JAMES LABRIE BACK WITH SOLO ALBUM
The acoustic sound of A Beautiful Shade Of Grey was inspired by Led Zeppelin.
“I wanted to do an acoustic album, in the way Zeppelin would touch on those elements.”
Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie is set to release his fourth solo album, A Beautiful Shade Of Grey, on May 10 via InsideOut. It’s been nine years since his last solo LP, Impermanent Resonance, and this new one was born during lockdown, following a chance meeting at an airport in Scotland in early 2020.
“The last show Dream Theater played on the Distance Over Time Tour was in Glasgow,” LaBrie tells Prog. “The following day [February 24], I was heading through the airport to catch my plane home and I bumped into Paul Logue, who plays bass in [rock band] Eden’s Curse. We’d been talking about getting together and writing something for a long time. Dream Theater were supposed to be doing another couple of legs of touring but in the middle of March 2020 everywhere shut down. Paul texted me and suggested that we start to write the album together.”
In an unexpected turn, musically A Beautiful Shade Of Grey moves away from the progressive metal that to date has defined LaBrie’s career. Instead, the new tracks have an acoustic base, giving the record a classic rock feel more reminiscent of Led Zeppelin than Dream Theater.
“The way I originally wanted to approach it,” LaBrie says, “was to do an acoustic album, like classic Zeppelin and how they touched on those [acoustic] elements. I had all these ideas, riffs and melodies that I sent over to Paul, and he began to work on them. It started off with the idea of just having acoustic guitars, but I was worried that it might turn into a campfire album. I felt we could do more justice to the songs by adding a full ensemble, so we brought in a band. We’ve also done a cover version of Zeppelin’s Ramble On.
I remember as a kid thinking it was a great tune, and we’re happy with the way that it came out.”
Aside from Logue and LaBrie, the album also features contributions from the vocalist’s long-term collaborator, guitarist Marco Sfogli, keyboardist Christian Pulkkinen and LaBrie’s son, Chance, who is already an accomplished drummer with metal band Falset. “Chance came in,” says his dad, “and was writing and playing the drums, and he got really involved in the arrangements, so it became a collective thing. I’m really psyched for people to hear this album.”
The album was preceded in March by the online single, Devil In Drag.