James LaBrie interview

Jimmy Kay: I guess we could start off with the tour – the tour that never happened – and everyone was looking forward to. So maybe you could just give us an update on that James.

James LaBrie: It just came down to how comfortable we were with going out and we were getting kind of mixed messages, from promoters, our agencies, just everywhere we were looking; our management was looking into it across the board with people that are out there. Tours that were going on, tours that had come down. When you put together a tour, the amount of money that you put into a tour is astronomical, and the kind of production we go out with is pretty big, it’s pretty substantial. So we were getting a lot of indication that the bands that had been going out were out for a week or two, and somebody within the band or the crew came down with Covid and the whole camp had to be shut down up to ten days. That’s financially disabling for any tour of any magnitude that you can just pull down a whole camp of 30-something people and the amount of money that is generated while you’re out there is just... You’re talking 10 days just dead in the water. So it didn’t make sense to us. We were still concerned with our health, even though we’re all fully inoculated so to speak. We were still concerned with one of us coming down, getting sick and not being able to proceed, and then the business side of things. If I want to be completely honest with you, it wasn’t a unanimous decision – there three of the guys in the band that said “no we don’t wanna tour, we’re not going out” and there were two guys in the band who said, “Come on, let’s do it; let’s go for it; we’re all for it” and that’s what it came down to: it was a majority vote that said, “No, we’re not about to go out.”

JK: What are you gonna do? I know John Petrucci just said he was one of the two. [laughs]

JL: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, and you know what? It comes down to sometimes you’re gonna have to agree to disagree, and granted, as he put it... I saw it – fans forwarded it to my site. As he said, he was frustrated. Well, truth be known, we’re all frustrated that we’re not out there touring – that’s what we love to do. We love to be out, but some of us felt that we weren’t willing to take that risk and come down with this unfortunate virus. It just didn’t seem to me – and to the other two guys that were on the side of the fence that I was on – that it didn’t make sense to risk it at this point. But everything’s being rescheduled. It’s been postponed, and everything is coming back online in February. And I think we’re gonna be closer to not only more people being vaccinated, but also herd immunity. So let’s see what happens.

Alan Dixon: So let’s get to the album: A View From The Top Of The World – another Dream Theater classic. I hear a lot of influences on this. Do you still incorporate some of your earlier influences into the music or are you just too much in the Dream Theater “mode/sound” to let other outside influences affect the writing?

JL: We’re aware of what’s going on as far as being contemporary and being in the now. We’re aware of what’s going on musically in the world around us. But I think we always stood true to ourselves first and foremost. So there’s an identity, there’s a familiarity when people spin any given Dream Theater album, you can identify with it immediately. A lot of fans that have heard any snippet of the album have said, “Wow, it seems to be reminiscent of some older material or classic Dream Theater.” Definitely we did reached back to our roots – I guess you could say that. I’ve been saying since I started doing interviews for this album, that subconsciously, you can’t help but be affected. You know on our last world tour, we were playing Scenes From a Memory – we were honoring that anniversary of 20 years – and we were playing that album in its entirety from beginning to end. I think that you’re somehow reminded of what happened throughout that album. What made that album so dynamic and enamored our fans with it is the way that it did play, and it was very cohesive – all the styles were incorporated. Whether you were going from a song like ‘Strange Déjà Vu’ or ‘Home’ or ‘Finally Free’, there’s just something that speaks volumes as far as who and what we are, and what we represent musically. You play it every night, you get close to it, you start to analyze it. We even have discussions about some of the moments throughout that album, and why it was so special – not only to us, but the fans. And so I think we knew before going into the studio we wanted to write an epic, everyone was on board for that. So when you are going to do something like that, it opens up all the possibilities for the rest of the album to unfold as such. We didn’t want any time constraints. With Distance Over Time, it was about “Let’s get in, let’s bang out an idea, let’s conclude and move on to the next.” Those songs were very concise – they were anywhere like 4 or 5 minutes. I think it really spoke loudly to our fans, because they weren’t expecting that. Whereas this album was like “Let’s get back to not having any parameters that we need to be concerned with consciously and just let’s write what we feel we’re being inspired by or influenced to create a classic Dream Theater album.” And I think it really does stand on its own because of that.

JK: What’s it like being the only Canadian in the band, and writing this album or even touring an album? You know we’re Canadians; you’re Canadian. There must be an outsider feel when you’re writing or playing with the band, or trying to get together with the band to write this album.

JL: No. If anything, I’d say that –

JK: Are the Canadian jokes always going on or...?

JL: Well, no. Yeah, we do that once in a while. Like whenever I say, “Well it’s about time,” they’ll go “a boat? Yes it’s a boot time!” and stuff like that. And “hey yeah, hey?” I mean that’s seldom, but we do have fun with that. And then I’ll go right into the Newfoundland kind of accent which is a – what is that – a combination of Irish and... I don’t know, but I’ll go, [in bad Newfoundland accent] “Hi guys, by golly jeez there. We might want to be going down there.” It’s all in good nature, but the thing is, is that I think that it creates an identity. With Dream Theater too, there’s that respect because one of their bigger influences was Rush growing up, and then being from that country, there’s just that immediate recognition that there’s a lot of great talent in Canada. There is, there always has been, and continues to be. So I never felt like an outsider; if anything, it just gave me my own identity, and it was something that I could proudly carry the flag and say, “Here’s an American band and they searched and searched, and it wasn’t until two years after searching that they found the vocalist for their band and that was a Canadian.” I think it’s a true testament of the kind of talent that has always been in Canada.

AD: Mentioning Rush... I’m listening to ‘Transcending Time,’ which is probably my favorite track besides the title track on the album, and just that opening feel with the guitar and drums, it just feels so Rush-like.

JL: For sure. And you know what’s funny? When we’re putting that song together – and even when I was in there and singing the vocal for that – I was like, “Oh my God! If our fans don’t automatically make that connection, there’s something completely wrong.” But yeah, it is. Throughout our career, there’s always been moments within our music where people go, “Oh my God! You can tell that is Rush! That is a definite nod and respect to that band.” And those guys are incredible. A few years ago, I guested on a Rick Emmett solo album, and it was my second time meeting Alex Lifeson, and what a gentleman! Just a true down-to-earth amazing musician. I’ve always said that he was one of the unsung heroes for some strange reason as far as a guitar player. I think he’s one of the greatest guitar players out there. The stuff that he created on the guitar is unbelievable; it’s just incredible. And it’d be remiss of me not to mention Rick Emmett too – what an incredible talent, what a gentleman and a beautiful voice and just so talented. It was funny because Rick Emmett’s son came into the studio that day to get a picture with me, and Rick says, “How’s that James?” He says, “My son is more into you than his father as a singer,” and I said, “Hey trust me, Rick, my kids both love other singers besides me.” [laughs] But I think what it comes down to is that there’s a lot of incredible talent. When I first came into the band way back in ‘91, the first thing I said to them is, “I have no intentions of moving down here, so if you guys are good with that, let’s be a band, but I want to stay in Canada. I love the area, friends and family.” And they’re like, “Yeah, of course!” And it’s worked out beautifully over the years.

JK: You were introduced... was it from Lee Aaron’s management? And Aldo Nova was in the mix somewhere?

JL: I was in a band called Winter Rose and we were out with Lee Aaron touring. Lee Aaron came up to me and said, “Hey do you have any stuff that you’ve recorded, because I really love what you’re doing out on stage every night and how you sound.” I said, “Yeah here’s a disc,” and I just thought she wanted to listen to it. And at the time we were being looked at by Atlantic Records – Winter Rose. Unbeknownst to me (I guess her real name is Karen), she sent it to this guy at Aquarius Records, which is up around you guys at the time. His name was Pierre Paradis. He listened to it and he called me at the time and he just said, “Hey, just wanna let you know that I’m so-and-so. I was told about you and I’ve been given a disc of yours, and I’d love to offer you a solo album deal. And I said, “Well no, I got my band Winter Rose; I’m sticking with these guys.” And he said, “OK, well let me get back to you,” and he got back to me, “Hey, how would you like to sit down and write with Aldo Nova? You and him can write an album together.” And I said, “Hey listen, I really appreciate that. I think all that’s great, but that’s not my plan. It’s either Winter Rose or it’s nothing.” So what he does, he sends the tape down to New York to MCA Records, because he had connections down there. They heard it, and then they threw it at the guys in Dream Theater and said, “You gotta listen to this guy” and the rest is history.

AD: Just getting back to the album, for everybody that hasn’t had the chance to listen to ‘Answering The Call,’ it gets everything you’ve ever wanted in a Dream Theater song in that one. And like you said, ‘A View From The Top Of The World’ that’s the epic. How does this feel compared to all the other epics you’ve written?

JL: Well I guess you’re just kind of caught up in the moment. I mean right now we’re really excited with this current album. I think each album has its place and it’s closeness to you. So I think for any band or any artist that’s releasing an album, you’re currently engaged with the present. With us right now, it’s all about this album, it’s all about the songs. It’s what we created and you’re just really pumped and excited about people really being able to immerse themselves and really engage with the music at hand. When I sit down sometimes, I can sit and listen to the song from this album or that album once in a while, and I do it very, very rarely. And the reason is when we are touring, we’re just inundated with Dream Theater music, so the last thing you’re gonna do is go home and listen to Dream Theater music – the stuff that you’re a part of – and I think that stands true for any artist out there is that you want to listen to other artists. The other part of this is that I have another solo album coming out on May 20th, 2022. So what I do a lot when I’m writing that kind of stuff is I tend to make myself not listen to other music, because I don’t want in any way something to influence me that’s coming on online from someone else. I want to just be completely isolated and thinking within my thoughts and what I’m feeling at the time, and that becomes the music. When I hear something like ‘A View From The Top Of The World,’ and then I listen back to ‘The Count Of Tuscany’ and you can tell it’s from the same band, and you can tell that it brings you on that same kind of a ride, that same kind of a journey. And I think that’s the point to any of this: no matter what we’re doing at any given time, it has to be something that you can stand behind 100% and feel that you’ve done it with full conviction.

AD: My good friend is the biggest Dream Theater fan in this neck of the woods; he wants to know who your favorite singers are and the bands that you listen to regularly.

JL: Oh, boy. Well, the favorite singers are Robert Plant, Ian Gillan, Freddie Mercury, Lou Graham, Nat King Cole, Rod Stewart, Steve Perry... Geez – I don’t know – that’s what’s on the top of my head. Robert Plant, Freddie Mercury – like I said, even Steve Perry – Steve Tyler is another one from Aerosmith – all these guys you could tell within the first line who you were listening to, and they all created their own style. They definitely had their own voice, they had their own sound. I think that’s what I was influenced by. And it was the way that they used it, whether they were being aggressive or evocative, or whatever it might be. They had nailed what you expect to hear when you listen to any singer, and that is expression. Even if you didn’t understand the language, you could still feel what the message was – it’s conveyed strongly. So that’s why those vocalists influenced me. I remember my dad saying to me when I was about 10 years old – because I was singing since I was five – and by the time I was 10, I was singing around the house all the time, and I remember my dad saying, “You know, it sounds great, but whatever you’re singing, you got this nice, pure, high voice.” But one thing he said to remember is create your own sound. And I remember thinking as I grew older and I’m listening to my inspirations, I’m thinking, “Yeah, that makes sense because each and every one of these guys has their own self and has created their own style.” So it made perfect sense to me from an early age to pursue that goal. As far as bands, pretty much any of those bands that those guys front are bands that I listen to regularly. Another band that I love and another singer is Bono from U2 – he stood the test of time and I think he has a beautiful voice, he has a unique voice. I also like Young the Giant, I think that they’re a very cool band, I like One Republic, there’s another guy Ryan Tedder who’s just a great singer and great writer. These are bands that definitely strike a chord with me.

JK: When Iron Maiden lost Bruce Dickinson, was there any talk or any asking “would you like to join Maiden”? Because you would have been the perfect fit at the time.

JL: Absolutely, at the time we were being looked at to be managed by Iron Maiden’s management. And so Rod Smallwood, at the time, we were out playing darts, and he took me aside and he said, “What do you think about...?” You gotta remember, I was in a very bizarre situation. Dream Theater – we had already recorded Images And Words, we were looking for management, we were getting ready to try and set up a tour and get out there. And I remember him saying to me – he takes me aside, and the rest of the guys in Dream Theater were there too, playing darts and that, because we were looking at him for management – and he says, “I just wanna throw something at you...” And he had his assistant with him too – Merck – at the time. They’re both standing there and they’re going, “What do you think about being the singer with Iron Maiden?” And I said, “What? What? [laughs] What are we talking about here? I’m confused! Are you not here for the reason that you might start managing Dream Theater, or you here to get me to become...?” And I’d already recorded the album – can you imagine how bizarre that was? Anyways I just said, “No – no way. You know what? I’m gonna tell you the reasons why I’m not going to do this.” And they said, “What’s that?” And I said, “One: Dream Theater. That’s it. Period.” And I said, “But if I need to go any further with this, way back when I was 22 years old, I sang for a band called Coney Hatch for a year. And I walked into another singer being Carl Dixon and basically what I felt like was a glorified jukebox. I was able to sing all that stuff no problem – no problem – but there was never that ‘this is me, and this is what I created.’ It was about ‘can you accept me, and are you looking at me for who and what I am?’ I don’t think so. And I don’t think you ever will.” And Bruce and I have mutual respect for one another – we’ve met several times, we’ve done several shows. I remember doing the BBC show with him. There’s that mutual respect between the two of us. And I remember just thinking, “I’m not gonna get out there and be singing Maiden every night – even though I think they’re a great band, and Bruce a great singer – no, thank you.” I need to create something that I can say, “This is what I created from the beginning.” And we all know – okay I wasn’t on the first album, right? When Dream And Day Unite. But neither was Neil Peart.

JK: Neither was Bruce Dickinson! [laughs]

JL: And neither was Bruce – there we go! See, you guys are talking my language! Exactly. So it was bizarre, and it came and went as fast as it was asked, it was dismissed. And they went, “All respect. Totally get it. No problem.” Boom. And we moved on.