DARKANE drummer Peter Wildoer, who provided drums and death metal vocals on DREAM THEATER frontman James LaBrie's 2010 solo album Static Impulse, has checked in with the following update:

"Just heard the first track that Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios mixed for the new James Labrie album. This album will be great! Matt Guillory (keyboards), Marco Sfogli (guitars), Ray Riendeau (bass) and James LaBrie (vocals) all set the bar really high this time and their musicianship is stunning. Matt's and Peter Wichers (producer/ex-SOILWORK) songwriting are also equally mind-blowing. I had such a great time recording this album and it was a pleasure to track it with one of the best engineers around, Johan Örnborg. Honored to be part of this band and I can't wait to hear all you guys reactions to this album!"

Photo by Peter Johansson

Following is an excerpt from an interview with Wildoer discussing his work on Static Impulse:

For some diehard Dream Theater fans, vocalist James LaBrie’s new solo album, Static Impulse, is the equivalent of a kick in the teeth. At the very least it trashes the belief that LaBrie is “just” the singer, his creativity limited to composing vocal melodies and delivering them on stage. The new record proves this is anything but the case, with LaBrie and longtime collaborator Matt Guillory (keyboards) taking what became LaBrie’s signature sound on Elements Of Persuasion from 2005 and twisting it into something much more volatile. The most provocative element in this metamorphosis – no pun intended – is the involvement of Darkane drummer Peter Wildoer. Not only does he serve up trademark Swedish thrash from behind the kit as required, LaBrie and Guillory had the audacity to invite Wildoer to lay down full-on death metal vocals. Also as required, and much to the chagrin of Dream Theater purists.

“Well, like so many times before this was pure luck,” Wildoer says of being asked to sing, aware that some people are cursing that luck. “Matt and James knew they wanted Jens Bogren to mix the album here in Sweden, and Jens told Matt that he knew a great studio called Studiomega where he wanted the band to record the songs. Matt called a mutual friend of ours – Teddy Möller from F.K.Ü. – and asked him if he knew any Swedish drummers that he could recommend, and he recommended me. Very nice of him; thanks Teddy! Matt called me one night, introduced himself, and asked me if I wanted to play drums on James LaBrie’s new album. Of course I wanted to!”

Wildoer was initially hired on for the sole purpose of laying down the drum tracks for the album. As he tells it, his double duty as second vocalist came about purely by chance.

“James and Matt had absolutely no clue I did screaming/growling vocals. They were looking for a drummer and I didn’t know they wanted those kind of vocals. So yeah, initially it was just because of my drumming. A few weeks later I talked to Matt again and he told me they wanted a guest screamer/growler to do some parts and he asked me if I knew someone since I come from a thrash/death metal background. We talked about a few guys and then I just said that I actually did vocals on Darkane guitarist Christofer Malmström’s solo album, Non-Human Level. Matt asked me to send a song, and a couple days later he said that both him and James liked my screaming and wanted me to do it. Cool, if you ask me…”

Being asked to sing on the solo album of an established and highly respected vocalist like LaBrie isn’t a small deal. Wildoer admits, however, that he didn’t feel as much pressure as one might think.

“We had a great vibe in the studio and the other guys are some of the nicest guys I know. The whole recording was very relaxed even though we had to record all drums, bass, rhythm guitars, keyboards, and the solos in just two weeks. The guys are among the finest musicians I know and they nailed it. Amazing! Because of this cool climate in the studio I was very relaxed doing the vocals. I recorded all my vocals in about four hours one afternoon.”
“It was totally clear to what I was to sing,” he adds. “All the songs had demo vocals by Matt on them, and Matt did the screaming on those as well. I tried some different things in the studio and Matt really liked the frantic screaming so we went for that. I had a clear vision of what we were doing. It was great fun.”

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Following are some audio samples from Static Impulse featuring Wildoer: