James LaBrie's MullMuzzler began to take shape in the summer of 1998, after the last leg of Dream Theater's extensive Touring Into Infinity World Tour. James started the project by collaborating with some of the most talented songwriters in the progressive rock genre: Trent Gardner (Magellan, Explorer's Club), Matt Guillory (Dali's Dilemma), Gary Sloyer, and Carl Cadden-James, Brendt Allman, and Gary Wehrkamp (all from Shadow Gallery). Working together, the musicians began to craft the songs for MullMuzzler's first CD.
The term, LaBrie's creation, refers to gagging or silencing an individual's thought before it can be expressed in any manner, as he described it. He created the word from the combination of the words "mull" (meaning to ponder thought) and "muzzle" (meaning to gag)