From: 4224_5201@uwovax.uwo.ca (John LaRocque)
Subject: James LaBrie and DREAM THEATER (long!)
Organization: University of Western Ont, London
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 23:28:45 GMT

     I was going through my brother's old metal magazines and one of 
them immediately caught my attention: MEAT. MEAT magazine, from Toronto,
has grown into Canada's national (FREE) metal mag, with news from 
Canadian and world metal. And what name graced the cover of the August
1992 issue? Dream Theater.

     I must have skipped the interview when I first saw the magazine,
but I have now since read it. It is an article on James LaBrie and
Dream Theatre in the August 1992 issue (#35), and goes through the
musical careers of both LaBrie and DT. I am reprinting the article
in full below:

                    METAL ON THE RISE: DREAM THEATRE

                    story by: Drew Masters

     One of the quitest buzzes arount the TO [Toronto, Ontario] metal
scene was the scoring by JAMES (Kevin) LABRIE, former lead singer for
Winter Rose, of the lead singing spot in relatively unknown New York
based metallers DREAM THEATER. But, on July 7th, the mystery surrounding
this gig unfolded with the realease of DREAM THEATER's second album, and
first on Atco/Warner, the to-be-a-masterpiece intitled IMAGES AND WORDS.

     In all positive senses of the term, James "scored". He landed into
what may surely be the most critically acclaimed and influential art
metal band ever heard since Queensryche. Simply, this ain't saying this
'cause I know James. This is amazing; it may take some time, but this is
one brilliant album that is sure to make Dream Theater huge!

     James grew up in the Midland, Ontario region, and in 1982, he moved  
to Toronto and joined a band called Trance, which he remained in until
1984. In the summer of '85, he joined Coney Hatch, replacing the departed
Carl Dixon. This stint lasted ten months into 1986, deciding to leave when 
he became restless at Coney's lack of progress towards recording another
record. In '87 he joined the street rockish outfit Shock Candy, and later
went on to The Hunger - the latter was where he met up with guitarist
Rich Chycki. Together in April of '88 they began Winter Rose, and remained
together until early '90, when, frustrated at scratching at the seams of
a record deal, but unable to attain one, the band disintegrated.

    It was during the Winter Rose days that James began to see response to
his vocal ability. Upon an action by Lee Aaron, who Winter Rose were
touring with, she told Pierre Paradis of Aquarius Records (and manager of 
Voivod) about James. He in turn, asked for James' material. Upon receiving
it he offered James a solo deal, but James was still mindset upon Winter
Rose. A few months later, Pierre, who was in contact with Mechanic records
- who worked Dream Theater at the time - was informed by Mechanic that
Dream Theater needed a new vocalist. Pierre told James to send a tape, 
which he did as Winter Rose was disbanded by then, but a member of Dream
Theater told him he was too late - that they'd got a singer. But a call
a week and a half later from Mechanic turned up the fact that Dream 
Theater may not have found a singer after all, and, after another call by
the band, they asked James to come down and audition. Flying him down to
New York in January of '91, it was during his second day that they offered
him a job. Two weeks later James was in the studio cutting a demo with the
band, which was the key ingredient to landing the band a deal with the
new label Atco.

     Dream Theater, by the way, had auditioned over 300 singers in over
two years to pick James as their vocalist. It was rumoured to be one of
metal's most coveted open vocalist slots.

     James tells of his entrance into the band. "When I came in, they
pretty much had this record written. I just helped a bit with the melodies
and such. I just walked in and did ny thing."

    But he wasn't totally convinced to be a part of Dream Theater from 
beginning. "The first album, when I heard it, sold me on their 
musicianship, but not on their songwriting," admits James. "The first 
album was more into self-indulgence, or a 'musicians musician' album.
They've all known each other since childhood, and were all students of 
Berkley, so they were out to impress. But, when I heard the advance
material, that's when I was sold. This one was more into songs - the
material is more mature, more emotional, and for everyone, yet it still 
retains the high quality of musicianship."

     But one thing is undeniable - Dream Theater is unique. Describing 
their sound is something that James, now doing interviews on the subject,
is still struggling to achieve.

     "The way I describe the band is what we're like Yes, Journey, 
Genesis, and Rush meets Metallica and Queensryche," says James in no 
simple terms. "It has all those elements in it. It has the progression in
it, but it also has the raw edge to it. All the band members are 
influenced by these bands, and a couple are really into thrash. There's a
lot of elements going into the making of Dream Theater."

     It's double difficult to describe the music when, in all relative 
terms, you're just a hired gun for the moment. Relays James, "I haven't
really been around when they go through their writing mode, but they tell
me they just jam and whatever sounds good they work on, and slowly but
surely pieces just come together. Their philosophy is just to do things 
that come from the heart."

     The only obstacle in the path of Dream Theater (who were once
originally named Majesty - which goes a long way in describing their music) 
was their deal with Mecanic/MCA, which they desperately wanted out of, and
achieved after months of aggravation and legal hassles. Though privately 
James has a lot to say on the matter, and not very positive ones towards
Mechanic, he sums it all tactfully as "(Mechanic/MCA) didn't understand
what Dream Theater was all about."

     But the worldwide metal media does, as Dream Theater is being besieged
by incredibly positive response to their advance tapes, and CD advance of
their lead track. "People are just eating our advance tape up," states
James. "Everyone we're talking to is floored. Our song 'Pull Me Under',
is number three on metal radio in the US just from our advance CD sampler
alone - and it's not even the radio edit! In many places it is the most
requested tune. It's incredible!"

     While that track is, at 8:11 long, a definitve album, Dream Theatre
possess two incredibly impressive ballads in "Another Day" and "Wait For
Sleep" - one of which will probably be single down down the line. But, as
James puts it, "We have to play it safe from the beginning. We have to let
people know that we're a progressive band, and not a singles act."

     Continues James, "This album is the kind that has to be nurtured. It's
going to be a slow climb. I mean, look at Queensryche  they're an inspira-
tion to this format. What's cool is that our management realizes this about
us. They're excitied at the prospect of us three albums down the line -
they thing that with our name, and material, that we could become a huge
concert theatrical band. This band's material also knows no age limits -
we could be more than 40 and stil be doing this material successfully, like
Rush."

     Speaking of management, Dream Theater scored big here with their choice.
"Two weeks before we went in to record the record, we met with Marck
(Mercuriadis) from Sanctuary Music (Iron Maiden, WASP), and he told us that
they were really into us, and asked us to think about it. It wasn't until
we were done recording the album that we took a look at all the management
offers wew'd received, and, from it, after looking over all the pros and
cons, we decided that Santuary would be the best for us. I must admit it
was pretty wild for us to be getting a deal, and recording an album, 
without having management."
 
     After all is said and done, the question remains this: Why a band like
Dream Theater, and why now? "I think that people lhave reached the
saturation point with the thousands of bands that are indistinquishable,"
states James. "All these bands are trying to make that big pop single in
a commercial sense, and sell units, whereas band like Skid Row, Queensryche,
and Metallica that are making it on their own laurels. I think people are
looking for something different - something different - something 
refreshingly new musically, and intellectual lyrically. I know we fit into
this - you can instantly tell that we're original, and that we're not
trying to follow what's trendy or happening."

     Referring to Skid Row, James now joins the ranks of Sebastian Bach and
Bonham's Daniel MacMaster in leaving Canada to pursue a career. And, just 
like Baz and Daniel, James didn't go looking for the US gig - it came 
looking for him. "The music scene in Canada to the US is like night and 
day," tells James. "The attitude is so much different, and the opportunities
are so much greater - bands from Canada have to come and gig here to
experience it. But I didn't go looking for a gig in the US - it just 
happened. I wasn't the one to leave Toronto to move to the US and find 
'fame'. I just happened to be ready when the opportunity knocked. And now
that I'm in a band from New York, I'm still going to reside here for the
time being. I'm totally connected to Canada, and always will be."

     Looking back, what are his thoughts now on Winter Rose - a great band
that, in all essential purposes, should have been signed. "Winter Rose was
great - we had great tunes," recalls James. "Rich (Chycki) and I are great
friends, and, somewhere down the road, we plan on working together once
again, whether it be three years or ten years, and do some of the songs 
from Winter Rose, as I feel those songs are timeless. I still haven't said
goodbye to those days."

     Though I've used "James" throughout the story, his real first name is
Kevin, but, according to "James", "I changed it to 'James' - my middle name
- and there were already two Johns, and a Kevin. It's funny - I can tell
when I got a call from the US, as they say James instead of Kevin. I've
gotten used to it now, but it was weird at first. I'm going to change my
ID around to James so that I don't have any problems in the future." The
members mentioned are guitarist JOHN PETRUCCI, bassist JOHN MYUNG, 
keyboardist KEVIN MOORE, and drummer MIKE PORTNOY.

     The future for James looks amazing at the outset for his new career 
with Dream Theater. Once the record is out, the road is the next step.
"We're going to start locally in the east US for four to six weeks," says
james, "then we'll be going out on bills with headliners - we're nokt sure
with who first, but ELP has been mentioned. We may play some dates in Europe
before Christmas, but we're being highly considered as the opener for Iron
Maiden on their European/Japanese tour, which isn't until the New Year. We
did a gig on June 8th at the Ritz with Iron Maiden - they're totally into
our band big time." A Toronto club show is being discussed, but nothing has
yet been set up.

[ NOTE: shots of this show were seen on Muchmusic's Power 30 on Dec 15    ]   
[ and an interview with the band and the video Pull Me Under....          ]

     Bottom line is, according to James, "Everything is going great - I'm
totally psyched! I'm now feeling like a 100% member of the band. Everyone
in the band, and around the band is really great. I couldn't be more happy.
I'm 29, and I've been doing rock music since I was 13 years old. If 
anything my perseverence has prevailed big time. If anyone from here was to
to ask me for advice, I'd just tell them to keep on going and trying, and
not to listen to what anybody else says. If you believe in yourself, and 
have the talent to back it up, it'll eventually work out. That may sound
cliche, but it's the truth."

[ NOTE To US Fans: I am currently trying to find Winter Rose demos, and  ]
[ will be writing to MEAT in Toronto to help me track down that great    ]
[ pre-DT stuff. And I will be sending a letter to Canada's MuchMusic     ]
[ Power 30 to play the one Winter Rose demo video. It was great, and     ]
[ as Canadian law requires at least one Canadian video in the time slot, ]
[ what better than that of James LaBrie and his late band. I will tape   ]
[ it and make copies... if they will play it.                            ] 


-- 

John P. LaRocque
vader@uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario


"Urk..urk..."
"Apology accepted, Captain Needa", Darth Vader
Newsgroups: alt.rock-n-roll.metal.progressive