full band interview

Chad Olech:[audio indecipherable]

Mike Portnoy: Actually, I guess the band has been together seven years, but Kev and John and John went to high school together, and James has been in the band for two years, so I guess it would be seven but a variation of seven years.

CO: All right. You guys got James in a sorta odd way. [motioning to JP] Weren’t you the one who listened to a tape on your way to practice or something?

John Petrucci: It wasn’t me individually. Actually, who got it first? You did Mike?

MP: Kev did.

JP: Kev did. Talk to Kev.

Kevin Moore: We had been working with a singer for about two or three months, and we were almost ready to take him. We got James’s tape in the mail through somebody who worked at Mechanic, our old label, and I was listening to it and I liked it a lot, but I didn’t want to stir up any trouble or anything. I played it for Mike and I played it for John; individually everybody loved it. So to make a long story short, we booted this guy and had James come down and we liked him.

CO: You guys worked with John Arch for a while? What was the relationship there?

MP: It was a pretty short relationship. We’ve been friends with John for years as well as the other guys in Fates Warning, and we were constantly urging John to get back in the music scene because we missed his voice as fans. The situation came up where we were looking for a singer and he’s always been a big fan of ours, so we gave it a shot; it was a couple rehearsals and did some four tracks and stuff, and basically him driving back and forth from Connecticut, he realized he wasn’t really into giving the 100% commitment that we needed. He’s got a wife and a kid, and he just wanted to do the family thing, and we needed a 100% commitment. So unfortunately it didn’t work out, but I have a couple of cool four tracks in my collection now from this.

CO: A couple good bootlegs later on. And you guys have something in common with Firehouse. Any one of you guys wanna elaborate on that?

James LaBrie: Not musically.

CO: Well not musically, but your album... Anybody? David Pratter.

JP: Prater. He produced both of our albums.

CO: Is that what gave it this sort of commercial sound that you sort of have on this album?

JP: Yeah, definitely. I mean, the way that they put it, he was kind of hired to create a commercially viable sound.

CO: Well he did a good job; you guys are being played all over the place now. MTV’s picked you up pretty heavily. James, I saw the ‘Pull Me Under’ video the other day. You’re wearing a Napalm Death T-shirt. [everybody starts mimicking Barney’s indecipherable way of speaking] Any particular reason for that? Are you a fan?

JL: You know what? It just happened to be the shirt that I was gonna throw on that night. I actually met Barney from Napalm Death; he’s a great guy. But to be quite honest with you, I haven’t really listened to them. I’ve been told a lot of good things about them.

CO: I thought maybe you’re a big fan or something.

JL: Mike is.

MP: Yeah I’ve seen them. They’re definitely extreme, but the ironic thing is that they’re fans of ours. That’s how we’ve gotten to know them, Barney in particular. He’s come to see us. He brought us a bunch of shirts; he’s a big fan. Who would have ever guessed that a band as extreme death metal as they are or grindcore – whatever you’d wanna call them – would appreciate what we do, but it just shows their open mindedness.

CO: The ‘Pull Me Under’ video has some conceptual stuff in it – is there any meaning behind it?

KM: Meaningless.

CO: Meaningless? Just filler?

KM: Ummmm... what’s it about James?

JL: Oh no. I think you should take this one Kev because he wrote the lyrics.

KM: It’s based on Hamlet, the lyrics to Hamlet. It has some religious references. Whether it came across in the video or not is pretty arguable. Anyway, we had a limited budget and not all the ideas that we had came across in the video, so it’s a confusing video.

CO: One final thing: Mike and John, I saw an older videotape [and] you guys were at MTV studios for Queensrÿche right before or right after the Grammys...

JP: I don’t know about you Mike, but I wasn’t really familiar with the show – like the audience – so it was like somebody tells us, “I got tickets to see Queensrÿche at MTV and some sort of interview,” so we decided to go. We got there and everybody was about 13 to 14 years old! [laughs] We stuck out like a sore thumb! We’re just sitting there like [surprised look on his face] with a friend of ours named Slash who looks like a weeping willow tree. [lots of laughs] We just stuck out incredibly. They sit you down and you have to sit really close together on these couches and clap and everything; it was totally embarrassing.

MP: It was an experience.

CO: Do you guys have a copy of the videotape?

MP: I do.

CO: For the archives.

MP: Yes, of course! I’m expecting a copy of this!

JP: Ever so often we meet somebody like you that actually saw it.

CO: And paid attention enough.