Originally published in Focus on Metal podcast · 2017
Derek Shulman interview (excerpt)
Interview2 min read
Episode 336 (beginning at 37 minutes in)
(transcribed by TMW)
Focus on Metal: You mentioned that you signed Dream Theater, Derek. Were you looking at them as the next Queensrÿche, because at the time prog music was very unfashionable.
Derek Shulman: You know, as I said to you before – what I tried to do is balance somebody who I was pretty sure gut-wise, scientifically-wise, business-wise was gonna work. At the same time, I tried to nurture something that I thought had a real potential but had a lot more work to be done. In fact, when I signed Dream Theater, Portnoy had put these four demos together without a vocalist. I mean literally without a vocalist. They were on MCA I believe before that and they got dropped, and I heard these pieces of music which were spectacular. I signed them to kind of a demo deal, a kind of a development deal, to when they got a singer and the right producer. David Prater came in and they put the album together, and it worked. My instinct that what the music sounded like developed into what Images and Words became.
FoM: Now I read the Dream Theater biography, and in that book, David Prater said he had a lot of problems with the band. Is that another case where you were the counselor?
DS: [laughs] To say yes would be an understatement. Yeah, David actually did a very good job. But his ability to be a psychotherapist, a producer and a good friend was less than good. That’s what a producer has to be – they have to get the best out of them – so in that respect, they have to be all these things. David got the best out of them musically, but as a sort of person who could speak with them and sit down with them, it was difficult. So I had to jump in and do a lot of that work, too.
FoM: Now the success of Pull Me Under, did that wildly exceed your expectations? Cause it’s an eight minute song and it did pretty well on MTV and on radio.
DS: Yeah. To tell you the truth, it did. It was a long song – it was about 12 minutes long. We edited the best part of it. And it became a big hit. Did it surprise me? Yeah, a little bit.