James LaBrie interview (excerpts)

LaBrie said about the follow-up to 2019’s “Distance Over Time” (transcribed by UG):

“Right now, in Dream Theater lab - we’re writing another album. I didn’t want to go down to the States, even though I love the States, because it’s brought me everything that I have today. I’m not saying that and trying to be funny, I’m being sincere when I say that. I’ve made my career because I met these guys from America and because I’m in an American band. I’ve had an incredible career because of it but I said to the guys, ‘Guys, I don’t want to come down there; I don’t want to fly, I don’t want to do anything like that. I want to stay isolated because I’m reading horror stories about people losing their voice box when they get this [Covid], and their lungs are compromised and I can’t do that.’ So I’m coming in every day when we’re writing by Zoom, so they have this great big TV on the wall with my big fuck shot on it, and those four guys are in the studio. So those four guys are together at the Dream Theater Headquarters - it’s our own studio, warehouse, whatever. And so that’s how we communicate every day. So just before I came on here, that’s where I was, and then they were breaking for dinner anyway. And by the way, they all say hi. So anyway, that’s what we’re doing. We’re in the process of writing a new album right now and it’s, I’m always going to say that because that’s usually the way we always feel, but it’s coming together amazingly.

So sweet, that’s awesome! That’s so good to hear... ‘Viper King’ [from the latest album] - if I don’t hear ‘Viper King’ at the next Dream Theater show, I’m gonna be very upset because that is one of my favorites. I just love it!

We’ll do it. And if we don’t do it, I’ll give you an acoustic version. You’re totally right. When we went in to do that album [2019’s ‘Distance Over Time’], we were thinking that it’s really easy for Dream Theater to go off and create something that’s 10 minutes, 15 minutes - because that’s exciting and that’s what this band has been known for. It can go anywhere they want and people love it because that’s what you expect from a band. But when we went in with ‘Distance Over Time,’ we were like, ‘Let’s just be more focused, let’s just think about songs when we start making much more cohesive in the sense that we get in, we create it, and we get out.’ And, ‘Let’s just make the statement for each one very bold, something that’s memorable, something that everyone can tap on their feet to, or sing in the melody, or whatever.’ And I think, first of all, we were excited to go that road because it was something that we hadn’t done for quite some time. And definitely coming off an album like ‘The Astonishing,’ it was just kind of doing a 180. ‘Let’s go this way now.’ Which was exciting. And I think because of that and the reaction to that album - the reaction to those songs live, really said a lot to us. It was a very enlightening eye-opener for us, and I think it still kind of sits with us. So I think I’d be lying if I didn’t say that going into this album and going into the writing, that still speaks to us. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be - we’ve never repeated ourselves, at least I don’t think we have. And I think the beauty with Dream Theater is that there are no parameters, and we have free will to go wherever we want. And I think our fans around the world expect the unpredictable. So we’ve had that creative freedom, there are no borders, and we can do that. And I think even taking what ‘Distance Over Time’ has said to us as a band, we can take what that has meant to us as a band going in and writing. And then maybe just take all the best parts from that and let it be maybe just always kind of within the room when we go about. But we already have so many ideas of where we’re going, where we want to go, what kind of an album we want this to be. And we’re already kind of monitoring that as we go along. All I can say is that. Even from the songs we’ve already written, it’s awesome. We’re really nailing what we set out to now, musically. So it’s great.

James commented:

We’ve done so many shows with Iron Maiden. Before ‘Images and Words’ came out [in July 1992], we actually played about five shows - we just went out and we were playing just to kind of see how this feels. So this was June of ‘92, and we just said, “Let’s go and do like six shows, and then in September we’re going to start the official ‘Images and Words’ tour.” And I believe on September 27th, at The Limelight, New York - that’s where we were - that was our first official show of ‘Images and Words.’ I don’t know why I’m remembering that - maybe it’s the wine - but in June of ‘92, we backed up Iron Maiden at The Ritz in New York. And I remember Bruce Dickinson came out on stage after we had performed and he made a point of it. He said, ‘Man, let’s hear it for fucking Dream Theater! These guys kick ass!’ And I remember we were just like, ‘That’s cool!’ Because they all haven’t even come out yet. So we were like, ‘Holy shit - right on, awesome!’ And when he came up saying, ‘I love you guys, this is the first album...’ - all this stuff, it was crazy! The other reason that we did that was - because their management was thinking about managing us at the time, and then that kind of fizzled out. And then we went, and we started getting managed by people that managed us, but that’s a whole other story. But it was kind of crazy because I remember going out in front of Iron Maiden at the time, we were like, ‘Holy shit!’ We’re not just gonna go out there and play some heavy madness freaking music, we’re going out there with ‘Take the Time,’ ‘Metropolis,’ and ‘Learning to Live’ - are you freaking kidding me? We were thinking about Iron Maiden there going like, ‘What the fuck is this?!’ We got out there and they were going nuts! Something’s happening here, something’s going on. When we were out on Yes, our management would get in touch with their management and go, ‘Yeah, man, you’re going to the boards - it’s crazy, people are loving you! All these Yes fans!’ And we’re going, ‘What do you mean? Are you saying that they’re just discovering us?’ And they’re like, “Yeah, there’s a lot of Yes fans going, ‘Who the hell is this band Dream Theater? I’m going to pick up some of their albums and stuff.’” And we’re going, ‘And why wouldn’t they already know who the hell we are? Isn’t that bizarre?’

I also had no idea who you guys were...

You were one of those people?

I was young, and yeah, I was one of those people. And look at me now! We went to a record store and we got ‘Train of Thought’ and ‘Scenes From a Memory.’

That’s cool, man, that’s really cool. And that’s why it’s great when we’re going out and we’re doing festivals and stuff like that. I’ll even be hearing bands that I would never have gone out and actually checked out, but I can hear them in the background and I’m like, “Wait a minute - I’ll see who that is.’ And I think it’s very interesting how many people go to a concert to see the band that they’re already fans of and then they walk away and - hey, whole new experience! Whole new love for another band. I think that that’s the beauty. Well, we haven’t been doing that for quite some time.