Kevin Moore, the Awakening Force of Dream Theater

It took years for me to recognize the real genius of Kevin Moore.

Naturally, Dream Theater made a massive impact on me, even with the debut album titled When Day And Dream Unite. I was fascinated by the musicianship of the players, I knew the lyrics by heart, but in my teens, I was a fan of bands rather than individuals. It was unclear to me who put what into the masterpieces I admired so much. At that time, it was hard to get any information on your favorite bands in Hungary, and much less in Hungarian. That’s why I started to work for music fanzines, then for Metal Hammer Hungarica to learn as much as possible about music and its makers and share the obtained knowledge with like-minded people. I had corresponded with 

, for example. This was not on Messenger, not on MySpace, or via e-mail, since they had not existed back in 1991. We sent nicely handwritten letters to each other via airmail, and it took days or weeks to get answers to your questions. I keep his letters as precious treasures until this day. Two times we drove to Munchen, the closest stops of the Images And Words and Awake tours with colleagues and friends to check out the band live. Finally, I was able to meet Mike personally, and thanks to 

, who did a face to face interview with the group, I was introduced to the whole band. I was allowed to take pictures of my heroes, and they signed my CD booklets. James was not too happy to see the WDADU cover.

The closing track of Awake, the last album he worked on with the band, made me realize how extraordinary composer is Kevin Moore. The opening piano harmonies of the song burned into me forever. These were the first notes I tried to lure out of the instrument we bought in 2010. And the lyrics have profound meaning for me. I have been living with my wife in harmony since 1991, and words like “I’ll never be open again” of this infinitely sad, but uplifting song help me to lock myself and protect our relationship. This is the song that made me understand the role of composers, authors, performers in a band’s career, how important who wrote a particular song, since some irresistible attraction disappeared from the music of Dream Theater when Kevin Moore left the band. This was not so obvious then. I followed the group faithfully, bought the albums, went to their concerts again and again, which is a rare feat for me, since I always wanted to be up to date with new acts and they came in hundreds. Despite my efforts, I missed something, and I dug deeper to find an answer to this mystery, and I found out that – aside many influential songs – Kevin Moore wrote my all-time favorite Dream Theater song. (During this research, I learned that Kevin played keyboards on 

‘s Perfect Symmetry, which is a defining piece of art for me. Since then, I understand a lot of things much better.)

The Dream Theater spell was broken, but Kevin Moore became more and more important to me.

During my quest for answers, I have found the second album of Chroma Key titled You Go Now released in 2000. I heard it during a weekend trip to the countryside for the first time. I vividly remember the post-lunch siesta, when I started to listen to the album, and how the fourth track enchanted me. I pushed the “repeat one” button of my Discman and kept on reading my book, the autobiography of Arthur C. Clarke titled Astounding Days. I was thunderstruck when I learned later that we can hear Mr. Clarke’s voice in Lunar. He participated in the Apollo 11 expedition broadcast on CBS, and Kevin Moore used samples from these recordings. Even today, I feel dizzy thinking about the odds of hearing the voice and reading the same person’s words at the same time without mindful efforts. Coincidence? The gravity of like-minded people?

I opt for the second option, since Mr. Moore gifted me with a similar experience, even with greater impact.

It is a unique characteristic of me that after discovering a keytrack, I became attached to it and cannot get over it. I would not swear to you that I listened to the You Go Now album more than once when I get it. That’s for sure that I heard Lunar hundreds of times. It happened again, when, after an unusually hard day in the office, I headed for home. I choose the longer route via the Danube quay, since the sight of water calms me down. And I looked for musical help as well. At that time, the soundtrack of my life consisted mainly of guitar-driven rock, metal stuff, so I was familiar with very few chill-out music. Lunar was an obvious choice, since its relaxing harmonies became part of my existence. And again, it had its effect on me on this early summer evening. It made me still and quieted my mind. I’ve arrived at the quay when the traffic light went red, and I smiled, and I let the player get to the next track:

“When you drive, you practice mindfulness of driving. It is possible. When you stop at a red light, you look at the red light and smile. You look at the red light, you smile, and you breathe in and out, and sit back, relaxingly. Breathing in, I calm myself. Breathing out, I smile.”

“And the red light becomes a friend, becomes a bell of mindfulness. Something unpleasant become something pleasant. We have the habit energy of wanting to arrive. That is why we want to go as quickly as possible. But according to this practice, we arrive at every moment. Life can be found only in the present moment. Everything that we look for must be found in the present moment. Peace. Joy. Happiness. Buddha. The kingdom of God.”

“What is our final destination? If we abandon the present moment, our final destination may be our death. We don’t want to arrive there, we want to go in the direction of life.”

The song features samples from the audiobook of Buddhist zen master 

 titled A Retreat on the Practice of Mindfulness.

I am eternally grateful to Kevin Moore to introduce me to this treasure of wisdom and started me on my current route to awakening. My life became much more abundant, fulfilling.

And the title of the last Dream Theater album featuring Kevin Moore got a new meaning.

Awake.