Now Playing: Dream Theater

In the assorted press that Dream Theater has accumulated since its debut album, When Dream and Day Unite, was released, the Long Island band has been most often compared to Rush, with many of the clippings saying how Charlie Dominici’s vocals are remarkably like Geddy Lee’s.

“It’s an inaccurate comparison,” says Dominici. “The first line of our song ‘Status Seeker’ may sound like Geddy singing ‘New World Man,’ but I'm not like him on the rest of the album. Our music, more than anything else, makes people think my vocals are like Geddy’s. Dream Theater has a progressive edge and lots of time changes, like Rush does. And Mike Portnoy’s drumming is reminiscent of Neil Peart’s.”

“Geddy has a thinner voice than Charlie’s,” adds keyboardist Kevin Moore. “If I had to compare Charlie, it’d be to Steve Walsh [Kansas]. If he were in another band, I don’t think people would compare him to Geddy. The main similarity between them is they both sing high.”

If anything, Dream Theater is hard to categorize because different styles are always apparent. The group takes two extremes—metal and progressive rock—and combines them. The Theater can smoothly alternate from a thrashing Metallica-type attack to a celestial interlude, creating a sound that immediately stands out. Dream Theater has put the balls into progressive music, rocking out and spacing out at the same time.

“Not many bands are doing what we’re doing,” says Dominici. “If you really listen to us, you’ll realize the extremes go further than just metal and progressive rock. We’re almost like a progressive jazz-metal band. In a record store music is divided into numerous categories—classical, jazz, pop, soul, funk, metal, and so on. Our music has all those elements. We listen to everything from the Beatles to Miles Davis to Metallica, and it shows.”

In spite of the band's wide-ranging tastes, many have lumped Dream Theater alongside the progressive bands of the ‘70s. “That’s just a surface impression,” maintains Dominici. “People classify things so they can explain it to others. The fact that we’ve been compared to bands like Kansas, Rush, ELP and early Genesis is because their musicianship, and ours, is above average. There’s a lot of groups that I’d be insulted to be compared to, and those aren’t any of them.”

“We’re influenced by those bands,” adds Moore, “so it’s a compliment being compared to them. We like that period of music when progressive rock reigned. But we’re not stuck in the ‘70s at all; we’re edging into the ‘90s with a new sound.”

Though many bands are streamlining their music for mass acceptance, Dream Theater plays what’s closest to their hearts. “We’re not out to be superstars or millionaires,” says Moore. “When we’re writing songs, we never say, ‘Okay, let’s write something that’ll make us lots of money.’ That’s not being yourself. And if what we write doesn’t have a hook that you can stomp your foot to or whistle to while walking down the street, that’s just how it turned out.

“We realize as much as anybody that some of our songs are a bit busy and long,” continues Moore, “and we sometimes get carried away. But we just write until we’re satisfied. For example, one of our newer songs is currently about 18 minutes long. It’s just a journey we’re going on; we won’t let it end until the idea is fully expressed.”

“We never write from a business point of view,” insists Dominici. “We’d love to sell a lot of records, but we want people to buy them because they really like our music; not because they like our haircut, or something like that. And I'm not disappointed that our album didn’t make the Billboard chart—I almost expected it. Face it: we don’t have a video, so it’s harder to break to gold or platinum status. It used to take bands a few years to reach that point, but with the advent of video, you can do it in a few months. Living Colour and Winger are good examples.”

In a sense, Dream Theater is like a ‘70s band—word of mouth, press, touring and good music are all the group has to get across to the masses. “Artistic ability is a very important thing being forgotten in the music world,” explains Dominici. “I’d like to see more bands get back to what music really is—an audio expression of emotion. With video, people put music in the backseat and concentrate more on the physical attractions of the clip. When you put all the makeup, fancy clothes and sexy stuff in the video, people get too caught up in all that aesthetic confusion and forget the music—the most important thing. It’s the difference between people who have a real relationship with someone and those who frequent bars just looking for pretty faces.

“I may not be the sexiest guy in the world,” he continues, “but I’d rather be regarded as a good singer than as a sex object. I’m really shy. I’d rather have one special girl than a million girls infatuated with me. As much as Jon Bon Jovi’s looks may benefit his record sales, all the girls who constantly follow him around must put a lot of stress and strain on his personal life. That price for success isn’t really worth it.”

“Charlie is the best singer that we could possibly have,” adds Moore. “It took a year of auditions before we finally settled on him. We knew he was for us. Our previous singer, Chris Collins, didn’t have as much musical knowledge, so it was harder to communicate song ideas to him. Besides having a great voice, Charlie also plays piano and guitar, so he knows what he’s talking about.

“Each member of the band has equal say,” continues Moore. “We’re a guitar­dominated band, but keyboards figure into our sound quite a bit. I obviously want to have as much presence as possible, but I want the guitar to edge them out for a heavy edge. In the bands where keyboards are too heavily incorporated, like on Rush’s most recent live album, the overall sound loses power. It’s more digital than analog. We want a powerful live sound at all times.”

“We work so hard on our music,” says Dominici. “It takes a big effort just to sing our songs. Some nights I don’t make all those notes. I love the challenge of being on the edge and outdoing myself. And we’re not trying to be like those bands we’ve been accused of emulating. What makes us different is the same thing that makes them different from each other.”

What’s Dream Theater’s goal? “To get as many babes as possible,” laughs Moore. And, more seriously, “To achieve the highest level of performance on our respective instruments. It was a big dream of ours just to make an album, so that goal has already been achieved.”

“We may not be breaking any sales records with When Dream and Day Unite,” realizes Dominici, “but Dream Theater is a great band to be in. We have a lot to say. Maybe we’re saying too much at once, but we know people will latch onto us sooner or later. Our music is complex, so it takes more than a couple of listens to appreciate. A lot of bands seem to think that ‘making it’ is a financial thing, but it really has more to do with being happy doing what you want to do. So to us, we’ve already made it.”