Mike Portnoy: That all stemmed from something I put on the Internet saying that these would be the final dates of this tour and it was completely misinterpreted as THE final dates. Basically, the dates came in and "these are the final dates, here ya go" and then somebody blew it out of proportion.

Chad Hutchinson: One week you hear "Yeah, they're working on a live album to be put out in the fall" and the next week, "These are THE last dates."

MP: Yeah, we have a live album and video coming out in October.

Q: Will the album have any new songs?

MP: No, the video will have a couple of new songs, but the album is basically going to serve as a representation of the last ten years of albums. Sort of a "greatest songs" live, I wouldn't call them hits [laughs]. In fact, it steers away from the quote-unquote "hits." It's not like all those songs that were videos are on there. It's more so steering towards the band's favorites, the long songs.

CH: The list that was posted to the web page seemed pretty true to this last tour.

MP: Yes.

Q: You guys were given an hour for your set [opening for Deep Purple and ELP]?

MP: 45 minutes.

Q: Did you have to dramatically cut some of the songs from the set?

MP: It's a third of our normal show. Our normal show is two to two and a half hours, so only playing 45 minutes is drastic.

James LaBrie: The songs that we're doing are staying pretty true to the album versions.

CH: Does the set entail more of the five, six, seven minute tunes instead of the ten, fifteen twenties?

MP: Yeah, I mean, "Metropolis" was in there and "Millenium" which is eight and a half and "Pull Me Under" which is like eight and a half. This set was geared mainly towards what Deep Purple and ELP fans would appreciate.

CH: Heavier on the progressive side instead of the metal side?

MP: It's a little bit of everything in that the progressive stuff like "Metropolis" and "Millenium" and then it has some heavier stuff like "Pull Me Under" and "6:00" is real keyboard-driven, so we figured the ELP fans would probably get that. And then "Peruvian Skies" and "Hollow Years," so like a little taste test for the people that don't know us.

Q: How would you perceive fans' reactions so far?

JL: At first, obviously, the people that don't know us were sitting back and reserved and checking us out, but usually by the end of the set, people are standing up clapping and look like they're all into it. So, I think it's been very beneficial to us. We're touching a lot of new people I think. There are so many generations here, too. You're going from people that are 17 to 57, it looks like. There's a wide gap in the ages.

Q: Do you think that it's a good thing for a band like yourselves playing with these other guys? Do you like to see that sort of thing?

MP: That's why we're here! We've been headlining and playing to our audience for six years now. The reason we're here is to play to some new people that don't know who we are.

CH: How's the response in Philadelphia? What kind of response do you get?

MP: In the past, it wasn't that big and we always skipped Philly, but we came here two times before this and the last time was a great show, one of my favorites on the tour.

Q: At the Electric Factory?

MP: Yeah.

CH: The first time I saw you guys was at the old Chesnut Caberet in December '92. "Oh, Holy Night" was played at that show.

JL: That was only our second show, wasn't it?

MP: That was a great show. That was actually our second time through. We played there once in the summer.

Q: You're using a Chapman Stick now. Is that used live on stage, too?

MP: In this set, it's only used on "New Millenium." In the studio it was used in a few different spots, but that's the only full song that it was used on.

Q: So when will you guys be coming back? I know you'll be taking some time off. Will we have to wait another 18 months or so before we see you again?

JL: Hope not.

MP: We'll see.

Q: The live album is coming out, but are you going to have new material coming out soon?

MP: A double live CD and a home video. That's going to be plenty for now, plenty for the fans to snack on through Christmas. Then, we'll regroup next year.

Q: Any more projects with Magna Carta, per se?

MP: Me and John [Petrucci] are going to do another Liquid Tension album in October and we're hoping we can do a tour with that.

CH: Is that going to be with Jordan [Rudess] and Tony [Levin] again?

MP: Yep. We had Jordan and Rod [Morgenstein] out opening for Dream Theater in Europe.

CH: How did you like doing the Explorer's Club project?

JL: It was great. It came about...we were doing a show in Palo Alto and Trent [Gardner] and Mike Varney were there at the show. They just came up and told me about this asked if I'd be interested and I said, "Sure." They let me hear the stuff and I just went in and sang it, the sections that they wanted me to do. It was weird because they just send you the tape and what they want you to do and go and sing it and send it back.

CH: Primarily Trent's project then?

JL: Yeah, definitely.

Q: What do you guys listen to at home?

MP: I listen to a lot of Radiohead. That's my favorite new band. What else? I love Jellyfish, U2, Beasite Boys...

JL: Right now I'm listening to Gino Vanelli, Wynton Marsalis and Miles Davis.

MP: Have you heard that album Allan Holdworth did with the Johannsen brothers? Cool shit.

Q: Are you guys interested in cutting your own solo album?

JL: I think I want to wait for something like that. I'd like to get a little more under my belt with Dream Theater and then branch out when we take a little hiatus later on in our careers. I think at that point I'd like to be able to use the fact that I'll be hopefully better known at that point, be able to get the better players.

It's kind of wacky, but at this point the kind album I would like to do has lot to do with what I'm listening to right now. I mentioned Gino Vanelli, but I've been listening to a lot of Sting as well and George Michael. Basically, I think it would be on the complete other end of the spectrum. If I were to do a solo album it probably wouldn't have much to do with Dream Theater. Even though Dream Theater incorporated a lot of different styles of music and writing, I would like to do more of the pop type thing.

Q: Glenn Hughes is known for stuff like that.

JL: Yeah, he incorporates a lot of bluesy stuff too. He's very blues oriented which I think is great.

CH: How hard was it to get permission from EastWest to do a double live CD?

MP: Ah, it took some persuading. I would be a very good lawyer, let's put it that way. Most of the time I'm pushing myself on the band, so this was one time I had to push myself on the label and I finally got my way.

CH: So you'll be "Esquire" on the next album?

MP: [Laughs] Yeah! It wasn't easy, but I think it was definitely the smart move. They finally gave in and to the video as well.

CH: The album is done and mixed?

MP: It's all done. It's ready to go. October 27th.

CH: Any hints on the cover art or design?

MP: It's in the process of being done now, but Storm Thorgerson is doing it again. It's being assembled as we speak.

Q: Did he have much to do with the presentation of the video as well?

MP: No, he'll do the artwork. The artwork will be the same for the video as it is for album and they'll tie in together, but that will be the extent of his contributions to the video.

CH: How about release dates? How close are they?

MP: Right now they're set for the same day. Hopefully, the video will stay on. It's all sort of waiting right now. I'm actually going to work on the video during the first week of September when this tour ends, so it's all going to depend on that being delivered on time, so hopefully it will be.

Q: Will you be doing a handful of dates to promote that in the winter?

MP: We thought about that idea. We're not closed to the idea. We'll see what happens. The last couple years or so we have done local shows around Christmas time, but that because we weren't on tour. So there really wasn't a need to do it this year because we have been on tour, but we'll see. Maybe come Christmas time we'll feel like it.

CH: Speaking of Christmas, you always put out the Christmas CD. Are we going to see any more of the Ronnie Scott show in the future?

MP: Some of the Ronnie Scott stuff will show up on the video and then the Christmas CD is going to be outtakes from the album, from Paris and Rotterdam.

CH: So it's going to be mostly live stuff?

MP: Yeah, it'll be almost like a companion piece to video and the live CD. So between the double live CD, the video and the fan club CD, it'll be like everything you'd ever want from Dream Theater. [Laughs.]

Q: It seems that you guys feel that every album should be a double album. I was kind of surprised that it finally happened. Is there a reason for that?

MP: It comes down to the politics of the record company. We make the music and they control how it's marketed and how it's put out. I would have loved for our last studio album to be a double because we had that much music. There are lots of reasons that they would prefer not to do that. We can only be in so much control.

Q: It seemed like hard rock was on a downswing and that was their way of testing the waters.

MP: You mean A Change of Seasons?

Q: Yeah.

MP: It was called an EP, but realistically it's a longer album that Images and Words. It's almost an hour long. It's longer that most studio albums, but it was called an EP because we didn't want it perceived as the new studio Dream Theater album. There's only one new original song all the rest is live covers. It was important for us and the label for it not to be perceived as the new studio record. That's why they tagged it "an EP."

Q: Were those cover tunes standard fare back when you recorded that album? Were they just favorites that you threw in during many various tours?

MP: It was one show. We did a fan club show in London. It was a small jazz club, invite only, to the people in the fan club and the whole show was nothing but cover tunes. We had it in the can sitting around and a lot of people were interested in hearing it. We were interested in doing "A Change of Seasons," so we figured "Why don't we kill two birds with one stone and we can get 'A Change of Seasons' and the covers all on one EP and get it all out there."

JL: I think too what you were asking...we weren't necessarily, before the Ronnie Scott's gig, playing a lot of covers. But when it was put together, it was more Mike and Jim Pitulski, who was our manager at that point, coming up with the whole concept and then it was just bounced around. "What kinds of songs would you like to do if we're going to do this?"

Q: What didn't get on the EP that you would have liked?

MP: Metallica's "Damage Inc.," U2's "Red Hill Mining Town" and Rush's "Tears" were all on the first fan club CD. Then there was also a 20-minute Yes medley that Steve Howe joined us on, "In the Dead of Night" by U.K., "Winter" by Tori Amos, "Happiness is Warm Gun" by the Beatles with Steve Hogarth of Marillion joining us. We did "Easter" by Marillion with Steve Hogarth and Steve Rothery and I think that's it. So some of that will end up on the video.

CH: How much do you guys hate radio edits?

MP: Ya know, that isn't... [Laughs.]

JL: It sucks.

CH: Is "Metropolis II" definitely on the next Dream Theater album?

MP: We definitely want it to be! [Laughs.] We can say that much.

CH: What's that up to? 20 minutes?

MP: We only played it once and it was about 25 minutes. So by the time we get back to it, it will probably grow to about 35.

CH: Is it a multi-part suite like "A Change of Seasons" or one straight track like the first one?

MP: It's just one piece, but the layout it very similar to "Metropolis I" where it starts with verses, the whole first section is verses, then there's a big long middle section that's all instrumental, then it ends with more verses. That's about as traditional as the arrangement is. It's very wacky. There's a lot in there, so we have a lot to relearn.

Q: Who picks the songs that go on the CDs? Do you all just sit down or do you let the record company do it?

MP: I think those are my attorney skills once again. [Laughs.] I'll generally pick it and then we'll talk as a band and make sure everyone's cool with it.

JL: We've been pretty lucky as far as the label goes. They are there to say, "Well, where's the head?" That's just their mentality, but for the most part we've had a lot of creative freedom. That's obviously their job. They'll be there going "What can we market? What can we push to radio? What's radio-friendly?" even though none of them really get us as to what kind of band we are or they don't care to get us. We have to play that kind of game. There's always that involved whether you like it or not.

MP: For the albums, it's been obvious, we all unanimously have known what our strongest are. We've been lucky enough to agree on that. With the other albums, we only wrote enough to record the album and then we would do it, so there was no picking and choosing. This time around we had two albums worth, but we all knew what the strongest ones were, so were pretty much in agreement with that from the get-go, along with Kevin Shirley, our producer. We took his opinion into very strong consideration.

Q: Where are some of your biggest crowds?

JL: Some of the eastern coast and obviously up around the tri-state area is pretty strong. The west coast down towards L.A. is pretty good and the southern section of Texas. Seattle's always been great for us. There is still so much of the States that we need to conquer.

MP: The best markets for us aren't in America. The best market's for us mostly in Europe.

Q: Did you play any of the European festivals to promote this last album?

MP: We spent most of the year in Europe. We did a couple of real extensive headlining tours and then we were also there in June doing festivals as well.

JL: At which point we recorded the double live as well.

Q: Do you have favorite places to play or visit?

MP: I love playing in Italy. Italy's always an awesome crowd. Holland's a great crowd for us.

JL: Spain was amazing for us. We went there for the first time.

Q: Do you get a chance to take a few days off and tour and sightsee?

MP: Only when Ian Gilliam throws his voice out. [Laughs.]

CH: He does it somewhere exotic like Camden.

MP & JL: [Laughs.]

JL: I think that's one of the most misunderstood situations for a band. Everybody thinks you're touring and you have a lot of time to sightsee. You don't. You come into the city, the bus drops you off at the hotel and you spend the day there, you come in and do the show and get back on the bus. Then you go to the next city. Your days off you just want to chill in your hotel room, order food or go out for something to eat, then go back and maybe catch a movie. So you're not really seeing the sights. [Laughs.]

Q: Any stories you'd rather not tell us about?

JL: All of them. [Laughs.]

CH: It sounds like on the whole that the foreign markets are very receptive to you guys. Is the United States kind of a letdown?

MP: It's not the fans' fault, I think it's MTV's fault and the radio's fault. Our fans in America are just as great and just as devoted as everywhere else, it's just that there are smaller numbers because of the amount of exposure we get because of what we do.

JL: A lot of the other markets too, the people do rely on magazine and we do get a lot of coverage from in the major magazines in Europe and Japan. Over here, it's not usually the situation. I think Metal Edge has really been our biggest supporter.

Q: How do you feel about BMG and the music clubs? You don't really make many royalties on that, do you?

JL: I guess there's a discount because you're giving the people, the consumer, a discounted price so it's all relative. But, I think they're good in the sense that maybe someone in Idaho or wherever or Arkansas that maybe they don't have it in the record store, they could say, "Hey, I've heard of this band" and order it. So, I mean, they come in handy. They're necessary, I think.

CH: Are you guys fans of any of the new progressive rock that's out?

MP: I follow Spock's Beard pretty closely. I like Anekdoten, Flower Kings...Mashuggah, they're not really progressive rock, they're more metal, but they're pretty crazy.