Jordan Rudess – Keys To The New Millennium

In Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles #28, we printed the press release that announced keyboardist Derek Sherinian’s departure from Dream Theater. As stated by drummer Mike Portnoy in an exclusive interview printed in the band endorsed fanzine Images And Words, it was strictly a business decision based on a change in musical direction that the band did not feel was suited to Sherinian’s style of playing. Former Dixie Dregs keys man and Liquid Tension Experiment member Jordan Rudess is his replacement, already engulfed in the writing process for the next Dream Theater platter due out by year’s end.

“When I met the guys in Dream Theater about five years ago, I really enjoyed the music and I thought they were great people, but I wasn’t able to join the group back then,” Rudess says of his initial foray with Dream Theater, filling in for the departed Kevin Moore for a Foundations Forum appearance in 1994. “It was just a cool thing that happened that I would get the chance to work with John (Petrucci/guitars) and Mike in LTE. We ended up enjoying working together and getting along really well.”

With the work on a second LTE album finished – due out by summer – and a few scattered live performances under their belt. It was decided that Rudess would be the perfect addition to the Dream Theater roster. According to Rudess, it wasn’t as traumatic or stressful an adjustment as it could have been.

“Because of the two Liquid Tension projects, it felt like a natural progression. There’s an element of comfort in it, I would say. It felt like it was a continuation of the LTE sessions to me, only with James LaBrie and John Myung writing the music with us rather than Tony Levin. We’re doing a lot of writing in the studio. I think in the past they tried to nail down all the music before going into the studio, do the demos and all that stuff. This time there’s more of the LTE approach to the writing, where we get together in the studio, share our ideas and record them. That’s the approach we’ve taken so far and it’s worked out well. It takes a lot less time and it’s fresh.”

So, with Rudess being a more progressive-styled keyboardist compared to Sherinian, there is lots of speculation surrounding the next Dream Theater release. The common belief is that this next album will be a return to the Images And Words sound that catapulted the band to stardom to begin with. Rudess won’t commit to anything, but he did say that “you can count on it being extremely progressive, maybe even wild at some points. The bottom line is that the fans just want to hear the band going for it and making incredible music. There will be all kinds of flavours on this record.”

Rudess is, of course, a full card carrying member of the band. There is no fledgling member bull shit about him coming in to add the odd texture and basically be a musical android. He has had and will have full input when it comes to the songwriting process, able to contribute his ideas freely.

“John and Mike realized that we all make a really strong writing team together,” he explains. “‘They appreciate my writing ability. John and I go back and forth extremely quickly with riffs; he’ll have an idea that’ll spark something in me and I’ll have something that he builds on in return. We’ve ended up writing whole songs in five minutes. That’s the magic that makes it really work. We’re really high on the whole thing.”

“One of the exciting things about joining the group now is that I didn’t join just to go out and play on a tour,” Rudess continues. “I knew that we were going to go into the studio and make a musical statement together. That’s very important to me, and it’s really exciting.”