History
editFormation years
editFormation
editDream Theater was formed in 1985 while guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, and drummer Mike Portnoy were attending college at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Petrucci and Myung grew up in the same town on Long Island, and had been friends since junior high school.[1] The two of them played in bands together throughout high school, and decided to go to Berklee together to study music.[2] Petrucci and Myung met Portnoy, who was also from Long Island, within the first two weeks of attendance. Portnoy stated that they were intrigued by him wearing a t-shirt from the band Talas, and heard him practicing one day and eventually asked to jam with him.[3] The three Berklee attendees gathered together in a practice room every night from 6:00 pm to 12:00 am, starting their music relationship by covering Rush and Iron Maiden songs and later progressing to creating their own songs.[4] Portnoy commented "We decided to get together and jam, and we've been jamming ever since. We never even officially said 'Hey, let's get together and form a band.' We just started jamming one night and then it was like 'OK we'll see you tomorrow' and we showed up the next night and it just happened. It just somehow became understood that we would stay together."[3]
Using the four-track recorder that Portnoy's grandmother bought for him, the trio started recording their rehersals. Their first song ever recorded was called "Particle E. Motion". Other early songs included "The Saurus", "Cry for Freedom", "The School Song", and "Another Won".[4] Within a few months, Petrucci, Myung, and Portnoy understood that they had formed the nucleus of a band. While waiting outside to enter a Rush concert, the trio was listening to "Bastille Day" from the album Power Windows and noted that the ending sounded "majestic". Upon this, they decided to name their band "Majesty".[5]
Majesty auditioned vocalists and keyboardists through November of 1985, but never settled on any people they thought would fit in the band.[5] Petrucci and Myung had a friend from Long Island named Kevin Moore who played keyboards and was attending college at State University of New York at Fredonia to enhance his keyboard skills.[2] Majesty asked Moore to join the band, and Moore accepted the offer after hearing demos of the music they had been working on.[5] In early 1986, Petrucci, Myung, and Portnoy decided that after their freshman year they would stop attending college in order to focus on the band.[6] Portnoy said of the matter: "We just decided that we had to pursue the band full-time. Berklee is so demanding. You really had to put a hundred percent work into it for it to work, and being in a band is also extremely demanding. We felt we couldn't split ourselves between the band and school, so we had to make a choice. And we decided at that point we really felt a chemistry and connection between us, and decided when we went home in May, we'd complete the line-up and stay in Long Island and not continue at Berklee."[6] Similarly, Moore stopped attending Fredonia and moved back home to Long Island with Petrucci, Myung, and Portnoy.[5][6]
Petrucci had a friend from his home neighborhood named Chris Collins who recently started to pursue singing. Petrucci said "It was funny, because initially when we used to hang out he didn't even sing. Then I remember coming home from Berklee for that winter break and all of a sudden he was like 'Check me out!' and he could sing! He was singing 'Queen of the Reich' [by Queensryche] and I was like 'Whoahh! Where did that come from?'"[7] Petrucci called Collins and asked him to sing for Majesty. Collins subsequently accepted and Majesty recorded their first demo.[8] The band pressed 1,000 copies of the demo and Portnoy sent hundreds of them around the world to magazines and record labels. Many magazines gave the demo positive reviews and published an address for people to order the tape directly from the band. Portnoy said "We'd heard the stories of Lars Ulrich doing that with Metallica, and I was very much following that kind of promotional strategy."[9] In 2003, Portnoy re-released the Majesty Demos through his record label, YtseJam Records.
Collins was in Majesty for a short period of time, only playing 15 concerts with the band. Over time it has been forgotten if Collins quit, or if he was fired, but it is agreed by both sides that the band was not working well with Collins as a frontman. Collins was officially out of Majesty by October 1986.[10]
When Dream and Day Unite
editMajesty was without a vocalist for nearly a year before settling on Charlie Dominici.
References
edit- Wilson, Rich (2007). Lifting Shadows (First edition ed.). United Kingdom: Essential Works. ISBN 9781906615024.
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Notes
edit- ^ Wilson 2007, p. 19
- ^ a b Wilson 2007, p. 20
- ^ a b Wilson 2007, p. 27
- ^ a b Wilson 2007, p. 29
- ^ a b c d Wilson 2007, p. 30
- ^ a b c Wilson 2007, p. 31
- ^ Wilson 2007, p. 32
- ^ Wilson 2007, p. 34
- ^ Wilson 2007, p. 37
- ^ Wilson 2007, p. 41