James LaBrie interview (excerpt)

Kim-Arthur Sakariassen: 25 years, celebrating the Images And Words album. How does it feel?

James LaBrie: It feels a little surreal at times. It’s funny because when you’re in that moment – when we were recording that album – if someone had said, “Before you know it, 25 years from now you’ll be out celebrating the 25th on this album”, I would be like, “Dude, what the f***? That’s so far down the road! Why would you even bring that up?” But you know, as things tend to be with time it was like that, you know? I think it’s also allowed me to really reflect on everything that we’ve gone through, everything that we’ve done musically as a band, and as friends. Our trials and tribulations along the way, our growing pains. A lot has gone on and to keep a band together even for five years is extremely difficult, let alone 25-30 years. Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. So it is an achievement, it also acknowledges the fact that it was something that left an impression and was very impactful on fans around the world.

KS: You came in the band during a quite turbulent period for the band as well. They had a record contract but they wanted out.

JL: Yeah, they were with Mechanic/MCA at the time. They came off of the first album When Dream and Day Unite, they had Charlie Dominici and then they realized at that point that Charlie – as talented as he as he is and was – was not the singer for them. So they went through a period of two years with a label that was kinda like, “Yeah, whatever. Find your singer and get back to us.” There was no real support there. And they went through several singers and they pretty much decided on one guy when my package – not this package – [pointing to a certain area on the body] my package happened to fall into their lap. At that point, from what I’ve been told several times, they listened to my singing. They were sent studio recordings of some stuff I did with Winter Rose and some live stuff that I had sung. I guess they got it a night that they were together and listened to it, and they were like, “Holy smokes!” And then Kevin Moore was actually the first one I spoke to in the band. He’s the one that called me up and said, “Hey you know we heard the tape, and man we want you to come down and seriously consider jamming with us.” I said, “Hey, sounds good – can you send me some of your stuff?” cause I didn’t even know Dream Theater. I said, “What do you guys do?” And Kevin said, “We’re like progressive hard rock/metal.” I said, “What? Really?” You know I’m a huge Rush fan, so I was like, “Really, like Rush?” and Kevin’s like, “Yeah, that’s a great example, Rush, man.” And I went, “Really? OK, I gotta hear this stuff!” So they got me When Dream and Day Unite, they got me a few songs from Images and Words that they had already been working on. Needless to say I was like, “What the hell is going on here? This is phenomenal!” So, funny thing happened, is that I guess in the meantime they – did you want to hear all this or what?

KS: Yeah.

JL: In the meantime they started to I guess think, “Well you know we’ve been working with this guy Chris...”

KS: Cintron?

JL: I think so. They had been working with him for quite a while, and they went, “Well maybe we’re jumping the gun here.” So then Kevin calls me back and says, “You know we’re kind of reconsidering where we are at this point,” and I went, “OK, alright. Well, good talking to you anyways, best of luck,” right? Because I didn’t invest any of my time, I was like, “Oh, well,” and Winter Rose was still a very viable project at that point. So I just said, “Kev, OK, great talking to you man, best of luck, boom, say hi to the other guys that I never met” [laughs] and that was it. And literally a week later I get another phone call and it’s Mike Portnoy; he’s like (and I was Kevin at the time), “Hey Kevin, it’s Mike Portnoy, you know, from Dream Theater.” I’m like, “Yeah? How you doing?” “OK listen, I know this is crazy right...” “Yeah!” You know, Mike being his funny self and he said, “Yeah man, so OK, OK, so let’s forget everything that just happened. We want you to come down.” And I was like, “Oh, OK. Yeah...” He says, “Yeah, if we can make a date, we’ll fly you down to New York” and ba-ba-ba-boom. And I said, “Alright man, yeah, no problem, let’s do this.” But it was funny because I got off the phone and asked my wife, “What should I do?” Because I was like, “What’s going on here?” because I started thinking, “Are these guys going to be...” [blows raspberries] you know, wishy-washy, and she said, “No, you heard the music. Isn’t that what you’re about?” I said, “You’re right, you’re right.” So my wife said, “You’re gonna get your ass down there, and you’re gonna jam with these guys, and you’re gonna show them what you’ve got.” I said, “OK” and went down there. We rehearsed that one night and just like looked at each other and it was like, “Let’s start recording a demo tomorrow.”

KS: Yeah. It’s funny, cause you said that your name was Kevin at that time...

JL: It still is!

KS: It still is of course! [laughs] During our pre-parties we have a quiz, and one of our staple quiz questions is – I have it right here – “What’s James’ middle name?”

JL: Oh – first name.

KS: No, middle name.

JL: No – oh! Ohhhhhhh! I get it!

KS: Because everybody is fooled!

JL: Oh that’s a good one, that’s a good trick!

KS: “Oh, I don’t know...” Well, it’s James...

JL: It’s James; you’ve been saying it for years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s a good trick there!

KS: So, did you record the ‘A Change Of Seasons’ demo at that time?

JL: Yeah, yeah, we did, yeah We went over to where John Myung was living at the time. He had another roommate and we went into his place – he had a really nice condo actually, it was pretty cool – and that’s where we recorded the demo for five days. No, I was down there a total of five days when I first flew down, so I think we had three days, and I think we did... well we definitely did ‘A Change Of Seasons’, ‘Take The Time,’ ‘Metropolis’(?) and ‘Learning To Live.’ So it was [makes rapid fluttering sound] “just go for it”, you know? And on the second day that I was in there recording, they said, “Hey James, come on downstairs” cause actually we renovated John Myung’s bedroom into this recording studio. It was no bigger than probably from here to that wall, and then we just made it happen. So I went downstairs and all the guys were there, and they went, “We want you in the band, we want you as the singer. What do you say?” And I said, “Yeah.” I think you’ve see a picture of us; we’re sitting on a couch (in one of the books) and we’re like this holding our drinks, [pretends to hold up a drink in his hand] and that was the night we did that.

KS: So yeah, most of that was written before you were in the band?

JL: Absolutely!

KS: Of course they wrote vocal lines, melody lines before you were –

JL: I mean, the only thing I altered was I made some suggestions melodically here and there. “This would be better sung like this.” “This would be better sung like that.” “That’s more melodic to me – what do you think?” and they were completely open. They were all about, “Yeah, let’s make it the best it can be, right?” I mean, that’s what any album’s about, it’s not about, “What about me? Don’t I get a say?” Ultimately, it has to come down to what are you trying to achieve? You’re trying to achieve the best, so put your freaking egos aside, be a rational professional and approach it properly, so that you get the best results. So that’s what it was with that, too. But it was just a great time because we were all thrilled, we were all excited, we were all extremely young, and freaking full of vigor, enthusiasm and f***ing zest. We were great friends and we were comrades. I think back to those moments, and Mike and I were the best of friends, we hung out, shot the s***, laughed, had some drinks together. It was it was a really good moment in time. It really was.

KS: Do you find it hard or difficult to do Images and Words in all one go now?

JL: Oh, yeah! Vocally? Oh f*** yeah, man! I mean, it’s 25 years ago. Absolutely, it’s a challenge. And you know, I got really sick on this tour – I got very very sick. I almost thought I had bronchitis at one point, but the doctor said, “No, but you are sick.” Because of that it’s been like a challenge for me to really keep my voice where it is, so I’m just doing what I can to make it through. I think for what I’ve been dealing with, it’s still coming off pretty cool.

KS: Yeah, I think you have done quite a good job at all the shows I’ve been to. So, one of the changes this tour from maybe many of the other tours are the moments that you have on the stage where you kind of tell stories. That’s quite interesting because you tell different stories every time, too.

JL: I just thought approaching this tour, this Images anniversary, that it needs to more personable, and we need to draw the people in – not only from a musical perspective, but in a human element perspective – like we’re human beings. I’m going to tell you what we were doing at that time, I’m gonna tell you what we were going through emotionally, I’m gonna tell you about things that I’m pretty sure you’re not aware of. You might have read a lot of it in the books and stuff like that, but there’s some stories that I tell where I’m pretty damn sure people are going to go, “Oh wow, really? They did that and they were thinking this and they were doing that at the time.” I think it’s really cool because the vibe that I get back from the audience is that we’re sitting in a living room and we’re having a conversation, and I think it’s not just the music that you go away at the end of the night, you go away with personality. You go away with going, “Hey these guys are freakin’ cool. These guys are like you and I. They’re human beings. Their spot for being and doing what and who they are was with the music, but we got the behind-the-scenes as well.” I think that really makes for a very memorable evening.

KS: And until then, we have that popcorn incident!

JL: Oh my God!

KS: What went through your mind?

JL: I just laughed. I thought it was hilarious! I thought, that’s great, that’s classic! So I just went with it. Norwegian popcorn.