Interviews

James La Brie – Dream Theater 'Fortunately We Have Mike Portnoy Doing All The Setlists'

Rod Whitfield

Nov 27, 2025

8 min read

Fourty years. When it’s merely written as two clinical, sterile words on a page/screen like that, it’s just that: two words. When the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs of being in the one volatile institution, have been lived through and experienced for that length of time, it’s a whole other universe.

Quick disclaimer: today’s interview subject, Mr James LaBrie, hasn’t been in this institution for the full forty years, he’s ‘only’ been there for around thirty-four of those years, but has lived through the vast majority of said ‘trials and tribulations’ over that time.

American prog metal stalwarts Dream Theater formed way back in 1985, when the core members met at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and what a storied four-decade-long career it’s been. Still going as strong as ever in 2025, they are currently on tour celebrating both that massive anniversary, the return of prodigal drummer and co-founding member Mike Portnoy, as well as the release of Parasomnia, their first album with Portnoy since 2009. That tour pulls into this wide red land of ours in February next year, and La Brie joins us to let us know what they have in store for us and to reflect on what the band has been through and what they’ve achieved in their decades of existence.

“It’s a little overwhelming,” he says, “you kinda stand back and ask, ‘how did that happen?’ It conjures up a lot of . . . consternation! (laughs) Because it’s like, what the hell, how did that even happen? When you think, the very inception of the band was when they met back in ’85 in Berklee, so this constitutes the fortieth anniversary. And like you said, I haven’t been there since the very get-go, but I think when the band became known globally, is when I did come into the band.

“I think ever since then, from 1992 to now, it’s been quite the ride. Like anything in life, you have your ups and downs, life’s dynamics, and that stands true for each and every band that has ever existed. We’ve dealt with the storms, and we’ve been through the highs and the lows, the peaks and valleys, but it’s been a great ride.”

La Brie still seems a little mystified as to how and why a band such as theirs has lasted so long, and maintained some kind of stability, through all the struggles that befall virtually every long-running band. “I just think that, for a lot of people to be able to say that you’ve been a band, and that you’ve existed for, as we’re saying here, forty years, it’s mindboggling. And the fact that we’re still together, we’re all still married to the same beautiful women that we married so many years ago, is another anomaly so to speak.

“I think it’s a great testament to who and what we are as a band, and what our music has meant to so many people around the world. It’s something we don’t take for granted, we’re very appreciative that we’ve been able to do what we dreamed of doing in our formative years. It’s so cool.”

It seems all the more gobsmacking when you consider just how many people, even in the band members’ own circles, started out as musicians with big dreams and stars in their eyes, but never actually attained that dream of being a pro recording and touring musician and doing it for a living. LaBrie admits that he does, every so often, reflect on what an immense achievement it truly is.

“Once in a while it hits you,” he says, “You could be doing anything, you could be out with friends on a boat, just chillin’ out and having conversations, and all of a sudden it hits you and you go, ‘what the hell, man, this is what I am, this is what I’ve been doing for the last four decades.’ It’s bizarre, to some extent. It’s absurd to be able to look at anyone and have someone say, ‘what have you done?’, and say, ‘well I’ve been a professional musician for the last forty years.’ Or for me, I would say for the last thirty-four years, comfortably, as a professional musician. Even at that, most people go, ‘what? That’s an incredible feat.’ And it is!

“I have so many friends that I grew up with, when I was in Toronto chasing my dream to become what I eventually and thankfully did become, there were so many friends of mine who were such great talented musicians. Some of them did get a record deal, some of them released, but with them it was kind of what generally happens to so many great bands and musicians, they lasted fortwo or three albums and then faded out. Some of those same people I get together with these days and they go, ‘look at you, you son of a bitch!’ (laughs).”

As previously stated, the tour touches down in Australia in February next year, and a very tongue-in-cheek La Brie has some rather interesting and unusual news as to what Aussie fans can expect on this coming tour.

“We’ll be doing an AC/DC set,” he says, laughing.

Both Bon and Brian material? “Yeah, for sure.”

“Seriously though, this being our fortieth anniversary, that sets us up for trying to traverse our massive catalogue. Fortunately we have Mike [Portnoy] doing all the setlists, and he is extremely specific and very particular and very analytical, so he makes sure that any given territory that we go into, it’s something that is pretty much assured that it’s going to satisfy our fans, on what they were expecting or hoping to hear.

“It will traverse our career and represent those specific epochs, if you want to call it that, of time. We were only talking about this just the other day, we’ve been out on this current tour for a year, and it feels like the blink of an eye. It’s just gone by so fast but I think that’s a good thing because we’re having a great time, and the fan reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, and it’s been everything that we could have hoped for. We’re in a really good place right now.”

And, in news that will surely gladden the hearts of Dream Theater and prog metal fans the world over, La Brie has a very positive perspective on whether the band will last another decade and be celebrating half a century as a band in ten years from now.

“Well, we’re talking about making it to fifty! That’s what we’d like to see happen. The way we look at it right now is that we’re having a great time, we think our music still speaks for itself, people can see that we’re still one hundred percent entrenched in creating something that we feel absolutely confident to stand behind, and as long as that continues, and as long as we feel great being out here, doing another album, going back out for our fans, as long as that is in the right place in our hearts and souls and minds, then why not.”

Interview by Rod Whitfield

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