Dream Theater

The legion of fiercely devoted Dream Theater diehards around the world expect nothing less than a smart, fully immersive, experiential journey through otherworldly soundscapes from each and every live performance, full-length album, and song. Now, as the band tours The Astonishing we had a chance to speak with them to discuss their three decade long career and their opinion on the metal scene in 2016.

SOUND: In early September the band re-released the track “Our New World” and featured Lzzy Hale from Halestorm, the public reception has been great, is there a thought to do that with any other tracks with other artists??

DT: The thing about the Astonishing in general is it is wide open in terms of interpretation. Right now there is an Astonishing book and video game almost at completion... the ultimate goal is taking this thing to Broadway. We created this thing so it would have some real legs, we’re just going to have to wait and see where it goes. The song with Lzzy was cool because the storyline on the track needed a new voice and we also needed something for radio.

SOUND: The last concept album was a few decades before and has been critically hailed. We have to wonder though, why the thought was to release another concept album now, so many years later. is it because other artists around you have struggled to grasp the concept with their own, underperforming releases?

DT: I would say that if there weren’t for certain situations that had happened we probably would have released a concept album sooner though it was a good idea to give ‘some’ space between the two releases. The whole shakeup that happened when Mike Portnoy left the band a few years ago really changed the timeline of the band where we had to reaffirm who Dream Theater are and do certain albums that would work for us as a band.

SOUND: At what point did the band realize things were going to be okay after Mike’s departure?

DT: What made it a lot easier than we had originally thought was that other drummers came forward and wanted the job and they all turned out to be amazing drummers. After the emergency situation happened then we felt pretty good after we understood what the possibilities were. But still no matter what it is, when a band goes through that kind of change with a member who was that important of an entity it’s kind of a big deal. Musically though we felt stronger than ever during the transition which helped push us further and to keep going.

SOUND: The band incorporates a ton of sounds and vibes into your songs, such as with the song ‘Dance of Eternity’. Where outside the metal world do your musical influences come from to create that kind of vibe?

DT: I am a Julliard Classically Trained pianist, training there from the age of nine to nineteen. When I left there I became interested in electronic music and had always played songs from movies and musicals so when I’m in a writing process for Dream Theater I for one like to take various motifs and kind of like bring in interesting stylistic ideas. The Prog Metal thing can get a little serious and even academic at times so ifs fun to throw in some humor and different styles so people can smile. That’s what I like about Dance of Eternity, the fact that I threw in some honky tonk, it’s a very stylistic release.

SOUND: Do you listen to any new up and coming bands today and if so how strange is it to hear your influence on those bands?

DT: It’s really interesting. Dream Theater in the prog metal world seems to have had a huge impact on some of these other bands. It’s a little hard sometimes to listen to some of it just because if I’m going to listen to music I like listening to other things outside of our genre but I do notice the influences. It’s very flattering to hear that. In my musical world I tend to gravitate to things a little more mellow so take that into consideration. That being said there are some prog metal bands like TesseracT that are up and coming in the scene that I think are great.

SOUND: When you break things down, individual members of the band have an received numerous accolades. Does that mean anything internally for the band?

DT: I think it’s very flattering and it’s one of the reasons why I was brought into the band as I was keyboard magazines keyboardist of the year . obviously very helpful when the band looked at my resume. But one of the things that Dream Theater is about, outside of the usual group in a sense, is that we appeal to three main audiences... the metal crowd... the progressive rock crowd and but also the younger generation, kids who are learning to play those instruments who look to us as role models for them. We take it pretty seriously. Our version of a party is sitting around practicing with a metronome.

SOUND: Why do you think Prog Metal has continued to gain popularity over the years while other genres wane in and out of the mainstream?

DT: Metal has survived so long and morphed into different things. I mean take a look at Dream Theater, we are not a metal group, we are a progressive metal group to classify it. People love rock and roll and that classic sound and metal is one of those elements within that broader style. For me I view it like a compositional tool. I look for moods and energy, all these styles are so much more wide open with Metal. Metal is a style that is always going to be there. It will be interesting to see how much in the future but for me it’s one of the tools.