Interview with Derek Sherinian

The vast scope of Derek’s experience in the past 10-12 years probably makes him one of rock’s most consummate keyboard players of today. From touring with Kiss and Alice Cooper, his work with Dream Theater, and now, Platypus and Planet X, Derek is a musical force to be reckoned with.

Terry Wickham: Tell me how Platypus came together.

Derek Sherinian: Platypus was originally put together by John Myung. He had the opportunity to put together a side project, he asked me if I wanted to be involved and I immediately accepted. Then he picked Ty Tabor on guitar and vocals. I wasn’t very familiar with Ty’s work at all with King’s X, prior to Platypus. But since working with him, I’ve become a huge fan. John Myung mentioned the possibility of Rod Morgenstein playing drums, which I immediately loved since I was a huge Dixie Dregs fan as a kid and I just think that Rod is awesome. I was very star struck during the whole Platypus sessions, working with Rod.

TW: Very cool.

DS: Yeah, he’s just incredible.

TW: You know, it’s amazing because I interviewed other people before this, and they’ve always mentioned him as one of the drummers that everyone wants to work with.

DS: He’s just very gifted.

TW: What’s your feelings about the album now that you’ve heard it and it’s been out?

DS: When I listen to the Platypus album I smile because we wrote it and recorded it in two weeks. That is a very short amount of time to come up with that kind of stuff and also take in account that we all didn’t know each other. We were all thrown into a room for the first time and had to come up with fifty minutes of music. So the writing process and recording process was very intense. Every hour was utilized, we pulled it together at the end. You listen back to the final results and it’s like, “Wow!”

TW: It does sound excellent. I really like the whole album. I’m a big fan of the instrumental stuff, ‘Rock Balls/Destination Unknown’, ‘Platt Opus’, ‘Blue Plate Special’ some of those songs stood out for me. I heard part of one song on the Dream Theater live album.

DS: Yeah, I kind of quoted from ‘Platt Opus’ on my live solo.

TW: Was that something that you were playing with trying to get down and decided to add to your solo?

DS: Like I said, this Platypus album had been out for a year. So when I did the Dream Theater live album, I wanted to use a little excerpt from it.

TW: So, the Platypus came first?

DS: Yes.

TW: That’s cool, because the other guys used part of Liquid Tension in John Petrucci’s solo. Tell me a little about your past. I know you’ve worked with a lot of people. Let our fans know an idea of what you’ve recorded besides this and obviously I think everyone is familiar with Dream Theater.

DS: My first big break in the business was with Alice Cooper in 1989. I did two tours and two albums with him, The Last Temptation and Classics. I did a tour with Kiss before I joined Dream Theater as well. I played on Kiss Alive III.

TW: What was it like working with those legends?

DS: Gene Simmons is just amazing. I just think he’s hysterical to watch, because he’s totally making a mockery of the music business, which is so grossly stacked against the artists and he’s totally turned it around and is making so much money. He’s totally doing things on his terms. You gotta love it.

TW: So he’s a real business man. Obviously you’ve worked with a lot of different talented people. Who were some of the ones you were really struck by?

DS: Out of everyone I’ve ever played with my whole career, the most talented person was Buddy Miles.

TW: I’m not familiar with his music.

DS: Buddy Miles is a drummer and he played in Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsies. He’s also a vocalist. That was the first thing I did before playing with Alice Cooper. I was playing in R&B clubs with Buddy Miles. His voice was just amazing, total soul. There are some people who were just born with the gift, it’s just undeniable and Buddy definitely has it.

TW: [laughs] How old where you, when you played with Buddy or Alice Cooper?

DS: Twenty-one when I started with Buddy and I turned twenty-three when I started with Alice. That was ten years ago, it’s my ten year anniversary. I guess that makes me a veteran.

TW: Nothing wrong with that. This is kind of unrelated, but I’m actually an independent filmmaker and I’ve always wanted to ask a rock keyboardist... do you ever listen movie soundtracks?

DS: Funny you ask that because I just assembled a twenty-four track digital studio in my house. I’m going to expand it out because I’m really interested in venturing off to doing soundtrack stuff. Because like I’ll turn on HBO or Showtime or whatever and I watch a lot of these B-movies that are on. I listen to the soundtrack behind them and it’s just horrible. I bet these people are making a lot of money with just total shit. It’s like, I want to get involved with that.

TW: You listen to a guy like John Carpenter, who’s one of my favorite directors. He’s not overly a technical player as a piano or keyboard player, but I’ll tell you what... he’s scored like fifteen out of his nineteen films. People love his music and he’s inspired a lot of other composers in the music field as far as scary movies. I’m a big fan of his music. So you figure a guy like yourself, who plays even more complicated music than that could easily do film scores.

DS: Oh, I would love it. My dream is to have studio fully loaded up here in the Hollywood hills, a bag of weed and a soundtrack to compose, you know, ten of them a year. That would be nirvana and do that all the way until I die. That’s a dream man.

TW: Now I was going to ask this question and if you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t have to say anything.

DS: About Dream Theater. I’m totally fine.

TW: What kind of like happened?

DS: In a nutshell. I was recording my solo album. I get a phone call, the other four guys were on the line. They said, “Derek, we want to hire Jordan Rudess on keyboards.” It was plain and simple, it was totally out of the blue. I wasn’t expecting it but the bottom line is that it’s their band and they’ve been in it for over fifteen years and they had to do what they felt was best for their direction. I have no hard feelings whatsoever. I’m still doing Platypus with John Myung, who’s the bass player from Dream Theater obviously. Bands change members all the time and I have no bad feelings towards those guys. It was a very positive experience. I learned a lot, it opened up a lot of doors for me.

TW: Yeah, no doubt about it. It’s weird because Dream Theater is my favorite band. I’ve been following them, because I live on Long Island. I’ve followed them since 1992. I just like their music a lot, because heavy and soft, all in one. When I heard about the change, I was pretty surprised.

DS: A lot of people were. What’s so funny is within one week from getting fired, I end up finding out that I’ve been voted #1 Keyboardist in Metal Edge magazine.

TW: Awesome. What about your solo album?

DS: The album is titled Planet X. I have Virgil Donati on drums, Brett Garsed on guitars and Tony Franklin on bass. The album is a cross between Van Halen and Mahesheanie Orchestra, UK, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, all of those things, Jeff Beck. It’s more drawn from 70’s fusion than progressive rock but there’s a very progressive element there and it’s very heavy. Very big sound and I’m very excited about it. I haven’t been this excited about making music since I was a teenager.

TW: Do you think you’ll possibly go on tour?

DS: Love to if it made sense. If people wanted it.

TW: Now I saw your name on a bunch of compilations and tributes. Maybe you can name some of those.

DS: I can’t even remember all of them, I did about twenty records last year. I know I’m coming out on the Alice Cooper Tribute. The Prince Tribute album I did. Emerson Lake And Palmer is one of them. Aerosmith and Ozzy. The record company will put out five records and I’ll go do a session and do Aerosmith, Prince and Ozzy in one day. So I come out all these different records.

TW: So it’s like they spread you out and you’re on everything. Very cool. Has Platypus got a chance to play Europe yet?

DS: We haven’t done any shows whatsoever. In fact I haven’t seen Ty and Rod in a year. Haven’t really even talked to them.

TW: [laughs] Do you think that one of the reasons that Dream Theater thing cut off because you live on the west coast?

DS: You know what, I can sit and speculate probably a million different reasons you know. I mean we can dig into it. But the bottom line is, they met Jordan Rudess before they met me. He even played a show with them and they really wanted him four years ago. But he was unavailable for whatever reason. But I guess, over the last four years, Jordan felt that this would be a good situation for him. So whatever. We can sit here and analyze it but the fact of the matter is they’ve always wanted to play with Jordan. Now it was possible, so they exercised that option. Bottom line.

TW: In the world of keyboard players, piano players and all that in rock music, is it as competitive as the guitar players? I know that I’ve talked to guitar players and you sense a competitive nature between them. Even when it’s not said.

DS: You know, I guess. I don’t feel competitive. I mean I listen to a player like Jordan Rudess and he’s probably the most technically proficient keyboardist I’ve ever heard in thirty-two years. I’ve listened to a lot of keyboard players from Chick Corea to Emerson to different people. And Jordan is truly a world-class player. But as far as competitiveness, I mean to me his style is worlds apart from mine. It’s a totally different style. I’m much heavier and I have much more of a rock influence. It’s a totally different feel. So to compare it, and say that Jordan is better than Derek, Derek is better than Kevin it’s ridiculous. Because each one of us is coming in from a totally different angle.

TW: I agree with you because it’s like, is Spielberg actually any better than James Cameron...?

DS: Or better than Scorsese or whatever.

TW: Yeah, they’re all just different.

DS: I guess the hardest thing is like joining Dream Theater, with all their hard-core fans, anytime you change member, the fans get shaky and I can understand that. When I came in, these people were expecting me to be a lyricist like Kevin Moore was but I’m not a lyricist. That’s not what I do. So these people were saying that I’m not as deep as Kevin, or because I’m not an original member, I get slammed by a few of these people. But what people have to take into consideration is that for every one or two people or ten people that print negative stuff on the Internet, I was getting like thirty to fifty positive fan letters a day. If you look at the readers polls, in all the magazines, I was put in the top three keyboardists all over the world. And as I said earlier, in Metal Edge I was voted number one keyboard player by the fans. So even though there was a lot of negative Derek stuff, there’s also a positive side.

TW: I myself would say, being a fan of Dream Theater, when I first started listening to the stuff with Kevin, I liked it. But when you came along, I think the band was actually better. I thought the last album, Falling Into Infinity was the best album they’ve ever done. Obviously you are part of that.

DS: It’s apples and oranges. It’s all about preferences. It’s like the people who got into Dream Theater originally, Images and Words period, that’s what is ingrained in their head. It’s like when you by a can of Coca-Cola, you want it to taste like the Coke you know and love since you were a kid. If you buy Coke and it tastes like 7UP that’s weird. The 7UP might taste great, but it’s not the Coke you expected.

TW: Looking back Alice Cooper, Kiss, Platypus and Dream Theater. What is a fond memory from each?

DS: I remember playing 1989 at the Skydome with Alice Cooper on New Year’s Eve. That to me, that was when it sunk in that, “Wow, all this hard work had paid off. It’s starting to happen.” I remember that being a monumental moment in my career.

TW: When you looked out to the Skydome, that’s in Toronto right?

DS: Yes.

TW: Could you see the people. Or were the lights blinding.

DS: Oh you could see them, it was huge. It was like 60,000 people inside the dome. That was just very exciting. That first Alice Cooper tour. It’s such a long time ago, but I remember it so vividly. I hope that any musician that dreams of making it, can get to experience that. The feeling of doing a tour like that.

TW: Must be a rush.

DS: It’s just the best.

TW: Give me something from Dream Theater and Platypus.

DS: My best memory from Dream Theater is when we played in Greece. We played this outdoor theater up on the mountain, in Athens. That was incredible. That was the best time I had in Dream Theater. Platypus was just a fun situation. We laughed a lot, but we had so much work to do that we really didn’t get a lot of time to breathe and get to know each other. But hopefully on the next recording we will get a little more time.

TW: Where was that recorded at?

DS: Millbrook Studios in Millbrook, New York.

TW: What is something that the world doesn’t know about you, that maybe someday we hopefully will see?

DS: I eventually want to get into producing bands.

TW: Any particular kind?

DS: Anything. Good bands. Good music. I don’t care what style.

TW: That would be with your own studio.

DS: Yeah. I want to continue making solo albums. I’m very excited about this musical partnership with I have with Virgil Donati, the drummer that’s on my record.

TW: Where does he come from?

DS: Australia. He hasn’t played on many records out here at all but he’s taking the drum world by storm. He’s on the cover of Modern Drummer, next issue. He’s just phenomenal. Remember that name “Virgil Donati”.

TW: Okay. You mentioned your studio. Is that complete now?

DS: It is. I actually recorded my album here. It’s amazing, it’s very gratifying to roll out of bed and to just waddle into the next room and make your album. A very cool thing.

TW: Does that take a certain kind of discipline? Like say, “I’m going to do it today” or sometimes “I’ll do it later on.” How do you do it?

DS: You have deadlines and you do that math. You figure out what needs to be done and how many days you have to do it. You act accordingly, you can’t take a three day break if you have to get stuff done by a certain time.

TW: What are some of the things you are listening to now that you just find interesting? That’s in your record/CD collection?

DS: Honestly the last four months I haven’t been listening to anything except my record. Because I’ve been totally trying to immerse myself in the parts. When I get focused on a project, I don’t like to listen to any outside stuff. But when I was on tour I went and bought like twenty jazz CDs and at some point, I want to kick back and listen for a couple weeks.

TW: I know as a musician I guess you can get very busy and it’s almost as though you can’t always enjoy the music.

DS: Yeah. Because you are playing constantly. Like with Dream Theater, since the band never did rehearsals and we would spend a lot of time apart, between shows there would be light intervals, we’d have to learn new sets all the time. We were constantly reviewing material and learning the stuff. When you are constantly having to review stuff, you never get a chance to really listen and enjoy the music or write other stuff.

TW: You know that’s interesting that you brought that up, because I never thought of that before. I’m sure a lot of fans would find that interesting. You were saying you were apart a lot as if you took a whole year. How many times were you actually together? Like in Dream Theater?

DS: I think we played like 120 shows or something like that. We were together like eight months.

TW: That’s still a lot.

DS: Yeah.

TW: I’m sure you can get on each other’s nerves. If you’re married, your wife can get on your nerves in a week. So I’m sure with a band it’s no different.

DS: Oh man. Yeah, definitely... [laughs]

TW: What’s something that the fans out there, don’t know about Alice Cooper? That would be interesting to know? Like an interest he has?

DS: He loves to play Poker.

TW: Is he good?

DS: He’s a great Poker player. Very conservative. He doesn’t make bold moves. But he consistently wins. But the last time we played, I took him down a few hundred bucks.

TW: [laughs]

DS: He wasn’t too happy about it.

TW: So he’s competitive when it comes to Poker?

DS: Oh, he loves it and it isn’t like he’s making tons of money. But I think he likes the actual act of winning money off his employees, meaning his band.

TW: The guitar player then, was his name Pitrelli?

DS: Al Pitrelli. He’s gone through a lot of guitar players. I’ve been playing shows with Alice on and off for ten years; even during my tenure with Dream Theater I was touring with Alice. He’s gone through a lot of different guys.

TW: Obviously this is a guitar magazine, what’s something about John Petrucci?

DS: John Petrucci, probably one of the most disciplined musicians I’ve ever worked with. I’ve got to really hand it to the guy, he’s done his homework.

TW: He gets down to business.

DS: He does. He can sit down with a metronome, with the discipline of learning licks and stuff that are beyond his reach with the same tenacity as probably when he was sixteen years old. I know in my 30’s, that you lose a lot of the drive. [laughs] You already got some money coming in or whatever. Practice, shmacktice. This one thing I’ve got to hand to John Petrucci and John Myung. Those two guys are just constantly practicing, I think it’s awesome.

TW: Something about John Myung the fans don’t know about?

DS: He’s probably one nicest people I’ve ever met. He’s a class act. He’s great.

TW: Just a nice guy.

DS: Yeah.

TW: How about the drummer, Mike Portnoy?

DS: Mike Portnoy has a lot of spirit. You gotta admire his spirit.

TW: A lot of energy, huh?

DS: He’s the heart and soul of that band.

TW: The singer, James LaBrie?

DS: James is Canadian.

TW: Does he stay with the band, or like you, did he come in when it was time?

DS: James pretty much came in when it came time to demo the songs, once everything was written. They’d fly James down to come in and do his vocals.

TW: What about Rod Morgenstein?

DS: The guy always has a smile on his face. The guy is such a pro that he can listen to an arrangement and clock it through one time. Make it on a chart and go cut a drum track for the album in one or two takes. He’s that good.

TW: Wow. How about Ty Tabor?

DS: Totally nice guy. Very soft spoken. Very smart. Plays with a lot of soul on his guitar. He reminds me of David Gilmour a lot. And I said that to him and he said , “Well, I don’t like the way Gilmour plays.”

TW: [laughs]

DS: Gilmour is like phenomenal. I meant that as a major compliment, but I guess he doesn’t see that.

TW: When you were in Dream Theater, did you feel like you had made it to the very top? Or as a band there was more room to grow? Like did you feel like you were there?

DS: Absolutely not. Please. If you mention the name Dream Theater to music fans, one out of twenty five might know the band. So, Dream Theater has its share of influence for the fans who are fanatical. But in the big scheme of things, it’s very obscure. As opposed to like Alice Cooper or Kiss, where you mention their names, they are household names. So you asked me if I felt like I made it in Dream Theater, hardly. But within that genre, that limited share of influence, I guess, yeah. In the big picture and what I want to achieve, no. Definitely not.

TW: What’s your favorite track on the Platypus album.

DS: I like a few of them. I think they are great moments on the record.

TW: I really like your music and appreciate your time.

DS: If people want to check out what’s happening with my music the can go to my Website www.dereksherinian.com

TW: You update that frequently?

DS: It’s constantly updated with news and stuff. They can stay in touch with my solo records and my activities.