Dream Theater will gather in the studio to start work on their 14th album in a couple of months, frontman James LaBrie reported in a new interview. The band hope the follow-up to 2016’s The Astonishing will be released early next year.

“We’re gonna start back in the studio in June – just all be together and writing and working on the new album,” LaBrie told the Lead Singer Syndrome podcast (audio below). “We’re hoping that the album will be out, let’s say, February of 2019. And then we’re looking, at this point, that we’d start the next world tour next March.”

Discussing the band’s approach to writing, LaBrie explained there was a reason why under-developed ideas from previous records weren’t usually recovered. “Whenever we get together and we’re in the studio and we’re writing a new album or whatever it might be, we’re never ever short on ideas,” he said. “In fact, if you were to go back through the various albums, there’s so much material that could have easily become a great one, and it’s just kinda tossed to the side.

“We always say that we’re gonna go back and revisit those songs, those seeds or whatever you want to call them. We never do, because by the time you’re in a position to be writing again, and working on a new album… I’ve always said we’re a reflection of what’s going on at that particular moment in time.”

Last year LaBrie reported, “We all pretty much know where we want to go with the next album, but we have a clear, clear vision of what it needs to be in direction, where we want to take it. That's exciting.” Keyboardist Jordan Rudess had previously said the new LP wouldn’t be a concept album in the style of The Astonishing.

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