Dream Theater – More Than Words

Some musicians learn their art on the street – some, like New York’s Dream Theater, learn it at music school. Pippa Lang checks with drummer and spokesman Mike Portnoy to make sure he’s no boring old fart!

Dream Theater will, by way of categorization, be lumpered with the tag ‘Progressive Rock’ when their debut Atco album ‘Images And Words’ is released. The band from New York admit to influences like Gentle Giant, King Crimson and even Queensrÿche when asked to justify themselves. But that’s just the short list. As drummer Mike Portnoy points out, the album yawns open with a mighty aural orgasm of – er – ‘Progressive Thrash’ in the form of ‘Pull Me Under,’ and that particular track calls on the entirely hellish form of Metallica for inspiration, as well as those other, more traditional bands. An interesting crossover, one that hasn’t really been explored before. A gamble too, if you don’t know what you’re doing. Dream Theater, however, do know what they are doing. Three of the band – Mike Portnoy, bassist John Myung and guitarist John Petrucci – initiated themselves into rock ‘n’ roll by way of serious music college training, at Berklee College Of Music. So, not only do they have the experience of years of road work under their belts (with previous band Majesty), but also the advantage of musical theory.

‘Images And Words’ could be said to be true pristine in arrangement and production but, claims Mike, the spirit of natural talent is also there. He’s pleased that somebody at least has noticed that intercourse of Prog/Thrash:

“I’m really glad you spotted that! The whole album is a little bit of everything. There’s definitely a mixture of old Progressive Rock influences and modern Metal techniques in there.

“Yes, it has helped having the kinda musical training we’ve had, being able to present that crossover effectively, ‘cos one of the key elements of this band is the musicianship – but that doesn’t mean we are like automatons. Music college is for people who have a natural talent for music anyway – you don’t send somebody there who either doesn’t care for music, or has no penchant for it. So we all loved playing anyway. Music college just kinda honed everything down. But, believe me, the spirit is definitely there!”

And, granted, Dream Theater have had as many growing pains as any other band. There are some things music college cannot teach. After changing their name from Majesty to Dream Theater in 1989, the band released an album through Mechanic/MCA, but vocalist problems prompted the band to find a better frontman. On top of contractual difficulties, it took them a while to return to the arena. They even considered an all instrumental line-up, so picky were they about finding exactly the right man for the job. Two hundred auditions and many frustrated months later, they finally found a class act in the shape of James LaBrie, their third vocalist, who’d previously sung with Coney Hatch and Winter Rose. What was it precisely that Dream Theater were looking for in their new vocalist?

“Well, it was a combination of a lotta things. The four of us – John, John, Kevin [Moore, keyboard player] and myself – had been together for seven years, so finding that fifth element, a vocalist no less, was close to impossible. I mean you need somebody with a good voice obviously, but there are other things too – they have to look good, they have to get along with the rest of the band, have the same direction. It’s very, very hard.”

Now, with James LaBrie, and a new deal with Atco, Dream Theater are, at last, on their way. Iron Maiden, fans of the original Majesty line-up, played host to Dream Theater when they played a sneak preview of their upcoming world tour at New York’s Ritz Club in June. With fans like that, how can they go wrong?