Charlie Dominici comments on When Dream and Day Unite reissue

We were pretty excited. It was our first album for a major label and we were to record it in the same studio that Queensrÿche’s “Operation: Mindcrime” was just finished in. That studio was called “Kajem Victory” studio in Gladwyne, PA. Most of the album was written except for a few final addition as, such as the Spanish guitar intro for “The Killing Hand”. I remember I suggested the arpeggio guitar along with the melody to John Petrucci and he agreed it was a cool intro. The “Military” snare drum in “The Killing Hand” was also one of my little last minute contributions. One thing I can say about the guys is that they are always willing to consider other people’s ideas if they make the final product more complete. We were working on a schedule of 12-hour blocks in the studio with only 3 weeks to complete everything. I remember I had only 4 or 5 hours to sing everything and that was it.

I know that there are DT fans out there that are pretty adamant about the fact that to them, the real voice of DT is James LaBrie, but this was 1989 and I was the singer. We did all the basic tracks in about ___ days. I drove back to Long Island to get a couple of my guitars for John to use so we could have a little more variety in the sounds. That’s my old Fender Stratocaster in the middle of “Afterlife,” just before the guitar solo. Things were quite different then. Today, John Petrucci could have a whole guitar store at his disposal. We were recording in this old building that they had at Kajem Victory which used to be a gun factory in the Civil War days. It was the same building that manufactured the gun that John Wilkes Booth used to shoot President Lincoln – or at least that’s what they told us.

When I returned to the studio, John Myung was laying down bass tracks. Soon after, it was time for overdubs and guitar solos. Once all that was complete, I was to lay down vocals. We were being put up in an apartment nearby during our 3 week stay and I remember some wild times there. We still had not come up with a title for the album and I remember I wanted to call it “Once Upon A Time.” We finally settled on a line from Kevin’s “Only A Matter Of Time.” As you all know, that line was “When Dream And Day Unite.” I laid down all the vocals in a period of 4 or 5 hours and then it was time to mix. Through it all, we were able to complete the album in a very short time, though it would turn out to be somewhat lacking in the sound of the Terry Date mix, as the later re-mix by Producer Terry Brown (Rush, Queen, etc.) would show.

I hope you enjoy this re-release of this little piece of Dream Theater history!

Charlie Dominici