12 Months In a Miketime!

This time around, we have an interview which I did with Mike after soundcheck in Bristol, UK on the final leg of the M2000 world tour. In fact, this was the fourth from last show of the whole tour and the first on this leg in the UK. Robbie, my techie assistant and fellow DT fanatic and I were psyched as we were at the first of a series of four UK shows we were attending – the only one we would miss would be Glasgow, purely for the distance to travel – the week planned out WAY better than even we expected. Anyone who saw any of the four shows we did knows what I mean. Glasgow was a special show too by all accounts! The reason behind the title was that it was just over twelve months since I last talked to MP, when he was doing his Euro clinic tour in 1999 and as this was a look back over the year, I decided to crib the title idea from 5YIAL! I’d pre-arranged with MP to do the interview and as always, he was VERY accommodating and VERY talkative! We had a lot of stuff to cover and Mike gave me the full time allocation he could bearing in mind he was onstage within an hour or so of us wrapping up! just prior to chatting with MP, I presented him with some custom T-shirts I’d had made up together with the original framed artwork, as a “thank you” for his time for this interview. Anyways, the topic headings I had for discussion were:

• Completion of the Euro clinic dates Sep/Oct 1999 – MP’s first clinic “tour” plus several other clinic dates in the US and the Orient.

• SFAM completed and released.

• Euro dates in November 1999 to test out SFAM.

• M2000 tour begun and continued through 2000.

• “Modern Drummer” poll winner in FOUR separate categories, plus other awards received from “Burrrrrn” magazine in Japan

• Liquid Drum Theater released

• Sabian MAX cymbals released

• Roseland show recorded for DVD/VHS release

WOW – a LOT to talk about, so without further ramblings from me, here’s the interview!

The Euro clinic tour was very successful – how did you think it went, and would you do the “tour” format again?

I am next week actually! After the Dream Theater tour ends I’m doing a clinic in Italy the next day, then I think seven in a row in Germany and they wanted to keep me here for an extra week or two beyond that and I had to put my foot down. I need to go home and spend Halloween with the kids! Max is going to be Elmo and Melody’s going to be Rocky from “Rocky and Bullwinkle” – I may be Bullwinkle! So yeah, that tour went well and I’m sure the ones coming up in Germany will go well. In fact the reason these ones in Germany were tagged on is because when I did that run last year, we didn’t do Germany, so it was pretty much one of the only major markets that we didn’t hit that time so we’re sort of making up for not doing it then.

Some of the clinics you’ve done in the US have been on single kick kits, so you’ve had to adapt to that. Also the purple fade kits used in the UK clinic dates weren’t the only ones made up as a “copy” of the US kit.

Well actually to backtrack a second, when I spoke to you last year, that was at the beginning of the clinic tour, and it turns out that they had those kits at every one of the stops on the clinic so they actually made maybe five or ten or whatever, reproductions with the white and purple finish. So when I spoke to you last, I didn’t know that that was going to be the case. But yeah, since then all the clinics I’ve done in America and throughout the year or so, I’ve been doing them on smaller kits, more like the LTE/Transatlantic setup, which is a lot of fun. I mean I like playing on a smaller kit just for a different perspective, and it’s real interesting when I’m playing the Dream Theater tracks on that smaller kit, ‘cos I have to rethink a lot of the parts.

I saw some photos of a clinic you did at Richmond in the US and I don’t think you even had the timbalitos – just a couple toms on the top and two stand mounted floors.

Yeah, I’m getting real easy going with what I use at clinics. I mean when I do a Dream Theater gig, I have to have my kit and it has to be the same setup, just because when people come to a Dream Theater gig, they expect that. But at clinics you know, I’m getting more and more easy going with it, Sabian or Tama will call me up and say “is this fine?” or “is that fine?” and I’m like “sure whatever you got, I’ll just show up and hit ‘em!” A clinic could be a whole different type of approach.

Do you plan in your mind beforehand how to re-jig some of the parts on the smaller kits, or do you just kind of do it on the fly?

I do it on the fly which is what makes it exciting for me you know. I’ll be playing and a fill will be coming up, especially when I’m doing like “Dance of Eternity” or something, I’ll just have to adapt to whatever I’m playing right there on the moment.

I think the Singapore clinic you did, was done on a Starclassic Performer?

Yeah, a lot of times when I do clinics, the stores themselves have to not only supply the kit, but they have to buy the kit too, and then they carry it in their shop. So in a lot of cases it’s just too much to ask for them to buy that whole mammoth Dream Theater setup, so they’ll maybe buy the Dream Theater setup in a Performer or maybe even sometimes even a Rockstar and I’ve had no problem with playing on those at clinics; it’s all Tama, so it’s all good.

Also you had some varied venues for recent clinics from a large hall in Singapore to real small shops in other cases.

Yeah. I mean I’ve said it before that I definitely prefer when doing a clinic to do a smaller one, maybe just to a few hundred people, but in fact just after we talked, I went to Italy and they were in like big clubs, where there might have been fifteen hundred people, and there were like two hundred people being turned away outside – for a clinic! I don’t really enjoy it when it’s that big; for me a clinic should be a more intimate and personal experience. When we have maybe fifteen hundred Dream Theater fans in the room, it gets to be impossible to communicate a single idea, they sometimes just want to hear the music, so I actually prefer the smaller situations when I’m doing clinics.

Will you do any more clinics in 2000 after this upcoming German run?

The only other thing on the agenda is in November. I’m doing the Pasic show which is a big drum thing that happens every year, and then I’m going off to do two clinics in Argentina and Dream Theater hasn’t played in Argentina yet, so that’ll be an experience! But that’s it, I’m in desperate need of some time off so I’m going to take November and December off.

One really positive thing that’s come from all the clinic work you’ve done is the Modern Drummer award as #1 Clinician – totally deserved.

Yeah, this year the Modern Drummer results were the ultimate in flattery. I was nearly floored when I saw them. I don’t think anybody’s ever won four in one year; it was the first year that they had Best Clinician and the first year they had Best Video categories. Very flattering and very exciting! It’s nice to be appreciated.

SCENES FROM A MEMORY

Has the almost universal praise for the album surpassed even your own high hopes that it would be welcomed as the band’s biggest and boldest statement?

Well, I’ll just say I’m glad that people accepted it and enjoyed it in the way I hoped they had. I mean I knew when we made this record that it was going to be something that the fans were going to love, that it would be the ultimate Dream Theater experience at EVERY level musically, lyrically, conceptually, production etc., so I knew we were making our “masterpiece” if there is such a thing. So I was just hoping that it would be received that way, because I knew that we were putting all of our heart and soul into it. So I can’t say I’m surprised that people accepted it that way, because I kind of felt it – there was a definite kind of energy and spirit that we were feeling while we were making it and I’m just glad that it translated to the listeners as well.

The secrecy that you had surrounding its release also helped its impact as well I think; people were really blown away that hadn’t even expected anything like this album.

Well that was all along my thinking behind it. If people had six months to anticipate a concept album, you know a 77 minute Metropolis Part 2 – if they had that long to think about it and contemplate it – all the things that they were thinking in their head that it could be or should be, there’s no way that anything would have lived up to those expectations. So that was the whole thinking behind it – you know hit ‘em like a surprise and when it was least expected.

I think also it’s opened up some new doors for the band with regard to gaining respect from other fans that weren’t into Dream Theater before – maybe they were into bands like Yes or Genesis – I think a lot of those fans are now discovering DT.

Great! I mean sure, every time we hope to gain more and more fans as we go along. With you being here in the UK, I guess you base it on the way people perceived it here in the UK. I know that there’s definitely been a step up in our progress and growth in the UK – I don’t know if it’s so much due to the album we made as it is, I think a lot of it is as a direct result of the existence of “Classic Rock” magazine. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that that one particular magazine has finally given us a single magazine that will give a shit about us here in the UK, so I think it has made a bit of a difference in terms of exposure and acceptance, because up until then, we had nothing here in the UK so I think that definitely has helped.

The reviews that the album had, that really set people off thinking on how to work out the sequence of events and the roles of the various characters with people trying to work out the plot and storyline...

Right. There’s been many levels too of our revelations! All still has yet to be revealed – that won’t be ‘til the DVD comes out where everybody gets the true answer. You know we’ve leaked a bit here and there and live, in the first leg we had some stuff in the video footage, and then later on, on the tour, more and more things were added to the video footage. So you know, if you can follow the presentation from start to finish, the ultimate finish will be the release of the DVD, if you’ve followed it from every step of the presentation throughout the year where it’s grown and grown in terms of what has been the real answer.

Having played the album through live on this tour, have some of the initial drum parts that you did on the album evolved and have you had any parts where you would have played them differently on the album given more time?

I think it’s like that with all our music throughout our entire back catalogue – you know, from when the tour begins until it ends, when you play the same thing every night you inevitably want to mess with it and change it. Because this album more than any Dream Theater album was written spontaneously and the drum parts were recorded so immediately, there wasn’t that whole process of developing patterns and riffs and fills and stuff, so more than ever there’s been room for improvisation within the drum patterns because they weren’t set in stone.

Is there anything specifically that you can think of on the album that you would play differently?

If I had time to really think about that question, I could definitely say a few places, but my immediate feeling is no, I think I’m totally happy with everything I came up with!

To me, it doesn’t sound ANY different to any other DT album as far as your performance is concerned.

I think the ending of “Finally Free” with all the drum solos was something that had time to develop, but that’s something that’s an improvised thing from night to night anyway.

The November Euro dates were the first to debut some of the new material – do you think they were successful and was it frustrating to not be playing the whole piece from start to finish?

Yeah, it was a little frustrating. At first I was apprehensive as to whether or not we should play the whole album, but now looking back, I think it was 100% the correct move to NOT play the entire album yet, because it had only just been released and really it would have been premature to be presenting a whole album – you know a whole hour and a half of presentation of something that people weren’t that familiar with would have been WAY too much for people to bite off, and it also gave us a leg to get comfortable with Jordan in the band, which was an important thing. So I think that was the main purpose of THAT tour, to get some dates with Jordan in the band, give people a little taste of the new album, but I think it was a good move to hold off until the new year before we started tackling it in its entirety.

I think now on this leg it’s great for you to be starting with Metropolis Part 1 – I thought you would have played Part 1, then Part 2.

There’s actually a reason: when we wrote “Overture” we consciously began its first chord the same as the last chord of Metropolis, which is a “D”. We intentionally said that so that we could connect them if we wanted, in the future, so it was purposely written like that. But then the problem was we ended up deciding to open the album with “Regression” and the sound effects and everything like that, SO it became impossible to do “Metropolis Part 1” and “Scenes from a Memory” in its entirety back to back because “Regression” kind of interrupted that. So I made the conscious decision that whenever we were going to do “Scenes” from start to finish to open with the hypnotherapist and the clock and “Regression” and unfortunately not be able to do “Metropolis Part 1” because it would have kind of been anticlimactic to play “Metropolis” then bring the entire thing down to do “Regression” then go back up. So that was kind of a stumbling block to being able to connect the two.

The medley material for the “Through Her Eyes” single was recorded in Brussels, where they have facilities to record – was it planned beforehand to record there (at the Ancienne Belgique)?

That just stumbled into our laps; it was basically brought to our attention that they have this in house facility and we could record the show, and I knew that we were going to be in need of some live B-side material with Jordan in the band. Obviously we had plenty of old stuff in the vaults but we wanted stuff with Jordan. So basically it was just a good opportunity to record the show and if we had anything, then use it. I didn’t even tell the guys we were recording until after the show was finished! I knew we were recording and then I told them afterwards!

Was it always planned to release the medley or ANY part of that recording on a single from the album?

Yeah. Like I said when I found out that we could record, I knew it was a good opportunity to get something in the can for a possible single B-side and I always knew that I wanted the medley to be that B-side, just because it was something that would cover a lot of ground on a CD single.

When you got into the SFAM tour, you started right from the off playing to sell-out crowds and people seem REALLY happy with what they’ve seen – especially first time DT concert goers.

It was I think the best tour we’ve EVER done, not only in terms of our playing and presentation and production, but it’s the enthusiasm and the ticket sales even the opening acts, doing America with the Dixie Dregs opening and doing Europe with Spock’s Beard opening, it was just a great musical experience for people to come out and see.

The Spock’s Beard shows with DT were incredible!

Yeah, that tour – and not only did they do Europe with us, they also did the second American leg with us as well – has done them the world of good in terms of exposure, which is great and I’m totally happy for them. Anytime we take an opening band out, it’s because it’s a band I’m a fan of and I really WANT these bands to have that exposure, so it’s good when you see it paying off.

I love the cover art for SFAM and I just wondered if there was an inspiration from the “Encores, Legends and Paradox” (ELP tribute album MP played on) cover, which was also done by Dave McKean who did the cover art for SFAM?

There’s a funny story behind that and actually, when I spoke to you last time, that was the same day I was speaking with Dave and we were putting some of the issues with the cover to rest. But the thing was with Dave was it turns out he did the “Mullmuzzler” cover and I didn’t even know that until afterwards. In fact I showed the album cover to James after it was done and he didn’t know that Dave was doing it, and he said “wait a minute, this is the same guy that did the Mullmuzzler cover!” and I was like “you’re kidding me – I had no idea!” What happened was, we had another artist do the album cover and I just did not like at all what was delivered; the guy just did not take any of the ideas or the concepts that we had put forward, I was just totally unsatisfied with it. So initially, we were given a portfolio of different artists that were available, so after we got this initial cover, which I was totally unhappy with, I went back and looked at the different portfolios we had and came across some stuff of Dave’s in there and there was this one image of this old man’s face, made up of a million different old fashioned photos and I said “this is fucking perfect – this is our album cover!” So I went back to the label and said let’s see if we can commission this photo, and they went back to Dave and it turns out that somebody had already licensed that photo for a comic book “The Sandman” or something like that, but Dave said he was more than willing to create a new piece of art based around that same idea and that’s what happened. So basically within a few days he had come up with the new artwork which ended up being the album, and then since then, just the other day, I was walking through a bookstore and I don’t know if they have it here, but there’s an American show called “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, so there’s a BTVS book. I see this book and it caught my eye immediately – you know the brown and orange tone to it and it was a face of a monster made up of a million different images and I said “oh my God! This is our album cover! Somebody ripped it off, I can’t fucking believe it!” – it had the same colour scheme and everything. I opened it up and sure enough, it was a Dave McKean piece of art. So he’s getting a lot of mileage out of that concept now, so it’s very interesting!

It’s such an impressive and mysterious image – I think the colours are so perfect.

Yeah. The initial idea – and this was something that John and I discussed early in the making of the record – was to make the album layout like a “playbill”. You know, if you go to a Broadway show, you get a playbill and it has like a yellow square on top with black writing and it says “Playbill” and it’s usually a black image underneath it, and it’s just a striking image – “Beauty and the Beast” had one image of like the monster with the rose, or “Les Mis” or “Miss Saigon”. We wanted to have the yellow box on top with “Dream Theater” in black and a black square with just a single image – something that would have been representing reincarnation or murder – and that was our original approach, and that’s why we didn’t even bother contacting Storm Thorgerson, because we knew exactly what we wanted in this playbill direction. So we avoided even calling Storm and went to the label with this idea and said “just make it” and then the label actually talked us out of going in that direction and trying to get a more original piece of art, and that’s when they gave us the portfolios. So that’s the main reason we didn’t go with Storm this time as well.

I was listening to “Finally Free” the other day and noticed a triangle on the “I ran into Julian” section – were there a lot more percussion overdubs on the album?

Yeah – it’s on the first verse when the drums kick in right – it gave it the Billy Joel vibe! There’s a lot of ear-candy in there. Right now, I’m going through all the tapes of the making of the CD because right now I’m working on this year’s Christmas fan club CD which will be the “Making of Scenes from a Memory” so digging through all these tapes and remembering all these overdubs that we did. You know some of them end up in the mix and some of them get buried in the mix too, and there was a LOT of percussion, like “Strange Deja Vu” and “Home” and “Beyond This Life” there’s a lot of stuff going on there.

Was the Roseland DVD show as much of a success as you’d hoped as there was a lot of pressure on you personally on that day – there was virtually no time for rehearsal with the choir or Theresa Thomason.

We only had a rehearsal that afternoon! Well I remember when we were in Japan in May, when I came up with the idea for this show and we always want to do at least one special show on every tour, like we did Ronnie Scott’s on the “Awake” tour and Rotterdam and Paris were special shows on the “Falling Into Infinity” tour and we didn’t know what we were going to do for “Scenes” and I remember being on the Bullet train in Japan bringing this up with the guys to do a show in New York, because all of the special show recordings we’ve done outside of New York, we had never done a proper live recording in New York; we’ve done a few in London, we’ve done Paris, we’ve done Japan and Holland and we figured it was time we did a live recording and some sort of fan club “event” in New York. Then there was the idea of doing full production with maybe some actors and the choir, bringing Theresa out and Jay Beckenstein and I even invited Kevin Moore to do “Space Dye Vest” with him and stuff, which would have been the ultimate surprise, but he declined the invitation. But in any case, the idea was to make this the ultimate Dream Theater concert, and so it was a lot of planning. Musically, we were prepared because we had started working up “ACOS” and “Learning to Live” and ‘The Mind Beside Itself” stuff, so we had had a whole month to start working the songs up, so we were ready, but there were a million other factors in terms of the extras and the choir and... There was a lot of email preparation for them. Jordan had gone away and scored all the choir parts that we had done on the album, so he sent them a tape of that so that they were prepared and just a day out, there was a lot of rehearsing and then I was very caught up in the whole filming aspect of what was going to tape and we brought Kevin Shirley along to record the audio and it ended up coming off great. It was a really amazing night to have captured as well. I think it was maybe the pinnacle of our career to have captured it, and it almost killed me as well! I literally overdid myself. After the gig I almost went to the hospital. I was wrapped up in towels for hours, I couldn’t move, I had to get carried out of the venue – it was bad, it was as close to death I’ve ever come! It was just a combination of exhaustion, stress, overheating, having not eaten, dehydration – just the whole day was a lot of work, not to mention the four hour performance!

The band got some flak for [the] intermission film at that show – did the other guys know what was chosen?

No! The night before, we played in Connecticut and we brought in the big screens and stuff that [we] were going to use at Roseland so we wouldn’t go in there cold, so we could have a night’s rehearsal and we even broke the set into two with an intermission, just to get comfortable with that whole format. So anyway, I made that intermission tape specifically for Roseland but we used it [in] Connecticut as well and I didn’t know that Connecticut was an “all ages” show, so there were definitely some things on there that shouldn’t have been seen by children. It’s intention was meant for Roseland. All the things like that – like the break tapes and intro tapes – the guys don’t even know what I’m doing half the time, so sometimes I wonder is anyone going to get pissed! Like one tour I was playing all the unreleased demos and the intermission tape and also in the US there was a break tape of all these different covers that people had sent us and stuff.

When you do stuff like the Roseland intermission stuff, do you do it yourself or get a company to produce it for you?

I do it myself. Basically what I did for Roseland, I just made a twenty minute intermission tape as we had the video screens up, so I figured rather than just having a break tape (audio) we might as well utilise the screens. So I cut together a compilation of all scenes from all my favourite movies: “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, “Blue Velvet”, “Scarface”, “Reservoir Dogs”, “Austin Powers”, “South Park”, “Buffalo 66” and the controversial scene was from “Pink Flamingoes”. It was just a wide variety of stupid stuff, some which was funny, some which was obviously offensive.

Despite you being ill at Roseland, you had to recover quickly to fly to LA for the Transatlantic gig at Progfest!

I remember laying in the dressing room at Roseland after a couple of hours of literally not being able to sit up, and I was saying “I cannot believe I’m getting on a fucking plane and flying to LA to play after this”, but I couldn’t pull out – there was many months of preparation and planning for that, so I had to do it.

Are you already thinking of how you are going to top SFAM or are you thinking that you just want to do whatever comes out naturally for the band?

We get asked that a lot. I guess the key word is “top”; we just can’t use that word, we can’t think of that word, we just have to make another record and just hope it’s really good you know. With SFAM we did a certain thing, we did a concept album and we were self-producing for the first time. There was a lot of eggs we threw into that basket and we made the best record we could possibly make. I don’t know if we CAN top that; I think we just have to make another great record and make sure that ultimately and most importantly that it’s a different record. It’s going to be hard to follow that up; it was a real creative experience for us, but we just want to make something different. We’ve talked about some different things, some different directions we could try, things we could approach the next record with and we know we won’t do a concept album – that’s for sure. We kind of took it as far as it could go with “Scenes”, so we’ll just see what happens. But most importantly it’s just to make something different; we don’t want to do the same thing. You see a lot of bands like “Radiohead” with their new album. I think “OK Computer” was one of the greatest albums of the nineties and you say to yourself “how the hell are they going to top it?” and look what they did. I’m not even sure I even LIKE the new album, but I’ve got to give them credit for going in a completely different direction. They made the most anti-commercial record that they could have possibly made – for better or for worse. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing, but at least I give them credit for not doing the same thing. Then you look at like “The Who” – this was something my dad just brought up to me on the phone – me and my dad when we talk, we just talk about movies and records and albums and stuff and he was asking me yesterday “what are you going to do?” and he brought up “The Who” as an example where they did “Tommy”, then after that they made “Who’s Next” which is in some respects probably their greatest album ever, although in between that they also had “Live at Leeds” and they also had the aborted “Lighthouse” project. So, we’ll see. I think we need to make an album of STRONG SONGS next – and I don’t mean in a commercial sense like “Falling into Infinity” – I just mean like “Images and Words” or “Awake” where basically you have just a strong group of songs.

When we talked to Jose in April, he said the M2000 tour was likely to go up to October (which it has) but that there was also a rumoured “shed” (outdoor) tour in the US lined up with Queensryche during this past summer – what happened with that?

Well to backtrack, yes that was something that was in the plans. Basically we had a tour that was us and them, in the process of being booked. I had the tour dates and everything at home, and basically at the eleventh hour they backed out saying they didn’t want to tour anymore and that they wanted to go back into the studio. And to make a long story short we said, “well OK.” Our backup plan was we wanted to go for the Iron Maiden tour because we knew we had a good chance of getting that slot for a million different reasons. So, after Queensryche backed out, we put our hand in for the Maiden tour and it was looking very, very close to happening and then all of a sudden, we found out that they gave the slot to Queensryche, which was a major blow! So Queensryche backed out of the potential tour with us maybe to pursue THAT slot! I actually said some real nasty things about Queensryche for which I’ve gotten a lot of slack, so if anybody’s interested in my feelings on Queensryche, they can do some research on the internet to see exactly what’s been said – I don’t want to rehash it. But in any case, we ended up losing the Queensryche tour AND the Maiden tour so in that respect it sucked. We really WANTED to do the summer in the US as an opening band or at least a “package” tour, not being the headliner as we had just done the whole headlining thing and we really wanted to go out with somebody else. Once that fell through, we had no choice but to go back out ourselves, so in that respect it turned out good and the fans got to see another headlining set. They got to hear “ACOS” which we’d never done live and also it gave us a chance to go out with “Spock’s Beard” in the States. So for the fans it probably worked out better – they got a more satisfying show as Dream Theater fans, but for us it would have been a better step in our CAREER to try and have like the Maiden tour or something.

Just returning to SFAM opening acts, how did you joining them onstage for ‘June” come about? Was it planned or something that just “happened”?

I’ve always had a habit of doing something with our opening band. I used to go out with the “Galactic Cowboys” every night and I would sing, jump around and mosh and sing one of their songs “Pump up the Space Suit”. Then when “Fates Warning” was out, I used to hand Jim (Matheos) his acoustic guitar in “Monument” and then with “I Mother Earth” I used to go out and do a percussion solo during “Rain will Fall”. So it’s kind of become a tradition where I’ll go out with the opening band and so SOMETHING, and being that “Spock’s” are such good friends, I would end up doing something, but I can’t remember exactly how it came about. I think it was mainly because Nick was out front singing – actually James came out and sang maybe once or twice as well on that at the bridge.

LIQUID DRUM THEATER

When we spoke last September, you had just proofed the final edits of the video. Since its release you won the Modern Drummer Educational Video category. Was that a surprise?

Well, like I said, I’m surprised every time I win a poll, but it was a treat and something I was very happy and proud of. I was VERY happy with that video. I didn’t want to do another instructional video that was to be aimed only at drummers, because I love working with the format of video and home video and stuff. I had such a great time working on “5 Years in a Livetime” that I wanted to take the opportunity to make my next instructional video something that would be more universal to the fans in general and not JUST drummers. And it gave me the opportunity to include a lot of rare LTE stuff from the studio as well as some cool Dream Theater stuff, and at the same time there’s a lot in it that drummers could get out, but there’s a lot that ANY fan can enjoy.

How long did each of the two sessions take to record?

A day each. We did the LTE stuff at Millbrook directly following the Transatlantic sessions, so I did the Transatlantic album, then stayed an extra day to record the LTE footage. And then a month or so later, the BearTracks stuff was filmed and that was also done in one day.

I LOVE the format of the package – how much input did you have on the presentation of the footage?

Well, Rob and Paul get a director’s credit as it’s their company, but they were great in giving me total freedom and creative control, so in that sense I directed it as well with them. But of course they get credit as it’s their company and that’s the way they do it, but they were great like that; they gave me SO much control. I was in the studio every day with them and I laid out the entire format of both videos from start to finish – every single sequence – how it would connect, where it would go. So they were great. Like I said, I LOVE that as film is one of my greatest loves, so I passionately get involved with that and I loved it. One thing I should mention while we’re on this subject is that they’ve been talking about doing a DVD version of it – which I would totally love – because one of the great features of DVD is the multiple angle feature. So it would be a great thing for a drum instructional video, for a drummer to be able to go the kick drum camera at any time, or the overhead camera at any time – we also have a lot of extra LTE live stuff and Dream Theater footage, so we’ve been talking extensively about doing a DVD version of Liquid Drum Theater but the problem is the release of the LTE stuff, which I can’t go into here and now.

You said there was some extra footage shot – was that excerpts or complete songs?

There was a lot of things that I intended to be in the final cut, but ultimately we just ran out of space. There was an entire version of “Paradigm Shift” from ‘The Roxy” that we had edited and had cut and ready for inclusion, but at the last minute once we got the running times in, we just couldn’t fit it, and there was a lot of little bits and pieces like that that had to get cut from the final cut just because of time restrictions, which we wouldn’t necessarily have on the DVD.

I guess most of what ended up on the final videos was done in one take. I mention this as there are a couple of great natural things like catching the tambourine at the start of “Acid Rain” which were left in.

Most of it was one take, but one thing that definitely WAS NOT one take was on the Dream Theater volume which is “Dance of Eternity” and that’s got to be about ten different takes all cut together, because I had never played that song in its entirety straight through. When we wrote DOE in the studio, we cut it in maybe three or four different sections; we would write two minutes or so then record it, then work on the next two. So, by the time it came to shoot the instructional video and play some of the SFAM tracks, they had NEVER been played through. Like DOE I had never played it from start to finish, so I was doing it for the very first time with the cameras rolling and it was NOT easy! I felt like an amateur trying to get through that. It’s literally about ten takes and I had to sit at home and go through each take and say this part for this section works or not and at the end the editor was in hell trying to make sense of it. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever played and it was the biggest challenge, but now it’s no problem. But when the tour began, it was a challenge and a half. I would be shittin’ bricks every night when we got up to that part of the set!

It looks totally seamless to me!

That’s the magic of editing – that’s how Metallica makes all their records!

Jose was back with you for the Dream Theater footage shoot at BearTracks.

Yeah. Jose – the first thing he did back with me – was he went to Korea with us. We did one show during the making of SFAM and at that point, Magee was already on the road with somebody else and not available, so that’s when Jose called me and told me he was available and he went to Korea with us, and he spent some time with us in the studio when we were mixing and doing rehearsals for Korea and he’s been with me ever since, from that point on.

Max Stax cymbals: I had a set of these on order since December last year and finally got them in August, so they were ages coming to the UK, but were [they] available way before that in the US?

They were premiered at the NAMM show in the first week in February, when we played LA, and then they started hitting the stores around March, April, May, but like anything else here in the UK, there’s not as much demand here as anywhere else in the world. Maybe the Signature stuff takes longer to get out – I’ve no idea.

I love the packaging. I have the triple set of splashes and the plastic bolt that holds them together and the box and everything are so cool!

They’re doing really well and I’m totally happy.

I remember Jose saying in April that at that time, you were still using the prototypes you had for SFAM on the European kit.

Yeah, but now we actually have the Max stuff.

I noticed also that the cup chime under the 7” splash to your right has gone on the kit for this leg – I think it was also missing for the Roseland show.

You’re amazing, I can’t believe you notice all these things! I think this is really a Jose question ‘cos I can’t really answer half the gear questions, but I think the thing that goes from the tambourine to the ice-bell to the splash, I think broke and the only replacement Jose could get could only hold one cymbal, so there’s the splash there instead of the bell, but you’d have to ask him!

I thought I spotted for the Roseland show, the cup chime might have been on top of the low Stax.

Aaaah – you know, you’re right about that, but you’d have to ask him as they’re his tricks, but then I did actually have the bell mounted on the low Stax. You’re absolutely correct – Eagle Eye Al!

One thing about the triple set of splashes is that on my set – and I’ve seen one other like it too, the 11” is stamped as a 10” even though it’s an 11” cymbal!

Really? It was a 10” splash?

It was the correct cymbal size, it just had the wrong stamp on it, everything else was as it should be!

That’s a rare item – very cool!

Have the Kang cymbals in the Stax been made with a tougher edge, as I know when you used to use normal China Kangs, the edges got trashed and bent over.

Well, one of the things when we were developing the cymbals was that the edges tend to get chewed away very easily, so what we did was we intentionally left the edges “unlathed” which is a technical term used during the manufacturing process. What they do is when you start with a cymbal, it’s unlathed and it’s like a piece of marble or something like that, it’s very dark and very thick and then they put it under a lathe and that’s what makes it shiny and thin and what we did was we left the edges unlathed, so basically they are in their original state and that was to make them that much more durable. And I’ve yet to break a set of Stax on this whole tour and we’ve been out a year or so now, so they’re REALLY durable! I wanted to do the same on the splashes, but it turned out that one of the features of the splashes is to be incredibly thin and very high pitched, very cutting, and if we left the edges on those it kind of deadened it too much, so we couldn’t do that with the splashes. The 10” Stax are great – I think they’re my favourite. One of the things we were developing on the Stax on the high set, we developed two different sets of high Stax, one was an 8” set, which is what we ultimately went with, the other was a combination of a 7” Kang and an 8” splash so we actually experimented with a 7” and 8” Stax, but ultimately decided against it as it was just TOO small sounding.

TRANSATLANTIC

Again, this album pretty much everywhere you read got universal praise in reviews, did that surprise you or did you just know this was a great product?

I think it gets universal praise unless you’re reading a Roine Stolt interview! He seems to be the most critical critic of that album I’ve read! But, creatively I knew when we made it I was incredibly proud of it. The music just felt amazing to me. I’ve said this many times, but in 1999 my three greatest masterpieces were made with “Scenes from a Memory” the “Transatlantic” album and my son, but I really had that feeling that man this was an incredible album with great music. But I didn’t know how people would take to it, because it is very different from Dream Theater; it doesn’t have any of the metal elements that DT fans usually would be looking for, and it didn’t have any of the over the top technical chops that DT fans would look for. So I was wondering how Dream Theater fans would take to it. I know there are a great amount of DT fans that grew up with Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd, but not necessarily ALL of the DT audience has that background, so that was my only concern with how the other side of the DT audience would take to it. I think even some of the people probably still were disappointed and wanted a more Dream Theater sounding side project liked Liquid Tension, but to me, to do anymore side projects that are similar to Dream Theater, is just pointless for me. You know, Liquid Tension was great and something that John and Jordan [did] so it ended up sounding very Dream Theater-esque, but to me it would be pointless to do something too DT-esque anymore. I have that with Dream Theater.

Did you have a really instant chemistry when the four of you got together?

Yeah. There wasn’t even so much bonding time personally. Literally, we showed up at the studio, said hello. It was the first time physically meeting each other; well actually I had known Pete, and Roine and Neal had known each other, but otherwise it was the first time any of us had physically met each other and we had maybe ten minutes to say hello and get to know each other, and then we immediately got behind our instruments and started making music together!

It sounds so accomplished from both a performance and songwriting viewpoint, like complete songs had been prepared already.

Well in a sense, we had been planning it for months. We had been sending tapes back and forth, so we had Neal’s demos for “All of the Above” and “We All Need Some Light”, and Roine’s demo of “My New World” and obviously we had been planning on doing the Procul Harum cover, so we were prepared in a sense. You know, we were all on the same page of where we were taking it, but I think you’re dealing with some really and truly accomplished players and musicians and writers, so I think everybody was very professional and knew how to blend. The biggest thing that somebody had to adapt to was probably Neal and Roine having to work in a band scenario. Those guys are very used to just completely running the show and handing completed songs to their respective bands, so I think they had to adapt a bit to the writing process, which was something that me and Pete were already comfortable with.

There’s some lovely percussion on the album.

I can’t take credit for any of it! I didn’t play any percussion on that album! It’s all Roine, I just played drums and sang.

Another thing that I noticed was that some of the SFAM drumming ideas crept through onto the album e.g. the 32 second note patterns on the Stax and cymbal bell ideas.

That’s just the nature of the Stax – it’s how I use them if they’re on the kit – I’ll create those kind of patterns.

On the Limited Edition bonus CD, the version of “My New World” has a different sounding snare and drum sound in general – the snare sound is very like Alan White’s snare on the Yes album “Drama”.

That’s one of my favourite Yes albums. That version of “My New World” – I love that version.... on the bonus CD is un-mixed, that’s actually just in the studio with a lot of the reference tracks and that’s just mine and Neal’s vocals, so it’s Neal doing a lot of lead vocals and then my backups which are very predominant, more so than other mixes.... so I like that version because it’s super-raw and you can really hear mine and Neal’s harmonies and the drums aren’t processed at all – it’s all a completely live and rough mix...

Does it frustrate you that it takes SO long for the public to get to hear the stuff that you record – I mean the time it takes for albums to be released from when they’re recorded?

Yeah, but I guess you just get used to it; that’s just the way it is. When I’m done making something, I’m SO excited about it and can’t wait for people to hear it and I have to sit on it for three months before anybody can hear it! But yeah it’s frustrating and by the time it comes out everybody else is getting that spark of excitement that you had three months earlier and you’re already past it and on to the next project, but there really is no way round it. It’s like that with anything like writing a book or making a movie – live performance you get that immediate reaction or a Broadway show or sporting event you get that immediate response – but when it comes to creating something like that, it’s almost never that you’ll have that immediate response.

Is Transatlantic something that you have a large degree of control over e.g. merchandise, gigs, support bands?

I do have as much control in that as I’d like, but to be completely honest, I’m thoroughly enjoying relinquishing that power in this project. I did assemble the project, I did put it together and at the early stages, I was VERY controlling about it you know – the sequence of the songs, where we would record etc. – but as time has gone on and as the project has grown and as it seems to be continuing, I’m really enjoying taking a back seat! I mean I’m totally obsessive and controlling when it comes to Dream Theater and every other thing I do, that in a way – and I’ve even told Roine and Neal that I don’t WANT to be the leader of this project – let me just show up and play drums! So it’s hard for me to relinquish a lot of that just because of my nature; I just get obsessive about things, but I’m learning more and more about how to let go and in this particular project. I’m enjoying being less and less in control.

In the live Transatlantic shows, I think Maddi came out with you (DT bass/keys tech on previous leg of M2000 tour legs); have any other DT crew guys been out with him?

Yeah, Maddi and Jose did all the shows, and it was going to be Jerry (Carillo – DT production manager/sound engineer) as well doing the sound and tour managing, but he actually had a back operation a week before the tour, so he couldn’t do it and we ended up getting a substitute for him.

How did you feel about the reaction you got to the Transatlantic live shows?

Well, it was a very different experience. It was hard for us to be too rehearsed just because there wasn’t much time, so there was a very raw feel to the shows. Whereas the album and the writing was very polished and very together, I think the shows were a little more raw, and it wasn’t until maybe the last show where we really started to feel comfortable, not only with the personal chemistry, but also with the performance of the material, so it was a bit of a learning experience. So I think in the future we might want to shy away from touring. If we were to pursue more things with Transatlantic, I think we might have a tendency to do more studio work than live work, but that’s not to say we’re against doing any further touring with it but I think if we do, we need to make sure that we’re a little more prepared.

The stage set-up (with the drums to one side) – was it planned or just came about due to circumstances?

That was something that I wanted to do. I suggested that before we even started rehearsing; I kind of envisioned it that way. I got that idea from “Phish” – they set up most of their shows in that way – the same configuration across the stage. I just figured it would be a fun way to put all four of us across the front of the stage, for a different perspective.

The Progfest gig you did September 1st in LA – the kit wasn’t the “normal” Transatlantic/LTE kit?

Yeah, that was something because it was just a “one off” in LA and the Tama factory in LA provided me with that, and there be things in the future that at NAMM shows, or things that are based in LA, Tama just supplies me with things. Like I said earlier, if it’s not a Dream Theater concert, I’ve become more and more lenient with the setup.

The packaging of the album, particularly the Limited Edition is superb.

Yeah, that also was Roine. He did the whole artwork and Inside Out gets the credit for putting together that package. They’ve done that for a lot of their bands with special editions, like Flower Kings, Spock’s Beard, the new Pain of Salvation; that’s an incredible booklet and multimedia bonus CD. Inside Out is REALLY doing a great, great job for its bands in Europe.

MODERN DRUMMER AWARDS

Did the “Recorded Performance” category win come as a very welcome one this time, in light of the way that SFAM was recorded?

Right... well that’s always to me the biggest compliment – that particular award – because that’s open to every style of music. So I’m running up against Dennis Chambers and Dave Weckl and Carter Beauford, etc. – you know all these guys that play more jazzy type drumming – so anytime I win that category, to me that’s the ultimate award, that’s essentially saying the best album of the year. Was I surprised? I don’t know, because I’d won it for previous albums and I knew “Scenes” had some great performances on it, so I figured if I could win it for “Falling into Infinity” then surely “Scenes” was worthy, but of course like I said earlier, I’m always surprised when it happens.

Also you picked up awards in “Burrrrn” magazine?

Yeah in Burrrrn we won “Best Album of the Year” and then I won “Drummer of the Year” and Jordan won “Keyboard Player of the Year”.

Modern Drummer is still THE magazine that most drummers around the world do get to see – do you still get a buzz from getting the awards?

Yeah! The thing I like about it the most is they give you plaques! I’m up to thirteen right now so I’m starting to run out of room in my living room at home, but I mean, it’s great! I remember for so many years I subscribed to MD and every year I’d read those awards and I would be introduced to so many drummers through those awards. I remember reading about Neil Peart, Bill Bruford, Simon Phillips and that’s how I learned of these guys by seeing their names in the polls.

A few drum/misc. related questions now – still stuff that’s happened or got into the pipeline since we last talked. You mentioned last time that this tour would probably see the end of the three current red/green/purple fade kits – is that still the case and what happens to them if so?

Yeah – I’ve been talking with Jose and Tama about evolving some new kits for the next tour and I have some ideas; it’s probably premature to talk about it but we’ll see what happens. I have some ideas, and what happens to these kits – I don’t know. I really can’t imagine having any purpose for THREE of ‘em! I’d like to put at least one of them in my basement, but the other two, I don’t know what will happen to them. I don’t know if they get sent to my house, or maybe I’ll leave one in Europe and one in Japan – it can’t hurt to have them for clinics, but I haven’t gone that far yet. Tama is also putting out a Signature snare for me, too – the “Melody Master” – and it will premiere at the next NAMM show in January, and there’s two models. One is a maple shell and it’s a traditional 14” x 5.5” and the other is a steel or bronze or similar metal shell and it’s a 12” head with a 5” shell, more like a piccolo, and the finish on them is really cool; the maple one is wood engraved Dream Theater symbols all different sizes, engraved into the drum, it’s really cool! The snare is actually part of a new three person series like last year with the Bruford/Aronoff/Phillips and this new series is myself, Stewart Copeland and Lars Ulrich.

John Petrucci has a new guitar video coming out – has it actually been recorded?

I don’t think so. I probably know as much as you guys from what I’ve read on the internet. I know he wants to do it and he wants to do it on his own, the same way he’s started selling merchandise and he’s putting out his and Jordan’s thing, so I think he’s intending on doing it on his own, but as far as I know, he hasn’t done anything yet.

New Transatlantic album due next year....

Yeah, Dream Theater is planning on reconvening in February, so I think we’ll be doing a new Transatlantic album in January.

Have you got anything else planned apart from the Roseland DVD, new Dream Theater album and Transatlantic?

I hope not! I desperately need a break and hopefully I’ll get some time in November/December and then Transatlantic in January and also in January I’m making an appearance at the NAMM show in LA to premiere the signature snare, and they’re planning on me Stewart and Lars doing “something”; I have some ideas about what I want to do with that, and there are some cool potential for what I want to do for that performance, but we’ll see what happens.

The LTE2 unreleased jams – I guess with the situation with Magna Carta, they’ll never get released?

Well.... actually, that’s a strange thing. The sole contact I have had with Magna Carta has been when they contacted me as they REALLY want to release that stuff, but those tapes are missing believe it or not! They can’t find the master tapes; I have all the live DATs which are unmixed and I think are totally suitable for release but they can’t seem to find the actual multitrack tapes because they DO want to release them and it’s a giant mystery which is in their hands to resolve. If they can find them, then I’m totally supportive of them putting that CD out as there’s some absolutely amazing stuff on those tapes that I would love to see the light of day. I think in a certain sense and in a situation like this, it would be totally fine to release the DAT stuff I have as they are totally spontaneous.

www.mikeportnoy.com – this just goes from strength to strength. Any plans for updates and improvements?

That’s all Dave Hatlee, and once again, all the credit to him – he’s the man. And I think the Forum there has taken over as THE place to be if you’re a Dream Theater fan, but the one thing we are going to do in the coming months and years is to add an on-line store. That will be something that Dave will be doing along with my wife Marlene and they are working on that right now. That’s something that John started and we’re going to be doing it as well. While we’re talking about the Internet and stuff, that’s another thing that the Dream Theater online store is going to start to really blossom and have a mind of its own as already we’re offering exclusive merchandise, which is going to be separate from the stuff we offer on tour; there’s going to be jackets and anniversary commemorative shirts and they’re also going to start offering merchandise from the older albums, so you can go there and get a “When Dream and Day Unite” T-shirt or an “Images and Words” T-shirt. So all that stuff is coming soon to the online store as well as reissues of the Christmas CDs, so they’re going to become available and depending on how the sales and the legal clearance goes, I’d also like to start offering other things like CDs and videos from the archives at the Dream Theater online store, so that’s all stuff that fans can look forward to for the coming year.

The DTIFC/Theater of Dreams fan club is also going from strength to strength and is now published in English – it’s a fantastic effort.

Yeah, those guys are just amazing – they just do an incredible job and they are just awesome! They run a great fan club and Mark Bredius is also in Holland so the Dutch have been extremely helpful, as have all of the regional fan clubs.

Finally, can you give us any more on progress of the Roseland DVD/VHS?

I’ve been totally hard at work on that, it’s been a real labour of love! It’s been my ultimate dream to truly direct and get to do this, so it’s amazing. But it’s been a lot of work, and right now, we’re going through the process of just the technicalities of what can and can’t fit onto a DVD versus the VHS, but the VHS is going to be only “Scenes” so that’ll be about a 90 minute video, just “Scenes from a Memory” live and the DVD will be “Scenes from a Memory” live and if all goes well, will be with an audio commentary and multi-angle feature, with a behind the scenes documentary and as much from set two as we can fit. Hopefully both the DVD and VHS will be out around February next year as they want to do a simultaneous release. The whole last week before we came here I had some clinics, then the last week until we left for this tour, we set up an entire editing suite in my house! Basically, the editor I’m working with is based in LA, but I spend so little time at home that I told him OK, I have to work in New York and do post-production there, so he had a whole console and editing lab which he shipped over and we set up shop in my basement and it was amazing.

So, there it is! Hopefully, you’ll agree that Mike didn’t hold back on his answers! We had almost 90 minutes in the end and it truly FLEW by! As always, I am truly grateful to MP for taking the time to talk in what was a pretty hectic schedule for him and also big thanks to Robbie my bro’ in law for techie duties/photos and GREAT times as usual on this, our latest DT adventure! Special thanks to Mike also for allowing us to watch the next night’s show from BEHIND the drums – an unforgettable and LOUD experience! Also BIG thanks to Jose (MP’s tech) for putting up with us hanging out in his space! and also the rest of the DT crew who were super friendly (as ever!) for their totally relaxed and welcoming attitude.

See ya next time!

Al Muirden