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Get your own Free Home PageHaving signed a deal with Atco/East West Records, the band recorded their second album, "Images and Words", with producer David Prater at the end of 1991 at Bear Track Studios -- a modest facility in Suffern, New York owned by Spyro Gyra sax player Jay Beckenstein who would guest on the track 'Another Day'.
James made his official live debut with the band on June 8, 1992 at the Ritz in New York City supporting Iron Maiden, coincidentally the very same venue Charlie played his last. A few warm-up shows in tiny clubs days before this show proved James was welcomed with open arms by their die hard fans, some of which already knew the words to all the new songs even though "Images and Words" was not in the stores yet.
After the release of the album, Dream Theater signed to Roundtable Entertainment and was ready to finally perform around the globe. Along the way press radio and even MTV were especially supportive, yet the band felt they reached a new level upon word that "Images And Words" had gone gold in Japan. A short tour was booked and sold out within hours.
Despite this worldwide recognition, the band paid homage to their long time local fans with a sold out concert at the Limelight in New York City on March 4, 1993. With no opening act, the band played almost three hours, not including the brief intermission, and debuted a bunch of new material such as 'To Live Forever', 'Eve' and the 20 minute epic 'A Change of Seasons', the latter of which they rarely perform live.
Europe was the next leg of the "Music in Progress" tour where they recorded the EP, "Live at the Marquee", at London's famed club. Although their touring commitments had brought them around the world a second time (in bigger halls naturally) the band kept from burning out musically by introducing new songs into the set, even if they were nothing but jams improvised on the spot. Their show in Tokyo, Japan, was filmed and released on home video in late '93.
By November of '93 the band had completed touring, yet visited Korea in January for a promotional tour due to their increasing popularity there.
In March of 1994, Dream Theater started work on their third album after a short break -- their first album to be written as a complete band being both "When Dream and Day Unite" and "Images and Words" were written when the band was without a vocalist. At first they planned to include some of the unreleased songs that were included in their live set, yet it ended up they had written so much new material -- more than 75 minutes worth! -- the older songs didn't sound fresh enough to fit in. The only bit of old material they kept was a jam called 'Puppies on Acid' which turned into the song 'The Mirror'. 'To Live Forever' has since been released as the b-side to 'Lie' yet other unreleased tracks, including their version of the Yuletide classic 'Oh Holy Night', are slated for release on an EP in the future.
The band relocated to Los Angeles in May for a few months to work with producers John Purdell and Duane Baron and found the duo to be just what they needed to get their musical ideas across. Unfortunately, all was not perfect in the band. Halfway through the recording of "Awake", Kevin decided he wanted to leave the band -- a major blow to the band, especially to John and John whom he had grown up with. In a press release issued after the completion of the album, Kevin explained why: "Musically, I think my approach to writing has changed a lot in the past several years. It came to a point where my views were so different from the rest of the band that they were having trouble relating to each other's ideas. At the same time, I was finding a great deal of fulfillment writing and recording my own material. Eventually, this became more important to me than anything else. I came to the decision that I needed to concentrate on my own musical identity and that a split with the band would be the best thing for both the band and myself. I truly believe that Dream Theater have a lot more to offer the music world and I have a deep respect for each of them as musicians and as people. I wish them all the best." Kevin has since moved to New Mexico and is currently writing new songs for a forthcoming project.
Pressure to find a new keyboard player was closer than expected as the band had already committed to play the Concrete Foundations Forum. After a series of auditions, they decided to bring in Jordan Rudess (of the Dixie Dregs) for the show and Derek Sherinian for the tour. Derek, who also attended Berklee and played with Kiss and Alice Cooper among others, proved to be the perfect arrangement as it would allow the band to take their time to find a permanent replacement and be able to tour for the album.
"Awake" was released worldwide on October 4 and did well beyond the band's hopes. It debuted at 32 on the American Billboard chart and sold over 43,000 copies in Germany in the first week alone. Meanwhile, the single 'Lie', which preceded the album's release, became a big hit at American rock radio out of the box and the video was shown regularly on MTV -- a great and positive start to what is certain to be the most important album of their career.
With a successful American tour behind them, 1995 kicked off with a major tour of Japan where "Awake" has gone platinum, followed by a European tour. With their following growing greater with each album and tour, Dream Theater is certain to keep making music for a long time to come.
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