Where Are They Now: Charlie Dominici

Charlie Dominici was the second vocalist with Dream Theater, recording with the band on their 1989 debut When Dream And Day Unite. But after their record label dropped the group, he was replaced by current singer James LaBrie.

“I started to have a few personal problems in my life at the time. I was doing a little too much of the wrong things in my leisure time and the rest of the band were a little bit wimpy when it came to partying,” he laughs. “I was twice their age and I had been in Franke And The Knockouts with Bon Jovi’s Tico Torres and we were animals on the road. I toned it down with Dream Theater but even that was still too much for them. But I have to be honest they came to me first and said they were not happy with what was going on and I left.”

Despite the manner of his departure and open criticism by some fans of his vocals on that album, Dominici has remained close to the band and continues to attend their gigs.

“I’ll always go and see them live out of curiosity. I remember one gig just after James had joined when there was some guy behind me who shouted, ‘Hey Charlie, his vocals sound much better than yours!’ Now I don’t mean it to sound like sour grapes, but it’s easy to sound great when you’ve got someone who knows how to bring the vocal out the mix live. We didn’t even have monitor speakers on stage when I was with the band. As for the album, my vocals were buried in the mix but I still feel that album was the real essence of Dream Theater. After that I thought the band became subdued and conformed a little more.”

Although Dominici, who is currently working as a finance manager at a San Diego car dealership, has avoided any involvement in the music industry since his Dream Theater exit, he intends to start work on new material shortly.

“I have a digital recording studio and plenty of ideas,” he reveals. “The kind of stuff I’ll be doing will be progressive pop as that was always my background. It won’t be too similar to Dream Theater as that was something that happened once I can’t recreate that.”