Mike Portnoy Of Dream Theater

Dream Theater may be one of the best kept secrets in rock, but there’s no fooling drummers. They’ve been talking about Mike Portnoy for months.

After all, it’s not often someone comes along who embraces odd time signatures and polyrhythms with the grace of Neil Peart and the zest of Terry Bozzio. And when it comes to drum fills – and there are plenty on the band’s astounding epic Images And Words – Portnoy’s are a vacuum for attention.

For the uninitiated, Images And Words is the most compositionally challenging yet captivating and surprisingly accessible progressive rock album since Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime. Strictly on a performance level, you’d have to go back to early Rush to find as technically demanding and well-executed a piece of art rock.

And that couldn’t be better news to purists who thought this style of music died with vintage Yes, Dixie Dregs, Rush, and other groups born two decades ago. “We’re not afraid to come to the people, because we do have mainstream influences in us,” says the twenty-five-year-old Portnoy. “But being fans of early Rush and Yes and progressive groups like that, we feel there’s a void right now in that older, real exploratory kind of music. And we want to kind of pick up the torch.”

Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, and John Myung – all from Long Island, New York – didn’t meet until coincidentally enrolling at the Berklee College of Music. In Boston, they hooked up with fellow hometowner Kevin Moore to form the nucleus of Dream Theater. It didn’t take long to realize they had more in common than their stomping grounds. They left school after only a year to concentrate on their new project.

“Our influences had a lot to do with our direction, but then we started incorporating jazz and other elements,” says Portnoy. “We really encouraged each other to stretch out musically. We also want to create music that’s pleasing to listen to, but we’ve always tried to incorporate strong individual performances, too. I think we’ve improved a lot at bringing the two together.”

Portnoy cites his stint at Berklee for giving him the mental agility to handle the band’s challenging compositions while side-stepping the toes of his bandmates. “Berklee was great for my drumming because the competition is so fierce there. You have to be on top of it all the time. But the biggest thing I got out of Berklee was the overall musical environment – the ear training, theory, arranging, and harmony – which I really use every day in this band. Because of all that, I’m able to have full input in our songwriting. The drums have as much responsibility for the direction of the song as any other instrument.

Portnoy adds that the technical training allows him to play more of a creative role. “I know all the keys and time signatures of all our songs at all times, which is really an advantage, because I can then help direct the changes within a song. Each member has license to suggest something that may not particularly deal with his instrument; we can all stray into each other’s territory. My input, obviously, is mostly rhythmic. But I’ll also participate when we spend a couple of hours in rehearsal working on the orchestration of just four bars of music. All of us are even free to come up with the lyrics.”

Such democracy, however, did little to help the band through a self-indulgent debut record and over five years of creative indecision. “We all have high standards – individually and for the band – and we couldn’t find the right type of singer to handle the kind of music we were determined to play,” Portnoy explains. “We even thought about giving up on finding a singer and just becoming an all-instrumental group. But our hearts weren’t in that. We already had a singer ready for the new record, but then this other singer [James LaBrie] sent us a tape. We couldn’t believe it when we heard it, but we auditioned him and found out he was for real. The other four of us had been together for a long time, so all the songs for the record were already written. James just had to put his voice on it.”

Portnoy was introduced to music on a piano bench, but gravitated to the drums in his early teens. “Even before I started playing, I was constantly surrounded by music,” he says. “My dad was a radio DJ, and he was always getting me into different kinds of music. He used to take me down to the station with him at 5:00 in the morning when I was just five years old, and I’d spin the records while he slept. I was the only fourth-grader with a collection of three hundred records! But I wanted more out of music; I wanted to play. The piano wasn’t rhythmic enough for me, and that’s what lured me to the drums.”

Portnoy went on to play in a series of cover bands and original outfits, but none that presented a fraction of the challenge he’s found in Dream Theater. “I’d never been in a progressive band before this one,” Mike says. “I didn’t even know that’s what I wanted to do until it happened. I was doing thrash metal and covers in previous bands – and could still do that and be happy – but this one is the most rewarding thing for me, and it was a surprise.

“We had all grown up with the same metal influences,” Portnoy explains. “But we had also just come out of jazz school, really listening to Chick Corea, Mahavishnu Orchestra and groups like that – and that all melted together in the musical environment we first formed under. Nothing was planned.”

Portnoy attributes his physical dexterity and ability to hold up to Dream Theater’s extreme performance demands to his formative years, when he cut his teeth on the legendary progressive outfits of the ‘70s. “Like a lot of drummers, Neil Peart was my first drumming god, and music from Rush and groups like that was always the most satisfying for me to play,” he says. “Zappa’s music had the biggest influence on me as far as polyrhythms and odd times go. Still, it took years of developing as a musician and channeling my energies to bring these concepts into my own playing and to be able to use them in a band context. Lessons helped me gain some of my independence, and I’m sure they’re valuable to a lot of players, but I used my own ears to pretty much get to where I am now. Books and lessons are great, but they’re just not the path I took. Most of my practice nowadays is mental. I get the most out of just listening to a piece of music, like Pantera or Yes, and then drumming along and thinking of how I can phrase it differently.”

Portnoy says that even though odd time signatures have never posed a problem for him, he never would have fully digested them without opening himself to players outside of progressive rock. “I’ve always been into odd times because of the bands I grew up on. But I guess I used to play pretty typically until I saw Vinnie Colaiuta at a PASIC clinic,” he says. “He blew my mind because he went completely out and came back in. He opened the doors for me. My drumming was never the same.”

Portnoy says that Dream Theater’s complex compositions begin with group jams, but quickly move to paper for detailed breakdowns of individual parts. “We’ll be jamming together and hit on a progression that really moves us, and then we’ll take off with it for an hour or so. We record everything and then re-orchestrate or arrange the parts later,” he said. “We have a big chalkboard at our studio so we can keep track of everything – because there’s usually a lot to keep track of. We write out the individual arrangements within each song and give each a name.

“Then we’ll get more in-depth, and that’s where it gets fun. For instance, on ‘Take The Time,’ where it’s in five, the keyboards are playing in two’s. The snare beats are on 1 and the ‘&’ of 3 in a bar of five. The keys are accenting along with the snare for eight bars, then the drums change around to match up with the keys. Weird stuff like that – the odd times and polyrhythms – are all arithmetic. There are also times when I’ll play one measure of 7/4 to every two bars the other guys are playing in 7/8. I always try to approach parts differently in that way, like in ‘Metropolis,’ where they play four bars of 3/4 and I’m playing three bars of 4/4 underneath it. We’re intrigued with odd times and orchestrating them, or maybe repeating a part later in the song, but in a different time signature.”

The players in Dream Theater go to great lengths to challenge themselves musically, says Portnoy, who cited the six-minute instrumental section of ‘Metropolis’ as an example of that. He added that one of the band’s greatest assets, though, is the ability to turn such intricate arrangements into ear-friendly material. “We’ve always been song-oriented, but much more so on this record. And that’s because a lot of the time signatures and grooves that go with them come naturally to us. The grooves don’t have to be in 4/4. If you look at the great groups from the ‘70s, they all had incredible performances, but the songs were good, too. It’s hard to bridge the two concepts, but we’ve reached the point in our musical relationship together where we can do that rather easily. It’s become our style. Even without a singer in the band, we always wrote our songs with lyrics in mind. And I think we’ve learned that it’s important to establish the rhythm or hook in a song.”

Even though Dream Theater is having success, Mike mentions that he has had some disappointments along the way. For Portnoy it’s not hard to find his sore spot with the recent album – the sampled drum sounds. “That’s something I’m not real proud of,” he says with a chuckle. “Unfortunately, for this record, I wasn’t able to be hands-on with my sounds, and it was a very frustrating experience. It’s a triggered snare, and I’m not a real fan of that. It’s okay in the big, open spaces, but a lot of the intricate things and ghost notes got lost.

“It’s tough, because the five of us are so meticulous with what we do and spend great amounts of time creating parts for songs It’s tough having a sixth person [producer David Prater] come in and just wipe away some of the ideas it took months to develop. We had to make a lot of compromises, artistically and sonically. But it’s not like we don’t feel the album is a true representation of us. We’re not consciously trying to be as out-there as possible, but a lot of the changes he made turned out for the better because they made our overall compositions more digestible.”

Portnoy says that his own demands for perfection don’t extend far beyond the recording studio. “I have two theories on click tracks,” he explains. “At first I was against it, because music comes from a feel and it should have that mental push. It shouldn’t be too mechanical. But when it came time to make the album, I used clicks for a lot of parts, and actually felt more comfortable because it made me concentrate more on my playing and it pushed me along a little. But I don’t need that kind of push live. Maintaining tempo is important, but the music can breathe a little more and have a life of its own on stage. I think a click can kind of limit the spontaneity.”

Portnoy says that even though he and the rest of his bandmates receive a heavy dose of compliments from other musicians while on tour, he doesn’t see himself as an exceptional drumming talent. “Kids will come up to me and tell me how great I am, and just when I start believing it, I’ll put on a video of Vinnie or Dave Weckl and put myself back in my place,” he says with a laugh. “I mean, don’t these kids know who the great ones really are? It’s hard for me to think I’ll ever reach that level. But then again, I don’t think I’ll ever be at a level where I’m satisfied with my playing.”

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t try. Portnoy says that he constantly reviews audio and video tapes of his live performances. “I bring my DAT player on the road, and it picks up a lot of things I don’t really notice when I’m playing,” he explains. “Everything happens so unconsciously when I play live – I don’t even know where the licks come from. But I’ll go back and find something on the tape that surprises me. Still, some of the best stuff is spontaneous, and it’s never the same when you try to reproduce it.”

A facet of Portnoy’s playing that only the most observant fans might notice is what he calls an “untraditional matched grip.” “The stick in my left hand is backwards, where I hold it at the tip and hit with the butt end. I find that I get a lot more power on my snare hits that way, and I don’t really notice the imbalance. I’ve been doing it for so long that I’m just used to it.”

With Images And Words selling consistently, propelled by the single ‘Pull Me Under,’ Portnoy figures to be on the road through 1993. Thanks to a large family, he says he always feels at home. “Divorces and death have given me an enormous family,” he says with a laugh. “The crew always makes fun of me because everywhere we go, its seems like I have relatives there.”

Meanwhile, in times when many progressive rock and metal bands are curbing their music to appeal to a larger audience, Portnoy envisions slowly pulling people into Dream Theater’s element. A recent two-hour-long headlining show in New York City incorporated the nuances of a theatrical performance, including a program, ushers, and an intermission. And if people think Dream Theater’s current repertoire is on the lengthy side, Portnoy says their next recording project will include a twenty-minute piece called “Change Of Seasons,” featuring the drummer’s first full lyrical contribution to the band. “For us, the quality of the audience is more important than the quantity,” Mike says. “I don’t see us toning down or shortening our songs just to attract more people to us. It’s more important with a band like ours that our fans appreciate our music for what it is and not just like us for a hit single or video. So far, they seem to like us for exactly what we are, which is real rewarding to us.

“Our shows have been packed for the most part, which tells us we were right all along. Through all the rough times and the struggles, we’ve come through with people still wanting to hear this kind of music. And we have high hopes it will just grow from here, because we’ve always seen this band as a long-term project. We know we can’t be an overnight band, because it will take long-term commitment to fulfill our goals.”