Christa L. Titus of Billboard.com reports that Dream Theater's No. 19 debut for "Systematic Chaos" represents an unexpectedly sweet beginning with Roadrunner Records, which signed the act last December.
Unhappy with being shifted among Warner Music Group's labels and receiving minimal promotion for records following "Awake", the prog rockers hoped they would get dropped when their eight-album option was up for renewal. But EastWest, then Elektra, then Atlantic, kept picking it up, so Dream Theater self-promoted albums with yearlong tours pegged to the release dates and constant contact with fans through its web site.
Imagine, then, the band's chagrin when it finally got a fresh start by signing with Roadrunner only to face the announcement, just days later, that Warner had purchased
Roadrunner for nearly $74 million.
"That's the biggest irony of this whole thing," drummer Mike Portnoy says with a laugh. "We waited 15 years to get away from Warner, and we actually had several offers from other Warner-affiliated labels that we passed on because we wanted to go with Roadrunner, and then literally a week after we signed was when they announced it.
"Distribution is such a minor piece of the puzzle in terms of marketing and promotion, and the hands-on creative engine and all of that is intact at Roadrunner," Portnoy continues. "With Atlantic and Elektra we were just kind of this bastard child who was handed from person to person, from staff to staff, label to label, each time we made a record."
Find more at Billboard.com.
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