James LaBrie interview (excerpt)

I have to throw out a congratulations for the Grammy Award win. That’s a pretty surreal, very weird thing to say in 2022. Obviously, it means a lot in terms of celebrating the work you guys put in. In 2022 what does a Grammy mean to a band like Dream Theater? It’s been well documented in recent years that the Grammys haven’t been kind to rock or metal.

I think that they’re evolving. I really do. I think that the Grammys, let’s face it, everybody’s read about it. Everybody’s read about what people in general think of it. And I think that’s what’s happening with a lot of these awards shows, whether it be the Grammys, the Emmys or the Academy, I think that what’s happened is that the Grammy Academy started thinking “hey, you know what? We have to be more inclusive of what music should represent.” And that is everything. It’s not just pop culture, it’s not just who’s being heard on the radio. It’s much deeper than that. And so I think that they started thinking that, look, there’s all these different styles of music and we have bands like Dream Theater that are very eclectic... They represent so much when it comes to music and what it means to experiment and push the envelope and just be free, creatively free and liberal.

Let’s face it, we were nominees in 2012 and 2014. So you know, here we are again. And I think the Grammys just said come on. These guys are a force, a musical force to be reckoned with, and we need to respect that and I think that it’s going to send a strong, clear message to everyone else out there that we are inclusive to everyone that is out there. Look at the category that we were in. We were up against Deftones and Mastodon and Rob Zombie and all those. Those are all great artists, man. They’ve been around for a long time as well and they deserved it just as much. But I mean it gets to a point where like, OK, let’s listen to that song that was submitted and what’s in that song? And you have all this technical prowess. But at the same time beautiful, strong song construction. Then you have a beautiful melody and then the lyrics and all that stuff. So you know, it’s a combination of what is the statement here? And it’s a big statement. And so I think it’s affirmation that finally we’re being recognized for who and what we are and what we’ve been since the beginning.

We’ve always done things on our own terms. It’s like, like it or not, if it hits great, if it doesn’t, so what? At least we’re doing what we feel is what we think best represents us and it’s our best foot forward all the time. And if it happens to resonate then great. And if it doesn’t then it was our decision and we’re the ones to blame for it if it becomes a failure, which, that’s just not going to happen. And I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but what I’m saying is that we do things and we’ve been doing this for like 30-something years now and we know what works and we know who we are and to maintain that identity musically and to still push forward to be absolutely creatively free to do whatever we feel is best. And that’s what makes Dream Theater who we are.

Being a fellow Canadian, I’m always curious about Winter Rose. Any prevailing thoughts from that era of your career?

Here’s the thing, I moved down to Toronto when I just turned 19 years old, you know? And I got in this band, I got on that band and we were doing Zeppelin or we were doing Foreigner or we were doing Kansas or whatever. And finally I came across this guy, Rich Chycki, who actually when I was in Dream Theater, he went on to become an engineer with us and mixed a couple of our albums and stuff like that. And we’re still great friends and brothers and stuff like that. So Rich and I stay in touch from time to time.

But you know, it’s funny because when I met him and he had worked with Sebastian Bach, who went on to Skid Row. And I remember going into this and thinking first of all, the players in the band, they were all great players. Rob Laidlaw on bass, Bruce Dies on guitar, Rich was on guitar, Richard Chycki. Then we had Randy Cooke on drums, a frickin’ amazing drummer, you know? He’s still down in L.A. as a big session player, Randy and he’s played with some of the notable artists he was with were Five for Fighting. I think he did three of their albums and stuff like that.

So going into a band like that I remember thinking when I was in that band with Rich it was all about writing melodies and the right lyrics and Rich was involved in that big time too with the music and the lyrics. And I remember thinking this is what it is. It’s like a glam hard rock band, but at least we can make it so it’s cool and it doesn’t have to be sappy and goofy and sugar coated in all this shit, you know? And it was cool because that was the CD that Dream Theater had received and that music and they were like blown away and they were like “Holy shit, who’s this guy singing? We gotta get him down here!” And then the rest is history.

I remember going out on one particular tour. We were all with Lee Aaron and Lee Aaron was referred to as the Metal Queen at the time. Lee and I would talk at every show. And she goes “you know, I love what you’re doing out there!” She’d be on the side of the stage when we were on stage always watching and really enjoying what I was putting out there and projecting out there.

So unbeknownst to me, and I don’t know if you know the story, but she took my CD. She asked for it and I gave it her copy and she hit up Aquarius Records. It was a big Canadian label at the time and they wanted me to work with Aldo Nova [begins singing the lyrics to “Fantasy”]. It was a big hit back in 1982, I believe. And I said no, I’m going to stick with Winter Rose. They’re like “what do you want to do? We can offer you a great deal.” And I said no. And then unbeknownst to me, Pierre Paradis from Aquarius sent my tape down because they were affiliated with MCA Records at the time, who Dream Theater was affiliated with through Mechanic. And then that’s how that all started, because he heard that this band down in New York with great musicians had been looking for a singer, even though they’d been working with one guy for about eight months. They were looking for a singer for the last two years and then boom, they got my tape and that was it.