Interview: James LaBrie from Dream Theater

Iconic US progressive metal/rock band Dream Theater is heading Down Under this October to perform two intimate shows as part of their An Evening With Dream Theater tour.

Thanks to our friend John Howard from Bullet Proof, we had the chance to speak with the band’s frontman James LaBrie, in order to find out about these two Australian shows, working with drummer Mike Mangini and much more.

SR. How are you guys preparing for the 3 hour show as part of the Australian tour?

JLB. There are two sets, each set is an hour and a half including the encore. It’s a long time that we have done the Evening With, so we thought this world tour we wanted to get back to it. We love it, we think it’s the only way to see a band like ourselves because we have so much material and due to the nature of our music it makes sense that we are doing an Evening With.

We are playing a lot of songs from a lot of the albums and a lot from the latest self titled album and in the second set we are also recognizing two anniversaries. The Awake album its 20 years since we released that and Scenes from a Memory album its 15 years. So we put some focus on those albums and play some songs from both which is really cool and been going over really well. The production we have on this tour is really intense. The lighting design and screens, the imagery that’s going on is really cool

SR. After 12 albums, why did you decide to call this album 12, the self titled album?

JLB. (laughs) We wanted it to be something that just immediate. We had the Dream Theater Insignia or symbol and we thought that’s all it really needs to be said. It is our 12th album but it is a bold statement. The music really had to support the move. Keep it simple and it would be much more powerful.

SR. You started working with Mike Mangini in 2011, how was that been and how did you meet?

JLB. Personally I’ve been working with Mike since 1999, he played on my very first solo album. Having in the band Dream Theater, has amazing. Hess extremely talented, innately gifted. Very instinctual about how he plays. He can play anything. As a drummer he speaks for himself, a world class drummer. He’s got a great personality, very intelligent and the way that he’s been working in the studio with us while we’ve been writing and recording is great. Great ideas and amazing attitude and energy. Its been working out great.

SR. You are well known for pushing your own limits and experimenting a lot. No wonder you are called the progmetal masters. I wonder if there is any area that you would like to explore that you haven’t yet

JLB. We are very fortunate that our fans expect us to be experimental and diverse in the way that we express ourselves so there’s no limitations. When it comes to us being able to explore and push the envelope, so in that sense we are very blessed and in a very fortunate situation. As far as things we haven’t touched on.. doing a movie soundtrack would be amazing. There is nothing we cant play without risking alienation from our fans. Our fans somewhat expect us to be shocking at times.

SR. John Petrucci is known for the lyrics behind Dream Theater, how much input do you have in the lyrics in the songwriting process.?

JLB. I’m with him through the songwriting process so I’m making suggestions here and there and I’m involved. I didn’t do any lyrics on the last album, I just came out of recording my solo album and Id written tons of lyrics on that. Iv written lyrics on most of the albums.

SR. The song Letting Go…is it based on personal experience?

JLB. Letting Go is me observing how people react to areas in their life where they might be challenged. Where it might be insurmountable to overcome any adversities in life. Basically that’s what that songs about. It’s about overcoming adversities and realizing that you have to believe in yourself and that you have to trust that you know what’s best for you.

Let go of the negativity, let go of anything that seems to be dragging you down. Its talking about people that are somewhat narcissistic and letting those kinds of people dictate to you and tell you how you should feel and you should never let that happen.

SR. Have you had any weird or funny things happen while on tour with a fan?

JLB. If you look at the artwork on the cover of Dramatic Turn of Events. There’s a guy on the high-wire and he’s dressed in the patterned yellow shirt. We had a couple of fans show up and they were dressed exactly like that, exactly like the person on the album cover. It was really cool. Pretty bizarre. We could pick them out in the audience, playing to 10.000 people and we could see the couple dressed up like the character.

SR. What will be the must play top song on the Australian tour?

JLB. I think fans use to expect Pull me Under, but I think over the years its gotten more to the point the fans don’t want to hear one particular song, they want to hear as many songs as possible. For a long time they wanted to hear Metropolis or Learning to Live, Take the Time or Pull me Under.

SR. I would like to open the microphone to you to send a message to your Australian fans.

JLB. We are looking forward to coming down there. It’s been 5 years. We are really psyched and pumped to be coming back and excited to be playing for our Australian fans.

Everyone’s going to be really excited to see and hear the production that we are coming out with.