Would Mike say that Falling Into Infinity a blatant attempt at radio success?
MP: Yes, slightly. It *was* a blatant attempt at radio success – I can’t deny that. But I can’t say it was the direction *I* wanted the band to go in. We kinda had our hands tied by the label and were in a very vulnerable situation. All of our key people at Elektra had been let go, so we were dealing with all new people who couldn’t care less about Dream Theater and would not give us a green light until we played their game and delivered some songs that they could understand. They also would not drop us from the label when we asked them to, so we had no choice but to play their game and hope they were right. They turned out to be wrong and finally came to their senses this time around and let us do things our way. There were a few good songs on Infinity (Just Let Me Breathe, New Millennium, Lines In The Sand), but if we didn’t have the label and Kevin Shirley and Desmond Child involved, I would have made a COMPLETELY different record.
