Through His Voice – Interview with James LaBrie

Dream Theater was playing in Europe to promote their new album, so we figured that would be a great opportunity for some up-to-date interviews with Dream Theater. I volunteered myself to talk with James about the album, the tour and some other, maybe a little bit more unusual stuff. Roots and I were invited to have the interview sometime between soundcheck and the show in Brussels on November 12th.

Bertil: When did you start recording Scenes From A Memory?

James: About February ‘99 and went all the way ‘till probably the later part of June before the writing and the recording was completed. And then I just had to finish my vocals up and then it was mixed by the middle of August.

B: Were you involved all the time?

J: Yeah, I would come down periodically. The core of the band, the other four guys, began the writing process at the same time I was doing Mullmuzzler. So then I would come down when they had some things together, and I would work with them on melodies. Then we started working on a storyline and putting the whole concept together.

B: Your vocal lines seem to be a little more smooth/low. Why is that?

J: It just seemed to make sense with where the music was going, the style, what it was saying. You had to stay in the same ballpark. It didn’t require me going crazy and singing in the stratosphere. There’s a couple of moments on the album where I go up, but generally speaking I kinda focused on the emotional and the character part of the album, which is much more important than singing all the high C’s and D’s.

Roots: We were thinking you did it on purpose, because some older parts were too challenging to do live.

J: Well, I mean, when you’re doing a two hour show, that’s taxing on you period. Yeah, there were moments in the night that would really demand me to be in great shape or nor sick or nor tired. Unfortunately, when you’re on the road for a period of time that happens. But it was actually like what makes the most sense for this album.

B: How did you come up with the story?

J: John Petrucci was talking about the idea of the story, and then Mike, John and myself sat down, and we pieced together a story. John said: “You know, it would be real cool to talk about regression and previous lives.”

B: What is the link, lyrically, to Metropolis part I?

J: Basically it’s a continuation, it’s a story. Metropolis part I is dealing with the good and the evil, being in the city and the influences from it. And then it continues into this, where you have your previous lives that affect you somehow in the person that you are today.

B: What was used from the original Metropolis part II?

J: Not too much, really. We did use bits and pieces, but it was also formatted from what we do presently. A lot of it was changed around, and for the most of it we wanted to come up with fresh ideas. We didn’t just wanna take what was written a few years ago.

B: What is the difference in working with Jordan compared to Derek?

J: (a huge sigh) The first major difference is that Jordan is probably one of the most incredible keyboard players in the world. He is just incredibly talented. He also has a lot of experience in creating the music. Technically he blows me away every night I watch him. And beyond that he’s just a really nice guy. Very well-grounded, very down to earth. He is more in the headspace where we are. It feels much more real to us. Much more like a real band again.

R: I think this album is more coherent than Falling Into Infinity.

J: Before we started writing for the new album, we’d be on tour. John and Mike would burn up and really needed to go back to the roots. The more progressive feel. We figured we’d make the album that we were talking about forever, but never actually gotten around to. Let’s do a concept album and really do it as far as we can take it. We all feel extremely proud of this album and that it is the strongest album that we’ve ever done. And we’re gonna have an amazing time doing it live, especially after the new year when we wanna come out and play it from beginning to end and really go at it in a big production. Come out with it being seen and heard the way any concept album should and that’s with a lot of visual stimulation as well as the music being the core center of it.

R: Did you have carte blanche at the label? I mean regarding Scenes From A Memory.

J: Yeah, well I gotta tell you, it was amazing. They were told by our management, “You know the kind of band Dream Theater is. You need to let them go and do their own thing and do the album they wanna do and need to do!” And they said, “All right.” And they were great. They didn’t bother us once. They showed us a lot of faith.

B: Is doing what you want to do and need to do the reason you went back to the old logo?

J: Yeah, we just wanted to go back to it. Let’s get back to the things that make this special. You know, don’t break it.

B: How did you feel about Falling Into Infinity when it was released and how do you feel about it now?

J: Well, uhm... I’m only speaking on my own behalf, not at all for the rest of the guys. Falling Into Infinity was, from the writing stages to the recording to the release, a very trying time, I think, for the band. Individually, people were going through personal tragedies. John lost his father, Mike lost his grandmother, who was really more like a mother to him because unfortunately, Mike lost his mother when he was 17. And they were very affected by it, and that kinda throws you off for a while. And then there were all these outside influences mainly from the label. They wanted us to sound like this and looking for this big hit single. It was very frustrating for us because we were somehow being forced into a situation that wasn’t like ourselves. So we wanted to satisfy the label and ourselves at the same time. And unfortunately at the time, Kevin [Shirley] and I didn’t really hit it off, but now we have. So there was somehow a little friction going on. There also was pressure because of a deadline. It was very confusing at times. So when the album came out, it was kinda like, “Whatever. Let’s see what happens.” And I think all of us deep down inside, we felt good about it, but there was also another side to us that said: “Uhm, you know.” When we were recording the new album, we were just like kids at some point, running around, jumping in the air and... (right now James is making all kinds of funny and unexplainable sounds, really too hard to write down). We felt good. But I don’t wanna sound like I don’t like Falling Into Infinity. There are some really cool songs on it.

B: How do you prepare for a tour?

J: I drink tons of beer and smoke lots of pot.

B: All right, I believe you. Next question.

J: (laughing) Yeah, thank you very much. No, I try staying in shape doing push-ups. I watch what I eat, but I usually don’t take that too far. I usually don’t drink when I’m on the road. I’m not smoking. I try to get a lot of sleep. Being on the road is such a surreal environment because you’re constantly going into new time zones. It’s very demanding physically and mentally to stay in shape.

B: Okay, now here are a few questions that are probably a little unusual. Have you ever been in regression yourself?

J: No, I haven’t. I would like to. I fully believe in that. That we have lived previously and that we will go on. This wouldn’t make sense if it was just a brief existence of 70-80 years and then the light goes out. I think there’s a reason why we are here. Why you are who you are and why I am who I am. And I think it is obviously coming from who we were in previous lives. I think we do go on and it is dimensional.

B: Do you believe in God?

J: I believe in a creator. I was raised very religiously. And I was until I got to read all these books. I got into a more spiritual sense. I like to be more on the spiritual side to try and get more in touch with myself. I find that a lot of our answers to our problems or anything that we might have difficulty with lie within.

B: Have you ever been nearly dead?

J: No, I haven’t.

B: What is the last book you read?

J: Violin.

B: What is your favourite book?

J: That would be Burn My Heart At Wounded Knee. It’s an Indian book. It’s very disturbing what the Indians had to deal with back in their time when the white man came in. But the book I’m reading right now is The End Of Work by Jeremy Riffkin. It’s really wild. It’s about millions of people losing their jobs. The way of making a living in the actual concept of work as we’ve known it for hundreds of years is coming to a transition. In thirty years they will only require 2% of the work for us. Scary, right? I am reading it, but I don’t know if I should suggest it to everyone. (laughing) It is very frightening at times.

B: What is your favourite colour and why?

J: Uhm... probably blue. When I see a blue sky, it makes me feel great. It is also the colour of my eyes. Yeah, blue is the colour that suits me.

R: Why did you record Don’t Look Past Me?

J: Well, that song was the fourth song that I sang when I first jammed with the band. Mike wanted to put it on the Christmas CD. So Mike and I went to Doug Oberkircher’s studio, and we recorded the vocals. Mike did some backing vocals. The music stayed the same.

After this question we thanked James for his cooperation, and while grabbing our stuff we witnessed James seeing his picture in a magazine. The lines under the picture said, “James LaBrie, progressive rock’s first pin-up?” His reaction to it was very cool. He laughed his ass off. That shows a little bit of his personality. Other people wouldn’t probably like to read or see that kind of stuff about them. Well James, thanks once again for your time.

Bertil