Infinite Anonymity (excerpt)

It’s one of those rare smouldering days in Southern Ontario; a time to bask in the moment of the sun and the sweet smell of pine and fresh water fragrance. From June to September, Canada’s cottage country is the ultimate adventure for the mind, soul, yet highly detrimental to the liver and waist-line. Life’s trivial daily escapades are barely visible as stress-echoes from the city are quashed by the dip of a paddle or the crackle of fire. On the phone from his secluded and sedate abode an hour and a half north of Toronto, singer James LaBrie ‘commutes’ to and from the U.S., escaping when needed, to an untouched land of the wild and free. It is in these quietest that another escape is being formulated. The retreat from life through a ‘dream theater’.

And it’s the minds of LaBrie, drummer Mike Portnoy, guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung and latest to the fold, keyboardist Derek Sherinian, that aim to take the progressive masses into another dimension of spacey intrigue, mind-testing intelligence and self-contemplation through their fourth full-length, Falling Into Infinity.

The comfortable conversation begins with LaBrie stating that a chat with Brazil follows in an hour, with Korea lined up for tomorrow, Canada’s ‘home boy’ is now the world traveler, traversing to continents that embrace D.T. wholeheartedly. Asia, Europe, South America, Australia. Not much mention of his home country or the bordering monstrosity of the U.S., where millions of Yes/Genesis/E.L.P./Rush fans from yesteryear are oblivious to the band.

“No offence, but home is really unfortunate. Canada is really unaware of Dream Theater. As hard as I’ve tried in the past to make it a different situation, it’s been really difficult. Without getting into the political side of things, that is one of the reasons, I think, that stopped Dream Theater from being somewhat exploited up here. The way I look at it is we’ll just keep plugging away and sooner or later, people will become enlightened to it. The ‘Net is incredible. There’s just so many Dream Theater pages that it’s ridiculous.”

While the fanatics let loose through the worldwide web, LaBrie is brimming with pride and good fortune.

“Yeah, absolutely. There’s not one day that goes by that I don’t appreciate where I am and the potentials of where we can go. I don’t take it for granted. I remember how hard I was working when I was down in Toronto and how many good musicians out there who never see this side of the business, and they never will. As much as people come up to us and go, ‘Hey, man. You’re so lucky.’ I don’t want to look at myself as lucky. I’m fortunate. I don’t look at it as luck. Luck’s not the proper word. You’re fortunate. Obviously, talent has something to do with it, especially in a band like Dream Theater. Everyone has to pull their weight. We’re always pushing each other further and harder. It’s cool. We’re all really appreciative of where we’re going and the fact that we’re worldwide and the fact that we’re doing press all over the world. We’re actually going to Brazil. We’re not doing the Monsters of Rock because Phillips, the main sponsor, pulled out. We were notified right around the beginning of when we started recording Falling Into Infinity that it was going to be cancelled. So at that point, we were approached by some other promoters from there and they said, ‘Listen, we really want to get you guys down here. We’ll pay you big money to come down and do a few shows. Nine months later, we want to bring you back down. We can do about six, seven shows in Brazil. We then want to fly you over to Peru, Argentina and Chile.’ We’ll probably go down in about nine months and do most of South America. This time, we’re just going down to do São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.”

The fascinating reality is that parts of the poverty-stricken third world can manage to pull an audience for Dream Theater.

“We’re going down there and we’re playing in front of 5,000 people a night. It’s incredible. You know in New York, there’s that big Sony screen on Broadway? They have similar to that in each city. They’ve got great big Dream Theater ads going on these big screens and they’re showing clips of our videos. It’s insane! While we’re down there, we’re doing national TV down there. They’re saying about 20 million view it. It’s incredible. It’s unbelievable. We’re going down there and playing in front of 5,000 people a night. Meanwhile, I sit here in my anonymity. I can walk pretty well anywhere in Canada without being recognized. Most people will just go, ‘Oh, there’s a long hair. I wonder what he f***in’ does. He’s probably in construction or something like that.’ There’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s what they’re probably assuming. It’s only the odd time that I’m in Toronto, or one of the major cities in Canada, that the odd person will come up to me and go, ‘Hey, you’re James LaBrie’ and I’ll go, ‘Yeah.’ Then they’re like, ‘Wow, man. What the hell are you doing up here?’ It’s like, ‘Believe it or not, I still live in this country.’ I love it. I really don’t go out and look for the adulation part of this business. I’m really not into that. I appreciate the fact that people will come up and go, ‘Hey, man. I really love your work.’ I really appreciate that part of it, but I’m not out there to have people come up to me all goo-goo eyed. I’m just not into it. I like the fact that I can walk pretty well anywhere in this country or in this town and just be able to chill out, which is cool in a family sense as well. But that might all change in the future and if it does, I’ll just adapt to that.”

LaBrie adds the following itinerary:

“We’re also going to be going to Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong. In Malaysia and Indonesia – they’re ridiculous over there. They want to promote us and bring us over there to play for 10,000 people. It’s just ridiculous. New Zealand, Australia, Korea. We’re going to be doing a lot of the Eastern bloc as well. Russia, Budapest. We’re going all over the place this time. We have new management, for one thing, which is a huge bonus. We’re going to be working with a man by the name of David Pasic, a great manager. He works with Don Was, who’s one of the great producers of our time. He works with Herbie Hancock and Maxwell. He’s handling them and a few others, but he has a lot of ties with Hollywood for soundtracks. He’s been doing that for about 10, 15 years. He’s in on the theatre end of things too, for musicals. It’s really cool that we’re his only rock act and he’s really excited. He’s been following the band. He’s a huge fan and he’s really excited about handling us and he wants to get things cooking. He’s already gone into the label and the label’s completely stoke about this album and they’re psyched that he’s managing us. He’s got things going on already that we know that if we were with someone else right now, it wouldn’t have been that easy.”

Given that Pasic has his hands in Broadway and Hollywood, one must wonder if any one of Dream Theater’s epic compositions can make it onto an epic production.

“Absolutely. We’ve already spoke to -----------

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“We want to tap into the Rush crowd,” LaBrie states simply. “If Rush is still selling 2, 3 million per album worldwide. Let us tap into that. Instead of us selling a million albums worldwide per album. How about we sell 3 million worldwide? We want to tap into Rush’s crowd. We want to tap into Pink Floyd’s people. Those people are out there. They obviously really enjoy this kind of music. I think the fact that the album sounds more rounded and more laid back is the fact that when you’re around people a lot longer and you continue writing, obviously you’re going to evolve and everything’s going to follow suit. Or at least, you hope you’re going to evolve as songwriters. Once again, it’s proven that we’ve really matured. Everything is more focused on the song and not on the individual superfluous being, which might have been more evident on Images at some times and Awake at some times.

“When we sit down and write, we’re thinking men,” he describes the personalized nature of F.I.I. “‘Where’s our head space?’ Obviously, the album’s a big reflection on where the individuals in the band are and the band is at that point in their lives and what’s really affected them. Whether it be through literature or whether it be their life or their environment, their surroundings. We went through a really trying time in a personal sense. There was a lot of tragedy in a sense. Like, John Petrucci lost his father. Mike lost his grandmother, who was more like a mother because he lost his mother when he was 18 years old. We were going through a lot of s***. There were problems with the label because of merging and they were all in confusion. At one point, we were lost in the shuffle. We were having problems with management. This was a very, very trying time. But, at the end of the day, it was great to see that we, as a band, knew what was really important, what really counted. And that was that the band was more important than any of this other stuff that was going on around us. This album, I think, really helped us grow. To grow stronger as people and as writers. I think that definitely conveys that sonically and lyrically.”

So, at the end of the day, does the personal band relationships translate into more cohesive playing songwriting?

“Definitely. We’re not the sort of band where we get together and hang out all the time. We all have our own lives. Some of us live further away from each other than others. I think that has a lot to do with it, that we have a lot of respect for each other. When we are together, we do get along very well. There’s the odd argument here and there, but that comes with the territory when you’re creating things. Creativity’s a very stressful situation. The fact that we do get along and we do see eye to eye in many ways helps. The fact that we all listen to many things, many different things and many similar things, helps create that kind of Dream Theater sound and Dream Theater diversity. It all adds up. Everything is really important. Fortunately with Dream Theater, the chemistry is very hot. It helps to make things cohesive.”

While the label may be touting the crossover potential of tracks such as the smoothed over ballad ‘Hollow Years’ or the catchy chorus lines in ‘You Not Me’, it’s the natural flow of ‘Lines In The Sand’, the vibrant ‘Just Let Me Breathe’, the double-bass led power of ‘Burning My Soul’ and personal fave, ‘Peruvian Skies’ that truly shine and continue to bridge the gap between the fast food mentality of pop construction with writing intelligence.

“Basically,” he explains, “when we were writing, we said, ‘Let’s not just think about writing a hit. Let’s create a song. Let’s get to the point. Let’s get the message across.’ If that means it’s going to be a four minute song, then so be it. If it means that it’s going to be a 12 or 14 minute song, then so be it in that sense. Granted there was a little bit of concentration on the fact that we wanted to write songs that we could be proud of, that we’re not going to be ashamed of, but at the same time could have the potential to go to radio and are somewhat radio friendly. So, we started doing that.

“Kevin Shirley, when he came in and he heard the songs, he was great. He’s very insightful and into music to begin with. He’s a huge Yes fan and Pink Floyd fan, so he was really cool. He came in and he was, ‘I really see you guys, if we do things right, coming out with an album like 90125. It doesn’t have to be so evidently commercial. We can still keep that Dream Theater craziness.’ We presented him with some songs that we were very proud of that did have that radio potential. We needed that objectivity that he brought to the camp. He was able to say, ‘These songs, yeah. Let’s not try to elongate them or anything like that. Let’s leave them like that or even condense them a little bit more and just get the vibe across. Just get the groove established and get the message across.’

“There were some songs on this album that are definitely shorter and more to the point and then he was very appreciate of the long ones, which I think he was jamming with more. He just really dug that whole technical and complex side of Dream Theater.”

Perfecting the art of songwriting is akin to hearing a song shorter than it really is.

“It does, which is good. If it was a seven minute song that felt like it was 20, then that’s not a good thing. When we write, we sit down and first of all, there’s a lot of jamming and all that and filling out sections that we think really groove. Then, we add onto it until we feel we have something complete. Once we have something complete, we obviously record it and listen back to it. We think, ‘Okay, what are the spots that aren’t really necessary or what are the spots that need something more in order to make sense?’ That’s basically how we go about it, so that we’re giving a song a chance to be listened to from beginning to end because it is interesting. It’s a pretty involved process, but it’s well worth it.”

Dream Theater’s crown-achievement at this point in time is indisputably Images And Words, from 1992. A journey of unrealized proportions. The follow-up, Awake, lacked the stamina and intrigue of the aforementioned, whilst LaBrie altered his picture perfect and polished vocal style.

“The thing is with me, I went into that album saying to the guys that I wanted to be really aggressive on that album. Completely balls to the wall, which is pretty much what I did. I had press in different parts of the world say to me, ‘James, why did you sing like this? We love your voice and we loved it on Images, why did you go this route?’ All I can say is that this is the way I wanted to express myself and I don’t expect everyone to love it and I didn’t expect everyone to accept it. But I expected people to accept that expression of mine for that album. That’s where I was at that point in my life. I wanted to come out and have people hear that more of a raw edge to me. That was that and I’m proud of it. I didn’t expect everyone to like it. I think it’s cool that people give you their opinions. There’s people that wished I sung like that all the time and there’s others that wish I go back to the clean sound.

“When I came up to do this album, I really wanted people to hear more of a character voice. I’ve always delved into lyrical content and try to immerse myself in it because I think that’s the singer’s job. You have to be able to convey what the lyrical and emotional content should be, whether you wrote the lyrics or not, even if the listener doesn’t understand the language. So that the emotion just comes out in the voice. It’s an instrument, that’s how you have to approach it. With this album, I wanted to concentrate more on the cleanliness, but I wanted to give each song a personality. I wanted to give each song a life of its own, vocally. I think that pretty much sums up how I approached this album. I was consciously aware that I wanted to bring myself back to more of the Images approach to singing, but at the same time, grow as a vocalist and give it more character, more feeling, more emotion. There’s some songs that you really notice that I got into my blues influence because I really love the blues. There are some sections when you could tell that I was just going for the blues and the guys were just digging it.”

Speaking of the blues, King’s X frontman Doug Pinnick ventured north from Houston to join the D.T. crew. Oddly enough, it was a case of two highly-touted underground entities joining forces.

“Well, I’ll tell you how that came about,” LaBrie says freely. “When we were doing the song ‘Lines In The Sand’ in demo form, all the answers there were done a certain way. And then when we were listening back to the demo, I said to the guys, ‘I’ve been listening to the demo and you know the section in the pre-chorus and the chorus. I know who would be amazing for that. Doug Pinnick.’ I’m a huge King’s X fan and they agreed. So, Mike Portnoy had his number and Doug was flipping because he’s a huge Dream Theater fan. He’s been out to many of our shows when we play out in Houston. He got on the phone with me and asked what I wanted him to do. I said, ‘I’m not going to tell you anything. I just want you to come up here. You listen to the track and I’ll tell you where I want you to sing and you just go for it. You know what I want. I want your blues. I need that black soul.’ And he went, ‘I’m into it, totally into it.’ We flew him up from Houston. He came in the studio the one day and it was amazing. He just started going for it and it sounded incredible. It came out really great. We’re really, really happy.”

Mixing the progressive flair with metal, blues and jazz moments makes for a varied voyage. Add the Jon Lord-esque keyboard mannerism of Sherinian, yet another dimension emerges that LaBrie is quite ecstatic about.

“I really think this album has gone leaps and bounds partly just because of Derek. I mean, the sounds on his keyboards are just incredible. He really took a lot of time and he really worked to make our sound grow. I think, as a writer, he really brought a lot to us. He’s more from the rock background even though he’s been classically trained. He studied at Berklee as well. He’s more from the rock school. He’s a huge Van Halen fan and a huge Randy Rhoads fan. He’s really into the guitar players. He brought more of a raw edge to the keyboard sounds, which is really cool. It just added so much more muscle to the songs, but at the same time, depending on the song, when it called for something more classical, like a piano, nice strings or nice keyboard parts in the background, he could do those as well. It was great writing with him and he’s a great guy. He’s got a great sense of humour. He’s a very animated person and I think it comes through in his playing.”

About the departed key-tapper Kevin Moore, last heard on Fates Warning’s A Pleasant Shade of Gray opus, LaBrie says the split was amicable, however he hasn’t spoken to him in a year.

“There’s no animosity with us. He’s doing his thing and we’re doing our thing. He’s going into film school now. I don’t know what’s going on with his music, or if anything’s happening for him as a solo artist. He’s just out doing his own thing. We’re all friends. We all respect each other. There’s nothing wrong, it’s just that he chose his path and is following it and we’re moving on in ours.”

For fanatics, which virtually every D.T. fan falls under, Falling Into Infinity is set to contain at least two tracks for the Japanese release: ‘The Way It Used To Be’ and possibly ‘Where Are You Now.’ A third possibility is the unreleased cut ‘Speak To Me.’

“You know we have ‘Metropolis Part 2’ which is a 25 minute song,” LaBrie also informs about other hidden D.T. gems. “It’s pretty intense. It’s not completely in the can. We’re still writing lyrics and melodies to it. The real fanatical are going to love it. They’re going to freak when they hear it. We’re thinking that might come out as a special release, like an EP or something like that, with some other B tracks on it, which will be a cool little release.”

As well, the band have a good portion of the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club live show locked away for future use featuring cover versions of Yes, Metallica, U2 among others.

Obviously, the dilemma writing too many songs caught up with the band.

“You’re going to freak when you hear them because they’re great. We were freaking out and thinking, ‘What should we do here?’ We had to painstakingly get rid of some. We could have easily done a double album. It would not have been a problem, but that’s not too smart at this stage in our career. We should just put out a really strong album and that’s it, which I think we’ve done.”

The experience of Dream Theater on record is more remarkable in the live setting, viewing the entire spectacle with awe, veritably a musician’s wet dream.

“I’ll give you the tentative schedule,” LaBrie checks his tour itinerary. “We’re just doing a quick thing down in South America for a week. That’s from September 9th to the 16th. We’re coming back and we think we may be out on tour by the second week of October, at which point we’ll start on the West Coast of the States and move right across to the East Coast, at which point, it’ll be Christmas. We’re taking Christmas and New Year’s off and then, we’re probably going to-----------