Interview With Jordan Rudess

Images & Words by Nikki Brooks

Does this man hold the future symmetry of Dream Theater’s music in his hands?

Jordan Rudess – the man with the Liquid Fingers – has joined Dream Theater, but he has been asked before now. The first request was in 1994, after the departure of original keyboard player Kevin Moore. Why did he finally give in and say yes? “About 5 years ago we had a very brief meeting but it wasn’t the right time”, although Jordan did actually perform live with Dream Theater before Derek Sherinian was asked to fill the vacancy (which he did admirably from 1994 to January 1999). “I had the opportunity to join the Dixie Dregs as well, which made a lot more sense. Even though both groups were appealing musically, ‘The Dregs’ were travelling a lot less – Dream Theater were due to be on the road for about a year. With children and various other parameters to consider, it just wouldn’t have worked.”

Jordan and his wizard keyboard playing featured on Hard RoxX taster album Volume 1 with ‘Over the Edge’, from the ‘Rudess Morgenstein Project’ album on Domo Records. In this duo, with fellow Dregs partner Rod Morgenstein on drums, he did some opening slots for Dream Theater on various parts of their tour in 1998 (which did last most of the year!), including the British dates at the end of June.

“At the end of 1997 I worked with John and Mike on the first Liquid Tension Experiment album. We got together to record LTE2 at the end of 1998 already knowing our musical collaborations were productive and a lot of fun and that we got along personally: so all the pieces fitted together and I said yes I want to do this!”

LTE2 was finished earlier this year and is due for release soon on Magna Carta Records. “When we started recording I was feeling a little scared because we put LTE1 together in a week and it really worked out. Looking back at it I think ‘Wow – it was really incredible that we got any music composed in such a short time’ and ‘How are we going to do this again?’ This time it was like a great rocket ship taking off – very heavy, took a while to get fuelled up and we had just got off the ground when, all of a sudden, John got a phone call from his wife saying ‘Come home – your third child is on the way’. We took a break and when we came back together later we had lift-off and it was really flying very well.” Is the new album similar to LTE1? “Yes we recorded some very progressive stuff, jams and written music, with other funny stylistic influences here and there, latin progressive things – people will think we (John and Jordan) took a trip to Latin America.” Jordan uses a Kurzweil 2500 keyboard for his live and studio work: “I don’t use much organ, although the KB3 mode has that ‘spinning rotary effect’ (like a Leslie amp) which simulates a Hammond sound and there is some of that on LTE2!”

His musical influences? “The Partridge Family – heheheheheheheh! No really it was classical music, I started piano at 7 and studied at Julliard. I was going to be a concert pianist until the age of 18 but I started to listen to a lot of rock music: Gentle Giant, ELP, Yes. Patrick Moraz (Refugee) really changed everything – his playing totally blew my mind so I started putting pictures of mini moogs on my wall – then finally I bought one. I played guitar too, after watching my brother’s lessons.”
Recent side projects include ‘Steinway to Heaven’ (classical piano pieces) with “Rick Wakeman, Patrick Moraz, all my heroes” and an ‘ELP tribute album’ which also features Derek Sherinian: both on Magna Carta.

Dream Theater are currently putting the finishing touches to their first album with Jordan!!