The Crimson Sunrise

‘A Change Of Seasons’ finally released, at last?

JL: Yes. Not only ‘ACOS’ but also some of the covers we did at the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London in January.

MP: The covers are Elton John, Led Zeppelin medley, “Perfect Strangers” from Deep Purple, and “The Big Medley” – Kansas, Queen, Genesis, Dixie Dregs, Journey and Pink Floyd. The Japanese version of ACOS might have 3 extra tracks, if so U2, Rush and Metallica songs be included. (The extra tracks didn’t happen! – Ed.)

When did you record ACOS?

JL: It took two weeks in May. We took a long time to do it. We recorded each instrument one by one. Each band member needed days to complete it. Besides, mixing also took a couple of days. It was like making four songs into one. Then we had to mix the live recording too.

You’ve been warming up ACOS for a long time, haven’t you?

JP: Yes. It’s the one we wrote a long time ago. It’s from the same era that we were writing ‘Metropolis’ in 1989. A long time ago. We remade it, and actually it has changed quite a lot. The lyrics, vocal line, instrumental passages, and the orchestration as well. It’s also the first song we’ve done with Derek in the studio.

How come you decided to record this song? Was it because of the request from the fans?

JP: Yeah. There was such a request through the Internet. Actually we had plans for it after “Images And Words”; we talked about making it into an EP in the future. Finally we had an opportunity to put our long-term plan into practice.

How much have the lyrics changed?

MP: Considerably changed. Ask a musician just after he’s written a song if he’ll change the song after five years. Everyone would answer “probably.” I wrote this song 6 years ago, but it didn’t get recorded for a long time, so we added to it. I had a chance to put my present feelings and emotions into it. Generally, once you’ve recorded a song you can never do such a thing. But for me the chance has come up after six years.

How was the first version of ACOS?

MP: Basically the contents have not been changed. There is a concept running through the song. In fact, it consists of seven songs. Three of the seven are instrumentals, and the other four include vocals. I put a season into the emotion and feelings of the character in the song, as a metaphor. The biggest metaphor among them is “death”, probably. About death, I wrote the lyrics about my own experience. The character (in the song) is a child at first, pure child. Then growing up more and more, he finds that there’s lots of tough things in life. The song shows how the character is dealing with these difficulties, how he thanks his own life after all.

So the song is about a man?

MP: Yeah, mostly. He’s a child at first, and eventually he becomes old and near to death, and gives his life to his son.

Derek, what did you contribute to the song?

DS: Plenty of attitude, I’d say. This song was already complete, so all I could do was put my own style on it.

You’ve just done a European tour, mainly attending festivals. Page & Plant and Elton John have been headliners, do they know that you covered their songs?

MP: The first time we met Elton John was tonight. But the third time with Page & Plant; though I don’t think they know that we covered their songs.

What’s the difference between doing your own songs and the covers?

JP: Mostly when we’re doing covers, we feel easy. We merely have to care about the technical side, so we just have fun playing. During that night (at Ronnie Scott’s) I was smiling all the time and frolicking. I did make some mistakes, but it’s not too important. We felt very open.

You played “Perfect Strangers” in Germany (in February) too, didn’t you?

MP: It was because we had already played Ronnie Scott’s. The audience that night was so good, so we decided to do it. Our fans sometimes ask us to do covers, so we play covers as well, as a present to our fans. But not every time.

Which song did you do last night?

JM: We played Iron Maiden’s “Killers” with Paul Di’Anno. He was in the audience to see our show last night in Salzburg, Austria.

MP: It was so cool! It was the second time we had played with (Ex) Iron Maiden members.

You mean you also did it with Bruce Dickinson?

MP: Yes, for his radio show in England. We played “Perfect Strangers” and he sang for us.

Why don’t you play anything from your great first album?

JP: Because we don’t like that album any more.

MP: John, it wouldn’t sound like irony, if they translate it into Japanese. (Laughs) Everybody will say “John Petrucci dislike first album.”

JM: The production was ugly, so we don’t like listening to it. It was a cool album though, but that was what we were doing those days, seven years ago. Now we’re located at a different point.

JP: During the set we play the new songs; when we play old ones from first album, there is a different atmosphere, I think they sound and feel wrong. Our style is, what shall I say.... is changing.

MP: Besides, we’ve done those songs. During the “Images And Words” tour, we did all of our old songs. Now, we have so many new songs we have to play. I mean the band must progress. If you like our first album best, it’s not the best album of ours, you think it’s the best because you found Dream Theater by this album. Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All” album is surely great, but a million years later Metallica never say it’s their best ever. The band must grow up, and I’m sure we’re growing up.

What are your plans for the future?

MP: After doing a short tour in Japan, we’ll set about a new album. It’ll be out sometime in 1996.

JP: We’ve got so many ideas for it already.

MP: We’ve got one song we’ve completed. It’s eleven or twelve minutes long. We wrote it just before starting the recording of A Change Of Seasons. It’s the first song we’ve collaborated on with Derek.