full band interview (excerpts)

Vanessa Warwick: Tonight we’ve come to the somewhat unlikely setting of Ronnie Scott’s, which is famous for its jazz nights and acoustic sets. Dream Theater are going to be doing something a little bit special down here tonight. We’re going to find out more about that in just a moment, but first of all let me say welcome to Mike and John from Dream Theater. Welcome to Headbangers Ball, welcome back to Europe, and I think we’re actually quite lucky to have you back here, judging by the fact that you’ve just been in Japan and you actually were there when the earthquake happened, right?

Mike Portnoy: This is what “Let’s get ready to rumble!” It was terrifying, incredibly scary. We ran down 27 flights of stairs as fast as we could. It was horrifying; we’re just thankful to be alive.

VW: We’re glad to have you in one piece back in London, and obviously you’re looking forward to the European tour. Quite an extensive set of dates coming up, right?

John Petrucci: Yeah, absolutely. In fact, we’re really psyched because we’ve been hearing that the ticket sales have been really good, and the records been selling amazing. It’s more than twice as much as the last one in almost every market, so we’re really excited.

VW: Well obviously we’re talking about the new album Awake and the whole purpose of this edition of Headbangers Ball is to get the nitty gritty on that for you. But before we talk about the new record, we really want to concentrate on what’s happening here at Ronnie Scott’s tonight. This is something a little bit special for you guys; could you explain you’re gonna be doing?

MP: I could talk about it, I don’t know if I could explain it. [laughs] This is just a one-off, crazy idea we had to get together in a small club and do cover songs. Pay tribute to all the bands who we grew up listening to, and some ones from today. As soon as the idea came up, suddenly the phones started ringing and we’re having some special guests down. Steve Howe from Yes is gonna come down and play with us, and Barney from Napalm Death, so two extremes right there. And the guys from Marillion just popped in, so we put together something at soundcheck. Hopefully we learned everything. But it’s gonna be a very light-hearted jam sort of thing, just doing some covers and having some fun.

VW: Lots of fun. Going into the first video from the Awake album, this is quite a different video compared to the videos we saw of Images and Words, which were quite stylized and in some ways surreal. This one is a lot harder hitting. Do you think that this is a statement of intent about the album and the overall feel and vibe of the new record?

MP: I think it was because John had a beard in the video, that’s what did it! [laughs]

JP: This particular song definitely was one of the heaviest songs we ever wrote. It’s like seven-string guitar; it’s really low and beefy, and we wanted to try to get that across, as opposed to having like a real polished thing in a studio. We decided to take to the streets of Manhattan and make this kind of street-y, heavy looking video. A lot of garbage in the scenes and stuff! [laughs]

VW: Well I think you certainly achieved that.

-----

VW: If we can start to talk about the new record, I think a good place to start would be to say that the last three years kind of have been like a roller coaster of activity for you. You got signed, you made a very successful major label debut album, you’ve toured all over the world. How much is Awake a representation of all those experiences and feelings from the past three years?

MP: You can’t go through all those experiences without being affected by it. I think the interesting thing for us with this album, is the first time we ever made a record knowing that there was an audience anticipating it. All the other times we had made records, it’s sort of like us just playing to the walls and wondering what’s gonna happen. But this time around, we knew that there was an audience and that people were gonna be listening to it, so that was a little strange for us. But I think we pulled through it. I think it’s a lot heavier of an album and it’s very diverse; it’s got a little bit of everything. I think it’s the best record by far of the three we’ve done.

VW: Were the songs written on the road or did you have like a cooling-off period and then you got to writing?

JP: Actually we didn’t cool off at all! We had some bits and pieces from the road, but not really a lot of complete songs. We got together at the beginning of ‘94 around the end of January, and we were just in a studio for about three months. Every day just pounding out ideas and we demoed them ourselves, and three months later we had 75 minutes’ worth of music.

VW: I was gonna say you certainly weren’t stuck for ideas for songwriting on this album, because like you said, you’ve got the maximum amount of music you can have on a CD there.

MP: [joking] Yeah, we were gonna do the Dream Theater box set, but the label was against the idea.

VW: When I spoke to you before on Images and Words, you said that a song is however long it takes to get across your ideas, and that’s definitely the case with the songs on this album. Like you said, there is a lot of diversity. Some of the songs are really very long. You said that you knew that you had an audience, but were you wanting to challenge the listener as well?

MP: What do you think John?

JP: Absolutely!

MP: John enjoys challenging the listener.

JP: I do, as quoted in our bio! [laughs] Yeah, definitely. When we write, we just throw everything in, including experiences from the past and new musical ideas and inspiration that we might have picked up on the road. To us, it is really challenging putting it together, whether it be technically challenging or just on a writing level. I guess it translates to the listener, and it does challenge listener with the longer songs, eclectic arrangements and stuff.

VW: Do you not feel that you’re walking a fine line between that and being self-indulgent?

MP: I don’t know.

JP: There’s the fine line between being artsy-fartsy and... [laughs]

MP: I think even less on this album though. I think this stuff on this album is a little bit more straight ahead without losing the integrity or whatever. I think a lot of the material is very easy to digest, and I think through the years we’ve learned – despite what some of the critics may say – I think through the years we’ve learned that a song is more important than blowing your load and playing chops and stuff. I think we realized the importance of that, and that that takes first priority when we’re writing.

JP: I don’t realize that.

MP: John doesn’t realize that. [laughs]

VW: Well thank you for that, Mike. [laughs] Very good insight there. Obviously we’ve talked before about the fact that Kevin Moore left the band, and I don’t want to go into all the reasons for that again, but are you still working with Jordan Rudess?

[MP shakes his head no]

VW: What’s happening with the keyboards?

MP: Actually last time we saw you, that was Jordan’s only appearance.

VW: That didn’t work out.

MP: I guess not.

JP: [joking] He was outta there!

MP: Yeah, the problem with him was he was reading off of transcriptions during the show, and we’ll have none of that. [smiles] But since the tour began in October, we’ve had Derek Sherinian, who had played with Alice Cooper and Kiss, and recorded with Brad Gillis. He’s been a hired gun-type, and he’s been looking for a band situation, so he was real happy to get involved with us, and it’s working out great. He’s an amazing player. He went to Berklee College of Music where we went, so he’s got that similar background. He’s tremendous player and a super cool guy.

-----

VW: Now we’re over in Munich joining the band on the European tour. As you can see I’ve got Mike back with me and John joining us on the show. Before we actually go on and talk some more about the album, I’m just really wondering how you felt about the concert at Ronnie Scott’s – how did you feel about that and the way it went? Cuz, I really, really enjoyed it. I thought was great.

MP: Thank you. It was definitely different. Like a couple hundred people sitting around tables. It felt like a showcase; it was weird. But all of the special guests and playing covers, it made a lot of fun. It was definitely unique.

VW: Yes it was. It was definitely something different. I think you showcased a lot of the band’s influences in that concert, and some of them are fairly obvious like Rush, but then there were some that were less obvious like Tori Amos or U2 or whatever. I was just wondering, was there anything that was a particular influence on the writing and recording of Awake. Not necessarily in musical terms, but in energy levels or anything like that?

John Myung: All that music is music that influenced us as teenagers. I don’t think it has any direct relation to what we did with Awake.

VW: So you’ve not had any major things have an effect on you in the current music scene?

MP: I guess it’s different for all of us. For me, I listen to a lot of real heavy stuff. Some of the stuff that definitely influenced my part in Awake was stuff like Helmet and Sepultura – stuff like that. A lot of the double bass stuff I do comes from listening to a lot of thrash and Pantera, stuff like that.

VW: So you are the full-on metal champ in Dream Theater?

MP: Yeah!

VW: Mike puts the metal in Dream Theater! So we’re onto the third night of the European tour. Things gone off to a smooth start John?

JM: Yeah, it’s been great. The crowds been really enthusiastic. Can’t ask more than that.

VW: You’re selling out the shows as you go, which is real achievement cuz it’s tough in Europe with so many bands touring.

MP: Knock on metal, we’ve always done really well here, especially Germany. We’re doing like two weeks here and decent sized venues and the fans come out of the woodwork. I mean Germany, Italy, Holland, Sweden, the list goes on; everywhere we go in Europe, the fans are phenomenal, the turnouts always great, and the shows are awesome.

VW: Talking about the album again, unlike some groups, Dream Theater is very much a band effort because everybody’s involved in writing the lyrics and the music. It’s therefore actually interesting that there is a common thread running through the songs. Do you think that Awake could loosely be described as a concept album, very loosely?

MP: Loosely. I think it’s actually more of a concept album in the musical sense than the lyrical sense, because every song is tied together and they’re strung together in a way that if you listen to the album from start to finish, there’s a lot of reoccurring themes musically. Lyrically it’s dealing with a lot of common topics like deception and betrayal and trust and lack of it, and a lot of things we learned on the road dealing with trying to balance our professional lives and our personal lives. That’s always a struggle when you’re a band on tour. So I guess loosely it can be called a concept album in that sense.

-----

VW: Where do you guys feel that the major progression has come on Awake? Do you think it’s more in the lyrics and the feelings portrayed than in the music itself?

JM: Having not written as a band for like two years since we did Images and Words, I think we improved in both areas. I think lyrics got a little better, at least for myself personally, and I think the music took a change as well. I think it’s more where we are right now. I think in both areas we did.

VW: Good. That’s the best way to go. How much have your lives changed since the success of the last album just on a day to day basis? It seems that you’ve been influenced a lot by relationships on the lyrics to this album, and I’m just wondering have your personal relationships changed because of the success and the lifestyle you were leading on the last record?

MP: First of all, I don’t have to deliver Chinese food any more [laughs] but things have changed for us for sure. We’re spending our lives on the road and we’re constantly wrapped up in the band; it takes a lot out of you. And it’s hard. All of us are married, and John’s getting married, so it’s tough for us to be able to balance the professional side and the personal side, but we’re all very understanding to each other’s personal needs, and we try to bring as much as that on tour with us as possible. Our wives come out every once in a while, and whenever possible we try to spend time at home, but it’s tough; it’s definitely a very hard thing to balance.

VW: On the last album were you also disillusioned with things that you saw that went on in the music business that probably before you’d reached that level, you didn’t realize that a lot of political things go on?

MP: Oh yeah, for sure. I mean a lot of people out there may think that if you get in the band it’s just like, “Oh, he’s put out a record. You’re huge and you do whatever,” but there’s so much politics involved. People getting their hands in the pie, people putting in their opinions, and you have to consider a lot of it, but there’s also a point where you have to step away from it and be in control of your own career. But it’s tough; there’s a lot of politics involved and a lot of frustrations and you have to be really level-headed and patient, and usually things work out.

VW: It’s important to of course have the right people around you, that the band is a very close unit, and you can all rely on each other as well. I think that’s an important part of it. Obviously a lot has been made of the fact that you’re all extremely talented musicians. I know that a lot of you went to the famous Berklee College of Music in the States. What would you like people to get from the album or seeing the band live other than that outstanding musicianship?

JM: Well, hopefully they’re just happy to be here. [laughs] I mean it’s great that there are so many people interested in what we do, but apart from that, I think it’s up to personal interpretation.

MP: We try to do things more than what’s on the album – change the arrangements, improvise and jam on parts and stuff like that. And now after doing that cover gig in London, now we have all these things in our repertoire that we could pull out of the hat. For instance tonight here in Germany, I think we’re gonna pull out the Metallica thing, just because we have a lot of fans – especially here in Germany – that go to like every show, so we try to mix it up as much as possible and give the regulars something different each night.

-----

VW: Right now I’ve got James and John joining me here at the gig. Welcome – how are you guys doing?

James LaBrie: Doing great. This will be our third show tonight, so we’re looking forward to it. And once again like always, Germany’s incredible.

VW: The other guys were saying that and it’s a very, very good start to the tour.

JL: Definitely. Just last night we played and it was unbelievable. It was a sellout; there was 2,300 people. They’re just so loud and into it; the enthusiasm is overwhelming. We’re having a great time; it’s going well.

VW: Six weeks more to go. It’s quite a long to wait. James, if I could get your perspective on the new album Awake. I actually asked John this question when we were down at Ronnie Scott’s earlier: so much has happened for you as people and as a band in the last three years – signing a record deal, having a very successful album, now recording this new album, touring the world – how much is the album a reflection of all that in terms of the overall vibe of the record?

JL: I think that like anything, when you’re going in to do an album, the album is like a diary of where the people in the band are at that point in life. This album is a reflection of where we were coming from: the experiences from touring with Images and Words after that, like rushing into writing the material. But everything that we were affected by, like all the people that we met on the road, just all our surroundings that we came in contact with. I think that the album has a lot of that set in and just our experiences and just how we’ve grown individually. And as a band we became a lot tighter. I think the music is a reflection of that; it shows that quite well. And just the lyrics that’s speaking about how we all took it in individually and we used it in a positive manner. Just our whole perspective of our situation in life right now. I think Awake is a good story telling of that what we’re going through right now or what we went through just recently in the last three years, because it’s been like a bloody a roller coaster ride; it’s been really, really crazy.

VW: And as you said everybody contributed the lyrics to the album, so it is very much an overall reflection of the band’s mentality or mindset in ‘94-’95.

JL: Yeah, definitely. I was doing an interview the other day, and something interesting came up: the guy said, “You wouldn’t know that it was many people or everybody in the band writing the lyrics, you would think it was coming from one guy because a lot of it is very similar.” And I said, “I think a lot of that is we’re constantly around each other. We’re going through the same things, we’re seeing the same things, we’re experiencing the same thing. So obviously it’s in our own words, but it all relates to a lot of the same experiences, and just the whole growth pattern we’re all experiencing at the same time, a lot of similarities. I think that’s why, because the guy said it was a conceptual; no it wasn’t, but it does there’s a lot of common thread that runs throughout the album.

VW: What do you think that the listener will get actually from listening to the lyrics and reading them and digesting them? Do you think that they can learn something themselves from that?

JP: I think they’ll like my lyrics better out of all of them. [laughs] I could recall listening to bands like Rush and Marillion and Yes and Pink Floyd, and growing up really getting something out of the lyrics, taking some of the quotes and writing them on my desk or notebooks or whatever. I think because some of the subject matter is analytical or its philosophical, there are some things that the listener could get out of it.

VW: If we could just touch on your vocals James, it seems that you did really, really push yourself on this record. I think you went to new heights with your vocals. Which song has given you the most satisfaction in that regard in your own personal performance?

JL: I think the best song that represents where I was wanting to take the vocals would be ‘Scarred.’ That’s my favorite song on the album musically, as well as my vocal performance. But the interesting thing is, a lot of people said, “You’ve changed your whole vocal style,” but before I met Dream Theater – and they can vouch for this [with] the demo tape that I sent them – I used to sing a lot like this. There’d be that raspiness in my voice, and then I’d also do the crooning, which I always do, and then the high singing clean and then the high singing in a raunchy voice. I guess when I went into do Images and Words I just wanted to keep it one style, and the producers were saying, “No, keep it clean.” But with this one I said, “I just want to take a whole different approach. I want to add more dimension, more dynamics to the songs.” And I think that definitely it had more of a dynamic feel, an emotional feel to the album. But it was great, and who knows what I’ll do the next album? Maybe I’ll do Tiny Tim’s vocal performance – I don’t know. [laughs]

VW: I think that shows more confidence on your part for sure.

JL: Yeah, definitely. Especially with this type of music, I say this a lot, but this is the ultimate band for a vocalist to be in just because there’s so much area in the music for the vocalists to be so expressive that it’s the best situation.

-----

VW: I think much has been made of the fact of the standard of musicianship in the band. I was wondering why did you feel the need for outside producers? You worked with Duane Baron and John Purdell. I imagine you’re the sort of band that has a very clear vision of what you want to do; what kind of producer brings to the equation?

JP: I think none of us are producers. I think we would be fooling ourselves if we went into a record and thought we could record it ourselves. We need an objective ear first of all, an outside ear that could really listen with fresh ears and maybe make some suggestions so far as melodies and where everything is sitting. Also technically, none of us really know about engineering; we’d be lost in a studio, so thus we chose producers that would accommodate getting great sounds as engineers and also that we respected in the way that they perceive or their perspective of music. Also John Purdell is a great musician.

VW: I was gonna say that you would need people who have that experience themselves.

JP: Definitely. Even Images and Words, David Prater’s a great drummer and singer. Even simple things like when you’re playing a part and they have to know where to bring you in or whatever, it’s like they have to be musically adapted.

VW: There are some instrumental passages on the album. What did you feel that they added to the record? When I was talking to Van Halen recently, they’ve got something similar going on, on their record, and they said that they actually couldn’t find any lyrics that would work and that it was so good as an instrumental that it didn’t need anything else. Is that what happened with you guys?

JP: No actually when we write an instrumental or an instrumental section, we go in knowing that it’s going to be instrumental. I think it’s just a different perspective, having a guitar or keyboards or bass or whatever carry the voice of it. When we’re playing and there’s a vocal line going on, you have to really be aware of what’s happening; you can’t really go psycho and have these intricate things. So when we do instrumental parts, it’s really ‘anything goes,’ and we can do a lot of counterpoint and collective rhythms and stuff, and we don’t have to worry about somebody trying to make out the lyrics.

VW: A bit of a musical work out for you guys. James, when I’ve seen Dream Theater play live, there are lots of long passages of music, when you actually have a chance to go off stage and take a little break. How is that for you? Is that difficult to keep your energy level up?

JL: No, because usually I’ll go backstage and I just do a lot of stretching, walking around, just keeping myself loose. I’ll just keep sipping back the water. But no, I never let myself sit down, because then I would lose the whole drive. I just keep walking around and actually a lot of times, I’ll come back on and just watch them every night instrumentally.

-----

VW: Right now we’ve got all members of the band, and I should introduce you to Derek here who is on keyboards for Dream Theater. Hi Derek – you having fun?

Derek Sherinian: Having a blast.

VW: To just finish, I’ve got a couple of questions left over from earlier, and I was wondering if we could talk a little bit about the trilogy of songs: ‘Erotomania,’ ‘Voices’ and ‘The Silent Man.’ How did that come about? Was it one massive song that kind of got broken down into three parts? How did that work?

JP: Actually I wrote ‘The Silent Man’ one day at home. That came first, and I put that aside. Before we went in to write the album, I had an idea that maybe we can do a trilogy with three parts: an instrumental on the front, and an epic in the middle and put ‘Silent Man’ at the end. It was just an idea but we made it happen, made it come through.

VW: And they all work together as individual songs as well. In fact ‘Silent Man’ is gonna be the next single, is that right?

JL: This is true. Actually we shoot a video in Munich while we’re out here tomorrow.

JP: And Mike is going to be directing.

VW: That’s an experience for you. Is that the first time?

MP: I’ve always been very, very into film and stuff, so I guess it was inevitable that it would come to this. I don’t know if I’m getting full credit for it though, but just so you know, it was my idea. Matt tried to MacGyver me out of it.

VW: Well we set the record straight here. So actually you’re the best person to tell us then about the video, because this is like an acoustic-based song, something quite different for Dream Theater. In video terms, how you can approach it?

MP: It’s gonna be part performance and part conceptual. The song is very simple and moody, so I think it’ll have that dark, moody look to it. The way I envisioned it is that our part in it should be kind of minimal because it really is that kind of a song; it’s a very minimalistic type song. But the conceptual stuff is going to be bringing the artwork of the cover to life, with the old man and the mirror, and the contrast between black and white and color. We’re shooting at tomorrow, so we’ll see what happens. If it comes out great, then I’ll take the credit for it; if it looks horrible then it was it was Pamela’s fault! [laughs]

VW: We will look forward to seeing that on Headbangers Ball for sure. So you’ve got like six, seven weeks coming up in Europe. Is the rest of your year already planned out for you guys in terms of touring and so on?

JP: There are some things that are kind of up in the air. We know that we want to be touring for most of the year. I think we’re about five months into it at this point. In the States, we have ‘The Silent Man’ coming out as a single in a few days actually. So when we get back in the middle of March, we’ll feel out the scene. We’ve already done the States, Japan and Europe, and if there’s any more touring in store, we’ll decide then, but possibly South America or Australia or Pacific Rim.