Alright. So, this was conducted June 28th, a few hours before the band played at Luna Park. James was interviewed by Santiago ‘Rooster’ Bluguermann, who is a journalist and professional photographer from Buenos Aires. Apparently the interview was recorded and broadcasted by Vorterix (music website/radio) the following day, but only a short fragment –the first 2 questions– is still available online.
A few weeks later, the complete interview was translated to Spanish and included in the July issue of Jedbangers (a local rock/metal magazine), with Pantera on the front cover. Here’s its website:
https://www.jedbangers.com.ar/web/jedbangers-102/. Anyway, I asked Santiago and he was cool about me posting the interview in English. (I haven’t had access to the recording of the interview, sorry). So, here you go!
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“LaBrie the Astonishing”
Preferences aside, Dream Theater must be one of the best bands to be a fan of. With them, you don’t suffer long waits; in fact, they are prolific –8 albums in the last 14 years– and they frequently repeat their visits to Buenos Aires. 2016 isn’t the exception and DT has a new album and, obviously, they have come to present it to the Argentinean capital city.
“We prepared a lot for this tour”, states LaBrie when referring to the tour which sees Dream Theater focused on the double album ‘The Astonishing’, their most recent release.
“There were lots of rehearsals, a lot of production. It was many months dedicated to create the stage production which would best represent the album’s concept”, adds the singer.
“Our first show was at the London Palladium, in London, and honestly we kicked ass. Everything went perfectly. There was a lot of nervousness amongst ourselves, but I think that’s a good thing – I don’t take it as something negative or too worrying. I believe that, for a first show, it was really, really great. Of course, as the tour progresses… You know, we are a big team which includes sound, lightning, everything that happens on the screen, the guys backstage working hard… Everything has to be like a big, perfectly synchronized dance, in a way”.
On a more personal level: what do you do during your free time on tours?Lots of alcohol and drugs.
(Laughter)Still? To this day?(Laughter) Yes, still… No, seriously speaking, I like exercising everyday, so I go out for a walk. I like reading as well… I try to relax. Obviously, I keep in touch with my family during the day, but I try to go unnoticed. Going out for a walk, have a capuccino… It’s kind of boring, really. I’m not the type that’s constantly looking for the hippest disco or bar to go out and get drunk… I’ve done that, obviously, at some point, but nowadays it’s more important for me to renew the energy after each show, so as to be able to connect again the following night.
I suppose one of the keys to last for so long in the music industry is knowing when to stop with the partying, right?Absolutely. Hey, I’m not saying that I don’t like going to parties when I’m at home – having a drink and having a good time. Of course I do; but when I’m touring, I’m conscious and aware of practising some rituals: I never drink alcohol, I keep 100% focused on the shows and I do everything I can in order to keep doing this. It’s the only way to achieve this, because it’s very demanding on a creative level, because every album you release has to be better than the previous one, and the best until that moment, for the fans to keep accepting you. And beyond that, there’s the touring, which really is a tough opponent, because every tour is demanding both mentally and physically. And if you don’t stay sane, you lose your mind. You lose it. If you speak to any band which has toured for 20+ years, every musician will tell you that the way to do it is finding a pace during tours, to keep up with them and not collapse.
What is it likely getting back home? It must be a huge change, I imagine…It’s very hard flipping the switch, because you’ve been in front of a lot of people everynight, receiving a lot of energy, picking up the feelings that the fans throw to the stage, and suddenly you are in your house and reality knocks on the door. There they are, your wife and kids, the only ones that know you as a human being. “You’re not on stage anymore, dad, relax”…
“… Now do the dishes”.(Laughter) Exactly - “load the dishwasher”. The truth is it’s an enormous change, and it takes a couple of days to do the transition into domestic reality, but I love it. Those are the two realities in which I live in. The Dream Theater reality, and the other one – a smaller, stable reality, with my feet on the ground. As much a cliché as it sounds, it's “to thine own self be true”. Leave the character aside. Because, if you are in character all the time, your closest people will end up saying “you know what? I can’t take this shit anymore”. That’s why I think that if you are true to yourself, you’ll get the respect you deserve. And if, in turn, you give that respect back, your life will be balanced. That’s why I can tour with Dream Theater and receive that affection and praise for what we do, and then come home and enjoy who I really am.
Is it hard getting used to being away from home being a parent?It’s not easy, not at all. I miss my family when I’m traveling. It’s another cliché, but this really isn’t a perfect job. It’s close to perfection, though. It’s making the dream I used to have as a kid come true. But no matter what job you are talking about – as great as it might be, there’s always an element which isn’t necessarilly cool. And if there’s something of which I’m burnt out, it’s the traveling. I love being onstage, in the studio – everything having to do with the creative aspect. But getting on planes or buses and traveling from city to city… It’s demanding. That side of the job I could easily leave behind. But I can’t, because it’s the only way we can do what we do. It’s hard because you are far from your loved ones, but on the long run, you learn to deal with it. You learn how to maintain a great communication with your wife and kids, or other loved ones. And from time to time they come to the shows, but that’s another issue, because I have to focus on them as well –where they are, if they are safe around town– and that can be unhealthy on the long run too. In short: you have to keep your head focused on what’s most important on each time of day.
Sounds like another job…It’s another complication, yes. But at the end of the day, it’s like everything in life – you have to try to find a balance, and work out what you need to do to maintain it.
Speaking about your beginnings as an artist: what was the road that got you to become a profesional musician like?Ever since I can remember, music moved me. It made me feel alive. I lived in a very musical home. My father used to play the trumpet, sing in a vocal quartet, and be part of a dance club. My mom used to sing and play the piano as well. My sister also sang and played guitar, my brother would dabble on the piano, and I, as a kid, played drums and sang. It was something I discovered at a tender age; I listened to the radio, listened to albums my old man gave to me. I listened to my older sister’s music and thought to myself “wow – I want to be part of this!”. So, as a young kid I felt I wanted to be part of music, and that’s why I went step by step in order to do so. When I was in school, I studied with my music teacher and I used to get myself into singing competitions, thinking of taking this beyond a simple hobby. I wanted to grow and eventually become a professional.
The story goes that, when you auditioned to be in Dream Theater, there were 200 candidates. Did you feel confident that you were the best among those 200?Well, they told me so. The story goes like this: I was in Canada when I received a phone call from someone who said to me “there’s this band in New York called Dream Theater, who listened to your tape and would like for you to do an audition”, and I thought “where the fuck did they listen to my tape if I didn’t send it?”. It turns out that it was a guy called Pierre Paradis, from Quebec, who had come to see a show by my band, Winter Rose, and he saw me sing live and he freaked out. And so, he spoke to these people and flew to the US and handed them a demo without me knowing. That’s how they listened to it. So they called me and told me they had been working with a singer but they wanted to know whether I would be interested in flying over there and jam with them. I asked them to show me a bit of what they did, because they had only released ‘When Dream And Day Unite’ and I had never listened to it. They weren’t very popular yet. But when I listened to the music, I thought to myself “fuck, these guys are amazing!”. So I flew to New York, and when I met them, we all began to feel that this could work. We jammed all night through, and I remember we were in the middle of the first song and John Petrucci looked at me and told me “dude, you are sick!”
(laughter). And to be honest I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean… I still didn’t understand slang well and I thought that he believed I was actually sick
(laughter)… and he would go on “no, no, ‘sick’ in a good way – ‘awesome’!”
(laughter).We jammed for another hour and then went out to have dinner, and everything flowed so well that the following day we started demoing a few songs. It all went really well. It started as soon as I got there.
It was like starting to live the dream as soon as you got there…Well, at that point, eventhough a lot of people doesn’t know this, Dream Theater were basically unknowns. They had released their first album, which was a hit with critics, very well received by the press. But it didn’t get to the farthest reaches of the planet, only a few people had listened to it. When I joined the band, we were about to sign a new record deal, get a new manager, and we hoped that the label would support us so we could make everything work. Fortunately that happened. Because “Pull Me Under” exploded and gave us the platform on which we were able to build everything we have so far.
At that point, you guys started to feel you had accomplished something. What is it that you remember most about those years?One of my fondest memories of those years is that we weren’t worried as other bands were about how many tickets we had sold. We didn’t even have to ask about it, because every venue was sold out. It didn’t matter which city or town we played, we knew it was full. We were doing fine in the press as well, our video appeared one or two times every hour on MTV, so it was pretty obvious that something massive was happening. And during the tour we found our song playing on the radio constantly. That told you that this was working, and it was good to know because it allowed us to build our tour on a world-wide level. We were known everywhere. That made us feel that from then on, it was all up to us – we had to defend who we were and defend our musical identity and move forward, enjoying and making the best music possible.
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Topic: New Jedbangers interview with James (complete translation in English) (Read 5272 times)