John Arch interview (excerpt)

JW: I have the Dream Theater audition tapes—

JA: Oh, god, those have to be the most horrible—

JW: Well, at least you tried on “The Apparition”…they slaughtered it! I don’t know if it was a good marriage of styles, but it was so good to hear your voice again.

JA: Oh my god, I can’t believe that, that’s gotta be so bad! So bad…I can just hear it now, ‘cause it’s like, I went down to audition for ‘em, I hadn’t sang in I don’t know how long. Actually, I thought that audition was gonna be mostly talk and we were just gonna start…maybe they were going to write a little something, and I had no idea they were going to do something and I was so out of shape. I couldn’t hear myself. I could make all the excuses in the world but it’s not gonna do any good! [laughing] That’s gotta be horrible, god! They gave me the masters of the first album, there was one song on there, “The Killing Hand,” that they gave me the masters to and I put my voice on the four-track over “The Killing Hand.” Now that didn’t come off too bad because at least I had warmed up a little bit. I kinda improvised a little bit, did it a little bit different than Charlie would sing and I put some different shading on it, y’know, it sounds okay.

JW: So what happened with Dream Theater, why didn’t it pan out?

JA: Well, again, it’s one of those things where I had the ambition, I had the drive, I had the want, because I really love that band, I still to this day, they’re excellent, and they’re all nice, down-to-earth guys, and they’re really committed in what they’re doing. So I really wanted to, but in the interim I had gotten married, bought a house, so, you being a little bit older, I’m sure you can understand, I kinda committed myself, financially. I mean, $1200 a month for a mortgage, plus all your other bills. They’re in Long Island, I’m in Connecticut, so it’s like a three-hour drive, at least, to Mike’s house. I went down there and we did the audition and—well, hold on, my son’s…[pauses to talk to his son]—so I went down, and the music that they were writing, it was a lot different than what came out of the album, I just couldn’t believe it! What they were writing was kinda like the girls and the cars, the fast cars.

JW: Really?

JA: Yeah! I was tryin’ to sing this stuff and I felt really awkward because they wanted me—we just got together in a room and I’d never heard the music and they’re playing it and they were tellin’ me how they want me to sing it, playing it on the piano, and there was no inspiration there, it was just like, here, sing what I play. So I was doing that and it just wasn’t doin’ it for me, it was really weird. It was like, wait a minute, the way I usually do it is, y’know, you hand me somethin’ and I’ll listen to it and I’ll try to come up with somethin’ and then we work on it together. You know? It’s kinda hard to have somethin’ forcefed down your throat when you’re not into it. So that was, to me, it was a little weird, I had a hard time grasping that, but that’s not the whole story. I mean, we rehearsed a little bit, then I slept over at Mike’s house and I’m kinda like layin’ there, it was like 10 o’clock in the morning, and of course I’m usually up and goin’ to work by then, and those guys sleep until three in the afternoon, get up, y’know, they start their night rehearsing and they’re night owls, y’know? And I’m layin’ there and I’m just like, “I miss my dog, I miss my wife,” and I’m sayin’ to myself, “Do I really want to start this all over again?” I had just finished this with Fates Warning. Even though I loved the band, I would’ve loved to have worked with them ‘cause to me they are top-notch. I admire them all a lot. And I had to make a decision. I had to make a rational, common sense kinda decision. If I had said, “Okay, I’ll join the band, um, what do I do?,” and then it worked out where my wife ended up getting pregnant, I just can’t say to my wife, “Uh, yeah, we’re having a baby but I’m touring and I’ll see you in seven months!” I felt really responsible and I had to make the call and I feel I definitely made the right one. And of course, ‘cause I love my son and my life’s goin’ good and I have my own business and I own my own house—

JW: You own your own business?

JA: Yeah.

JW: What do you do?

JA: I build custom furniture. Executive office furniture. So I do have my life together, per se, even though it does feel empty without doin’ music, but as far as Dream Theater’s concerned, they said, “Well, let’s keep working on it,” they seemed interested.

JW: So you auditioned with them just that one time?

JA: Um, well, twice. I went down there twice. The second time is when it just hit me all of a sudden, like a ton of bricks. Like, what are you doing down here? Common sense finally came in and said, yeah, I knew I wanted to do it, I was heavily into it, I really wanted to create some more, but then somethin’ hit me like a ton of bricks and it just said I can’t do this right now.

JW: Bad timing.

JA: Yeah, it was just timing, and I committed myself to a mortgage, a wife, my child—what are you gonna do? I just think I had a responsibility elsewhere and it would’ve been really irresponsible for me just to leave. And I just couldn’t do it, it just wasn’t in my heart.