James LaBrie, Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci interview

Riki Rachtman: There’s been a good buzz about you guys already. I live in LA, and I remember that you guys played there a couple months ago, and the whole word had been spreading, “Oh, you gotta check out this Dream Theater!” Can you tell that there’s definitely a good buzz about your band right now?

James LaBrie: Definitely. I mean it’s overwhelming; wherever we’re going, wherever we’re playing, it’s just a big buzz. The radio stations are really cool and the people that come out to the shows... it’s usually packed.

RR: Is this your first tour?

Mike Portnoy: First full tour. I mean we’ve been in the states for five months now. We went over to Japan; that was cool. And now we’re going to Europe.

RR: The thing about this tour that I noticed is, most time when a new band would go out and put like... you are a new band, aren’t you?

JL: I guess you could say that.

MP: It depends who you ask. If you ask my opinion, we’re a very old group.

RR: OK, right. But when a lot of bands go on their first tour, they’re playing a lot of smaller clubs and are opening up for another club band, and you guys have been playing some pretty big shows for being on your first tour. I know in Los Angeles, you played a place which has a capacity well over a thousand, and it was packed!

MP: It’s all because of this place. MTV – the magic of MTV. [laughs]

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RR: Some people are comparing you to the likes of Queensrÿche and even Rush...

MP: [feigning shock] No!

RR: It’s a progressive metal type thing. I mean you’ve definitely heard like the Queensrÿche...

JL: ...Queensrÿche, Rush, Yes, Genesis...

RR: You also mentioned that when you played in LA that some of the guys from Yes showed up to one of your shows.

JL: Yeah, it was very cool. It was Tony Kaye and Alan White. And Chris Squire, but he didn’t show up! He didn’t come back.

MP: [joking] That’s it. I don’t like Yes anymore.

RR: Are these bands that are influences of yours?

JL: Definitely.

MP: It’s not just all those old progressive bands. They had a big influence on our writing and everything, but we also grew up listening to all the modern metal stuff or even alternative or even more commercially oriented stuff; we just listen to a lot of different stuff. It’s just because most of the songs on our album are a little bit longer in length and a little bit more instrumental in style, so I think the progressive influences are very obvious in the music, but it’s a little bit of everything mixed in there.

RR: We’re about to play your latest video; would you like to talk about it at all before we play it?

JL: ‘Take the Time.’ We did this with Chris Painter, who’s done bands like Queensrÿche and Tesla, so it was really cool to have him come in with this, and he pretty well knew where we were coming from.

MP: It’s pretty much a straight ahead performance video which is good, because the first video – ‘Pull Me Under’ – didn’t really emphasize or showcase the musicianship of the band, which is real important to us in a band like Dream Theater. So this time around, it was important to really get the musicianship and have a little bit of personality in it, and I think it comes across this time around.

----- (Mike Portnoy leaves during commercial break and John Petrucci joins in)

RR: I want to talk a little bit about the new record which is out in stores now called Images and Words. The one thing I also found out is that you all take turns writing the lyrics, right? Does every member of the band contributed in some of the lyrics?

John Petrucci: Yeah. Basically the songs exist as instrumentals first and then whoever feels close to the song will write the lyric. In the case of ‘Take the Time’ each member of the band wrote a separate section, so it was kind of experimental.

RR: It’s nice because everybody has a part that they already contribute into that song. You mentioned earlier about long songs, and there’s a song on this album called ‘Metropolis – part 1’ that’s nine minutes and 30 seconds long, and it tells like a story.

JL: He wrote that. [motioning to JP] He wrote the lyrical content.

JP: I guess it’s from having influences like Iron Maiden along the way where they tell these long stories and it was one of them, so one of these days I’ll write a part two.

RR: So does the song ‘Metropolis’ just leave you hanging there until the next Dream Theater record comes out and you’re gonna find out?

JP: Yeah, I guess so.

RR: There will be a ‘Metropolis – part 2’ then.

JP: There definitely will be, yeah.

RR: OK. Any other songs you want to talk about on the record? What about ‘Surrounded’?

JL: Kevin the keyboard player wrote that one. I don’t know how to explain that one. It’s very spiritual.

RR: Where do you take a lot of your influences from?

JP: It depends. You mean lyrical...?

RR: ...ideas.

JP: Well writing-wise, so far as instrumental stuff, it’s like in a rehearsal type situation; it’s a lot of jamming back and forth. That’s why the songs usually end up pretty long. Lyrically, it’s whatever we’re experiencing in life quote-unquote...

JL: ...or whatever we’re reading at the time.