James LaBrie interview (excerpts)

James LaBrie says Dream Theater wanted to “get back to writing a classic heavy album” with its upcoming 14th full-length effort, Distance Over Time. The move was apparently influenced by the 25th-anniversary tour in support of the band’s seminal Images And Words LP and the lukewarm reaction to its light and ponderous 2016 double-disc concept release, The Astonishing.

In June of 2018, the five members of Dream Theater secluded themselves in a private location in upstate New York to write and record Distance Over Time. The communal and free-flowing atmosphere paid off, according to the singer.

“I think coming off the two-year [tour] and most of it for The Astonishing, it was quite evidently clear to us – we have been talking about it for a while that we wanted to get back to writing a classic, heavy album, a classic Dream Theater heavy album, but still maintaining the progressive side to us, but making it a little bit more concise, making it where the songs didn’t necessarily have to be epic in length and their showings and arrangements. Something that was very defined, something that was undeniable in its statement with each song. We kind of also knew that we wanted to write an album that would be under an hour. So it was just a very conscious effort to go in, write a very – a classic, heavy album in Dream Theater terms.”

He continued: “We lived together, so it made the fact that we were around one another and we closed the rest of the world off so that we could just be very focused on what we were doing, it made for a very somewhat prolific experience, I would say, because things were happening quickly and I’d say that it was a spirited effort and very cohesive from the very beginning. Things just seemed to be jelling. Ideas were numerous, plentiful and so it was just something that I think we were feeding off one another’s energy, one another’s commitment and it was just a great time. Not to mention, you got to remember, when we weren’t in that room, in that studio writing, we’d be outside cooking together or just constantly talking about the music, which really lent itself to why I think it came out and it ended up being what it is. So all these things, I think really kind of helped to shape how this album turned out, the songs themselves and the sound of it and the vibe throughout.”

Asked what made the writing sessions so “prolific” considering that Dream Theater gave themselves only a handful of weeks to assemble the entire album, LaBrie said: “The writing of the album was about 17, 19 days, about that, that we wrote the album. If you look in the past and even though we might be at whatever album in Dream Theater’s discography, is that’s kind of been, to a certain degree, that’s kind of been the timeline for the actual days that you’re putting the material together. It’s been about three, four, maybe five weeks where everything just seems to come together. I think it was why I wanted to state it was prolific because the fact we were around one another, we were living together and like I said, it’s a hundred meters from the house we were living in to the studio. You’re constantly in that environment, so it was easy to be discussing at all times, the music, if you wanted to. To get on to another idea or someone say, ‘Oh, you know what? I was thinking this last night. You don’t even have to do that.’ You’re sitting in the living room with one another: ‘Hey, you remember when we were working on ’Paralyzed’. Why don’t we do this when we get to the chorus?’ There was a lot of that going on where the conversations also enabled us to find ourselves in a quick pace: ‘Oh, man! Awesome!’ Things were coming together and sounding terrific. I think overall, Dream Theater, we’ve always worked very fast, even though we’ve had many different ways that we approach or how we might want to record or where we want to record, depending on what we feel is necessary for that particular album that we’re writing.”

(transcribed from March 2019 issue of Heavy magazine)

Dream Theater

Words: Dave Griffiths

The almighty Dream Theater are back with their fourteenth studio album Distance Over Time, having endured a big hit after both fans and critics didn’t exactly accept their last album for what the band intended.

But of course you don’t throw away a thirty-year career over some negative press, and now with Distance Over Time it seems like the band are as excited and rejuvenated as ever. When Heavy Mag catches up with vocalist James LaBrie he is full of pure excitement.

It was pretty obvious to the entire heavy music community that Dream Theater were going to have to do something very special with this album. The band were coming from a position that they had never been in before: they were going to have to deliver an album that would win back the naysayers after their previous album The Astonishing [2016] wasn’t received quite the way the band would have hoped.

“Coming off that two-year tour for The Astonishing it was quite evidently clear to us, and we had been talking about it for a while, that we wanted to get back to doing a classic heavy album a classic heavy Dream Theater album while still maintaining the progressive side to us but making it something more concise,” James says.

“We wanted to make something where the songs didn’t necessarily have to be epic in length or even the showing or arrangements. We just wanted something that was very defined, something that was undeniable in its statement for each song. We knew that we wanted to write an album that would be under an hour so it was just a very conscious effort to go and write a very classic, heavy album while keeping it a Dream Theater album.”

The one thing that the band did have when putting together Distance Over Time was time itself. Not only did they have an open slate with no touring but uniquely the band moved in with each other so even when they weren’t recording they could be talking about the album over meals etc.

“We all live together, so we were all around each other and were able to close off the rest of the world and just be very focussed on what we were doing,” James explains.

“That made for quite a prolific experience because things were happening quite quickly; I would say that it was a spirited effort and it was very cohesive from the beginning, things just seemed to be gelling.

“Ideas were numerous and plentiful and so I think we were just feeding off each other’s energy, one another’s commitment and it was just a great time – not to mention you have to remember that when we were not in that studio writing we would be outside cooking together and just constantly talking about the music, which is why I think it ended up coming out the way it did.”

James go on to explain how the band’s close proximity during the process led to more meaningful conversations about the themes and significance of the album, particularly its lyrical content.

“I think all of these things helped to shape how this album turned out,” he says.

“When I say that I mean how the songs turned out, the album itself and right through to the whole vibe of the album. When it comes to the title we often take them from lyrics on an album, but here we had conversations all about society today and how we are inundated and the world reflects the technological aspects that every day our President lies.

“I think that had a big influence on us looking at ‘what is our human element’ and the Distance Over Time is looking at the very beginning, the inception of the homo sapien species to where we are today – a time where we are walking a very fine line between technology and who we are. And hopefully, we don’t get lost in the shuffle where one takes over the other, or are we starting to lose that sensitivity and profoundness of what makes us who we are?”

When the discussion turns to how the band feels with the album about to be released to their fans, LaBrie laughs: “Well you always anticipate the release, right?” he says.

“I think we are all very excited about the release... I mean if we didn’t get excited about the release any more then we are either dead or we should stop doing what we do. We are all very psyched and I would like to say to our Australian fans we hope that you are going to be completely enthralled and enamoured with this album.”

With Distance Over Time now out in the world, only time will tell just how fans and critics react to this latest labour of hard work from a band that, in this writer’s opinion, have little to prove to anyone in the first place.

“We are very excited about it and we feel that it is another tour de force for Dream Theater,” James states. “Once again make sure that you listen to it from beginning to end and enjoy the ride because we are pretty excited.”