The A-Z of Mike Portnoy – Part 2 (N to Z)

Conclusion of the interview with Mike Portnoy from Glasgow April 1998 by Matthias Karnhal, where he takes a private look at the person Mike Portnoy with questions from A to Z.

NEVER asked question: What would you like to be asked?

MP: I’d like to talk about movies because I think I like movies more than I’m doing music. So to sit around and talk about different movies that I love or different film makers or directors; that’s the kind of stuff that I’d really like talking about.

MK: Do you often have the possibility to go to the cinema?

MP: I do when on tour, but at home less now because I have a daughter. But I used to watch at least a movie a day. If I get a good movie, I watch it at home. But I have less, less time now. But when we have a day off on tour, I try to go to the cinema.

OCTOPUS: Sometimes people think you have to have at least 10 arms to play like you. Did you practice a lot and do you still practice a lot to get to that form?

MP: No, I used to practice a lot like up until Berklee, then up until Dream Theater, and then once DT came around. Between touring with the band and doing clinics and stuff like that, that’s plenty of playing time for me, and I warm up before the gigs on the practicing kit and when I go home I have my Images and Words kit and my Awake kit in my basement, so sometimes I play them. But for the most part, I’ve many other interests when I go home and I’m not on tour.

MK: So actually you’re practicing on tour in the soundcheck?

MP: And warming up here in the dressing room, but I mean I’m always playing; my hands and my legs are always tapping...

MK: A kind of air drumming?

MP: I’m always practicing like that.

POPULARITY: Would you say you are popular/stars and do people recognize you on the street?

MP: It’s different in different places. In America when we were really doing well with Images and Words, we were getting recognized a lot everywhere, but it’s become less and less. We’ve become a little more underground. We have a really great, great audience in America – very fanatical – just as much as anywhere else, but it’s a much smaller number just because the times have changed in America and other places it depends. It really depends in Japan or Brazil or Italy...

MK: Really crazy fans there?

MP: Yeah, those are the crazy fans like Italy; if I walked on the street, people come up to me and take pictures or gather in the hotel. It’s different, but for the most part, I don’t feel like a Rockstar. I don’t think we are that type of a band. I think it’s somebody from Queensryche or somebody from Rush or Yes.

QUESTIONS: Do you like doing interviews? Some say it’s part of your job; others don’t do interviews.

MP: I’ve always done the most of them for the band from day one. First of all, I feel comfortable talking about the band and I’m very involved with it, so I feel if anybody can represent the band, I feel confident and comfortable enough to doing it myself. So I know that the correct information is being given or whatever. I don’t mind, but sometimes it gets annoying if people don’t really know about the band and go through the motions by doing an interview with us. When I get asked different questions like this, it’s fun. These are different questions I’m getting to answer; things I’m not pulling out the stock answers, so I prefer doing interviews like that.

RELAXATION: What do you do to relax on tour and at home?

MP: Drink...

MK: At home and on tour?

MP: Yeah! I always drink with you after the show a couple Jägermeisters and a couple beers, but even when I go in the bus, I continue to drink and relax and even at home at the end of the night, I just relax going to the computer or watching movies.

SHORT HAIR: Why did you cut your hair shorter? Can we expect you with real short hair some day? (In the meantime, he cut his hair really short!)

MP: I’m really glad I cut my hair. Actually, I think it feels so much more comfortable. I wish I did it years ago, but I mean now in America, everybody is cutting their hair. At first I didn’t want to do it, because it would have been like I’m jumping on the trend and for so long, I tried to not do it. I always wore a ponytail except when I was on stage and for taking pictures, and I thought “Why do I even have it?” And once I’d cut it off, I felt very comfortable and I’d like to cut it even shorter...

TOWNS: What is your favorite town to live in and to visit?

MP: My favorite towns to visit or places that I would love to live in if I was to move from New York... I’d love to live in the Bay area, like around San Francisco or California, except the earthquake area. I really like the climate there. It’s a combination of beautiful weather, but also a lot of good city stuff like movie theaters, records stores and Taco Bells. I love the action there, so in a place like the Bay area, you get the action and you also get the nice weather; actually, the same like Los Angeles. I also like Phoenix...

MK: Because of the weather?

MP: Yeah, the weather is beautiful there and in Florida, too. I really like nice weather. I don’t know why I live in New York because it’s freezing all the time and I hate that. I love to visit Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

MK: Where did you play your best gig ever?

MP: Best gig ever, Italy is always some of the best shows we’ve ever played.

MK: Milano?

MP: Yeah, Milano is always amazing; the crowd is just incredibly loud and enthusiastic. We also had a couple really good ones in Holland; also some great ones in Germany like Phillipshalle or Biskuithalle (special). Then in America we’re always playing in New York, Los Angeles, some of the major cities. It’s always fun.

UNIVERSE: Do you believe in extra-terrestrial life (aliens)?

MP: I’m a big X-Files fan. I watch it every week, but I don’t know about actually believing it. I hope to believe it. I’d like to believe that there is a life after death.

VOCALS: You are currently more involved in vocal things. Are you willing to extend that?

MP: I always sang, I just never really did it in public. When we are writing melodies and stuff or in rehearsal, I sing melodies and harmonies along with James or John. Or when I’m writing lyrics (sometimes I do demos with me singing on them). I don’t think I have a good voice, but at least I have an understanding for melody and harmony. I never used to want to do it on stage, but now I actually like it because it brings me something new to do live. If I wasn’t singing I’d just do the same old thing, just playing drums. I like having something new to do.

WIND INSTRUMENTS: Is there the possibility to hear a wind instrument (trumpet or oboe or something else) on one of your next albums?

MP: Do you consider saxophone a wind instrument?

MK: Yes.

MP: We had that on Another Day... Everything is possible. That all depends on the song what’s called for. I would really love to have more string instruments like an orchestra, violin or something like that. Everything is possible it just depends from the track if it fits.

X-FILES: As far as I know one of your favorite series. Have you ever played in a movie or series and would you like to do that?

MP: No, I’ve never done acting. I’m more interested in films and TV from a director’s point of view. So even when I watch movies, I don’t pay attention to the actors, I pay attention to the way the film is made. So any movie I watch it from the director’s point of view. That’s the aspect that I would want to get involved of films and so I love the X-Files. Some of my favorite TV shows are Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks, Seinfeld, The Simpsons and of course X-Files. I have a big collection of TV shows at home. I tape them like every week so when I’m on tour I have everybody taping it for me like my sister does X-Files and Millennium and my father does The Simpsons and my wife does Seinfeld and Howard Stern.

YTSEJAM: Do you like to play titles like Ytsejam or would you prefer to play more new songs on stage?

MP: I like playing the old stuff when they are more obscure. You now I’m sick to death when I’m playing Pull Me Under and Metropolis. I’m bored silly playing those songs but I like playing any song that we haven’t played for a while, would it be an old one or a new one. So something like Anna Lee is fun because we don’t play it quite often. I would love to play something like The Killing Hand because we don’t play it often. To me it’s all part of the band’s history, so whether or not it’s new or old, I think it’s all relevant and I understand the fans like to hear the old songs.

Unfortunately some guys really prefer playing newer stuff; they don’t like playing the older stuff. When it comes to Ytsejam or to the first album, John and John both are kind of bored with that; they want to move forward and of course James and Derek would have no reason to want to play those songs because they don’t feel very involved with it. But even at the soundcheck today, John Myung and me, we did Another Won, which was the very, very first song we ever wrote together that was from the Majesty demos. And John for some reason – I don’t know why – started to play it today. It was great, a big surprise. I would love to go back to play some of the old stuff.

MK: So actually you could change your setlist completely from day to day?

MP: We definitely could. But it’s a lot to learn and it’s a lot to have to keep rehearsed and keep up. A lot of the other guys aren’t interested in some of the old material anymore.

ZAPPA: When and how did you get into Frank Zappa and did you ever meet him or play with him?

MP: I never met him and I never played with him. That’s like one of the biggest regrets in my life, because he died before I had the possibility to do that. I got into him when I was young because of his really funny lyrics. I didn’t realize how great the musicians were. The first thing that impressed me were what he was singing about in Broken Hearts For Assholes or Titties And Beer. All these are really funny songs, and then once I got a little older and a little bit more advanced as a musician, then I started to notice what the hell was going on behind the lyrics. I then realized that there was all this music that was so incredibly complicated, and I couldn’t figure how somebody could write that kind of stuff and how musicians can play stuff like that. But not all the Zappa music was complicated; he had a little bit of everything.

One minute would be a very funny song, the next minute would be this really completely progressive technical instrumental, then the next minute it would be like a country western song, the next song would be like a disco song, the next one would be like a symphony! I really love the fact that he can do so many different things. And to me, he was the greatest musical composer of the 20th century. I think he’s up there with any of the great classical composers like Beethoven, Mozart or Bach. I think he’s on that level, just a bit more modern.

MK: But I’m afraid he is dead!

MP: I’m afraid so, too. You know people always say somebody passed away but the music lives on. But if there was just one person you could really say it about, it’s him, because he had so much music out there; it’s incredible. My Zappa collection is about 60 CDs. So I’d probably never get bored; there’s always more Zappa music to be heard.

MK: Do you also like the music Dweezil is doing?

MP: I don’t like everything Frank did. I mean a lot of the early stuff; some of it is a little simple. There is so much music, but I don’t like all of it, but I like most of it. So the same can be said about Dweezil. One of the best things I’ve heard Dweezil do is something that was never released, but I have a live tape that he and his brother did – like a 45 minute medley, which had about 300 songs in it, and they would play like 4 notes of one song and then go into another one. It’s absolutely mind-boggling; it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard.

MK: Mike, it was a pleasure to do this interview.

MP: Yeah, it was fun. Thank you.