James LaBrie interview

Face Culture: I read in an interview I think five years ago that you had ambitions to hit Broadway.

James LaBrie: Yeah, it’s always been on the back burner. Eventually it is something that I want to do. I’d like to at least experience doing a theatrical play of that type in that environment or setting. It’s definitely something that I think I need to do and at least experience as a vocalist. It’s another angle, it’s another growth. I think I would only grow immensely as far as a vocalist and an understanding of another type of expression or musical expression.

FC: What if anything concrete happened, because you said five years ago that “maybe within five years,” so that would be now?

JL: Yeah, you see? And that’s the way it goes, right? [snaps fingers] It’s like that, it’s gone and then you’re... No, I mean it’s always there; I’ve made connections and I think it’s a matter of literally picking up the phone one day and saying, “Look, I’d like to go to these auditions,” whether it be Les Misérables or whatever play happens to be there that I think would be perfect for my kind of voice. I think it’s just a matter of me seeing where I have that window. I need the correct amount of time to be able to dedicate myself to this properly, and it’s not something where I can say, “I’ve got two months off. I’m gonna go and do this play,” because it’s generally not the way that they work. It’s at least 3, 6 month, a one-year commitment that they want from you. So the window of opportunity as far as time allows has to present itself first allowing me to even indulge myself.

FC: Do you ever see it happen while still being in Dream Theater or is that something...

JL: Yeah, I think so. I think that it’ll be something that maybe Dream Theater at some point might say, “Let’s take a hiatus for a year or two years.” When that comes around, then that’s my opportunity to jump on board and do something like that.

FC: Is it something that you already tried to perceive live within Dream Theater to put what you learn or to put a more theatrical approach into your...

JL: Dream Theater’s music is expressive in every sense of the word. At some point, I’m singing a heavy metal tune, at one point I’m singing a progressive tune, I’m singing a pop tune, I’m singing a classically based tune. So to me, I’ve already been in a situation that the diversity for a vocalist has already been evidently so, and so it has allowed me to probably grow in a direction where I would be more capable of falling into or at least putting myself into a theatrical environment and acclimating myself quite easily.

FC: I’m not saying that you’re old or anything, but throughout the years, did you learn to use your voice in a different way, or do you notice a certain change that you can do things now maybe that you could not do 20 years ago?

JL: Yeah. I think that the longer that you use your voice and the longer that you’re in this business, there are tricks, there are ways that you can manipulate the voice and learn how to use the voice so that it endures, especially when you’re on the road. I mean you’re singing every night anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours, so you have to be prepared, you have to be physically capable, and throughout the years you learn what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. I remember reading from Luciano Pavarotti; he said you can never stop learning about the voice, you can never. And he said it’s something that if any singer is serious about, keep immersing yourself in an environment that helps you to cultivate it and to grow immensely as a singer. In the last year I started studying with a guy by the name of Jaime Vendera, and he showed me a lot of things that I never even really thought about. It was kind of maybe little tips here and there that I was like, “Oh yeah, that makes sense.”

FC: What did you discover from him?

JL: Generally how to really get the body completely in tune with the voice; it’s all organically structured. So there’s this thing that he used is called the ‘vocal stress release,’ and it’s all about basically getting your body completely loose and limber so that your body in no way has any or holds any type of tension. The less tension you have, the more in sync and the much more relaxed you are and the much more cooperative everything is. Your whole complete being is cooperative at that point. And then there’s exercises, vocal exercises that he shown me: the falsetto slide and just these humming and these buzzing and the lip bubbles and stuff that brings myself to a point where I’m in a singing voice position. Then at the end of the show, it’s just as important to cool down, and he show me that – a whole cooling down process that brings the voice from a singing position into a speaking position which eliminates any possibility of vocal fatigue. So all these things have been extremely invaluable to me.

FC: Is there for you still adrenalin involved in something...

JL: Oh yeah! I mean I jog five kilometers a day to keep myself in shape. I think the cardiovascular is imperative if you want to be able to really give all that you can actually give as a singer. So all these methods, all these tools have allowed me to [raise] myself much further and become much more efficient as a singer, more so than I was in the past, where it was just all gut and instinct and “just go out there give it all.” Even since I was 22, I studied a little bit here, and then I’d be out of pocket of studying here and then a pocket of studying here. So you gather and you take from it what works for you. What works for me doesn’t necessarily work for the next person or the next singer, but you realize what you are able to really latch on to that you can actually feel its effects, and that’s what you go with, that’s where you continue that path.

FC: For the technique part of the singing, there’s a big amount of personality put into [the] lyrics made by Mike. When you have to sing a song like that, that is very personal to him, how do you prepare for that, to put the message?

JL: Ultimately it has to become me. The way that I get to that point is that I first and foremost read the lyric, I interpret it for what it says to me, and then I sit down with the lyricist that be, and I asked them for a literal interpretation. I take that literal interpretation, go away with it, and then I take all of this information and I make it become something that I can relate to emotionally. Then it becomes sincere. It has to be me. At the end of it all, it has to be something that I can totally relate to, and then it has to be obviously expressed and conveyed in a sincere light.

FC: But can you put it into yourself because you... does it help that you know the people?

JL: I lost my father, so I was able to totally get into that headspace. When John Petrucci is talking about ‘A Nightmare to Remember’ being in an accident with his family, well I’ve been in a car accident before; I can relate. It’s not something that I have to literally have gone through or experienced; it’s something maybe that I’ve just observed or something that I’ve read in literature that I can relate to, that I can, as much as possible without personally experiencing it, that I can interpret to say something to me, to strike a chord with me so that it becomes me.

FC: Something that you continuously do to get experience from certain things or maybe not necessarily...

JL: I think just living is experiencing. The fact that I read a lot, I’m hearing all these stories, whether they be non-fiction or fictional, it’s still an experience; it’s still something that you go through and you’re taken on this ride that opens your mind to a whole new experience so to speak. I think all these things... just doing what we do, going all over the planet all around the world, meeting people from different ethnicities opens your mind to the similarities and the subtle differences which make it incredible.

FC: When is it for you the urge to put something and translate it into a lyric artistically?

JL: You mean when is it for me to write a lyric? Usually it’s quite a simple thing. A song is written, a melody is written, and then each guy in the band might say, “I’d really like to write the lyric for that. I really want to fall into that.” So it’s something that you might feel partial to, that you feel that it really is something that you can convey lyrically and embellish upon the actual musical movement itself. When I do my solo stuff, all of it is my lyrical interpretation, it’s my lyrical writing.

FC: Do you have the feeling that you put maybe more of that personal lyric into your solo stuff than you maybe do in Dream Theater?

JL: Yeah. I mean it’s just the way that it presents itself in Dream Theater. It’s not a matter of being pushed aside, it’s a matter of which member feels that they strongly want to write that lyric, or if it’s a situation like ‘The Best of Times,’ Mike knew he definitely wanted to write a song which was a tribute to his father and what he meant to him and how he inspired him. With a song like ‘Shattered Fortress,’ it’s the end of the ‘AA Suite’ so we knew that that had to be completed and that lyric would be Mike once again. With ‘Nightmare’ and ‘The Count of Tuscany’ and ‘Wither,’ these are songs that John made evident of his passion to write for that early on in the sessions. “There’s these songs that I need to write. There’s lyrics that I need to put down.”

FC: Do you think within the band you have still have secrets from each other?

JL: Secrets... You mean is there stuff that we don’t know of one another?

FC: Yeah, that you keep away maybe because they’re too close, because I have the feeling that some of the things [are] really personal. But do you think that you know each other so well and you’ve been together for a long time?

JL: I’m sure there’s things that each of us... on our own and when we’re back home and doing anything... I mean personally, I don’t feel like I hold any secrets; I am who I am. I’m very much a person that shows who and what they are. I think that’s the only way that you can go through life is be true to yourself first, and then if somebody likes it great; if they don’t like it, who gives a damn? Then that means there’s no connection there, the chemistry’s not there. Life’s too short for me to waste it on somebody that doesn’t get me. Sorry. And vice versa. I don’t think anyone should waste their time trying to be something that they’re not. Are there things that we still don’t know of one another.

FC: Yeah, that you maybe get surprised by each other, maybe something comes up in a process of making something that you...

JL: I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. I know that none of us are sociopaths or serial killers. [laughs]

FC: For example when Mike went through the ‘AA Suite’ you’ve probably in some way experienced a little bit through him. I mean him writing the stuff, did you also maybe participate in a part of the journey he made?

JL: For me, if you’re talking about when I’m hearing themselves express themselves or their interpretation of a particular subject matter lyrically, yeah it might open a thought where I’ll go, “Oh, that’s kinda cool that he thinks like that. I never even considered him to have that concept with that particular subject.” There’s things like that.

FC: But do you actually think, “Ehh, that’s interesting that you’ve gone through that.”

JL: Yeah, we have conversations with one another. A great example would be ‘A Nightmare to Remember.’ I never even knew until this album, until John presented the lyrics to me for ‘A Nightmare to Remember’ that he actually had gone through an automobile accident of that type, and I’ve known him how many years? Almost 20 years? But it only came up when we were doing this album. So there are things that you just think everybody knows what they need to know, or that they know pretty much everything that there is to know of one another, but then you’ll happen to fall into a conversation on whatever just sitting here on the bus going to the next city, and you’ll go, “Oh my God, man! I never knew that about you!” So yeah, there are little things; nothing that’s shocking.

FC: Do you already prepare some stuff for upcoming plans or is now just touring and see what happens after that?

JL: Yeah, the focus is right here; it’s on the touring, it’s on the support for Black Clouds & Silver Linings. That’s where our focus is. We still have a little bit of touring to do, so at this point we’re living in the present as much as possible because that’s the best place to be, staying focused on what we’re doing right now. Obviously at some point, we will sit down and we will talk about what’s the best move for Dream Theater, what’s the next best move or what should we be thinking about or what is it that we want to achieve? So the goal will be set, and then it’ll be a matter of once again accomplishing it hopefully.

FC: OK, so no Broadway in a couple years?

JL: No. Ask me in five years again and see if I have the same answer for you! [laughs]