Derek's comments:
I was so excited to make this CD. I had just spent
all of the previous year playing Kevin Moore keyboard parts
on the "Awake" tour-this was my opportunity to make
my mark, so I wanted to kick ass.
The writing started in January 1996, in a rehearsal
room in East Rutherford, NJ. I used to take the N line subway
from 34th street in Astoria, to Times Square -- Then transfer
to the NJ transit to rehearsal. This took an hour and a half
5 days a week. John Myung was kind enough to drop me off on
the way home, as he had to travel all the way to eastern Long
Island NY.
The writing sessions started of strong, we worked
on a couple of Petrucci ideas at first, then we started working
on my "Lines in the Sand" riff. I was happy that
they were utilizing my ideas. We also wrote "Metropolis
pt 2" during those sessions- I actually have the rehearsal
tapes that show the genesis and development of the composition.
Unfortunately, Elektra records had different plans
for Dream Theater. I remember going with the band to the Elektra
offices, and the label obviously wanted Dream Theater to cross
over and be more commercial to sell more CD's. They told us
to go back to the drawing board.
So we spent about a year in the writing studio. The
band ended up choosing Kevin Shirley to produce "Falling
into Infinity" at Avatar Studios in Hell's Kitchen, NYC
(formerly the Power Station). Kevin just enjoyed recent success
producing Aerosmith, and he had a very easy going, but ready-to-work
vibe about him. After he heard all of our demos, he put them
in pro-tools, and sliced and diced them until he was happy
with the arrangements. I liked most of his edits, but Mike
Portnoy hated the edits. I could see that Mike was slowly
getting more depressed as time was going on, as the creative
control that he had enjoyed in the past was slowly slipping
away.
To commercialize matters even more, Kevin Shirley
brought in Desmond Child to co-write on the song "You
or Me." Now Desmond is a great songwriter, but for Dream
Theater......come on! Mike Portnoy's hair was turning grayer
by the day.
Also, during this recording process, we didn't have
any management, and were being sued by ex-managers. We actually
showed up to writing rehearsals, and were served papers by
our ex manager Jim Pitulski (who ironically is now my label
president For InsideOut Music America) It was a bit like the
wild west.
Finally, the CD was complete. I immediately moved
back to Los Angeles (Thank god!!!) after FII was done.
I think that FII has some good moments, but here
was a lot of negative reaction from the hard-core DT fans
about this release. It was more commercial designed to cross
over-but the crossover songs were not strong enough to breakthrough,
so the result was a lot of unhappy fans. I was very unfairly
blamed by a lot of fans for the result of this CD. All I can
say is that it really sucks replacing an original member in
a band, because no matter how hard you try, you will always
be under the microscope.
Fast facts:
* Mike Portnoy and I both quit smoking cigarettes
at the beginning of the writing sessions, and to this day
I haven't smoked. The last time I talked to Mike, he still
hadn't smoked either.
* Del Fuvio Monks was the background vocal section
comprised of John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, and Myself. Underneath
the surface the Del Fuvios were a secret organization based
on Mockery, Bitter Diatribe, and Sardonicism. We were so fucking
brutal, it was unbelievable--
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