Interview with John Petrucci and James LaBrie in Seattle on 8th June 1993

Two Canadian DJs – Metal Ron and Gerald Rattlehead from Vancouver – ventured south of the border to Seattle, to interview, firstly John Petrucci and then fellow countryman James LaBrie.

Have you heard how the sales of Images And Words are doing since its release last year (1992)?

John: Yeah, it’s just about gold right now. Which is something we can’t really believe, we’re shocked. What more could we ask for?

How did you manage to hook up with the Atco label, and I don’t know if your connected to Sanctuary management?

John: No we’re not. Atco was – you mentioned Kerrang! before – Derek Oliver was a writer for Kerrang! and he reviewed When Dream And Day Unite, and he gave it a five K; he was really into it. Then he got a job as A&R director at Atco! And it was like, that kind of works out. And he signed us! So far as Sanctuary goes, we we’re almost managed by them, but it didn’t happen.

Were you pleased with David Prater’s production of the album?

John: Yeah I think it totally took the band to another level, so far as how people perceived the band.

Was Metropolis the first track written for the album? I know it’s an older song.

John: You might be right. It was written right after we finished the first album. It probably is one of our oldest; it might be the oldest song on Images And Words.

What happened to the twenty minute epic you were working on A Change Of Seasons, and To Live Forever?

John: Well, A Change Of Seasons – we just played Europe and we played that. To Live Forever we’re playing it live in this set now. So far as recording those songs, what we want to do is put them on some sort of EP. We’re talking about maybe doing a Christmas song – we do Oh Holy Night – and so we’re thinking of putting that on an EP with To Live Forever and A Change Of Seasons. So when it comes to recording the next album, we won’t have any backlog of old material, everything will be out of the way.

(John exits and enter James into the hot seat)

I was just talking to John about A Change Of Seasons and To Live Forever, and he answered part of my question: do you plan to release any unreleased material as B-sides?

James: Well there’s talk right now that we might go in and record three songs for a Christmas release. And I’m not gonna tell you what the Christmas song is ‘cos we want to surprise everyone.

He gave it away already.

James: Did he already tell you? We were gonna keep it quiet – I suppose not! The other two songs would be A Change Of Seasons and To Live Forever. I think we would record just before we go to Japan, or in October, get it down and pressed for Christmas release. We’ll have those three songs and then we’ll move on to the new material.

You may not be able to answer this one as it is to do with Majesty. When the group changed over from Majesty, were there any old songs brought in, or were brand new songs written for the debut?

James: I think from what I can gather, most of the songs were written for the debut. I guess there were some elements that came from Majesty into When Dream And Day Unite, but, I don’t think too much.

Since you’re in the band now, if you had When Dream And Day Unite to do again, would you do anything different with those same songs with your element in there?

James: Oh definitely, I’d change the melodies around a lot. You’ll see when we do the show tonight, we’re doing a few songs from the first album, so, I’ve already changed the melodies around, enhanced them given them more energy and feel. So I would definitely approach all those songs differently in the vocal performance and characterisation, give it a little bit more substance. That’s what I’d do different. I think the guys would even feel differently about those songs. Even since that album’s been recorded, if you listen to that, then listen to Images And Words, everything has matured, I think greatly. The songwriting is more oriented for the songs, it’s not “listen to what we can do instrumentally”, it’s song oriented, which is making a big difference. Even with the new stuff, and new ideas we’re coming out with, it’s gonna be incredible, because we’re just constantly moving forward and growing together.

Have you started writing any material for the follow-up?

James: We’re getting together a lot of ideas, let’s put it that way. Actually sitting down and placing them together and jamming them out, no. Just individually the guys are putting together ideas, putting them down on tape, letting each other hear it and getting feedback from each guy. But some of the stuff is really cool. Once we do have the time to focus on writing, we’ve got so many ideas to put together – it’s not a lack of material it’s a lack of time.

Was the previous vocalist Charlie Dominici actually fired or did he quit?

James: They wanted him to go, and he wasn’t happy at the time, but basically they asked him to leave. It’s unfortunate cos shortly after the album’s release they knew that this wasn’t the vocalist they wanted to make a long term career with, and asked him to leave and searched for two-and-a-half years before I came into the picture.

They made a great choice.

James: Thanks. I’m just as happy as they are, it was like a dream come true. When I heard this material from the first album, I was getting ready to sign a solo deal. That happened when I was in Winter Rose out touring with Lee Aaron. I got a call and was told that “there’s this band in New York called Dream Theater, have you heard of them?” I said “no, what do they do?” He said “Progressive.” I said “Oh really, but can they actually play it?” I mean I grew up with Yes and Rush, I’m from Toronto, so Rush was like what started my day – put on a Rush album. So I said “let me hear it.” And when I heard this stuff, I heard the first album and I heard some of the new material they were working on, and I was blown away. These guys are serious about their craft. So they got my tape, they called me up, wanted to fly me down. I flew down, jammed, and the rest is history. It was like magic it just came together like that. Right after the first song we jammed together, we just looked at each other and said: “you gotta be kiddin’” – it felt so good.

Was it a big transition changing your singing style from Winter Rose to fit Dream Theater?

James: No. I’m still singing the way I’ve always sung. I’d say it was a transition in the sense of just compositions, like the music itself – it’s not your straight forward 4/4 timing. You have so many different time signatures – it’s like you have to get used to coming in on off-beats, syncopated. It was different in that sense, which was really cool to find four guys who could really do it, and be given the chance to sing this kind of material was incredible. So I fell into it pretty easy.

Do you think there’s a resurgence of interest in Progressive music?

James: You see, we’re always referred to as Progressive, and I like to look at it this way: we have Progressive elements in our music, but to say that we’re just Progressive is not true, and as far as I’m concerned we’re a Heavy Metal band. We’re like Rock ‘n’ Roll, we’re like Metallica and Queensryche and we have elements of Journey and U2 in there, and the Judas Priest and the Iron Maiden, and the Yes and Rush. So there’s all these elements that have been the influences of all of us growing up that come into the picture, so to just pigeon-hole us into just Progressive..... I don’t like to be referred to as that, I know the other guys don’t either. Back to the question, I definitely think there’s a resurgence of Progressive music out there. When we first started out on the road last September we’d get local bands to back us up, and there was all these Progressive bands coming in, and not too put them down or sound pompous or anything, but a lot of them were trying to bring in this Progressive feel in the music but they hadn’t found their forte for writing that type of material. There were a couple of bands that were cool. But for the most part, the only reason we’re doing as well as we are, is because people in general are looking for more. They want more substance now, they are sick of these three minute absolute non-directional focused tunes. They want something being said and being felt both musically and lyrically.

The album came out last year (1992) and that you’re only taking off now, I guess it is something you can’t predict?

James: No you can’t. We didn’t even foresee that this type of success would happen with this album; we thought this would be just a working album, just starting to slowly break in and let people slowly become aware of it. We thought it would maybe be three albums from now before we were at this point. So everything that is happening right now we can’t be more than thankful. It’s unbelievable what’s happening. It goes back to what I was saying; the only reason that’s happening is because people are now ready for something like this, they want something like this. Five years ago we’d have bit the dirt. It’s not only the people, it’s the radio stations now that are really cool towards us. Are you hearing us up in Vancouver?

Oh yeah, they play it all the time, and the video on Much Music. Only on Power 30 not on the regular rotation.

James: Oh yeah, of course. It’s unfortunate for me cos I’m Canadian, more than proud to be Canadian, but isn’t it unfortunate that I had to come down to the States to make it in music? It’s so contrived up in Canada. I can be walking anywhere down in the States and three people would recognise me; I could be like Farmer Joe up in Canada, people would say here’s another guy with long hair, which is kind of cool in a way.

What’s your opinion of the current Metal or music scene these days?

James: I think it’s really interesting because there is a lot of experimenting going on with music which is great, its showing that people are thinking out there. I’m into Alice In Chains, a band called The Sundays, so many new bands coming out and doing things that are original, to an extent. People are wanting something like this, making it really happen, whether the industry wants it or not.

What would you say your influences were, bands, singers?

James: Bands like I said Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd, Journey. Vocalists – it would be Steve Perry for me, Mickey Thomas from Starship, Lou Gramm, Freddie Mercury, Queen – I used to love. Queensrÿche’s Geoff Tate, so many influences. You know who’s one of my favourites? Nat King Cole! I’ve got all his stuff. He has one of the most amazing voices ever, it’s his tonality, just the tone of his voice is so rich and natural sounding. A little bizarre change. So very wide really.

So what are your plans after this tour?

James: Well we’re gonna be going to Japan after the States and Canada for two weeks in August. Back to Europe in October/November and that will bring us to Christmas where we’ll take a break. And about January/February ‘94 we’ll start pre-production on the new album. We’ll record it and we want to get out, bang! Start touring.

Going back a bit. Did the band ever play many gigs prior to the first album?

James: They played once in a while, bars. They would do medleys of like Yes or Rush and it would be all instrumental. They would play maybe once a month, and even after the first album they went out and did a couple of gigs, but the label they were with – Mechanic/MCA – didn’t give them any tour support. Also at that point they’d played a few gigs with Charlie, and they were not happy.

Well great, thanks a lot.

James: Thank you.