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- After 20 years, Dream Theater have finally come to Australia! During their whirlwind tour I managed to catch 15 minute with their singer, James LaBrie, to discuss why it took so long.
You can download the interview here or you can read the transcript below!
>Lachlan: Pretty crazy schedule!
James: Yeah I literally just got here! So I'm.... I don't even know what this place looks like! Yeah, it's a crazy schedule. We knew that, especially these three shows, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney were going to be really hectic. Because we're flying in every day. We do a show, go back to the hotel, get up early, get on a plane, get here... anyways that's rock and roll.
>I've actually met you before... about 7 years ago in Boston.. if you remembered me I'd be really impressed.
So would I!
>Am I the only Australian you would have met? (Ed: Stupid Question #1)
Nope! You know what, it's surprising, I would say that we've met quite a few Australians when we do Asia. And the odd Australian when we do places like Spain or Italy, we'd have people coming up. And even in the UK. So no, we've met quite a few. And, when we've toured around in the States there's been one or two here and there. I mean it was always our goal to eventually get here. It's just been an elusive task or market for us, but we're finally here.
>Would you like to tackle the question of why has it taken 20 years?
I think it's taken 20 years because - there's a few factors involved. One is the fact that we aren't your... y'know we're not a commercial, viable band in that sense. People don't hear us on the radio. A lot of people how they've come aware of us is through word of mouth, which is probably the most powerful, and then the internet. Has been an incredible instrumental vehicle for getting our name out there and letting people being able to... (especially YouTube nowadays). I mean even leading up prior to YouTube anyone if they had the opportunity just surfing the net could come across a band like ourselves. The other factors are that while we want the label to be behind us and how we wanted the label to promote and market us, wasn't necessarily their vision. So that was a bit of a juggernaut. It was basically us telling them that we could see ourselves getting much more exposure worldwide in a much bigger sense to the masses internationally if they did this, this and this. But unfortunately that never happened .
So those are the factors mainly. And then, even though we knew we had a lot of fans here... it's to convince the promoters. Because it's a business like anything else, they have to be wise with it. They have to research it and make sure that it's going to be profitable at the end of the day.
>You've got a greatest hit album coming out, would you like to explain the idea behind that considering you've got 1 hit?
Well that's our humorous side. Mike (Portnoy, Dream Theater's drummer) was basically the one behind that. He approached us and said "guys, I've got a great title that would be really so cool. It's the epitome of what our career has been. Even though, you know a lot of the other songs did get radio play. Yeah so that's basically what it is. A little stab at the industry. Here's our 1 hit and 21 other great songs! It shows that you can't take everything, or anything too seriously, or you'll just bum out on it. Because I mean if we were to sit back and go.. we'll we know ourselves that if we went through each and every album there is a least two to three songs that we felt were radio potential. Easily. But they were just kind of overlooked. So that was our frustration, so I mean at the end of the day you just have to say to yourself... whatever. That's our course and our history, but we've still sold 8 million albums. So that's still a great achievement.
>It's also great for the young fans who don't know what to buy first.
Exactly.
>Now I saw the forsaken video clip on YouTube.. and I also saw the edit. Does it drive you crazy having to release cut down versions of your songs?
Yes. That really does rub against us the wrong way - goes against the grain. Again, we're trying to play into an industry that is in no way conducive to how we're trying to express ourselves artistically. So you either do that, or there's absolutely no way that it's going to be heard or promoted. So you have to play the game. There's no way for us to get around it. It was funny when "Pull me Under" came out, it was the edit.
>But it was an 8 minute song!
Yeah, and it went through the roof, and because it was such a strong song, people were saying "play the album version". It was overwhelming, and then all of a sudden they started playing the full version. I think that.. especially guys in this band, we're all for satellite radio. Satellite radio doesn't screw or taint your picture. It's just "this is what the song was, this is how it was meant to be and this is how it's going to be". So I love satellite radio. I have it at home and in my vehicles, and I love it. I can listen to whatever I want.
>I was wondering if you wanted to comment on the trend of over compressing music? There was an article in Rolling Stone a few months ago about how the latest mastering trick is to master everything really really loud.
Yeah well, I think that if you were to look at albums in the past 10 years, the actual volume, the base volume of albums is much louder. You can be on 1 and you can feel the bass and low end already kicking in. And the time it's at 5... I think it's just the way that the people who master, it's how they want to do it. I've never sat down with albums, unless they're really badly mixed to begin with, and gone "my God, I can't listen to this because it's over compressed".
I actually think that these days because of technology a lot of new albums sound incredible. Even kids that are... well not even kids, my last solo album I did on Pro Tools, except the drums. The drums I went into a studio in Toronto, Iguana studios, and we recorded the drums there for four days. And then the rest of it I did at my brother in laws cottage! In his living room, with mattresses around the guitar amps. The keyboard was direct and then I was sitting amongst 3 mattresses when I was in there singing. And it came out amazing. So technology for the most part, I think is a winning situation.
>I've heard about this new book that's been released, "Lifting Shadows". There were a couple of interesting points in it. Apparently DT wanted to get Ozzy Ozbourne as a singer.
(James cracks up). Y'know, it never ceases to amaze me these rumours! You know, like "Wow I've heard that Bruce Dickinson is going to go to Dream Theater". And the funny thing about that is that when I first got into Dream Theater, Iron Maiden's management was calling me to possibly be up for singing with them. And I said, "well, why would I do that? Not when I'm here with these guys" . This is going to be allow me to be myself. But if I go there I'm just going to be a puppet and try and be Bruce. I don't want to try to be Bruce.
Rumours are fascinating. All of them. I've never heard that one before! Ozzy Ozbourne in Dream Theater? Can you imagine him trying to remember everything?
>Well anything that wasn't 4/4..
Yeah would have been a nightmare.
>Any other funny rumours that you've heard over the years?
Apart from the one I told you.. nothing that crazy. Well we just played at the Budokan in Tokyo. And you know, it's so funny, you're reading the boards (Ed: forums I assume) and everyone's like "awesome show, amazing". "At the end of the show, James LaBrie looked really pissed off." And I'm thinking, what? I was pissed off? I was there with a big grin! Smiling and waving, and I'm thinking, "where does this come from?" I mean, who was standing out there going, "woah, he's pissed off!" It's just people being people.
>Apparently doing a three hour show?
Yep.
>Are we just really lucky? I've heard that you've stopped doing 3 hour shows?
I think it's because it is our first time in Australia. So we wanted to really be able to present and give the viewers as much as a bang as we can possibly do without killing ourselves. (Ed: Dream Theater once did a 4 hour show where the drummer had to be carted off to hospital afterwards).
We said for the most part that this entire world tour has been with support acts. And we will go back to that after this tour. The Australian fans deserve it, they've waited for so long and we want to be able to give you as much as we can.
>And you had technical difficulties in Adelaide?
Oh my God, no in Perth. On Saturday night. Last night (Adelaide) was great, it went beautiful. But in Perth our entire power went down on stage. So we had absolutely no power. And they did everything, they were like... there were 20 guys running around patching everything. It was impossible. We waited for as long as we would before it became comical. And then went out and just said "look, we're sorry." Thank God we were able to do.. I think 2 hours and 15 minutes at that point. Now if it had happened after the first song, that would have been a tragedy. Seriously because of our scheduling we would have had to go "sorry, that's it. Perth, one tune, see you later. What do you think? See you in 20 years!"
>So you're doing the meet and greet everywhere in Australia? (Ed: Fans can pay a premium and meet the band beforehand and get the best seats). How do you fit it all in?
Well, the great thing about the meet and great is that you are actually able to see what your fans are all about. Hear their enthusiasm, realise just how great this experience is and to be in a band that's really appreciated. You can't ever take that for granted. So it's really cool to have that face to face with the fans.
The other side of that is it's tiring. Absolutely. We're human beings! There's some days when you wake up and the last thing you want to do is you're going to have to meet with that person this person and that person. No matter even if you get along and they're great people, you might be like "I just don't feel like that today". And we go through that, we have our emotions, we have our ups and downs, we have our good days and bad days. And I think it's mostly bad because we're tired. But you learn how to get around that too as you tour longer. You learn what your limitations are and how you have to keep yourself at an optimum level. I jog 3 miles every day (Ed: 4.8 kilometres!) . Without that I'd be stuffed. Like last night I got 6 hours sleep, then you've got to come on the plane and come here, that's nuts. It's not great for a singer. It's not great for anyone!
>Now do you know how to pronounce Melbourne?
Is it Melbourne?
>Yep, MelBUN, not like melbORNE
Oh ok, so Melburne?
>Yep, BURN. If you say it like "borne" people will be like...
Wanker!
>(I laughed). You can verify this with any other Aussie.
Ok! No problem! I'll just come and hunt you down if everyone goes "what'd you say?"
>Personal question, are you going to play "6:00" tonight? It's my favourite song.
I can't tell you.
>Argh! Fair enough. So tell us about the latest album and how you think it compares with the past 9.
Personally, I love it. It really was where we needed to go. I think that there is a great balance between what everyone says first and foremost about Dream Theater being a progressive band and being technical and all that. Granted those elements are there, and the heaviness is there. But I think that intertwining amongst that is - there's a lot of beautiful styles of music that really embellish these songs on this album. And they really create (I think) - a good flow, and a good power, a good energy throughout. So I think that because of that too whether it's on songs like "Ministry of Lost Souls" which I find is very dynamic or a song like in the "Presence of enemies" - Part 1 and 2, where it's an epic piece. But there's so many different emotions that are conveyed through that entire piece. So to me I think it's just a very powerful album with Dream Theater, and I think it maintains a good balance in the fact that we always do include many different styles. It's eclectic. But at the same time there's a constant power behind it and a heaviness behind it which is cool. Because that's what we are.
Check out Dream Theater's new video clip for "Constant Motion":