Technomania: The Portnoy Zone

Hi all!

As a postscript to the interview with Jose, I thought I would take the opportunity to updates you on a couple of things that have occurred since my last instalment (“Solitary Shells”) in issue #26. In 2002, I actually only managed to briefly speak to Mike on two separate occasions, the most recent being in October when we hijacked Jose for the “‘Ho’me from Home” interview. As we were pushed for time we had to gatecrash Dream Theater’s sound-check (which the band had strictly made off limits to outsiders) and I think Mike was a little surprised when we walked into the Astoria Theatre in London! Luckily (as always) he was totally relaxed about it, but as always in these situations, it only works out if the relevant people are pre-warned (i.e. in this case Mike knew we had the Jose interview planned). Anyways, there’s not a massive amount of drum related happenings, but I’ll crack on and give you what I’ve got!

The OSI CD has now been released and as mentioned in issue #26, Mike used the G3 kit for that session, which is fundamentally the same configuration as the right side of the “Siamese Monster” with some of the cymbals repositioned. The kit sounds great, particularly the snare, which was the 12” steel shelled MP125 signature model.

Another product that has become available since my last piece is the 10 Degrees Of Turbulent Drumming DVD, which is exclusively available via www.mikeportnoy.com and is “drum-cam” (filmed on Mike’s own video camera) footage, filmed during the Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence sessions at BearTracks studios in Suffern NY. Incidentally, as I write, another batch of 1000 copies are due in as the initial run sold out!

I actually got my copy of this DVD a bit on the late side, to be honest, with it arriving at my house early in February (good timing, as it happened, as I was stuck at home recovering from a cycling accident!) and to-date, I’ve watched it around 15 times in various modes, the latter few of those as part of my research. However, I can thoroughly recommend anyone who put off getting this DVD, to order it pronto! It’s a must for Mike Portnoy I Dream Theater fans and all drummers I non-drummers alike... There will be a follow up DVD to this one, later this year again using ‘drum-cam’ footage taken during the Transatlantic Bridge Across Forever recordings, so that’s another one to look out for!

I spotted some things on the “10 Degrees” DVD I thought worth pointing out; starting with the intra footage where MP is pictured playing the “Siamese Monster” and it looks like his normal 28” gong has given birth to a baby. I haven’t been able to work out exactly how that gong got there as I have never seen it as part of the touring kit set-up, anyone out there know any more about this? Also, the “Siamese Monster” was in its prototype form on the “Six Degrees” recording, as Mike had been sent drums from Tama and cymbals from Sabian, but the fundamentals of the kit are in place. None of the drums or cymbals are rack mounted and in the case of the drums, there’s a mix of colours with Royal Walnut (certainly for the 10” tom and 20” kick on the small kit) and Cherry Black drums being in evidence. Also, the 10” custom double headed “tymp tom”, which sits between the two kits, had not been finalised so the drum used on the session is a single headed stock 10” Tama mini-timbale.

Mike also points out that there is only one pair of Octobans as part of the main kit, to his left. On the completed touring set-up, there are, of course, four. Another thing pointed out by Mike is that on the small kit there is a 7” Radia bell cymbal, this was later replaced with a 7” Max splash on the touring kit. If you watch The Great Debate you can see the snare mic. Get a whack during a particularly busy section of the song and when MP gets off the stool in Blind Faith, I swear his zipper is undone! This DVD is another reminder of what a creative and formidable force Mr. Portnoy is! Above all else, if you haven’t got it already, then get hold of a copy, you won’t be disappointed!

There has recently been a new advert by one of Mike’s endorsers, Latin Percussion, and Mike is pictured with his previous set-up (which had various Latin Percussion products dotted around it for the photo shoot). This shot was taken at BearTracks during the Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence sessions (Mike had the Japanese “Red Monster” set up in the studio in case it was needed). Of course, Mike has had his share of health problems, with a scary case of double pneumonia at the end of 2002 resulting in him being admitted (and re-admitted!) to hospital. Fortunately, he has made a full recovery and was able to contribute on a couple of tracks for singer John Arch, as his first recorded work since his illness and as I write this article, Dream Theater are well into pre-production for the new album, which should be released later this year.

Jose has been busy being out on the road with Joe Satriani and made a trip to Europe in early March to set up the UK/Europe variant of the “Siamese Monster” for the “Frankfurt Musicmesse” exhibition (the kit was trucked in from the UK for this event), though Mike was not in attendance. Jose has further dates with Satriani and in the summer heads out with “Halford” on the “Metal Gods” tour of the US, then straight after, will be out with Mike for the Dream Theater/Queensryche/Fates Warning tour, which kicks off in July, so he’s going to have another busy year!

Look out for the Transatlantic Live DVD and Live CD due out in May (filmed in November 2001 on the “Bridge Across Europe” tour), the very one where I “teched” for Mike!

So there we have it, not too much “new” stuff to report this time around, but as always, keep ‘em peeled.