James LaBrie interview (excerpts)

You’ve already mentioned Russia, and I just can’t help asking you about it. What were your impressions of our country when you were here with Dream Theater?

Oh, it was amazing! We’d been talking about it and touring it for so long, and finally it happened. And the fans were amazing over there, and the reaction was incredible… Everybody was singing the songs and was very animated… (laughs) So yeah, it was a great experience. We had a great time… We thought it’s gonna be like that, we thought it’s gonna be just a great event for us. And that what it was. We had a lot of fun.

Did you enjoy your signing session here in Moscow? Did you get a chance to talk to your fans?

Yeah, I remember that session. It was interesting. We did a big interview before it and then signed some stuff for the fans… Yeah, it was cool to be that close, that intimate with the fans even talking with them. It really showed how passionate they are and how much they appreciate what we do. So it was really cool to meet them. And it was cool to have this opportunity to be able to sit down and get the truest sense of who and what they are.

Actually I’ve got a question from your Russian fans concerning that signing session… Was it the band’s decision that only those fans who bought your CDs in that very store could get the autograph or was it due to Russian promoters? I mean, some of the guys there already had your albums and wanted to sign them, but were not allowed to take them into the store.

Wow, you know what? I had no idea that that was going on. I didn’t know that that had happened and that they were told they had to buy the CD in the store to get it signed by us… It had absolutely nothing to do with the band. The only thing I can imagine is that it was made for the store to sell more CDs… Maybe the promoters wanted it to be that way. I don’t know. I really don’t have any answer for that. And I don’t agree with that. I think that if the fans had already bought the album they should have been able to get there and have those albums signed. They shouldn’t be made to buy another one. But that’s my opinion.

As far as I know you had a lot of vocal training in the past. Do you need it now? Do you feel like you still can improve your voice?

Yeah, you know what? Luciano Pavarotti said, “You can never ever stop learning how to improve the voice and learning how to make your voice a better instrument for you”. I truly believe that you get out of it what you put into it. So yeah, I continue to study here and there. Last year I studied with a guy whose name is Jaime Vendera, he’s an amazing vocal coach and he showed me a lot of things, a lot of ways to keep the voice in shape touring all round the world. I also worked with a lady who’s name is Victoria Thompson, who has a fantastic voice. Actually my daughter studies with her, she also takes vocal lessons. And she showed me a lot - how to keep the voice in shape and how to make the voice a more variable and stronger instrument. To everyone who’s doing that thing I strongly suggest that they study, that they continue the study and they continue to look for ways of making their voice better and improving the range and making the voice a better thing. It’s something that you can always be learning and always bettering, as far as I’m concerned.

<snip>

Don’t you feel like your solo career may come in the way with your band’s career?

The priority will always be Dream Theater. I would never let my solo career interfere with Dream Theater’s. Or whatever I might be interested in. So it would never happen. And I think that the great thing about my solo career is that I’m able to show all around the world who I am as a writer – it shows more of me than just being a singer. It shows some other music that I love, that I appreciate. So it helps me to grow as a musician, because it’s another platform for me to express myself as a singer and also as a writer. It helps me to evolve.

They say that you were going to tour with your new album in America, but you had some problems…

Yeah. Unfortunately we were gonna tour through the States and do a couple of shows up in Canada, but some of the work visas for two guys in Europe couldn’t get visas to get them into the States and Canada. So we couldn’t get them visas in time to start rehearsing and then eventually to start touring. There’s nothing wrong with them, but the process has taken much longer than we’d anticipated. So in future we’ll make sure that we won’t have complications like that.

Is it different for you to perform as James LaBrie as a solo artist and to perform as the vocalist of Dream Theater?

It’s just the nature of the songs… I mean my solo songs are different, and though there might be similarities between the music from my solo albums and the music of Dream Theater, they still sound quite different from one another. It brings quite different experiences when I’m on stage singing just through the nature of music. And the fact that I’m playing with different people. When I’m on stage with my solo band it’s different, because I’m playing with a different drummer, guitar player, keyboard player and bass player. And once again when I’m with Dream Theater it’s different because I’ve been playing with those guys for twenty years. There’s comfort, there’s predictability in how we interact with one another and what we expect from one another. So there’re different experiences for sure, but they’re both extremely fulfilling and rewarding.

Is there even the slightest chance for your Russian fans to see you live here in our country with you solo band?

I wouldn’t think so, not at this point, because in January I go back into the studio for Dream Theater and we’ll be working on the next album. Unfortunately not this time. But I really do hope that at some point in future I will come and bring my solo band with me and we’ll be touring through Europe and into Russia as well. But now I have to say “no”, it’s not gonna happen. I’m really sorry about that.

Well, then just a couple of words for your Russian fans…

I would like to thank you for your incredible support. You’re supporting who we are as Dream Theater and who I am as a solo artist. We as Dream Theater are looking forward to go back to Russia and doing more shows over there and getting in front of more Russian fans, because we know that we have incredible fans there. We wanna go there and we’ll make sure that we do that with our next world tour. So we’re looking forward to seeing our Russian fans again and having a great evening of music.