various quotes

4.8.1 Why did Kevin Moore leave DT?

Kevin’s musical tastes have changed over the years, and he grew increasingly unhappy with the musical direction that the band had taken. He felt that the differences had become so great that he could not continue in the band.

“...in some ways it’s a shock to us and in some ways, it isn’t, you know. I mean, the way that they [the fans] consider us a ‘family unit,’ in a lot of ways, it’s true because, I grew up with Kevin, like, since we were little kids and this has been our band since... whenever. We were 17, out of high school, you know, the first year in college, so it is kind of weird, not having him in the band, it’s definitely strange. The only thing I can say to the fans is, you know, so far as worrying and whatnot, this is something that was going on with Kevin like, or, the way he explained it to us, for a couple of years, so he was slowly sort of stepping out of his position, and even with the writing on Awake, it’s not as much of his trademark and his sound and his writing. So if they’re into this album, maybe that’s a good sign because it was something that was written a lot without his enthusiasm or without his input for the most part, so, it’s sort of a... step to the new whatever’s going to happen next. So if they like it, that’s a good sign...”

“...he didn’t tell us slowly, it was unexpected for us too. But it’s just that he was thinking about it for a while, we didn’t even know that, you know? We sensed that he was a little bit distant, that maybe he was unhappy, but we never thought he would leave the band, ‘cause like I said, this has been something we’ve been into since we were little kids or whatever. He told us right towards the end of the recording session for Awake, which was about mid-July, and that was really strange because, you know, we weren’t finished recording and he told us this, so... I mean, obviously we finished up the recording of the record, but it was... I guess no time is a good time, but it seemed like a strange sort of time and we were all really shocked, you know, we were like, ‘I don’t understand,’ you know? It’s hard for me to understand because we’ve been pretty successful and we think this record is going to do really well for us, we hope it is, and there’s a lot of things on the horizon and we’ve worked our entire lives to get to this point, so it’s hard for me to relate to leaving that...”

“...I don’t think you can pinpoint to one specific reason why he left the band, but I think basically it comes down to this... over the last couple of years, he’s sort of changed the type of music that he’s into, that he likes to write and he’s demoing a lot of stuff where he’s playing everything himself and singing himself and it’s in a different style, like techno/industrial sort of style, nothing like our band... it just seems like playing with us, he wasn’t able to do the type of stuff that he wanted to do and he figured he never would if he stayed in the situation, so he wanted to be true to his musical vision. I guess that was kind of frustrating with him. Maybe when we started the band and for the first couple of albums, it was the kind of stuff he really liked doing and then for whatever reason, whatever happened in his life... whatever was happening, whether it was touring or whatever, he just changed the type of stuff he was into and he no longer felt passionate, or feels passionate, about the style of music that Dream Theater plays... you know, the heavy, progressive sort of music...”

—John Petrucci

6.3.8 What is “Take The Time” about?

“We decided to write a song about everything we’d been going through for the past three years – looking for a new singer, a new label and new management – just all the changes we made and all the frustrations we went through...but, have it coming from each of our four different perspectives. So, we broke it up, and said ‘Okay, you take the 1st verse, you take the 2nd verse,’ went away, wrote lyrics about our feelings about all the stuff we were going through, and then put it together. Then [we] wrote the chorus together. That was the 1st time we had ever done that, and it’s the only song on the album where the lyrics were actually written by everybody.”

—Mike Portnoy

6.5.2 What is “6:00” about?

“...that actually was inspired by a story that James told me about one of his friends. He told me about one of his friends who he used to work with at a factory... James, I guess he worked with him like years and years ago. Anyway, this guy is still working at that factory and he [James] just met him like, I guess, recently, and he was talking to him about how he’s got all these great benefits now and everything, but... and so that struck me as... that struck him, you know, it’s kind of affected him and I thought about it too, and I was just thinking about how people kind of let life live them instead of living life sometimes, you know. And just get caught up in just being secure and having money, you know, to survive, which is a noble thing for some people. But some people don’t even give themselves a chance, you know, this guy happened to be a musician who still had a dream about becoming a serious musician and making a career out of it, but it was obvious that he was never going to do anything about it. And this is kind of like a ‘do something about it’ song.”

—Kevin Moore

From what we have surmised, “6:00”, of course is REALLY primarily about Kevin’s thoughts about leaving the band and the indecisiveness that preceded this.

6.5.3 What is “Caught In A Web” about?

“...a person that’s... it’s not male or female, it could be either. And it’s dealing with a person who has suppressed their feelings for so long and has finally had enough of it and feels that the only way that they can really live life to its fullest is to live from the inside out. And that’s basically what this person has come to terms with. And they’re sick of society inducements and they feel the only way that they can go on with life is to live it the way they feel is the truth...”

—James LaBrie

6.5.9 What is “Lifting Shadows off a Dream” about?

“...that song is more or less just reflecting the duality that exists between a man and a woman; the spiritual side of the relationship and how they both can complement one another.”

—John Myung (Japanese Radio Interview)

6.5.10 What is “Space-Dye Vest” about? How did Kevin come up with this stuff?

In Kevin Moore’s words from a Japanese Interview:

“It was inspired by... I was looking through a clothing catalog and saw a picture of a girl modeling this piece of clothing called a space-dye vest. And, so, I fell in love with her [laughs] for some strange reason and so the minute I did that, the minute I was just like obsessed w/this person, I was like, ‘why am I doing that?’ and I noticed that I was doing it a lot lately. And I think the prime reason that I was doing that, and this is what I figured out at the time, was that I had just come out of a relationship where I’d gotten dumped, basically, and so I think the situation was that I wasn’t finished giving all that I was ready to give, so I was just, like, throwing it around, you know, just aiming it in different directions. It was a total case of projection. And this song is just trying to sort it out and just kind of admitting that I’m just kind of lost. So it’s kind of a dark song. It was very cathartic though.”