{"id":37237,"date":"2019-02-22T07:01:34","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T20:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=37237"},"modified":"2019-02-22T07:01:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T20:01:47","slug":"james-labrie-of-dream-theater-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2019\/02\/james-labrie-of-dream-theater-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"James LaBrie of Dream Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cWe knew we wanted to go in and write a heavier album, more hard rock but at the same time keeping the progressive elements that have been a strong signature for Dream Theater\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: Chemistry triggers action. The bonds of disparate elements yield friction, energy, and ultimately incite creation. It happens throughout all of existence\u2014especially in music. The music of Dream Theater relies on the interplay and brotherhood of the musicians as much as it does on the harmony of the instruments. In fact, the chemistry the band unlocked upon forming in 1985 remains central to the music they create today.<\/p>\n

We Skyped in with James LaBrie to talk about Dream Theater\u2019s new album \u2018Distance Over Time\u2019, its creation, its inspiration, technology, touring, and more\u2026<\/p>\n

Thanks for your time today, James, we\u2019re here because \u2018Distance Over Time\u2019 is released next week, what are your feelings like around release time?<\/strong>
\nYou know it\u2019s funny because I think we as a band we all start feeling that gear shift and you know cause we\u2019re constantly in contact with one another discussing the set list and the concept around the show and so on, but I guess with myself personally I can really feel I mean we\u2019re about a month out, a little over a month before we do our first show in San Diego and things are starting ramp up. I\u2019m singing every day, I\u2019m going through the songs, working out in the morning to get myself into shape for the stage and stuff like that. So it\u2019s kind of a reality already that you\u2019re almost in tour mode, so yeah but we all kind of feel it about a month outside.<\/p>\n

In the three years since \u2018The Astonishing\u2019 what if anything was the main inspiration and catalyst behind this new album?<\/strong>
\nI think just to get first and foremost I think the fact that we actually lived together while we were writing and recording really kind of set the tone for this album. We knew we wanted to go in and write a heavier album, more hard rock but at the same time keeping the progressive elements that have been a strong signature for Dream Theater, but I think the inspiration was let\u2019s get back to the roots, let\u2019s just get back to writing what we feel is going to be a classic, heavy Dream Theater album and maintaining the identity throughout so it became a very spirited effort once we got in there things were just really smooth sailing. It was three weeks and we write the album, I mean it was moving pretty fast and obviously you take weekends and stuff like that and the odd time somebody had to go home and do this and that but for the most part we were parked right there, we lived in this house that was about a hundred or so metres from the studio where we were recording, so you get up in the morning and you do whatever your routine is and then around noon hour or one o\u2019clock in the afternoon the band would be there and we\u2019d start working on our ideas.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What I love about the album is that you guys all take turns in writing lyrics, you all have a song with your own lyrics yet the album just flows so well. Is that a combination of just knowing each other so well and just what works?<\/strong>
\nYeah I mean myself when I want to write a lyric to a song I\u2019ll actually mention it as the song is going on and it might be during the writing session or it might be when it\u2019s completed I\u2019ll go \u201cYou know what? Hey guys, I\u2019ve gotta write the lyric to this, it\u2019s moving me, I love the vibe, I have an idea what I want to write about just due to the energy of the music itself.\u201d So sometimes you\u2019re already throwing your name in the hat for the particular song. It pretty much works like that with everyone, somebody will say oh hey you know what this is a great tune I\u2019d really love to write the lyric for this and so it kind of just goes like that. Obviously Mike Mangini had his debut lyric on this album and it was kind of funny because that song \u2018Room 137\u2019 the joke of it is that it started off and we always ask Mike if we\u2019re getting on a groove or a riff or whatever might be happening we say \u201cAlright, hey Mike, what\u2019s the tempo?\u201d and Mike he just knows it and for this one he said \u201c1\u2026 3\u2026 7\u2026\u201d and he\u2019s a pretty funny guy and does all these accents along the way. Then he started talking to us one night and said, \u201chey guys, you know how that song is 137? It\u2019s the tempo, it made me think of this guy Wolfgang Pauli who is a physicist who was obsessed with the absolute number 137 which kind of describes the dimensions of our universe, of each and every one of us on this planet, going to the trees, insects, birds, like I said homo sapiens, whatever it might be\u201d and we said \u201cwhat? What are you talking about\u201d and yeah, this number pretty much describes what is going on it\u2019s a mathematical equation that this physicist was obsessed with and he was dying I believe of pancreatic cancer and when they brought him to the hospital he was put into room 137 if you can believe it. Was that coincidence? I don\u2019t know, but so it just went on from there, so we were like \u201cman you\u2019re pretty close to this\u201d and all of a sudden in one day he said \u201chey guys here are some words that I wrote about that subject what do you think?\u201d So John and myself we kind of looked at it and we were like wait a minute, this is pretty cool let\u2019s just tweak it here and there and that\u2019s what happened, we tweaked the lyrics, Jordan came in and said \u201cwell I\u2019d say this or that\u201d and they tweaked the lyrics and they came out like they were. So that\u2019s how that came about. When it comes to myself writing lyrics I don\u2019t want anybody around, I know what I want to write and I think the same stands true for John Petrucci, and then John Myung and John Petrucci co-wrote a couple of the songs on this album together like \u2018Fall Into The Light\u2019 and \u2018Signal To Noise\u2019 and they co-wrote those lyrics together.<\/p>\n

Technology is ever changing, and looking back to 1992 and \u2018Images and Words\u2019 where digital really wasn\u2019t even a thing, what for you has been the biggest difference in the way that the band makes music now compared to your beginnings and first effort with the band?<\/strong>
\nWell yeah back in the \u2018Images\u2019 days you would do a demo on a four track recorder or an eight track, or sixteen track and that would be your template for the songs. Then you go in and you have the big two inch reels and you\u2019d have four or five or six machines lined up and in sync with each other so you\u2019d have enough tracks to record everything properly so you\u2019d be in this big control room and you\u2019d see all these big machines turning tape and recording on tape *laughs* and it was just a completely different experience. Whereas today even when we were writing and writing the songs we would always have a pro-tools system going and we would actually record everything onto this pro-tools system and it sounded frickin\u2019 awesome *laughs* like seriously. The way that we were mic\u2019d up and everyone was mic\u2019d up in the studio and what would happen is that we had a section and let\u2019s say that the section was two or three minutes long, the guys would rehearse that section until it was tight and then lay it down as a band. So everything kind of went bang bang bang and it was a big what we would call a digital demo or whatever on pro-tools and then from that that was kind of our template to go in and then record for real and then do it for real. It\u2019s completely different, you can take advantage of it and you can be so scientific and clinical but I think with this album we really did want to capture some of the actual spirit of the band and the band being a rock and roll band and just going for it. I think the keyboard solo in \u2018Pale Blue Dot\u2019 or it might be \u2018Signal to Noise\u2019 that\u2019s a demo, that\u2019s from Jordan right off the floor and it was so good that when he was doing his actually tracks it was like, dude, when it went to that solo we were like wait a minute, what\u2019s wrong with this? It was recorded properly and he was like \u201cyeah man, that actually is pretty frickin\u2019 awesome\u201d so there were moments like that. That kind of stuff it went on in a few moments here and there throughout the recording of the tunes.<\/p>\n

You mentioned you\u2019re going out on tour but I have to ask about touring, when do you think we might see you back in Australia?<\/strong>
\nHey, *laughs* I don\u2019t know, at this point I can tell you we have been sitting down and speaking with our agents and we have been saying we have to get over to Australia, Australia again you see when we did the last tour we felt it was just like a drop in the pan because we only did a couple of shows and boom we were gone and to us that wasn\u2019t cool, we\u2019ve done more extensive tours in Australia in the past and we feel that\u2019s gotta happen again. I do know that we\u2019re booked right now, like I said we start in North America we\u2019re doing that until May 5th<\/sup> I think we end up in Mexico City is our last show then. I the Summer we\u2019re doing six and half weeks over in Europe doing a festival tour and that brings us right to August, and then in September I\u2019m assuming we\u2019re going to do the Pacific Rim, so I\u2019m hoping that would be the opportunity that while we\u2019re down doing the pacific rim that we are also including Australia and getting in there and doing something that\u2019s very, very exciting.<\/p>\n

Over time it’s very easy to say what’s changed but what would you say is the one thing that’s stayed the same about your time in Dream Theater?<\/strong>
\nI think the one thing that\u2019s stayed the same is I guess our passion you know and I know it sounds very clich\u00e9d and very cheesy to say but we\u2019re still very committed to our music, we still love what we\u2019re doing and that\u2019s what drives us, that\u2019s our catalyst, that\u2019s always been our inspiration is we want to see what we can do next . Obviously we still love touring and that can we quite challenging at times and you talk to any band it\u2019s a different beast when tour. So I think the fact is that we still love doing what we do has been a consistent throughout the years and that\u2019s not to say that we didn\u2019t have our growing pains and we didn\u2019t have difficult times in the band because let\u2019s face it you\u2019re dealing with five different personalities, very strong minded and very dedicated and very disciplined in what we do so that kind of makes for a very interesting and kind of high level environment *laughs* you know? I think that has been the consistent.<\/p>\n

Lastly let’s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me. By the end of 2019 Dream Theater will…<\/strong>
\nBe looking at 2020 to continue doing this tour *laughs* yeah\u2026 I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll be doing this until the spring of 2020 I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

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Essential information<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

From: <\/strong>Long Island, NY, USA<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong>\u00a0 John Petrucci – guitar, John Myung – bass, James LaBrie – vocals, Jordan Rudess – keyboards and continuum, Mike Mangini – drums<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> \u00a0www.dreamtheater.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> Distance Over Time (Out Now \u2013 Inside Out Music)<\/p>\n

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