lived together previously, but the album was already written. So the difference with ‘Distance Over Time’ is that we actually got together to write the album and then record it and the experience was amazing.

I think that’s why it sounds so organic and cohesive because the environment was never interrupted. We had no distractions and because of that it wasn’t just about being in a room that was constructive and productive and meeting our goal but it was also about all the in-between moments. Like when you’re sitting down having a bite to eat or having a glass of wine together at the end of the session. For the most part you’re consistently having the conversation that surrounds the music, the direction, the feel of it. I think because of that it was something that naturally availed itself to making the music resonate with where we were at that particular moment.

Some of the ideas were seeds from sound check or an idea from someone but for the most part, 95% of what’s on that album happened in the room. If someone had a riff or an idea we were then feeding off that and making sure that the direction and embellishment from that idea had a purpose. The house was only 100 metres from the studio, so walking back and forth and having conversations sitting in the living room, that’s really some of the most invaluable aspects of the writing session.

When you might not have all the instruments in front of you but you’re discussing the possibilities of the music it made it a much more spirited and organic effort and I think you can definitely hear this and the excitement in the music. Going into a studio and just closing the world off from yourself and spending whatever it might be, two weeks or a month and just being focused, it speaks volumes, it speaks loudly to the human element.

We’ve read that you decided to create a “tight and focused album with a heavier sound”, so can you maybe elaborate on that, and how you think the sound of the band has grown/changed on this one?

When you look back at ‘The Astonishing’ that was a very huge and daring/brave undertaking for a band but if any band is going to do it, it would have been a band like Dream Theater. There was a rock opera opus and it really called upon the eclectic nature of Dream Theater. I think we are always looking for our sound to evolve or discovering who or what we are, the identity of Dream Theater. To grow, we have always been a band that likes to experiment.

With this album, I think we were very much decided and unified on the fact that we wanted to write a more heavy aggressive album but at the same time not have it overtake or monopolise the elements of the music. It was very important for us to look at the bigger picture of Dream Theater. We have always been known as a progressive metal band so that’s the kind of album that we want to create here, to maintain that balance between the two predominant musical genres. Being able to keep that in perspective and I think we achieved it in ‘Distance Over Time’. It speaks highly of the progressive energy, and the metal side is at the forefront. We are always looking at ways individually of how we can express ourselves differently and push ourselves, and how it might give it a different feel. At the same time we are trying to reinforce what has been established, because if you lose your identity or your sound then it’s a kaleidoscope type effect. I think that might work in some instances but not necessarily for a band that is trying to, on one hand push the envelope but on the other hand never lose sight of who or what we are. We are always very focused on that we created something many years ago that very much established us. As a band that has been throughout the eras, it’s very important that we never lose sight of that or else you just lose it completely, it becomes diluted.

What are the main themes and influences that run throughout ‘Distance Over Time’?

It’s very spontaneous and I think there was a lot of spontaneity on this album and like I said earlier that’s what gives it its organic feel because it was right in the moment. Some of the best music I feel is something that was just created by stumbling on it in that moment and then taken to another level and a lot of that happened throughout the writing and development of ‘Distance Over Time’.

I mean once you get your idea and once someone comes in with something that feels very good or sounds very cool at that point it goes pretty fast. It’s pretty amazing how fast everything does come together. On average with each album if you were to take the actual days of writing and break it down to how many days it actually took for us to write an album, it’s been about three or three and a half weeks. With this album we counted the days that we were actually sitting in the room and actually writing the songs and it was only seventeen days.

That doesn’t bring in the fact that it takes three and a half months to put it all together and refining the sections so that it makes sense. Writing the melodies for it, that takes time, writing the lyrics that takes time, recording each person’s parts and making sure it is the best it can be that takes time, so that all adds up well.

So yeah, with the influence, if I have to go back to that, it is just being in the same room and feeding off one another’s energy and spontaneous moments where we would hit on a riff on Mike Mangini’s groove or John Petrucci plays something and bang, all of a sudden you’re into an idea and it’s a matter of developing it.

Touring wise, you are celebrating the 20th anniversary of ‘Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory’, by playing it in full. So how did that idea come about, and what has it been like to re-visit this album?

Well it’s the 20th anniversary so that kind of presented itself in a way that we couldn’t ignore it and that was a big album for us. When ‘Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory’ came out the band had gone through a little bit of a dark period after ‘Falling Into Infinity’, it was an album that we needed to make. It was the first conceptual album we had ever written, I think it really redefined and reestablished our relationship with our fans around the world. It was an extremely successful album for us, both critically and fan wise so when we knew we were going to be starting a tour in 2019, it was a no brainer that we needed to go back and re-visit that album, play it from beginning to end. The fans are excited, we can see it on the boards on various social media networks and everyone is constantly talking about it so it will be amazing to play and we are all looking forward to it and the visuals and the production around it is going to be incredible. It will be something that will be remembered for quite some time. It will be a memorable evening for sure and we will obviously be playing songs from ‘Distance Over Time’ as well as other songs from various albums. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

What is it like rehearsing for the live shows especially as your music is so complex, how does a setlist come together?

What we do usually is each one of us creates a list of songs that we would like to see played and obviously with ‘Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory’ being played that in itself takes out a big chunk of the evening so we knew that we’re dealing with maybe another hour of music beyond that so we each submitted our list. We look at the songs from each guy and see the common denominator and say “Let’s go with that song.” Rehearsing for it, a lot of it is done well in advance by each guy individually and then usually we get together anywhere up to ten days ahead of rehearsal before we go out then we have like two or three full production days where we are in a theatre with full lights and screens, visuals and imagery and then boom you are hitting the first night and you’re off for the next year doing the same thing. I think individually we all like to be absolutely prepared so that when we are together as a band in the rehearsal room we can just go for it and feel it naturally and be comfortable with it within a few days but yeah that seems to have been the process over the duration of our careers so it works well.

What else can we expect to see from Dream Theater in 2019?

Five guys having a great flipping time on stage! We still love doing what we do, we still get a thrill walking on stage every evening and being with our fans and the roar of the crowd and the energy from them and us, it’s indescribable and we look forward to it. We are blessed to be doing what we do and for as long as we have and as successfully as we have. It’s a part of who we are as human beings, we look forward to rekindling and reinforcing our relationship with our fans worldwide and bringing the music to them and having another great tour.