It all began in the fall of 1985 when
students guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung saw
drummer Mike Portnoy jamming in one of the practice rooms at the
prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston. Back then, and to
some degree now, rock music was frowned upon by professors and
their fellow musicians, making it a small miracle they were able
to meet at all. The two later bumped into Mike in the cafeteria
and found they had more in common than tastes in music; all had
grown up on Long Island.
"I remember I was wearing a Talas
shirt that day and to them that was a dead giveaway,"
recalls Mike. "It was obvious that all our heads were in the
same place and to find that they were from home was amazing
because there are people from all over the world at Berklee.
Finding two people that were completely in sync with me and the
fact that they lived 40 minutes away was like a blessing from
God."
During breaks from school they jammed
with keyboardist Kevin Moore (who played with the Johns' in a
high school band called Centurion and was attending Fredonia
College in upstate New York at the time) and a vocalist named
Chris Collins; a band that would eventually become Majesty. All
decided to leave school to concentrate on the band while working
regular jobs and giving private music lessons. Shortly afterwards
they recorded a four-track, six-song demo tape which was sold to
local fans and shopped to labels. Even back then the material was
progressive and complex with an edge reminiscent of early Rush
and to this day the band often sneak in bits of the songs in
their live set.
Majesty was the first band to sign with
a new label called Mechanic Records yet were focused to change
their moniker as a jazz band already owned the name. Mike's
father suggested the name Dream Theater as taken from a movie
house in Monterey, California, but soon it became evident that
another change was more essential: Chris simply didn't have the
vocal range they needed for the album.
"It was then that we went on our
first of vocalist searches," laughs Mike, "and found
Charlie Dominici who was a lot older than us and came from a
different background, but at the time we really couldn't find
anyone else and he had the most potential out of everyone. He had
the experience that Chris didn't, but after awhile it became
evident that he wasn't the singer we were looking for. We would
sit at practice and it would be like pulling teeth trying to get
him to sing some of the stuff we wanted, but afterwards he would
sit down behind the piano and start singing Billy Joel and the
Beatles songs and feel right at home.
"When Dream And Day Unite" was
recorded at Kajem/Victory Studios in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania in
one month's time in the summer of '88 with producer Terry Date.
Despite a shoestring budget and limited distribution, the album
was received well by press around the world, not to mention
American metal radio. Unfortunately, Mechanic didn't have the
funds to take them one step further with tour support or a video,
and because of this, Dream Theater's concerts were restricted to
the New York tri-state area as they held on to their regular day
jobs. It soon became clear that the band might be forced to start
from scratch to reach their goals.
Charlie was fired in '90 but called back
for one final concert supporting Marillion being the British band
personally requested that Dream Theater do the gig. It was at
this particular show they opened with a then new track called
'Metropolis' -- a sample of how the band had progressed since the
debut album and what the future would bring.
Yet what they thought would be a
temporary setback turned out to be an almost two year search for
a front man. They kept themselves writing and performing new
material as a four piece in local clubs; in fact, many of the
tracks from "Images and Words" were first performed
live as instrumentals long before the vocal melody was written.
The encore was indeed a work of genius; a medley of the
instrumental breaks from classic songs from the likes of Led
Zeppelin, Yes, Queen, The Beatles and Van Halen.
At one point the frustration to find the
right guy became so intense they actually considered an all
instrumental route -- especially after a series of really bad
experiences -- yet they decided to persist. This revolving door
included John Arch of Fates Warning who came very close to
getting the job, but he decided against it. Then there was the
Geoff Tate clone from Seattle names Steve Stone who actually sang
a few songs with the band during one of the instrumental shows,
but it was clear he didn't fit in. Finally, they found Chris
Cintron who appeared to be the right man for the job, that was
until the tape from Canada arrived...
The man in question was Kevin James
LaBrie, then of the Toronto band Winter Rose. Although Chris was
days away from joining, the band though the voice on the tape was
too good to overlook and Kevin was flown down to try out.
Unfortunately for Chris, he was out of the job, but Dream Theater
finally found the singer they had been looking for. Upon joining,
Kevin LaBrie decided to use his middle name, James, as his first
-- having two guys named John in the band was confusing enough,
just imagine having two guys names Kevin as well.
Having signed a deal with Atco/East West Records, the band recorded their second album, "Images and Words", with producer David Prater at the end of 1991 at Bear Track Studios -- a modest facility in Suffern, New York owned by Spyro
Gyra sax player Jay Beckenstein who
would guest on the track 'Another Day'.
James made his official live debut with the band on June 8, 1992
at the Ritz in New York City supporting Iron Maiden,
coincidentally the very same venue Charlie played his last. A few
warm-up shows in tiny clubs days before this show proved James
was welcomed with open arms by their die hard fans, some of which
already knew the words to all the new songs even though
"Images and Words" was not in the stores yet.
After the release of the album, Dream
Theater signed to Roundtable Entertainment and was ready to
finally perform around the globe. Along the way press radio and
even MTV were especially supportive, yet the band felt they
reached a new level upon word that "Images And Words"
had gone gold in Japan. A short tour was booked and sold out
within hours. Despite this worldwide recognition, the band paid homage to their
long time local fans with a sold out concert at the Limelight in
New York City on March 4, 1993. With no opening act, the band
played almost three hours, not including the brief intermission,
and debuted a bunch of new material such as 'To Live Forever',
'Eve' and the 20 minute epic 'A Change of Seasons', the latter of
which they rarely perform live.
Europe was the next leg of the
"Music in Progress" tour where they recorded the EP,
"Live at the Marquee", at London's famed club. Although
their touring commitments had brought them around the world a
second time (in bigger halls naturally) the band kept from
burning out musically by introducing new songs into the set, even
if they were nothing but jams improvised on the spot. Their show
in Tokyo, Japan, was filmed and released on home video in late
'93.
By November of '93 the band had
completed touring, yet visited Korea in January for a promotional
tour due to their increasing popularity there.
In March of 1994, Dream Theater started
work on their third album after a short break -- their first
album to be written as a complete band being both "When
Dream and Day Unite" and "Images and Words" were
written when the band was without a vocalist. At first they
planned to include some of the unreleased songs that were
included in their live set, yet it ended up they had written so
much new material -- more than 75 minutes worth! -- the older
songs didn't sound fresh enough to fit in. The only bit of old
material they kept was a jam called 'Puppies on Acid' which
turned into the song 'The Mirror'. 'To Live Forever' has since
been released as the b-side to 'Lie' yet other unreleased tracks,
including their version of the Yuletide classic 'Oh Holy Night',
are slated for release on an EP in the future.
The band relocated to Los Angeles in May
for a few months to work with producers John Purdell and Duane
Baron and found the duo to be just what they needed to get their
musical ideas across. Unfortunately, all was not perfect in the
band.
Halfway through the recording of "Awake", Kevin decided
he wanted to leave the band -- a major blow to the band,
especially to John and John whom he had grown up with. In a press
release issued after the completion of the album, Kevin explained
why: "Musically, I think my approach to writing has changed
a lot in the past several years. It came to a point where my
views were so different from the rest of the band that they were
having trouble relating to each other's ideas. At the same time,
I was finding a great deal of fulfillment writing and recording
my own material. Eventually, this became more important to me
than anything else. I came to the decision that I needed to
concentrate on my own musical identity and that a split with the
band would be the best thing for both the band and myself. I
truly believe that Dream Theater have a lot more to offer the
music world and I have a deep respect for each of them as
musicians and as people. I wish them all the best." Kevin
has since moved to New Mexico and is currently writing new songs
for a forthcoming project.
Pressure to find a new keyboard player
was closer than expected as the band had already committed to
play the Concrete Foundations Forum. After a series of auditions,
they decided to bring in Jordan Rudess (of the Dixie Dregs) for
the show and Derek Sherinian for the tour. Derek, who also
attended Berklee and played with Kiss and Alice Cooper among
others, proved to be the perfect arrangement as it would allow
the band to take their time to find a permanent replacement and
be able to tour for the album.
"Awake" was released worldwide
on October 4 and did well beyond the band's hopes. It debuted at
32 on the American Billboard chart and sold over 43,000 copies in
Germany in the first week alone. Meanwhile, the single 'Lie',
which preceded the album's release, became a big hit at American
rock radio out of the box and the video was shown regularly on
MTV -- a great and positive start to what is certain to be the
most important album of their career.
With a successful American tour behind the, 1995 kicked off with a major tour of Japan where "Awake" has gone platinum, followed by a European tour. With their following growing greater with each album and tour, Dream Theater is certain to keep making music for a long time to come.
After this, the album "Falling into Infinity" appeared and gave Dream Theater more popularity than "Awake". Now, a new double live CD has been edited. It's called "Once in a Live Time" and this confirms that this band has a great future in the music business
In
this year, their last studio record (by the moment) appeared: The anxiosly
expected second part of Metropolis, "Scenes from a Memory". Once again,
they've shown us their sound and the record is full of presents for your ears.
Long life to the Theater of Dreams...