Foot-tappingly, paradiddlingly, mind-bendingly good?

Are Dream Theater what our headline suggests? And will you be able to relate to the band’s strong feelings on “hope”, “survival” and “perseverance”. Vocalist James LaBrie expounds the DT philosophy to an intrigued Paul Henderson.

By Paul Henderson

It’s foot tapping-defying time signatures; it’s more paradiddles and drum fills that on Nicko McBrain solo album; it’s notedense guitar solos longer than the average mini-album; it’s mind bending keyboard wizardry; it’s 11 songs that take up almost the lenght of time to drive from Brighton to Glasgow on a road blocked Bank Holiday Monday... It’s Dream Theater’s new (third studio) album ‘Awake’. And is it any wonder that when the bands name is mentioned these days the first words that bounces precariously on the tip of many rock fan’s tongue is ‘musos’?

“Ugh!” responds DT vocalist James LaBrie, wearing something of a ‘misunderstood’ expression as he contemplates that derogatory term with which his band are often tagged, and the accusation that this New York four-piece often come across as being musically somewhat verbose.

“Well I think that’s on obvious side to us y’know, but it’s not the full picture,” he begins, defending the band’s right to boldly go where very few rock bands have gone before (and credit where it’s due, most bands don’t have the technical skill and dexterity to go there even if they wanted to) and even fewer would even contemplate going in 1994. “But yeah, it still grates that people might think of Dream Theater as musos. I mean yeah,we get realy intense with our writing, and it’s not your typical three-minute songs. But I think that people should realise that yeah, it is a musicians’ musicians band. but there is more to it than that. That’s such a minute piece of what Dream Theater is all about.

“First and foremost, people should just take us as a musical band, But the way that we write is maybe somewhat different: we start a song, and we don’t end that song until we feel the message has been completed. And that’s as simple as it gets. That’s it in a nutshell.

“Obviously people are gonna look at us as being ‘musically incllined’ and all that but they should also realise that we don’t just write in a way that we want to be musically... beyond somebody’s comprehension. And because we’ve all been schooled and educated in our instruments, when we come across a section that lends itself to something musically intense, then yeah, we wanna go crazy and go as far as we can with that idea. But at the same time, we’re writing whatever we feel sincerely.”

According to their record company’s press release ‘Awake’ finds Dream Theater “...dealing with new awareness...” This belief is also shared by the vocalist, who explains that whn the album was written they had strong feelings about “hope”, and “survival” and “perseverance”. That with ‘Awake’ (“The title itself is self-explanatory”), what they are basically talking about is becoming more aware of one’s existence. “And through finding out what your existence is – through a personal relationship foremost – that it will affect in a positive sense the surrounding relationships with others.” With something of the fervour of a religious devotee addressing a non-believer (except preferring not to maintain the steely eye contact that, say, a Jehovah’s Witness will nail you with), LaBrie explains – at length, elaborating on key points – how in the last four years, since the writing and recording of ‘Images And Words’ and the touring that followed, Dream Theater have travelled thw world and been exposed to many different peoples and different cultures, and how “you’re going to learn from it and expand”.

He describes in eloquent semi-philosophical terms how ‘Awake’ is a reflection of all that they’ve experienced in the last three or four years, and also as almost therapeutic album to write by being able to “get all this wonder out of us, and put it down on paper to better understand it, and to explain to people what we’ve learned from it”. (Presumably LaBrie feels all this to be more important than the fact – which remains unmentioned throughout the interview – that keyboard player Kevin Moore quit DT following the completion of the album, in order to pursue his own musical direction. The band – LaBrie, guitarist John Petrucci, drummer Mike Portnoy and bassist John Muyng – have recruited onetime Dixie Dregg Jordan Rudess for their live commitments until a permanent replacement is found.)

“Musically,” he continues, responding to the suggestion that for all the ‘learning’ and ‘expansion’ he feels has taken place within the band since their previous album, ‘Awake’ doesn’t really sound much different to ‘Iamges And Words’, “I think what we’re touching on is something that we feel is...er... Obviously we want tokeep the integrity within the music, the versatility, everything. ‘Awake’ is definetely a harder-edged album, with more of a dark feel to it, but the progressive and the jazz and the classical elements are still obvious.

“I think we try to keep it sincere, and for the most part I think we’re doing that. You can’t please everyone. If you’re out there trying to write music that you’re hoping is going to be accepted, nobody can do that, because you don’t know how people are gonna take it. You’re constantly aware of what’s going on out there and what people are listening to, but at the same time you always come back to, ‘Well, the only way I can feel good is by writing in this sense or this direction.

“Lyrically, I think what is always a general vibe with Dream Theater is that we’re always writing in, I suppose you could say, a philosophical sense. But it’s more or less what everyone else is experiencing and going through at the time.”

Hence the importance placed on tackling ‘real’ subjects whn it comes to lyrics?

“I think so, but I’m not going to put down any other genre of music. I think it is cool to have the fantasy-type stories; and there’s such a surplus of love lyrics out there, and a lot of them – and I am not trying to sound pompous or anything – are so poorly written y’know? If you want to write about the subject of love, at least write about it in more poetic sense, with that is worder realy beatifully. And you do have artist out there that do that, which is really cool. “But when people read or hear lyrics within a song that are touching more on everyday life or something that we all go through, then people can realise that we’re all going through the same things; the same trials and tribulations.

“You can’t be out there saying stupid things, because bands can be so influential to sao many people, it’s scary. And they might read into the wrong way, so.... Do you know who I think is a guy who is misquoted a lot? Henry Rollins. And I really respect that guy. Very intelligent. I think he is very brilliant. I hear people saying:’Oh, very angry, very posessed person.’ And I’m like, ‘Have you ever sat down and really read -meataphorically – into what this guy is saying?’ It’s more like, if people start respecting each other and stoppede stepping on each other and back-stabbing people, then it’s gonna be for the better. and basically that’s what he’s saying: Don’t take shit, but don’t dish it out as well. I think Henry Rollins is a really cool guy.”

What would you like to think people get from listening to a Dream Theater album or seeing the band live, other than mind-boggling musicianship?

“‘Images And Words’ wasn’t a first-listen album, and neither is ‘Awake’. But if people sit down with it and listen to it the more they’re gonna hear, and hopefully the more they’re gonna get into it, because there’s always gonna be something new hitting you. I think people shouldn’t put all this focus – on Dream Theater as a progressive band – I don’t like to be shot down that damn tube – they should maybe focus on the fact that Dream Theater progresses. “I hope that when people have listened to the albums or seen the shows, there’s that feeling of satisfaction, or of fullfillment. And if it said something to them, or made them feel better about themselves and their surroundings, or moved them emotionally, then we’ve really done our job.

*The first five albums he’d chuck in his suitcase if the Dream Theater tour bus was pulling out tomorrow:
Tori Amos – ‘Under The Pink’
Pink Floyd – ‘The Division Bell’
Soundgarden – ‘Superunknown’
Shawn Colvin – ‘I can’t remember the name of the one I’m really into right now”
Queensryche – ‘Promised Land’

*Some things that you might expect to have spent time on LaBrie’s deck -and did: Rush, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Bach, Beethoven, Jazz, Jazz-rock

*Some things that you might notexpect to have spent time on LaBrie’s deck -but did: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Nine Inh Nails, Ministry, Rollins Band, Megadeth, Metallica, U2