Keyboard Wizards!

On September 8th, Mike Portnoy and John Myung logged on to the Compunet computer system, to answer questions fired at them from other users. The following pages are the main meat from that session. They were back on line again the following week answering more questions. The second part will be featured in the next issue.

DT: Hi everyone, it’s Mike and John (Myung). We’re looking forward to dealing with you all, one on one.

Q: Who came up with the cover design for ‘Images And Words’?

DT: Basically we all sat around and came up with the concept as a band. We pulled elements from different song lyrics; we did the same with the cover of ‘Awake.’

Q: What are some of your inspirations and aspirations?

DT: Inspirations are the people around me that I interact with, and the natural events in life. Aspirations ... become musically more expressive and literate.

Q: Are you guys touring with Queensrÿche? Fates? Who?

DT: No, we’re not touring with Queensrÿche. We’re in LA right now, we’re gonna premiere the album at the Foundation Forum Convention. We play tomorrow night, live with new material. The US tour will begin around October 20th and will go until about mid-December, then Japan in January and Europe in Feb/March will be a headliner tour.

Q: John Myung, would you ever consider getting the violin out and doing a haunting little piece?

JM: No I wouldn’t at this point. Violin was chosen for me by my mother when I was very young. I don’t feel a passion for it playing-wise. I just kept it until I asked myself, “why do I keep this?” Then I realized I didn’t want to pursue it any further, that was around 16 years of age.

Q: Who would you consider to be your influences?

JM: My influences were Rush – Geddy Lee, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Chris Squire of Yes.

MP: Neil of Rush, as well as Frank Zappa’s music. Currently I listen to heavy stuff, Pantera, Sepultura, Helmet, heavy aggressive stuff.

Q: Lately we are seeing more bands stray away from grunge type work and going into more progressive type influences. Do you feel your popularity has attributed to that in any way?

DT: Hopefully the success we’ve had has given people the courage to stray away from the trends. I think the type of music has always been there.

Q: Can you fill us in on why Kevin left, and who are you hoping to replace him with?

DT: THE HOT TOPIC. Kevin left because what he felt strongly about, it wasn’t something that just came up out of nowhere, he was contemplating this for a while, at closing sessions of Awake, he didn’t have a choice any more within himself musically. I know it’s hard for other people, but it’s very difficult unless you knew him personally, so he left due to musical reasons no angry parting. He is in fact very enthusiastic for the band to grow. We still have our persona; friendship, in fact we talked to him last week. Replacement has not been made yet. Promoting the record and touring is important right now and to lose momentum in that and begin to look for a replacement... The show we are doing tomorrow night, we will be using a keyboard player named Jordan Rudess, who is a complete MONSTER. If Jordan will remain with the band will remain to be seen.

Q: Is this Jordan Rudess from KORG, the “Keyboard Wizard”?

DT: Yes he is. He is currently playing with the Dregs. He won a Keyboard player magazine readers poll last year.

Q: What size venues can we expect to see you in?

DT: I think we’ll start the first leg of the tour in medium sized clubs, 800 to 1200 people, the size we were playing towards the middle of the last tour.

Q: Are you going to re-release the first album?

DT: They plan on re-issuing the album but I have no specific plans for it to be re-issued. However, it is easily obtainable through most stores that carry import CDs.

Q: Is anyone planning to transcribe the music for any of your songs?

DT: We do plan on releasing it but not in the immediate future.

Q: What kind of radio play do you expect?

DT: Well, we’re not the type that expects any radio play at all. In fact, we have been surprised with the success of the first single ‘Lie.’ It was released to radio last week, it has been one of the top five requested songs across the country... KEEP ON CALLING.

Q: Why do you think your popularity has been so much higher outside the US?

DT: That’s not particularly true, in sales figures the US is doing better. It seems that the European and Japanese tend to like music like ours and don’t really care about trends like the US does.

Q: Mike, is it possible to get transcriptions to your percussion?

MP: As of this moment, no. It is something I would have liked to have done. Write to Modern Drummer magazine.

Q: I’ve heard some samples of new songs on the net (Lie, 6:00), there seems to be a very heavy John Lord almost NIN keyboard influence, without Kevin will the keyboards maintain that trend?

DT: Absolutely. We’re spending a lot of time with our new, temporary keyboardist, in making sure that what we recorded will be recreated live. It definitely contains some of the heaviest stuff we’ve done by far. However, the record as a whole is very balanced and diverse.

Q: What were the highlights of the international touring?

DT: A couple come to mind, both tours of Japan. Italy, which is one of the loving and devoted country of fans we’ve ever encountered. Germany, Holland, every night was an experience in itself.

Q: In Guitar For The Practicing Musician, John Petrucci received the Breakthrough Guitarist Award, and the band as a whole got a lot of recognition for the Images And Words album. Why do you think this album was so well received?

DT: Well received in the music magazines because there’s a strong element of musicianship. I think also that a lot of it had to do with the timing with when our album came out, versus what was happening in the pop climate and knowing that there’s always an audience for every style of music.

Q: What bands and what types of music do you guys listen to in your spare time? What albums are your favourites?

DT: Okay. U2, Pantera, Seal, Jellyfish, Soundgarden, Rush, Premise, Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Queensrÿche, Police, Public Enemy, Kings X, Jane’s Addiction, Chili Peppers, Journey, Satriani, Frank Zappa. Favourite Album: List goes on forever. Album of all time for Mike: Sgt. Pepper by The Beatles, The Wall by Floyd, Master of Puppets – Metallica, Misplaced Childhood – Marillion, Fear of the Black Planet – Public Enemy.

JM: Dark Side of The Moon – Floyd, Nothing Shocking – Jane’s Addiction, Beat – King Crimson. Next question.....

Q: Would you guys ever do a band/rap combo song with Public Enemy, Ice T etc., like the stuff on the Judgement Night soundtrack? I’m sure it would expose your music to a different audience.

MP: I personally would enjoy it, but I don’t think that is the collective directive of Dream Theater as a band.

Q: This is for John. I’m a bass player also, when you were in Dallas last year I was blown away by your playing. I was wondering how you developed the hand strength and dexterity that you have?

JM: A lot of that comes from practicing my parts until I’m blue in the face. What helps me before going out on tour is the recording process of the album, that’s when I spend the biggest chunk of time concentrating on my parts.

Q: What kind of stage show are you planning with this new tour?

DT: We will continue to try to present the music in both the visual and audio; make everything sound as clear and the light show as interesting, while also getting creative with the song selection.

Q: How long is the new album?

DT: 75 minutes and 3 seconds. HOWEVER!!! The cassette will only be about 65 minutes in length because of manufacturing restrictions. Get the CD for the full album.

Q: What kind of equipment or techniques do you use when you record?

MP: We try to put a lot of time into the different textures. The drums are recorded first with the rest of the band playing live with me. We then to the guitar next, followed by the bass and then alternate between keyboards, vocals and leads. On the new album we all tried to texture the music as much as possible with different sounds, since I’m using different percussion with the album. We constantly try to make the sounds change.

Q: Is there any way to correspond with you electronically in the future, or does all correspondence need to go through the fan club address?

DT: We have the fan club address that will be on the inside of the new album that you can send all mail to. However, there is an official fanzine for the latest happenings of the band, ‘Dream Theater: Images And Words’, 8 Ryelands Close, Caterham, Surrey CR3 5HY (England).

Q: Hope you all had your pencils handy! It’ll be in the transcript though. I guess you have to leave now, Dream Theater, thanks.

DT: It was a lot of FUNNNNN.....