DREAM THEATER Singer Talks Drummer Change, Recording Process For New Album (Video)

August 4, 2011

The U.K. branch of Roadrunner Records conducted an interview with vocalist James LaBrie of progressive metal giants DREAM THEATER at this year's edition of Classic Rock magazine's award-winning High Voltage festival, which took place Saturday, July 23 and Sunday, July 24, 2011 in Victoria Park, London, England. You can now watch the first two parts of the chat below. In the first clip James discusses the selection process for finding a new drummer following the departure of Mike Portnoy and in the second clip he goes on to discuss the recording process for DREAM THEATER's new album and what it has been like playing a new track from the upcoming CD on the band's current European tour.

"A Dramatic Turn Of Events", the much-anticipated new album from DREAM THEATER, which marks drummer Mike Mangini's recorded debut, will be released on September 13 via Roadrunner Records.

In a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci was asked how the recent lineup change affected the songwriting responsibilities for the new CD. "We didn't write the music with Mike Mangini," he said. "We decided to go in and just write it amongst ourselves without a drummer [to] get more in touch with the intimates of the compositional process that every guitarist, keyboard player and bassist does when they're sitting around in a bedroom or hotel room or studio. Just writing and pulling out the best music that you can, exploring different areas. We decided to do it that way, which was great a really great environment for being creative."

When asked if the band ended up writing things that were really hard for Mangini to play, Petrucci said, "It's funny that you say that, because I programmed all the drums with a program, which was a lot of fun. I came up with some wicked stuff. When we finished, I sent it, asking, 'Is this something that you can actually play? I don't know, I'm not a drummer, is this a physically possible thing?' But then he came in a couple of months later, and here he was, a human being doing this stuff. I was blown away. It's fun doing that kind of thing because you can just come up with stuff that's beyond your wildest imagination, drum-wise, and then make it happen in real life."

Part 1:

Part 2:

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).