Clinically Proven

Venue: Bearwood College, Reading, UK

This interview was conducted with Mike prior to soundcheck at his third and final clinic appearance in the UK.

“When did you arrive in the UK – I think there were some delays?”

I was supposed to leave Friday (17th) and arrive Saturday (18th), but Hurricane Floyd – which was supposed to have only killed Florida and the South Coast – ended up killing the North Coast and New York, so actually my last day at home was spent completely by candlelight for 25 hours as it blew out all the electricity. So I couldn’t even do my laundry to prepare for the tour and burn CDs and stuff for the clinics! So I ended up not being able to fly out ‘til Saturday (18th) which got me here on the “red eye” Sunday morning (19th) and I was just burned out, so I slept a couple of hours on my way to the venue (Birmingham), sound checked and then slept for a few hours before performing. So that first performance was totally burned out on my part, but you know, here I am ready to rock!

“It worked – I think the main problem was the mix (at the first clinic).”

Yeah, well whenever you have a drum “festival” with several performers, like a festival with several bands – you don’t get proper soundcheck time, so you’ve just got to be at the mercy of the soundman.

“Are you travelling alone, or any of the family over with you?”

No – I’m by myself for three weeks, and I’m trying to figure out a time that maybe Marlene and Melody could come out, ‘cos it’s tough now that Melody is getting older and walks and talks and communicates – it’s really rough being away so.... but as of now, no. It’s hard because every day it’s going through different countries with different flights... you know, within the same country, I’m driving, which is OK, but then the flights get a little crazy.

“Could you give us a brief overview of the kit you’re using for the UK clinics.”

This kit is only for the three UK clinics, then I have no idea what’s waiting for me in Europe! I think it’s going to be different ones for different countries, and I won’t know until I get there. In fact I was surprised when I walked in and saw the finish on this UK kit, and it’s the only kit other than my three that has that finish, so I was very surprised to see that. So that was great and as you know, they’re giving this kit away at the end of tonight – I just hope it ends up in the right hands and not to some thirteen year old girl that doesn’t even play drums!

“The new Sabian cymbal line – could you tell us a little more, especially the different sizes?”

Well, as you know I’ve had 6” 8” and 12” splashes, so now on my kit, I’ve changed them all, so that the 6” is being increased to a 7”, the 8” to a 9” and then the 12” is being decreased to 11” so this way the three “MAX” splashes are being utilised in my kit, without having to change the configuration, and then there’s the three “MAX” stacks – there’s the High stack which is an 8” and an 8” which will be on the left where I usually have my 8” China Kang then the 10” and 10” Medium stack which will be in the centre where I have it now, then the Low stack which is a 12” and a 14” on the right, and I’ve been up to the Sabian factory in Canada a couple times working with them and developing the line so it’s been a cool experience.

“Did you have the new cymbals ready for the new album?”

I had prototypes, so the first time I went to the Sabian factory, we developed a whole line of 30 different prototypes for me to experiment. Then I brought them back and that’s what was used on the album and also the instructional video. So on there, you’ll see the exact cymbals that are going out to the market in the new year, except they’re just prototype versions.

“When you changed the configuration on your kit by adding the Octobans on the right, did you have any problems adjusting to your ride cymbal being so (relatively) high?”

To me it seems so natural to have the ride more centred – when I go back to my old Mapex kit, which I have in my basement, and every once in a while I’ll go down and play it, and to be playing the ride all the way to the right like that is really hard; to me that’s awkward. The ride is the only cymbal on my whole set-up that isn’t duplicated, so there’s only a single ride on the whole kit and to have it all the way off to the one side was kind of limiting, so having it more centred really makes so much more sense being that it’s the only one of its kind on the whole set-up, so.... there’s even patterns on the new album and you can see it in the instructional video on one of the instrumentals, I’m playing a two handed pattern on the ride – which I would never have been able to do if it was all the way on the right – so it’s a two handed pattern, still playing the snare as well. So I don’t know. It’s much more of a jazz approach having it centred like that, but man, to me now, it makes so much more sense – I can’t even picture going back the other way. I guess as you grow up, your styles develop and you try different things and your whole perception of how things should be changes.

“When you had the current Starclassic kit built, was it a conscious decision to have the Octobans on the left in a line, rather than the more usual “stack” mount?”

I had them in a square stack with the Mapex kit because it seemed to be the way that made sense at the time, and after spending a few years playing them like that, I saw several drummers like Alex Van Halen, Tim Alexander and Stewart Copeland who had them set up in a line, and it made more sense. So I wanted to try that approach, because melodically they were going from high down to low in a line like a rack of toms would, so to set them up in a square seemed a little strange! The far left two Octobans had to be custom mounted by Tama in order to get an angle like I have, as the mounts that they have would just have been a straight line, so they built for those two a different mount.

“Where does the American Purple Starclassic stay when not in use?”

It’s in storage or whatever DT’s plans are – if we’re rehearsing or in the studio or whatever, so it just goes wherever DT’s gear goes.

“Which drummers currently do you rate and listen to specifically?”

Virgil Donati, Jo Jo Mayer, Horacio Hernandez – those are guys that people in the drum community know, through drum festivals and stuff like that but they don’t really have such names through recordings or bands or stuff like that so those guys are the ones that blow my mind. An interesting thing about Virgil (aside from the fact that Virgil’s now playing with Derek) is that the first time I heard of him was when he was playing in a DT cover band in Australia – I have a video of him from before he moved to America to develop his name there – he was playing in this DT tribute band “Theater of Dreams” in Australia so it was pretty interesting to see!

“Is Magee (MP’s drum tech for the FII dates} still with you?”

No.... now I’m back with Jose! It only has to do with scheduling, ‘cos Magee, since we came off tour for the past year, as all our crew guys have to look for work to keep working and the tour that he landed was with Sevendust who are pretty busy, at least in the States, so his touring schedule with them is going to take him into ours. So it turns out that Jose is now available so now he will be back on board! They’re the two guys I can always count on and at least one is always available...... Jose actually designed the Starclassic kit with me, when I switched back to Tama, it was Jose that came with me to the Tama factory where we designed and built the kit – the American one, then I did a clinic tour in Japan and Jose came with me to that and we built the Japanese kit, and then off of the Japanese kit, Tama took all of the specs off of that and sent everything to the European kit and at that point Magee was with me, so he built the European kit off of what had been designed by Jose, so they both get credit for different kits.

“Are you still using your 3 way snare strainer mechanism and is it anywhere nearer going into production?”

Yeah – it hasn’t broke yet! We’re (MP and Tama) talking about as they just did a line of signature snares with Bruford, Kenny Aronoff and Simon Phillips, and they want to do another line and they definitely want me to be one of the drummers in the next line, but in order for them to mass produce it with its foot pedal, it would be very expensive, so we’re looking at other ways to take that concept but do it in a more economical fashion. One of the ideas I have is the strainer locking into three positions is another important part of the snare – the fact that it locks into tight, loose and off as opposed to just on and off – so we’re talking about maybe having a hand operated three point locking system. So we’ll see, and I have to be fair to my family, so the snare – if/when we ever do it – will be called the “Melody-maker”! So my cymbals will be named after my son and my drums will be named after my daughter!

“The instructional video – I was really surprised (and pleased) that it was a double!”

That wasn’t the original intention, but we ended up filming so much stuff and had so much material that I guess it made sense to break them up into two different volumes.

“Is it complete at this point?”

Well, I got the second to last cut the day before I left, and then I had the blackout, so I didn’t get to approve it until hours before the plane, but I sent in my final notes and they’re taking them and doing the final edit now, so by the time I get home, it will be. It’s been great because I have been incredibly “hands on” with it as well, realistically to the point of directing it although I won’t get the credit ‘cos Rob Wallace and Paul Segal who run the company always get that credit. But they have been tremendous in giving me a lot of creative control over it, which is [great] for me just because I love film and I enjoyed making DT videos so much; it was great to have so much say in the layout and design of these videos as well. I think the fans are going to love it. I mean if you like “5 Years in a LIVEtime” in terms of having so much cool exclusive stuff, this is the same principle. Obviously it’s aimed at drummers, but I think it’s got potential to really be enjoyed by everybody that is a DT fan even if you’re not a drummer. There’s a lot of live footage and behind the scenes stuff, plus studio stuff, so it really is a kind of a perfect cross between “5 Years in a LIVEtime” and an instructional video.

“When you’re off tour do you feel the need to practice?”

In 1999 I’ve been playing so much with DT writing and recording all year, I had this most recent side project, the instructional video, I’ve been doing clinics and that’s so much playing as it is that I have enough trouble as it is these days trying to spend time with my family, so when I get home with my family the last thing on my mind is playing my drums to be honest with you – I want to just hang out with the kids! In my basement I have two kits to practice on – I have the Mapex “Awake” kit and then I have the half of my Imperial Star kit which was used for both LTE albums and my latest side project, and the other half of that kit is the one that is stored with the Starclassic and that was used for the second kit on tour as well as the main kit for the acoustic shows.

“1997/98/99 have been very busy for DT, but I was wondering if 1996 was a tough year, because you went from ACOS in mid-1995, then some live shows toward the end of that year and then in 1996 we hardly heard anything of the band.”

1996 was maybe the worst year of my life actually....for some personal reasons – there were deaths in my family and some loss and everything, which made it a very difficult year, and in fact right from the get go January 2nd the new year began and my grandmother who was incredibly close to me, passed away and that was one of the reasons I quit smoking as a promise to her. That whole year was just a big stall for us. We did have the opportunity to write a hell of a lot; we ended up writing two albums worth of stuff – the “Falling into Infinity” album as well as five or six leftover tracks including the original Metropolis Pt 2. So it was a very creative year in terms of output, but it was very frustrating for us because we weren’t able to do anything with it. We were having changes with management and record company preventing us from getting into the studio, so it was a definite stall in our career. In fact if you look at our career, we’ve released albums, or multiple albums every year EXCEPT that year, although I did do the Rush tribute album so I did have something out that year.

“Is it hard to keep motivated and stay positive or did you all get demoralised?”

Well we were that year for sure – we were getting seriously dragged down by all the business bullshit and it wasn’t the first time we felt ourselves in that situation. It was a very, very similar situation to where we were leading up to “Images and Words”. There was a period back in 1990 or so and 91 where we had nothing going for us except the music we were writing. We just kept writing but it was like “what for?” – the record company situation had fallen apart, we were looking for a singer and then we finally got James. And it was a very similar situation in 96; we we’re having problems with the label, which were actually more their problems than ours –just shuffling around of personnel and stuff like that – and we were having problems with management and once again we had a new member. So it was a very similar thing and it’s easy to get dragged down, and I think all of us were very depressed and questioned our future during that period. But similar to 1990, we were excited about the music and that’s what kept us going – we kept rehearsing and writing regardless of what was going on around us and that’s what kept us going.

“When you work out your parts for new songs, do you record rehearsals and listen back at home or do you just go over and over pieces, because everything is so exact especially in terms of which bit of the kit use?”

It’s been different in the past. Up until the new album, it’s been like that where everything has been thoroughly worked out with lots of detail almost to the point of overdoing it. For instance, during the 1996 period when we were working on the FII material, there was SO much time to reflect on it and on one side you could say sure it’s great you get to perfect everything and on the other side, from the point where we wrote “Lines in the Sand” to when we actually recorded it was a year, and we’d played it live, we had Kevin Shirley chopping it up! So by the time we actually got into the studio to do the real thing – and I’m just using that one song as an example, but the entire album was like that – you know the initial spark or inspiration that was there while writing it was a year gone at that point. So the good thing is you DO have a lot of time to refine and perfect things, but this time around with the new DT album, we had the complete opposite approach and it was basically inspired by what we had gone through with the two LTE albums, which was recording something while it was absolutely fresh and exciting. The big difference was with LTE we had one or two weeks, and with the DT album, we had five months, so there was enough time to perfect everything and to really work on all of those little details, but at the same time, we were capturing the very fresh spirit while writing.

“Additionally, do you map parts out on paper?”

Actually on the new instructional video I cover a lot of this – I actually show the charts that were used for the new DT album, where I actually walk the viewer through the chart while listening to the music which is pretty interesting if you’re curious about these things, but those charts are mainly more for arrangement – for the overall arrangement of the song, because sometimes they get very untraditional. And then within those charts, there will be a huge master band chart for all of us and then each of us will have our own charts. Jordan does all his charts as proper notation, but mine and John Petrucci’s are more like “Am section” or Genesis part or whatever, and then I’ll have notes saying at that point I want to be on a closed hi-hat and then I’m going to develop to an open hi-hat then at the pre-chorus go to the crash cymbal. So I’ll outline where I’m going with the parts, but most of the fills in and out – for the most part, even back to “Images and Words” most of them are generally improvised, I leave that open for the moment and then if there’s a fill like in “Pull Me Under” that leads into the third chorus, it works on the album and people expect to hear it. So there are certain fills after I do them spontaneously, then I’ll go back and learn them and try to always have them as part of the song, and then the parts themselves, a lot of the grooves which are very intricate, those at obviously thought out and worked on and developed as a band.

“Is it correct that you write the band setlists, and if so how democratic is it?”

Well, earlier on it used to be a battle and then through the years I think everybody has just sort of left it in my lap! The way things in DT work is that whoever can fight the longest wins, and usually I win, so I have the most tolerance to battle it out and beat the other guys down until they finally give in! That’s the way it used to be years back, we used to have to have a lot of battles for me to direct it and now the guys have gotten very easy about it, they just say what the fuck and they just let me completely choose, organise and arrange the setlists. It’s funny, there’s a good thousand DT fans out there – the collector – that EASILY have more DT CDs than the other four members! I collect it all, but the other guys don’t really care. I mean they’ll collect a little here and there, but they don’t really know. If you were to ask them what was on the B-side of “Hollow Years”, I don’t think any of those four guys would be able to tell you. Basically I choose all of those things and I do all of those sort of decisions and they just trust me knowing that I pay attention to that sort of thing.

“Rehearsals for tours: for the European leg of FII in 1998 you hadn’t had much rehearsal time – I think a week at most. What is normal?”

Well, it’s a touchy subject. Under most conditions, I absolutely HATE rehearsing because to me there’s nothing more boring in the world that just sitting there in a room playing “Metropolis” ten times to the walls, but in the past we tried to get away with as little rehearsal as possible and get it done during soundchecks and stuff, but usually ahead of time I’ll email everybody the setlists or the song choices and everybody will get them together on their own and then usually one rehearsal before leaving or an extended rehearsal at the first gig or two! This time around obviously we need to rehearse with Jordan as he’s got to pretty much learn our entire back catalogue AND the new album. We’ve never performed it from top to bottom – when we wrote it in the studio, we wrote bits and pieces and did it as we went along, so it’s never been performed in its entirety as a band so we’re going to need some rehearsal time. Right now we’re over in Europe in November for a quick tour like a little warm up without full production, so we’ll probably rehearse four times or something. I already sent out the setlists to the guys so they’ll be getting all that ready – but come January, we’re planning on carrying production and doing a full on light and sound show and in order to have all of that stuff coordinated, that’s going to require core rehearsal. For the Awake tour when we carried production, we rented out a theater in New York for a week and did rehearsal with the light show and everything like that, so for November/December, we’re going to just go out and warm up and come January, that’s when we’re going to be carrying a show and we’ll have to have rehearsals for that.

“As far as Jordan learning back catalogue – would he for example spend more time with JP maybe at his house to go through parts?”

Well we already played a gig with Jordan (Foundations Forum in 1994 excluded) in Korea and what was funny was we rehearsed ONE time! Jordan is so incredibly proficient that basically he could sight read this stuff, and what he does is we were so busy in the middle of making the new album he didn’t have time to go home and learn everything off of the CDs....I actually have DATs of all of our songs with the keyboard tracks isolated, for when Derek had to learn the part, so basically I gave those tapes to Jordan and he has some people that help him out and he sent them to this girl who is like a genius transcriber and she transcribed a lot of the songs for him and basically Jordan had to just sight read the parts and then just work on programming the sounds, which for him was a big task, so he didn’t need to go over much with John because he’s so proficient – once we got to rehearsal they would go over some of the unison or lead parts together but for the most part he had somebody do the transcriptions and then off of those he learned the parts and then spent more time programming the sounds.

“Singing and playing – I think you first tried this out at the “Fix for ‘96” shows – how did you come up with the idea – was it planned or did it just happen spontaneously?”

Well, John (Petrucci) and I way back around “When Dream and Day Unite” and Charlie was the singer and before we did “ real “ touring, we were singing, John and I would do some limited backup stuff and I didn’t really enjoy it at that time, because I had trouble managing the mic and playing at the same time and John just didn’t really care either.... So we sort of got away from that once James joined the band and then basically through the years, I’ve always felt that we’ve lacked the background vocals on albums and especially live as James was the only one that was singing and all of my favourite bands whether it be The Beatles or Jellyfish or Queen or Yes, they all had multiple voices, and even Steve Howe – he doesn’t have a great voice BUT it’s the quality of his voice that helps to round out the sound of the band and we always missed having that in this band and we always felt that we could take the harmony to another level and when writing and demoing the material. John and I always sing at rehearsals when we write lyrics, we’ll a) write a lot of the melodies ourselves and b) sing the melodies to James or even do demos, like I have demos of me singing “New Millennium” and “Raise the Knife” and a bunch of songs on the new album so anytime I wrote lyrics, I did a demo at home with me singing and brought it in to the band and John would do the same. So John and I were doing a lot of singing in rehearsals – a lot of harmonising with James showing him what to do so finally we said before going out for “ Fix for ‘96” – let’s do this, let’s utilise it and develop it and that’s what happened, we started to develop it. We did a little bit of singing in the studio for FII and started to develop it live on that tour and then with this new album, James basically sang all the lead vocals and he went away and then I did all of the backups on the whole album and John did a lot of the backups as well, and I think that’s important because live, mine and John’s voices aren’t going to be nearly as strong as James’ but it was important for our voices to be on the record I felt, because you want to reproduce that sound – there’s a quality when you have three different voices that creates a sound and we felt this time around, if we can get that kind of quality on. the record, when we reproduce it live it’s not going to sound like an inferior version of James’ voices, so that’s the main approach with this record, and we’re just slowly trying to incorporate and improve it more and more and get better.

“It was really noticeable on the Rotterdam Fan Club show as you’re really laid bare there without the power of the music behind you and your voice complimented James’ so well.”

I don’t consider myself a singer by any stretch of the imagination, but I definitely have a sense of melody because I’m a writer in the band – I write a lot of the melodies, especially to my lyrics and I’ve always sung harmonies in the privacy of our own studio so it was a matter of now just getting the confidence to actually do it in public and now with this other project with Neal, Pete and Roine, all four of us are singing, in fact I do some lead vocals on there as well, so all four of us are doing lots of harmonies like Yes, Queen and the Beatles and then all four of us are trading off leads, so I’m starting to get more and more up front with it.

“On the same theme as the singing, the tom idea in your solo, where front row drummers get involved – it got some great reactions – was that something that just happened or was it planned out?”

It was completely spontaneous – one night we were in Japan in January 1998 we were in Nagoya and if I remember correctly, I was pissed off because the drums were set so far back on the stage – the stage was SO big that I felt so detached from the audience that it was really starting to piss me off and it was almost like a joke. So I said to Magee half way through that I’m playing the show in my own world and having no interaction with the audience whatever, so my mind was wandering, and I said in my solo, fuck it; I’m goin’ out there I’m going to play my solo out there. So I said to Magee in between songs to find something for me to take out front, and it wasn’t even a drum. I said “get me a box or a drum case” and it was completely spontaneous, and so when it came time for my solo, Magee handed me this drum case and a pair of sticks, and I went out to the front, just to have some interaction with the people, ‘cos I felt so detached. And then it was completely spontaneous what I did out there – I had no idea what I was going to do.

It was such a good vibe and such a fun thing that it ended up sticking for the rest of the tour, that I actually developed it into utilising a real drum and then going to the left then the right. And actually on my instructional video, that’s, another thing that’s on there. There’s a montage a whole bunch of different solo’s from around the world doing that.

“Stage volume – I asked Magee if you had your monitors loud as I’d read you like to have it quite high – do you deliberately keep it low or do you prefer it loud?”

Well, I started wearing earplugs on the last tour, so I can’t really be sure of what the true volume really is! I think it’s still pretty loud – I think it’s kept pretty loud especially to compensate for the fact that I’m wearing the plugs, but I know the drums are incredibly loud at least the kick drums and the snare and the guitar is very loud, and I’ll creep in a bit of keyboards and now with Jordan in the band I’ll probably have a little more keyboards because I can count on him to be right on, but in terms of volume, it is pretty loud even though I’m wearing earplugs, it is jacked up there, I want to be able to feel the drums.

“It’s interesting, because one of the first things James does when he comes out after you guys have run through the opening passages of the first song is to ask for his monitor volume to be turned down.”

Well, the main reason for that is that James doesn’t soundcheck with us – maybe one out of ten he will soundcheck with us but for the most part, he doesn’t, in which case when he comes out he’s not only seeing, but feeling and hearing the stage for the very first time so he just tells the monitor guy to look out for him to get his levels set within the first minute or so.

“Had the decision about Derek been made before the Christmas 1998 “unplugged” shows you did been made and was he aware of it?”

The decision had been made, but Derek didn’t know. Basically the decision came about John and I when we were doing the LTE2 album, during the second session in November and we were sitting around one night, just bullshitting me John and Jordan and we sort of said to him hypothetically, if you had the chance to join the band again, would you? Then it ended up opening up a can of worms because we all started talking about it and then he ended up days later, saying he’d been thinking about it and yes he would, given that opportunity, and then we started thinking that we should do this, this is a good point for a clean break and really it would be for the best for the band and we really feel horrible to do it to Derek, but you know, what’s best for the band here... and that’s when we made the decision, and we went to James and John (Myung) with the idea, and there was a little hesitancy, especially from John, maybe because of the Platypus connection I don’t know, but the discussion had already been put out in the open at that point between the four of us without Derek and we knew it was going to happen. So it was kind of awkward for us to be doing something like that behind his back but if there’s no way around it, you have to – we even considered cancelling those Christmas shows just because it would have been really awkward, but we figured that wouldn’t be fair to the fans.

“We were just listening to FII in the car and while it’s a great album the keyboard sounds are very much the same all the way thru – the album doesn’t suffer for it but....”

I don’t think the music suffered but I do think that especially now that Jordan’s in the band, you know it feels so right, beyond the technical side of things, playing wise he is just so perfect for the band and he inspires us to take the musicianship to a whole other level like the good old days, but even the look – we just finished doing some photos sessions and it’s like we said now that looks like Dream Theater! Derek definitely added a lot of personality to the band, but he was from the background of Aerosmith and Van Halen and such, whereas Jordan’s focus is completely on being the best musician he can be, and on writing music and getting sounds and totally on technique and music. Jordan’s definitely from the Keith Emerson/Rick Wakeman school.

“As regards the new album, would you do the writing and recording spontaneously again with DT?”

I hope so! it was an amazing experience and it seems like it’s the natural thing to do capturing that live natural energy of a song.... it’s great, I’ve done four albums like that now, the two LTE albums, the new DT and the latest side project and I’d have to go on record as saying that I think those are my four greatest albums I’ve been a part of, so I think there’s something to be said for that, so I can’t say for sure if we’ll do the next record that way, but I know we all enjoyed the process.

“Did you and the band enjoy the role of producer on the new DT album?”

Absolutely! Actually the producer credit is me and John Petrucci and that’s with no disrespect to the other guys – obviously it was a band effort, but John and I sort of steered the ship and had the vision from top to bottom and oversaw every step of the way, as we do with most things with the band, but in this case we actually got the proper credit for it. It was great I mean it’s nice to have that objective ear like David Prater or Kevin Shirley or whoever, but the fact of the matter is, that we already have five chefs in this kitchen and the last thing we need is a sixth and especially me and John have definite strong visions of what we want this band to be and sound like and now Jordan has a very, very strong opinion and a very strong influence, as do James and John, so really the last thing we need is another opinion and this was the first time around where we were able to have full control without any interference from (not only producers) but even the record company... they basically put us in the studio in February and let us do our thing and they didn’t hear a single thing until we delivered the record in August and it was great, from now on it’s got to be this way!

“Did you have anything worked out before you went into the studio in February?”

Only that we knew what we were going to do with this record – although we didn’t have anything written except a few things floating around, John and I had this discussion at the same time during the LTE2 sessions, when we talked to Jordan as well about the hypothetical question, John and I established right there and then what we wanted to do with the next Dream Theater record, and that’s when we came up with the concept behind this album. So he and I came up in pretty great detail of exactly what we wanted with the record, musically, lyrically, conceptually so basically we went in and presented that to the rest of the band and so when we got together in February, we knew where we were going is was a matter of just actually creating it and there were some musical ideas that were floating around. So we had some bits and pieces to work with but basically we had the conceptual direction of where to go and that’s what sort of drove us, but it was weird because we had made the announcement that Jordan was joining the band in the middle of January, then we immediately went out and played some LTE shows and then immediately went into the studio with DT so the first time that James and John (Myung) played with Jordan this time around was when we gathered in the studio to begin the record, so it all happened so quickly.

“Did you have any lyrics written?”

All the lyrics came afterwards. We wrote the album musically from February to the end of May, waited ‘til the entire album was written musically, then we took off about three weeks and all went off and wrote out lyrics then re-assembled at the end of June to apply the lyrics and melodies and then actually record the vocals.

“You said Jordan exceeded your greatest expectations.”

Oh sure, I mean he’s just an absolutely creative person and he’s just one of those types of people whose not going to sit back and be told what to do. So he had a tremendous amount of input into the music.

“Were there any leftovers that you didn’t get recorded?”

We wrote one song, but never recorded it – there’s a song on the album called “Through Her Eyes” – when we wrote that we wrote two versions, a shorter simpler version, then a longer little bit more elaborate version. And after we laid down a simple skeleton of both songs with just acoustic guitar and click track, we decided which one was then to go on the album and chose the simpler one, so there is this longer alternative version of that song that is written musically and sort of sketched out on tape but we never went back to complete it, so we have a skeleton of a song that at some point could be completed and released as a B-side or something.

“Was James present for the whole recording?”

He was around for the first month or so of the music writing, and I think he wanted to be involved with it, but I think he realised that it was really pointless – he ended up sitting in the lobby watching TV the whole time! I think he realised that really this is what we do, this is the way we do it; the four of us write the music and then I think after a while he was comfortable with that. So after a while he went back to Canada, let us finish up the music and then came back down. So he didn’t write any music with us, so that hasn’t changed from the past, but I will say that he was there to discuss the theories, direction and concept with us at all times so in that respect he was very involved – in terms of the storyline, me and John and James mapped it out together, in terms of the melodies, we three mapped all those out together before we all went off to write the lyrics, so he was absolutely involved in all of those respects.

“How do you rate this album from your own standpoint – does it contain some of your best playing?”

Yeah! I can’t really judge for myself in terms of drum technique – I think more in terms of the songwriting and the album, so I think without a doubt, no question that musically it’s our best album, artistically it’s our biggest, boldest statement by far. As far as to focus just on the drumming, there’s a lot of drumming on there that is real challenging and stuff that I’m very proud of. There’s two instrumentals on the album, but the second one which is the full length instrumental [which] is by far the most challenging piece of music we’ve ever written, easily, hands down. So the drum department is absolutely over the top and completely complex. So yeah, I think it’s got some real over the top drumming for sure, but at the same time, it’s focus is always on the music.

“How much time do the crew spend with you when you’re in the studio?”

They usually arrive, set up the gear and then disappear ! we occasionally have somebody handy whether it be Jose or Magee or T-Boy from the past, or sometimes we’ll have somebody hangin’ out looking after us, but for the most part, the studios have lots of helping hands and runners and stuff who can get things if you need them. In fact the other guys are pretty self-sufficient with their amps and stuff – it’s mainly me that needs the help!

“I was curious if you were going back to the original Images and Words DT font?”

Yeah – there’s two reasons for that. The first is... well it’ll be obvious when you see what the concept of the new album is; it’ll be obvious as to why we went back to that font. But the main reason we got away from that font was that we worked with Storm Thorgcrson on FII and Storm doesn’t like to work with a pre-existing font, so that was the main reason we got away from it and he isn’t doing the new album for us, so we were able to bring it back.

“DT Songwriting: do you keep a notebook for your ideas or do you set aside time for lyric writing?”

I don’t, but I know musically, Jordan does. Jordan is just a never ending source of ideas and he’s got a huge notebook full of ideas, plus he sequences his ideas into his keyboard, so if any time you say “you got a riff in Em?” or whatever, he can hit a button and come up with twenty different ones! John Petrucci and John Myung will sometimes play ideas down on tape, but I don’t, I leave all of my creating for when we’re collaborating, and that’s when I’m usually sparked with ideas and I usually play more of the part of director, in shaping the ideas once they’re on the table.... and as far as lyrics go, I don’t write lyrics until the song is in front of me and then I have to.

“Is lyric writing something you find easy?”

I think the hardest part is getting the subject matter, and once you have that then writing I think is easy. I actually am not so crazy about writing lyrics. The main reason I started doing it with FII was to fill the void left with Kevin’s lyrics not being present. This time around, I actually threw my hands up and said “you know what? I have a baby coming in March! I would be happy not writing any lyrics for the upcoming Dream Theater album. Why don’t I NOT do it and you guys do it?” So I wasn’t even going to write lyrics for this album and then as I got so incredibly involved with the direction and concept, I inevitably got sucked back in! So I ended up writing almost half the lyrics on the album, but I wasn’t planning on it and this time around, it was very, very easy for me because the subject matter was established, so it was very easy for me to write lyrics for this album.

“Overall from your own individual standpoint, which previous DT album would you say you were most happy with drumming wise?”

It’s so hard for me to be objective, but for example, on “Images and Words” I was doing a lot of kind of overplaying at that point because I was still kind of young! So I guess I probably did some of my more flashy stuff on that album than Awake, but FII was a step in the direction of more mature drumming, which I think is very important. I got to experiment with a lot of different drum sounds and styles on that album, so I’m very proud of that album in that sense. And then this album – to include it in my answer – it was just such an artistic statement that we’ve assembled with this record that it was incredibly satisfying to work in this form that we did this time. But I don’t know, I can’t be objective. I think that some of my best playing is on the LTE stuff, on the improv stuff, like “Three Minute Warning” and “Chewbacca” and “Liquid Dreams”; those three are improvised as well as “The Stretch” and “914”. I’m really proud of those because they’re completely improvised and I think that says a lot about somebody’s style, and like I said at the clinic yesterday, we even did another whole album’s worth of improv stuff and that is some of my proudest drumming actually. So if that ever gets released that’s something I would cite as some of my proudest playing.

“On FII there’s a lot of stuff like “Speak to Me” and “The “Way It Used to Be” that have appeared since, but what procedure did you use to exclude those from the final album?”

Well we found ourselves at the end of the writing process when it was time to start the record with fifteen or sixteen songs – about two hours’ worth – and obviously we had to narrow it down to 75 minutes. Rather than looking at which we thought were the weakest, we went for what we knew were the strongest. We knew “Lines in the Sand”, “Trial of Tears”, “New Millennium”, “Peruvian Skies”, “Just Let Me Breathe” – we knew that these were the strongest pieces that had to make the record. Initially the record was only going to have nine tracks if my memory serves me correctly; originally “Anna Lee” and “You Not Me” weren’t going to be on the record, so originally FII was going to be what that left. Then those two would be leftovers with the other tracks. And then it turned out with all the chopping that Kevin Shirley was doing to the songs, we had a little more room to fit them, so we ended up squeezing those in – those were the two that were backup choices. It was hard – I think “Speak to Me” is a strong song and “The Way it Used to Be” has some really cool parts, so it’s hard. And obviously “Metropolis Part 2” – it killed us to not include it, but it would just have made the whole thing off balance, so it was really hard to pick away. If it was up to me, it would have been a double album and we would have gotten everything out there, but basically we went with what we thought were the strongest and Kevin Shirley had an opinion on that as well, which luckily pretty much coincided with what we thought were the strongest tracks.

“A Change of Seasons – was that recorded in the same way as the previous albums, with drums first?”

That was the same as “Images and Words” and “Awake” and “WDADU” with drums first and then everything one at a time on top...

“That’s great – it’s my favourite track to air drum to – it’s just got everything in it!”

Cool!

“LTE and other side projects: LTE2 in particular and “When the Water Breaks” – which is my favourite track on the album – I just wondered if most of the time and rhythm changes were spontaneous, or on that particular song did you have a reasonable amount of time to work them through?”

That’s my favourite track on LTE2 also – no, [we] spent four days writing that song. So the entire October session for that album was used writing that piece, so it was the first thing we went in to write and ended up taking four days or whatever.... The compositions with LTE are composed... you can’t really improvise within all of those parts, so composing... it’s just a very, very fast way of composing – very demanding on all of us to be concentrating and on our toes!

“Do you think it’s a big advantage to be fast learner?”

Especially with the way we’ve written the LTE albums and the current new DT album – it’s mandatory! And luckily, John Petrucci and I are very fast, especially having the experiences with LTE, but Jordan is ridiculously fast – the guy’s like a computer! So once again, with no disrespect to Derek as he’s a great friend, I don’t know if we could have written the record we wrote with Derek, in terms of being able to manufacture that much information and having to be able to play it all that quickly without that much refinement....

“Again logistically, when you set your gear up for the LTE albums, was that you trucking your own drums to the sessions?”

Yeah – for all three in my van! The two LTEs and the latest project I used the same kit – you know the real reason I used that kit was because the first LTE album session was booked as our gear was still being shipped back from Brazil, as we had just done some shows in South America, and then I had the session booked to do LTE and I thought I’m not going to have my kit back for such and such a time, so I thought why don’t I just pull out one of my kits from the basement... and do it on that? And I wasn’t going to have a tech, so why don’t I just make it a small kit that I can lug around and throw in my car and then that’s how I ended up establishing that kit for that session and the next one as well...

“The Sabian show LTE did at NAMM saw you using a variation on that kit...”

What we did two shows on the East Coast, one in New York and one in Philadelphia and they were with the actual kit from my basement that I used on the albums, and then I basically gave Tama and Sabian the general specs of that kit and they just reproduced it for NAMM and then the Roxy show.

“Did you use the same kit on the ELP tribute album?”

That’s interesting. I actually used Joe Franco’s kit – he’s got a studio in Manhattan and he plays Premier and Zildjian, so that’s – believe it or not – what I’m using on that recording! Not to be endorsing them, but that’s what I used for that and the thing with Andy West, they were both done at Joe’s studio and I was just strictly a “hired gun” so I didn’t even deal with my own drums. I went into the city, went to the studio and just played his drums.

“Did you choose which songs you played on the ELP tribute?”

Yeah. I was sent all of Trent Gardner’s tracks – I guess the label had established or Trent had established that he wanted me on his arrangements, so I was sent five or six of his, then I chose from that the two that I played.

“Did you record the drums first?”

Trent had the song programmed with a click track and a guide keyboard, so I had to sort of play to that, but I liked what I played on those two tracks because Trent changed the arrangements so much that I wasn’t at all confined to playing Carl’s parts. I was able to play as if it was an original piece of music, so it was fun!

“Even though the drum sound isn’t as good as you would normally have, the playing is fantastic as you still manage to get some great fills in there. I guess it took a couple of days?”

I did it one afternoon! Actually I liked the rough tracks because the drums really stand out, but with everything else, I’m so controlling that I can see it every step of the way. But something like that, I just play my parts and leave and then six months later when I hear the final product, the drums could have been louder or whatever, so I’m never as pleased as with my own product, but it was a fun experience!

“The track you played last night in Leeds at the clinic from the latest side project was just amazing and I’m constantly amazed how you remember the parts, especially older stuff from LTE1 as a lot of drumming has happened since then...”

Well the latest side project I’m really, really proud of and stylistically, if you’re going to listen to my drumming on that album, it’s very different, although musically the arrangements are a little complex in terms of there being long songs and a lot of odd time signatures. But the grooves themselves, are way more simple – there’s points on that album, where I’m totally doing a Bill Bruford vibe, then there’s parts where I’m totally doing a Ringo vibe, and there’s total Nick Mason from Pink Floyd, and there’s parts on that album where it is just so incredibly laid down and solid and simple, and I really enjoyed that for a change of pace.

“Moving on to film – any plans to continue your involvement?”

Well, I did the 5YlAL video and I’ve been totally hands on with my two instructional videos and I love it – I’m a film fanatic and that’s one of my biggest loves, so whatever I’m sure I will continue to directly oversee and control the future Dream Theater long form videos as well as anything I do instructionally, but you know I would just love to continue to do it ‘cos it’s a lot of fun for me....

“There was talk a few years ago of DT getting involved in film scores – is that still likely?”

It’s a possibility, but we need the right option. We were talking with this company in Italy a few years ago and it just never panned out, and it just wasn’t the right thing. But if there’s any music that’s suitable for sound tracks, it’s the music that me Jordan and Tony did – the improv stuff that’s sitting in Magna Carta’s vaults. That stuff is so incredibly tailor made for movie soundtrack – I don’t know what will ever become of it but.....

“Did you get to see Star Wars yet?”

Oh yeah! I loved it!

“And obviously you’ve seen Austin Powers....”

I haven’t seen the new one yet. The three big films this summer were Star Wars, Eyes Wide Shut ‘cos I’m a Kubrick fanatic – he’s my god. And the bizarre thing about that is that he died the same day my son Max was born, so sort of like one spirit carrying on from the next – pretty bizarre. And my favourite movie so far this summer is the Blair Witch Project. I was scared shitless and it still affects me to this day – it’s very disturbing. What pissed me off is that the ending of the Blair Witch Project is almost identical to the ending of the new album and obviously we finished our album before the film came out – it’s an incredibly powerful ending – it blew my mind. Anyways, I did see Star Wars and I loved it! I don’t know why it got so much criticism. I thought it was entertaining from start to finish and I’d even go so far as to say that I think it was the best of the four. I know a lot of people would disagree with me, but I couldn’t find anything wrong with it – it’s great. I think everybody’s expectations and anticipations were built so high that there was no room for anything but disappointment, which is why I’m trying to keep the new album so low key – the last thing I want is for people to build up their anticipations to a point where it’s impossible to ever reach their expectations.

“The second Austin Powers is great!”

I don’t even know why, but I now have an Austin Powers impression on two albums on the “Just Let Me Breathe” live version and at the end of “Another Dimension” – not even intentional – weird!

“The arm injury that you got in Munich in April 1997 – what happened?”

It was at the end of the show in “Learning to Live” which was the last song – I just bit off more than I could chew with a fill and went around the toms and ended up smashing my arm on the Gong bass drum. All of a sudden my hand went numb and I didn’t notice it at first, but I looked over – I thought maybe I just had a cramp – but when I looked over, my wrist was just completely twisted backwards and I just like turned white and stopped playing. I just had to get up and start smashing my hand back into place and my tech had to whack it back into place and I had to finish the song with my hand in an ice bucket. I finished the song playing one handed after having stopped for forty seconds or whatever.... And the crowd were so damn good that night – the guys did not want to do an encore – they just wanted to rush me to the hospital, but the audience was so awesome, I didn’t not want to play Metropolis for them, so I did the Rick Allen version of Metropolis and then went off to the hospital! Since then I’ve learned to properly stretch it and stuff – I had to finish the rest of that tour with it strapped. I have a bootleg of that show – I think it was at a place called “Babylon” or something in April 97, and in Learning to Live you can hear the drums stop – and that’s what was going on there – you can hear me screaming in pain!

“Have you ever watched John Petrucci’s and John Myung’s instructional videos?”

Yeah – only once each, but yeah I’ve watched them both.

“I love “Freeport jam” off of John Myung’s video – it’s about the only thing I understand on there!”

I think the most intriguing thing about John Myung’s video is just watching him talk! That’s the most I think he’s ever talked in his life!

“I think considering he’s the most reserved of all of you guys, he did a great job as it’s not easy talking to camera – high pressure stuff....”

Yeah it is. Doing clinics or videos – it’s all about talking, and that’s why I’m comfortable doing it, ‘cos you can’t get me to shut up! But that’s why I know John Myung has shied away from them, but I think he’s scheduled to do a couple of bass clinics in January and I’m wondering how’s he going to deal with it, talking to strangers and stuff!

“How did your official website www.mikeportnoy.com come about – did you get approached?”

Yeah. Dave (Hatlee – web master for the site) is a fan and I got many people online because my address is public – I read everything I get. I can’t respond to it all, but many people a few years back were offering to do a Mike Portnoy website, so I said “fine, whatever.... make something, let me see it and if I like it, we’ll make it official.” Dave was the first person to send me something that looked really good, and I met with him when I went through his town on tour and that was basically it. Other people started approaching me, but I had already committed to Dave and I didn’t want to go against that. It took him a while to get it going, but now, man, I’ve got to give the guy all the credit in the world, and Mark Bredius – I don’t know how they have as much time in the day to do what they do, but unbelievable.....

“Do you think sometimes the Internet spoils things in a way? I’m thinking people before the Net became so popular, had to wait 3 monthly intervals to get stuff like this, but now it can be almost instantly available.”

That was my biggest concern with this record. I mean, here we are doing press and setting up the record, so it’s alright for us to talk to journalists because the information on this album, which we’re trying to keep so secretive won’t even reach the public for a month or two, but you get people that will go and post this information on the Internet later this afternoon, and all it takes is for one person to post that or put an MP3 out there and everything I’ve worked for the whole year trying to achieve with the secrecy is completely flushed down the toilet with one person’s inconsideration. So that’s the danger, and that’s just a small danger, and it’s just me trying to be controlling of the way that this record is released so I can only police the Internet so much. And Dave and Mark from the two sites, and all the other websites, are really doing their best to keep it under control, but they’re getting a lot of slack for it – the fans want to know, but we want to keep it a surprise. Until we delivered the record in August it was just the five of us and that was easy to keep a lid on, but as soon as we delivered the record then it [became] very hard to have control over it.

“Do you sort out your own individual schedule as you are SO busy and I was wondering how you keep yourself from getting double booked!”

Well, with clinics and stuff, Sabian and Tama – whichever is sponsoring the clinic – they come to me to find out my availability. Then as far as booking studio time for side projects, etc., I’ll do all that myself. I’ll do all the scheduling of my calendar, but then the details like for a clinic tour or whatever, Tama or Sabian will deal with everything else like flights, hotels and getting me from place to place.

“Onto food and drink: are you still into Jägermeister?”

I’m burned out on it! I drink it in shots, but it fucks you up! I got burned out on it because all the German fans bring bottles to the shows – I just get overwhelmed with it – like twenty bottles on the tour bus.

“Do you drink much at home?”

I always drank way too much, and actually since Max was born, I’m trying to cut back on it – first of all because it’s impossible to deal with 3:00am feedings when you’re drunk or hung over, but you know, I guess as you get older, you get more conscious about abusing your body and I used to always drink every night a several beers then always drink Jack Daniels or Tequila or Scotch, and I’ve tried since Max has been born to cut back on that – strictly for health reasons ‘cos I know it’s not good for you to drink that much. So I’ve been cutting back – I’ll still drink, but I’m consciously trying to drink less!

“Do you cook when you’re at home?”

I don’t, but Marlene and her mom both do! They’re both traditional Italian moms! Especially Marlene’s mom – she makes like 40 course meals, but I don’t know how to cook at all. So that’s where my love for fast food comes in – when Marlene or her mom’s not cooking, I go to Taco Bell!

“On tour do you eat before the show or more so after?”

I’ll eat light before the show ’cos that’s when dinner is served – after soundcheck – and I’ll usually have some pasta or chicken or salad. But usually I don’t get my true appetite until after the show, and that’s when I’m famished. When I get off stage after playing two and a half hours, I’m absolutely starving but unfortunately the good meals are served before the gig, because after the gig we have burgers or pizza or fast food served after the gig, ‘cos it’s hard to find places to get food after midnight. But we always have that in the dressing room afterwards and that’s when I chow down, but it’s not on the good stuff!

“Did you manage to get a vacation in August?”

Ha ha! I was going to go after the new album was delivered. I said “I’m taking August off, I’m not doing anything ‘til I have to leave on clinics” and sure enough, we deliver the record, then there’s decisions that have to be made with the artwork and the layout. Then there’s decisions with the mixes and we had some stuff remixed, and I had to be sent the remixes; then I had to go in for mastering and the remastering! Then I had to start doing interviews, then I had my instructional video which I forgot about, so I had to start filming that and deal with the cut. So my entire month off in August.... and my wife was ready to kill me and divorce me at this point! OK, sure, I’m not recording any albums and sure I’m not filming any videos or doing any clinics, but then there’s a million and one other decisions that still constantly need to be made, so I don’t know if you can EVER get time off unless you go to Hawaii and just leave your phone and computer at home and that’s it, in which case I would probably go fuckin’ crazy!

“How’s little Melody reacted to Max?”

There both awesome, they love each other and they play great. Every day it’s harder and harder for me to be out and away from them – it’s tough.

“How about the animals, what do they think of a new little baby in the house?”

We have a dog and two cats and my dog (Bongo) is the most spoiled of anyone in the family! She’s the only one that still gets to sleep with me and Marlene! Actually Bongo makes an appearance in one of the instructional videos as well!

“What would you say was the most rewarding thing about being a father? Has it changed you at all?”

It’s changed me entirely. My priorities are different, now EVERYTHING I do is involved around the kids and their future – if push comes to shove, they come first over everything and the hardest thing about being a musician and being in a busy touring band is trying to balance the two worlds and letting them both co-exist – luckily everybody in Dream Theater has wives and families and stuff, so we’re all very understanding of each other’s personal needs which really helps.

“Do you have plans to take the kids to Florida – or has Melody already been?”

Yeah! Melody’s been there twice already, and we’re ready to go with Max now! But I have brought Marlene and Melody on tour many times and I’ll continue to do it in [the] future with Max as well. It’s the perfect scenario as you get the best of both worlds: having the people you love and miss with you, but you also get to continue playing and being productive and getting out there and doing what you do.

“Another location I love is Las Vegas – is that one of your favourite destinations?”

I love it! First of all ‘cos I love casinos and gambling, and I love boxing and everything, so it’s the perfect place!

“Is Marlene a calming influence?”

She drives me fuckin’ nuts, but I love her! I’m calmer when I’m away from her!

“Do you bounce band ideas off her – does she get involved with the band?”

No – she lets me do my thing. In fact she’s interested in what I do, but she doesn’t want to get involved. It’s not like a Yoko thing or anything – she stays out of my business, mainly ‘cos she has her hands full with the kids and other things at home anyway. In fact, a lot of times she’ll say to me “go call up John Petrucci, or call up Jim Matheos or call up your dad – call up one of your friends that your gonna tell all this stuff to, so I can overhear the conversation to find out what the fuck is goin’ on in your life!”

“Have you and the family got anything planned for New Year celebrations?”

Well, the band’s not playing! We’re (the family) is planning on going to Disney (Florida) for the break between Christmas and New Year’s, but we can’t get in for New Year’s Eve because they’ve been booked for then for forever, but we’re gonna go down and there’s some camping grounds at Disney, so we’re gonna go down for that week between holidays and we’ll be somewhere on the road in the South for New Year’s Eve. Actually the band Phish is playing a big outdoor festival in Florida on that night and I’m a big fan of them, so if all else fails, we may end up there, but I’ll be with the family.

So there we have it! I had hoped for an hour but ended up chatting for 90 minutes with Mike, to whom I remain eternally grateful..

Special thanks to Drumwright (my local drum shop and sponsor for this particular clinic) in particular Chris Wright, also Mark Decloedt from Tama UK, Robbie my bro’ in law for technical assistance and of course Mike Portnoy for his time and patience.

See ya!

Al Muirden – October ‘99