James La Brie
| James LaBrie | |
|---|---|
LaBrie in 2012
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kevin James LaBrie |
| Born |
May 5, 1963 Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Heavy metal, progressive metal |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Labels | Roadrunner |
| Associated acts | Dream Theater, Winter Rose, Ayreon, MullMuzzler, True Symphonic Rockestra, Sebastian Bach, Fates Warning, Shadow Gallery, Explorers Club, Trent Gardner, Henning Pauly, Frameshift, Tim Donahue |
| Website | jameslabrie |
Kevin James LaBrie (born May 5, 1963) is a Canadian vocalist and songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the American progressive metal band Dream Theater.
Kevin James LaBrie was born in Penetanguishene, Ontario, Canada and started playing drums at age 5. By his mid-teens, he was a member of several bands as a front man that attempted singing and/or drumming. He stopped playing drums at age 17 and in 1981, at age 18, he moved to Toronto.
After stints with various bands, LaBrie became the vocalist for the glam metal band Winter Rose. The group also included Richard Chycki on guitar and bass, Randy Cooke on drums, and Sebastian Bach on vocals. Chycki had also worked with Bach under the band names Sebastian and Hope. The band recorded a series of demos through 1988 and 1989 with guest musicians Bruce Dies and Rob Laidlaw. The tracks were commercially released in 1989 as a self-titled album by InsideOut Music. All the songs on the album were written by Richard Chycki and James LaBrie, except two which Richard Chycki wrote alone.
In 1990, LaBrie learned that American progressive metal band Dream Theater was looking for a new singer, so he submitted a tape and was quickly flown to New York for a full audition. The trial went well, and he was chosen ahead of 200 other hopefuls to fill the full-time vocalist position in that band.
LaBrie has since had a significant impact on the vocal melodies on each Dream Theater album, but until recently has had little input on the instrumentation of Dream Theater's music - 2011's A Dramatic Turn of Events features LaBrie in the music credits on three songs. To date he has written or co-written lyrics for at least one song on eight of the twelve albums Dream Theater has released with him in the band, Images and Words, Black Clouds & Silver Linings, Dream Theater and The Astonishing containing none of them.
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