Charlie Dominici interview (excerpt)

Todd: How did you originally become involved with Dream Theater?  By contrast, how did the audition process differ from your previous experiences?

Charlie: “I basically just saw an ad in the paper.  They weren’t really weren’t even Dream Theater yet.  They were called Majesty.  There was just something about the way they worded it.  I said to myself ‘Either these guys are completely full of shit or they’re really good’.  …So I called up for the audition and I was really busy.  I remember I kept postponing the audition.  They wanted me to bring a PA system and I was like ‘Yeah, right.  Okay, no problem’.  I couple of weeks went by and I knew a couple of them were teaching at a music store on Long Island, so I stopped in there a few times and said hello.  …It basically turned out like any other audition except that it was for Dream Theater.  I was doing my best impression of their previous singer and at one point, they were about to say ‘Okay, we’ll call you’ and I was like ‘Give me something that no one has ever sung before, ya know?  …Some fresh lyric that doesn’t have a melody for it’ because back then my strong point was my creative side.  I’m not a high Operatic Metal vocalist…like (multi-octave Queensryche frontman) Geoff Tate or (current Dream Theater vocalist) James Labrie.  I don’t sing like that, ya know?  It’s not my style and I don’t wanna sound like everyone else.  So my attitude was like ‘Give me something and let me do my thing so we can see if that’s what you’re looking for’.  They handed me the lyrics to “Killing Hand” (from 1989’s When Dream And Day Unite) , I looked it over, listened to the music once through and said ‘Okay, let me sing it’ and basically wrote the “Killing Hand” melody line right there on the spot.  About a week later, I got a call informing me that I would get the probationary position (laughs).  …I was like ‘What? Am I going to work for a corporation or something?’.  So I was basically a hired hand.  Anyone that gets to sing for that band is just a hired gun.”

Todd: At what point did you realize you time with Dream Theater was coming to an end?  Was there a clear and defining moment where it became obvious everyone needed to go their separate ways?

Charlie: “That was a very complicated time.  There were a number of issues going on at the time.  People who saw that situation from the outside have a very interesting slant on things.  It’s either ‘Charlie was booted out’ or ‘Charlie quit’.  I always like to say that neither of those are true.  What happened was that I fired the band (laughs).  To me, it’s funny.  I’ve been in so many bands and have left so many bands for many different reasons.  Very few bands have booted me out against my will.  The bottom line is that there were a lot of issues that were happening.  The record company (Mechanic Records) wasn’t behind us…they weren’t doing the things that they promised.  There was gonna be a video, there was gonna be a Japan tour…  We did a big showcase at SIR that was filmed for MCA Records.  There were about fifty people there who were all MCA executives.  There’s a video of it out there somewhere.  …The band played, it was a great show and MCA just didn’t know what to do with the band.  There was a lot of that going on.  …I was at the end of a long period of being in bands and just pluggin’ away.  These guys were like twenty one.  This was their first real experience and I had already been there and done that, ya know?  …I was burnt out and was like ‘You know, this shit sucks’.  I started losin’ it.  I was out of control at the time.  I was still into a lot of craziness, doin’ a lot of the wrong stuff all the time.  It all piled on top of each other and we all just started going our separate ways.  …We were getting to the point where we were all going to realize that I wasn’t the right singer for them and they weren’t the right band for me.  When they came to me about it, I was like ‘Yeah, I agree.  I feel the same way’, ya know?  I was like ‘Thank God’ (laughs).  To this day, believe it or not, I’m happy that I left that band for two reasons.  First of all, it was a very difficult thing for me to sing in that band.  The vocals were out of my range, I was working for other people…it was a slave gig to me.  It wasn’t enjoyable.  I had enough years of music that weren’t enjoyable for me to be in a band with guys that were much younger than me.  I was the only one who had any experience, I was doing vocals that were out of my range, I was out of control physically with all the shit I was doing…  I was at a point in my life where I was burned out, I was tired of it, the record company turned us down and just kinda left us out there…and I was just like ‘That’s it. I’m done’.”

Todd: Was your departure from Dream Theater the primary catalyst behind your decision to take a ‘...extended break...’ from the music industry?    

Charlie: “Yeah (laughs).  That’s the understatement of the year.  Did my frustrations lead to me taking a break?  That’s like asking if OJ Simpson’s frustration with Nicole lead to him slashing her throat.  Yeah, I think so (laughs).  …I was completely frustrated with the business and again, it’s hard for people to realize that because they didn’t see me at the end of something, they saw me at the beginning of something.  I was at the end of a long period of many bands and many trials and tribulations that never came to much fruition.  I wanted to get out of music.  I had decided that as much as I had loved it, I didn’t love it anymore.  If you don’t love it anymore, it’s like a marriage.  Once the love is gone, it’s just a matter of going through the steps to wrap things up and tie up the loose ends so you can go your separate ways.  For me, it was like getting divorced from my music career.  I stayed away a little bit longer than I thought I would.  I was beginning to think I was going to stay away forever.  I thought that was a part of my life that was finished.  I pretty much just started to go work other jobs.  I was actually pretty successful in finance in the auto business.  I was running Toyota dealerships by myself.  I was makin’ good money, but I was miserable (laughs).  I was driving a fancy Mercedes Benz convertible around San Diego and had everything that you could want in my house, but I was totally miserable.  I sold it all…when the love for the music came back and I started writing and feeling creative again.  …I didn’t care if I made it.  In fact, I was hoping that I wouldn’t make it.  I just wanted to make music my way without anyone telling me how to do it.  I didn’t want to do it to succeed…I just wanted to do it so I could be doing it.  I sold everything I had because I didn’t care.  I wanted to be so vulnerable and out there with this project, that’s it’s just so appropriate that the first CD was just me completely acoustic without one single overdub.  I was just being very brazen about it, ya know?  I was just pushing myself to the limit.  Then, when I got the band, I…just decided to go to Sardinia and live over there.  I actually went and recorded the album before I came home and decided to sell everything and move to Hungary to be closer.  Then, just as I was selling everything, I got the offer to open for Dream Theater in Europe.  That was an indication that I really did make the right move, ya know?  …It was really perfect.  I actually mover to Hungary on May 1st and on May 15th went to Sardinia, spent five days rehearsing with the band…did a couple of headlining gigs…and then went and did the gigs with Dream Theater on June 5th, 6th and 7th in Croatia, Budapest and Austria.”

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=29456.msg1137315#msg1137315

(Charlie’s partial response to comments on the above interview):

Dream Theater are my family and will ALWAYS be my brothers. I have no intention of throwing any bad light on them neither during my time in the band or now and in the future. My comments were simply the truth. It was hard for me to bring to the band every night what they needed, mainly because my life at the time was in shambles. I had a drug problem, alcohol problem, my GF left me and I was physically and spiritually weak.

Actually I think I did pretty well, considering all of that. For the record I am proud of my time with DT, difficult or not.

I found it a compliment, actually, that out 30 songs, only one (the calling ) was even remotely similar to a DT song. When I read this comment I must tell you I personally had not idea what “Honor Thy Father” even sounded like. I wasn’t really listening to entire DT albums back then, just had a few favorites on the TOT and that song was not one of them. Same is true for my guys in my band. When I did a side by side comparison, I noticed a similarity. It was in the same key(D) and had a syncopated intro like HTF but the riffs, verses, chorus, solos, lyrics, etc were all totally different.

Finally, yes I wasn’t really into prog until Majesty, I don’t know anyone in prog that was “born” with a prog spoon in their mouth either. Holy prog, Batman.., Portnoy used to play Beatles songs before Rush and Genesis came out!