What’s behind the title BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS?

That comes from the expression ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ which means that every negative situation can have a positive outcome. It’s like ‘a glass is half full or half empty.’ I thought it applied really well to the lyrics of the song. The lyrics are ranging with issues like death and near-death and near-fatal accidents, and recovery from alcoholism and addiction. So in all cases the lyrics are dealing with situations that are dark and heavy, but in all cases they have an optimistic twist that you can come away with. Also it applies to the music. Dream Theater music is very dark and heavy at times, and at other times very light, melodic and dynamic. So that’s kinda like the contrast between the black cloud and the silver lining.

Talk about the writing process with yourself and John…

The writing process starts always with the music. Dream Theatre has always started instrumentally and then the vocals come later in the process. Like most of our previous albums we just moved into a recording studio, locked up for many months and just moved in and played. The four instrumentalists in the band just jam and mould these ideas and build these ideas, and that’s why these songs usually end up so long - we have several people giving input into the construction of them. Once the music is written, and in the case of this album, then me and John Petrucci would just divvy up the songs and each of us would go off and write the lyrics and melodies. We then demo the songs with each of us singing and then present them to James to learn and come in. Then we focus on the vocals later in the process.

The album covers a number of personal issues, such as the loss of your father and recovering from addiction. How do you feel about putting such private experiences and feelings on record?

I’ve never had a problem with personal lyrics and opening myself up to everyone. On this album I’m writing about losing my dad to his battle with cancer throughout the making of this record which is very, very heavy and a personal thing in my life. But I felt like writing this song was a tribute, in a way to immortalise him for the rest of history, in a song. It’s tough to open yourself up like that - it can be very heavy and emotional but at the same time there’s a real silver lining to that black cloud. It feels good to pay tribute and share his life with the whole world.

Tell me about the song, ‘Right Of Passage’…

‘Right Of Passage’, is the first single and video from the album. Well first of all it was pretty obvious which were going to be the singles off this album because out of six songs, four of them were over the twelve-minute mark, and only two of them are under the ten-minute mark. So that in itself immediately identified which were the singles. ‘Right Of Passage’ seemed like the best and most obvious single because it has all the Dream Theater qualities; it’s got some great riffs, a heavy groove and a great melodic, catchy chorus. I think it’s a real strong song that really encompasses everything that Dream Theatre is about.

The album closer is the 20-minute ‘The Count Of Tuscany.’ What’s the story on this one?

Yeah, ‘The Count Of Tuscany’ is one of those Dream Theater quintessential epics and this album is full of epics. Four of the songs are over the twelve-minute mark, that’s the way we feel more comfortable writing, that’s the way we naturally write. It’s very easy for Dream Theater to write long songs. It’s always the challenge to write the shorter songs which is the opposite to most bands I think. ‘The Count Of Tuscany’ is just one of those songs that just has a little bit of everything for everyone. It’s a twenty-minute journey, it’s the length of a sitcom TV show, so you have to sit down and pay attention to really get everything out of it.

You’re heavily involved in absolutely everything Dream Theatre. How do you find the time?

I am a workaholic, an obssessive, compulsive control freak. I think every band needs one [laughs a lot]. So that’s me in this band. I’m a passionate, driven person, I’m usually balancing twenty different things at once. Throughout the making of this record, as if that wasn’t enough ‘cos I was the drummer, wrote the music, wrote the lyrics and co-produced - as if that wasn’t enough - I was working on the four official bootleg titles, I was working on the Live Liquid Tension Experiment Box Set. Then I went immediately into the studio with Transatlantic, and had to oversee the artwork, and the labels and the marketing, and the tour plans, and the opening bands, and the… So, how do I do it? It’s just takes a certain personality, you know. Some people are like the way I am, other people, like some of the guys in the rest of the band, are just happy to be at home with their family, turn off the phone and not check their e-mails… But it works for us, it makes my family crazy but it makes the fans happy…

Dream Theatre has surpassed the the 20 year career mark. A simple question - how?

Yeah, you’d think after doing this for twenty plus years we would be on auto-play at this point, but it’s not the case. Every time we make a record we still get inspired and excited. I guess it’s because we write together where other bands have just one writer bringing in the song - it could get boring. But with us, we totally challenge each other and inspire each other, and then we write this music that always excites us. When you get on the road sometimes it can be a little redundant, playing the same places for dozens of times over for all the years, but there’s always new people in the audience, new songs to play, new cities to visit. So it somehow stays interesting.