DREAM THEATER frontman James LaBrie is featured in a new interview with Michael Schetter at Prog Sphere, conducted on July 9th in Loreley, Germany.

Q: How does it feel to be the undisputed frontman of the band for the first time in 20 years?

LaBrie: "The undisputed frontman? You know, I mean… it was such a weird dichotomy, if you think about it. It’s funny, you mentioning that, because we, the guys in the band, we were talking about that everything is much more balanced, everybody is in their role or in their position. So it’s where things should be on stage, where it’s not somebody in the background trying to grab the limelight when maybe they should just be grooving or whatever. But I mean, that’s his character, that’s just his personality. He’s big and he wants to be in the limelight. But unfortunately the problem with that is that it takes away from the bigger picture – and that is the band as a unit. And a lot of people have been commenting on that since we started out on this tour, saying 'it feels more like I’m watching a band,' with somebody up front singing and interacting, everybody else just back there and (makes drumming and guitar playing gestures). Everyone kind of assumes what they’re doing. And then there’s always moments in the night when there is the spotlight on these other members and it should be. But it creates more a balance. And we were talking about this, we were saying 'you know, this is really cool' – it feels like a unit. So it’s a lot better."

Q: I don’t want to dwell on this for too long, but several people have asked me to bring it up: Are you still in touch with Mike Portnoy?

LaBrie: "No."

Q: Have you talked to him at all this year?

LaBrie: "I haven’t talked to Mike since the announcement he was considering leaving the band. And then… Actually, I should say the last time I verbally spoke to him and I heard his voice was on the conference call when he finally said 'Yes, I’m leaving the band.' So that was it."

Q: So did you have a specific goal what you wanted the (new) album to sound like …

LaBrie: "Yeah, we definitely knew where we wanted to bring it."

Q: …was there something that you wanted to avoid that has happened in the past?

LaBrie: "We just wanted to make a very classic Dream Theater album and to us a classic Dream Theater album would be the progressiveness with the metal, but very balanced and very complementary of one another, not one overtaking the other and not one seeming predominant throughout. So it was kind of a very conscious effort to make sure that we were touching upon some of the really classic moments in our history that really spoke loudly to us, saying 'You know, that was cool when we did something like that, or when we had that kind of vibe or that direction musically going.' That’s what we need to recreate, but make it sound like it belongs today."

Click here for the complete interview. Go to this location for BW&BK;'s recent interview with LaBrie.

A Dramatic Turn Of Events tracklist is as follows.

'On The Backs Of Angels'

'Build Me Up, Break Me Down'

'Lost Not Forgotten'

'This Is The Life'

'The Shaman's Trance'

'Outcry'

'Far From Heaven'

'Breaking All Illusions'

'Beneath The Surface'

The new Dream Theater song, 'On The Backs Of Angels', is now available on the Roadrunner Records YouTube channel. The track comes off the band's anxiously-awaited new album, A Dramatic Turn Of Events, which will be released on September 13th via Roadrunner Records, the first with new drummer Mike Mangini (ex-EXTREME, STEVE VAI, ANNIHILATOR). The CD was mixed by Andy Wallace (SLAYER, SEPULTURA).

As previously reported, Dream Theater performed their first live show with new drummer Mike Mangini on July 4th at Ippodromo Capannelle in Rome, Italy. They performed the following setlist:

'Under A Glass Moon'

'These Walls'

'Forsaken'

'Endless Sacrifice'

Drum Solo

'The Ytse Jam'

'Peruvian Skies'

'The Great Debate'

'On The Backs Of Angels' (new song)

'Caught In A Web'

'Through My Words'

'Fatal Tragedy'

'The Count Of Tuscany'

Encore:

'Learning To Live'

Fan-filmed footage can be seen below: