Mike Portnoy: In Constant Motion

The last time we interviewed Mike Portnoy was for the first issue of New Voice. It was on Dream Theater’s final day in the studio recording Octavarium. With Dream Theater back in the studio to record their new album there was a certain symmetry to the idea of asking him to contribute his second full interview as New Voice enters its second year of production. Mike has always been a keen supporter of Voices UK and New Voice and was happy to contribute his views on the experiences of the past few months since the triumphant show at Radio City Music Hall in NYC, the new album, his side projects and many other things besides.

So one October evening we found ourselves on the phone to Mike – he was just starting his last afternoon in the studio before breaking to go with John Petrucci to Mexico on the South American leg of the G3 tour.

KP: Last time we saw you, we left you in the company of Eddie Trunk and Chris Jericho in the wee small hours of April 2nd. Would you give us a run-down of what you’ve been doing for the past six months since then?

MP: I was supposed to be on vacation, but that didn’t quite work out the way I had hoped! I think I had a vacation from April 2nd till April 6th and that was about it! Shortly after that we went to work on mixing the Score CD and me and John Petrucci did that with Michael Brauer. That happened right after the gig. And then when that was wrapped I basically spent the next month or two in the directing capacity for the DVD. The first half of my summer was focusing on that, which took a lot of work. What else? All my travels have been documented, but I guess to put them in my own words...

After that I did The Who tribute, the Amazing Journey shows with Paul Gilbert, Billy Sheehan, and Gary Cherone. Three shows across America – it was absolutely awesome, I loved playing with those guys, I thought it was an incredible line up and for me, so much fun, to tap into the spirit of Keith Moon; he’s one of my biggest drum heroes of all time.

I’ve been hard at work on my new instructional video which will be out through Hudson Music. It’s called In Constant Motion and it’s gonna be an absolute monster of a DVD. As of now it’s running over five hours and could end up hitting the six hour mark by the time we’re done. It’s basically two volumes, one volume is all focusing on Dream Theater and all the Dream Theater albums I’ve done since my previous instructional video in 1999 and then the second volume is covering everything I’ve done outside of Dream Theater in the last seven years. So it’s got footage on there from Transatlantic, Neal Morse, OSI, John Petrucci with the G3 tour, my appearances with Fates Warning and Overkill, the John Arch album and all four of my tribute bands: Yellow Matter Custard, Hammer of the Gods, Cygnus and Amazing Journey. So it’s basically packed with stuff!

I did Neal Morse’s latest album, I did that I think in August, it’s another epic and as always it’s great working with Neal. And then Rhythm magazine asked me to be the guest editor for an issue. It looks like that’s probably going to hit the stands the end of December. Basically the whole idea was to let me be the guest editor and interview four drummers who helped shape me as a drummer, four of my big influences. I’ve had the honour of sitting down and talking with Neil Peart, and Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and next month I’m going to be completing the project by talking to Bill Bruford and Lars Ulrich. That’s been a lot of fun and it’s something that will be really special. It’s something that’s originating from your stomping ground as Rhythm is an English magazine.

RP: In relation to the instructional DVD, you said you’ve been spending a lot of time working on that over the last few months. Has there been much overlap with now having gone into the studio for DT to work on the new album?

MP: I spent a few days at Allaire Studios back in July or August shooting all the performance and instructional parts of the video. I moved in there with three different kits, I had the Albino Monster for all the Dream Theater stuff and then I had a medium sized kit for the Transatlantic and Neal Morse music, and then I had a small kit for the OSI material. Eric Disrude (my drum tech) and I went there for the week and worked with Hudson. That was a pretty focused session, really concentrating on playing and performing and talking – all the instructional end. So that took place in the summer and then since then there’s been the post-production side which has been pretty involved because it’s required me to get a lot of stuff out of my archives to cover a lot of the other things, like all the different tribute bands, live footage from Neal Morse, Transatlantic, Fates Warning and Overkill. studio footage from John Arch and OSI. So it’s required a lot of time from me to go through my archives, dig out the footage and compile it and send it off to the editor. So that’s kinda overlapped now with me being in the studio with Dream Theater – the last couple of weeks or so I’ve really been kind of ‘double dipping’ between the two. Splitting my time between tracking and recording and writing with Dream Theater and then in any available time, going through all my tapes and trying to compile everything for Hudson.

RP: It’s just been confirmed that Score has gone Platinum. There’s been a definite upsurge in media exposure surrounding that DVD, most notably you being on Metal Mania and then the Score showings on VH1 Classic in the States. How did that come about and how satisfying has it been to be getting some media coverage, considering the limited presence in that sense since the mid-90s?

MP: Well, we’re happy with any coverage we get because we’re used to not getting very much at all. We’re used to living in our own little bubble, doing things our own way. I mean every time we get any kind of mainstream coverage, especially if it’s positive, we’re very happy with it and we welcome it. How it came about? Whatever we got was a cross between the efforts of Rhino Records, who actually released the product and in the case of the VH1 thing – that came about from my friendship with Eddie Trunk, a VJ over there. Eddie and I are really good friends and he’s always been a big Dream Theater fan and supporter, so I think he kind of helped make that happen. Any coverage is good coverage!

RP: A couple of general questions about the cover bands you’ve done. Thinking back over all of the projects, how did you go about choosing the various members?

MP: Starting with the first one, Yellow Matter Custard – the way I chose that line up was choosing other people who I knew were as fanatical about The Beatles as I was. It started with Neal Morse, he was my first choice for that band, Neal and I had been covering Beatles stuff in Transatlantic, his solo work, he and I are both Beatles fans – so he was obvious. Matt Bissonette came about because I had toured with him when he was playing with Joe Satriani and he was also a Beatles fanatic, who also had done some touring with Ringo, so he had that background – he was an obvious choice. And my original guitar pick for Yellow Matter Custard was Ty Tabor from King’s X. Originally me and Ty and Matt Bissonette toured together in the summer of 2002, when Dream Theater and King’s X and Joe Satriani played together. The three of us were always talking about The Beatles, being huge fans, so he was my first choice for that, but then a scheduling conflict made him unavailable so then I started thinking about other guitar players. Paul’s name crossed my mind because I knew he was so versatile, he can play anything and I knew he was a big Beatles fan, so I invited him for that. And then once I worked with Paul on Yellow Matter Custard it became obvious that he was the perfect right-hand man for all of these tribute bands, because he’s just so versatile and has such love for a range of different bands and different music – he reminds me very much of myself in that respect. He’s just a fan first and foremost, and has a real big wealth of knowledge of music and the history of music, very much like myself so when it came time to do these tribute bands, when Hammer of the Gods came up it was obvious he would be perfect for that and then Cygnus he was perfect for that and Amazing Journey he was perfect for that. It became obvious that he was my go-to guy for these projects.

RP: With the Amazing Journey project, how was it having Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan back together again in the line-up?

MP: I think of all the line-ups I’ve put together the Amazing Journey line-up was the most awesome of all. It was really exciting to see Billy and Paul back together again and I know people that were Mr. Big fans were also very excited to see them reunited. There was no question in my mind that Billy was the perfect choice for a Who tribute. In fact, I wanted to do a Who tribute a year earlier and he was unavailable and I wouldn’t consider doing a Who tribute without Billy, so I kind of waited until his schedule opened up in order to have him onboard for it, because he was perfect. John Entwistle’s playing is a kinda lead style, especially if you listen to like Live at Leeds. The classic line-up in the early 70s – they were such an awesome live band and John Entwistle’s bass was such a lead instrument. So Billy was absolutely perfect for that and then Gary was actually suggested to me by Paul – I think it was an inspired choice. I think Gary was absolutely perfect for it because he’s an amazing front man and his voice and characteristics really reminded me of Roger Daltrey in a lot of ways. It was really an inspired line-up and I think it would make a killer line-up to do an original project together some time down the road. I think the four of us had a great playing chemistry together.

RP: How did you feel about it when your drumkit attempted to viciously assault Gary on the head?!

MP: [laughs] erm.... I don’t think my drumkit assaulted Gary on the head, I think Gary assaulted my drumkit with his head! That was just one of those heat of the moment things; Gary is such an amazing front man that I’m sure he’s got many scars through the years from his on-stage antics.

KP: When will that project be out on CD and DVD?

MP: I hope soon. I just compiled one track for inclusion on my instructional video, so looking through that footage is my first step into listening and looking at the tapes and there’s some great stuff here. I’m hoping to have some time in the coming months to start going through the tapes and mix them and edit them. I’d like to say I’d have them out by Christmas, but I don’t know if that’s (realistic). If not by Christmas surely some time afterwards.

RP: You’ve talked recently about wanting to do a metal project of some form. Have you got any ideas as to what kind of style? Would it be an original project or a covers thing?

MP: Well I guess the most obvious thing would be the one that’s been talked about now for many months, which is a collaboration with Mikael Åkerfeldt and Steven Wilson. If I’m going to do another project, and if it’s going to be a metal one, that seems to be the one that’s kind of waiting in the wings. The three of us have been talking about collaborating for a year or two at this point, it’s just been a matter of scheduling, as all three of us have very busy schedules, but all three of us would love to do something and I think the two of them are incredibly creative forces for their respective bands. Much as Transatlantic was a progressive rock supergroup and then OSI at least in the beginning, was supposed to have been a progressive metal supergroup, I think working with Steven and Michael could be a progressive metal supergroup of its own. So we’ll wait and see. I’m hoping sometime in the near future we can align our schedules to be able to pull it off. I’m probably going to get heat for calling anything that I’m a part of a supergroup! Oh well!!!!

RP: In light of you and Jordan going to the Porcupine Tree show recently, would DT or you in another capacity ever consider doing something similar to what they’ve been doing at the moment in terms of the whole ‘touring before recording the album’ kind of thing and working it out in the live situation?

MP: Erm... I don’t think so. We did that in ‘96-’97 before Falling into Infinity. We went out, we played a lot of the Falling into Infinity material before we went into the studio, and it was a lot of fun in one respect, and I really, really enjoyed it actually, but that was I think, right before the heyday of the Internet. I don’t think I would ever be willing to do that now because of the Internet – I would hate for the music to be recorded and spread. Basically, if we played a show debuting some new material it would be all over the Net the next day and for me, I prefer when new music is heard for the first time in its proper context. I have no problem with tape trading and bootlegging and downloading – the only time I ever have an issue with that is when it’s new music, before the proper release. And if we were to go out and play any of the material live it’d be in danger of doing that and I just hate to have fans speculating and discussing and criticising stuff when it hasn’t been heard in the proper context. We’ve had this situation on the last couple of tours where we actually were playing live, like in 2003 when we did the Queensryche tour – we had the Train of Thought material written, but we chose not to play it. The same with Six Degrees... I think we did some shows Before that came out and it was a conscious decision to not play any new material until the album was out.

KP: So talking about albums, you’re currently shopping around for your new record deal. JP told us in Boston that you already had some offers back then, but obviously nothing’s yet been signed. How many people have you been talking to and what is it that you’re primarily looking for and to avoid, in a record deal based on the previous deal that he told us was “Not a very good one!”?

MP: As far as how many different labels, I’ll just say ‘several’. As for what we’re looking for? I think it comes down to three things. One is complete creative freedom, that’s something that we’ve been able to acquire through the past few years now and it’s something we need to absolutely maintain at all times down the future. And every label that we’ve talked to is absolutely 1000% behind that. Nobody that we’ve talked to wants to get in our way, they want us to make the records that we make and deliver it to them and then they’ll get involved and you know, that’s what we need.

The next aspect would be we need support! Promotional support. We haven’t had that on our last few albums; in fact I don’t think we’ve had that since Images and Words really. I think it would be nice to have a little creative support from a label in terms of marketing and promotion. We basically want to make the record we make and then once we deliver it have a label actually run with it and do everything that they’re supposed to do, everything that they do for their other acts, to promote it as best as they can. So I think that we definitely are looking for some of that fresh blood injection into the marketing of a record.

And third, (I’ll probably get heat for saying this) is the financial end. Y’know, we’ve been doing this a very long time, our previous deal was a seven album deal that we signed 15 years ago and we didn’t have much leverage at that point. We were a new band with no track record, so it wasn’t the best deal we could have signed. At this point, 21 years into our career, we work our asses off and we want to get paid for it! I don’t think it’s a bad thing to say – we’re all men with families and we want to get paid for what we do. So the third aspect is that the label has to ‘Show us the Money!’ [laughter all round]

KP: Kind of linked to that, what are your ambitions going forward for DT’s profile? You’ve been saying support is a really important thing. What do you think, with the right support you would be looking for DT to achieve in the next few years?

MP: You know, I don’t know, because I feel a certain level of achievement on so many levels from what we’ve done so far... Internally we just want to continue to make great music together, music that inspires us and excites us. In terms of what a label can give to us to achieve? Just some support! Put us in some magazines, put us on TV, put us on the radio... just do any of those things that they do for dozens of their other sh*tty bands! We’re not looking to ‘sell out’ – we’re going to make the records that we make on our terms, but once we deliver it, it would be nice to get a little more mainstream exposure as long as it’s done on our own terms. We’ve been doing this a very long time and we’re incredibly grateful for what we’ve built thus far, but we’ve pretty much built it on our own. It would be nice to do some more mainstream things. You know we’ve never been invited to a Donington or a Download festival for instance to give something that maybe the UK readers can relate to – just things like that. Things where we’re treated the same way as like Muse or Radiohead or Tool or Mars Volta get treated. All of those bands I just mentioned are making daring music, yet for some reason they get embraced by the mainstream. It would be nice to get embraced every once in a while from the mainstream for what we do.

KP: Mike, do you think maybe making some videos again now, with all the different music TV channels now, would be a way of achieving that?

MP: Yeah, I think so. In fact, I wanted to make a video for the last two albums. I know for many years, since Falling into Infinity, I’ve been saying I didn’t think it was a good idea to make a promotional video, but for both Train of Thought and Octavarium I thought the time was right and it could have been good to do it again. But in both cases our label just wouldn’t do it – another perfect example of where they just basically let us make our record and put it out and didn’t do anything to support it. So I think the time is right to do a promotional video again. Hopefully that will happen on the new album!

RP: That’d be good! And now, here’s a question from Setlist Scotty... Will part of your signing to a label hinge on being able to release all of DT’s previous live shows online a la Metallica or Primus?

MP: Well that goes under the first aspect that I mentioned earlier: the creative control aspect. Anybody that we sign with is going to have to understand that we have Ytsejam Records and that we all do side projects and things like that and they have to understand and accept and support that. As far as what Scotty’s specifically asking, in terms of live releases, we’re going to try to be able to have the ability to do that. I’m not sure if I necessarily want every single one of our shows released anyway! I enjoy the fact that I can be very selective over that and release them through Ytsejam Records. So a bit of that is a creative question for me as to whether or not I even want to do that! But surely, whatever label we go with, we want to be able to at least have the ability to do so if we choose.

RP: And now leading onto a bit of discussion about the new album – nothing too specific! You decided not to wait for the deal situation and you just booked studio time. Were you anxious to get back together and get things going again and was it good to reconvene considering the positives from the end of the last tour and the way Score was doing?

MP: Yeah, actually we had a five month break from each other from the minute we walked off the stage at Radio City until the time we reconvened here in the studio. It was almost a half year away from each other. It was a much needed break and it felt like the right time to take a little hiatus. It was good for us, we all got to spend time with our families and have the summer off – it was the band’s first summer off in ten years, so that was important to kinda recharge our batteries and once we reconvened in September we were ready to rock! Here we are now; we’re about six weeks into it. We’ve finished this first kind of ‘chapter’. We’re recording in spurts because John and I have the G3 tours to do. So basically we’re in the studio for six weeks, taking a break for G3 South America, come back for November, and then take another break for me and John to do G3 Australia. When we come back we’re back in the studio in January – hopefully we’ll be able to have it wrapped by the end of January.

RP: For this record you picked Paul Northfield to do the recording who’s worked with amongst others Queensryche, Suicidal Tendencies I noticed and of course, Rush. Why did you want to work with him? And why the change this time around?

MP: Erm... Well the first question really I think is why didn’t we work with Doug Oberkircher, who’s been working with us now for so many years? I think basically John and I (and the rest of the band) just decided it was time to get some fresh ears. We love Doug and we love working with him, but every once in a while it’s good to get a fresh perspective. Once we’d decided to not work with Doug on this album and bring in some fresh ears John and I started kicking around names. Paul Northfield was the very first name I suggested – his track record speaks for itself. If you look at Rush, Queensryche, Porcupine Tree, Gentle Giant, these are all bands that are really a perfect resume to work with us in terms of his experiences and sounds. Then he’s done other more modern-sounding things like I Mother Earth and Suicidal Tendencies; so he was really the top of my list – I suggested him and it worked out good!

RP: Hearing all the stories Paul Northfield Has been relating about recording various Rush albums in terms of techniques and other stories I’m sure, are you trying any of those on this Album? Has there been anything that you’ve taken inspiration from?

MP: Yeah! I mean John and I are still the producers so a lot of ideas and stuff really comes from our end but surely his experience is really paying off in terms of getting new sounds and new approaches to the recording. He’s constantly telling stories about recording Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures – we really trust his ears and his experience. For instance, when we were doing the bass tracks, me and John looked at each other and said “Well, this is the guy that recorded the bass for Geddy Lee on Moving Pictures and for Eddie Jackson on Empire”, which to us are like two of the greatest bass sounds ever. So when it came time to do John Myung’s tracks we just told him “do your thing!” Incidentally, I think the bass sound on our latest album is the best that we’ve had for any of our albums. That’s just an example of Paul’s input really making an impact on the recording process.

KP: So James was sighted with you and Jordan at The Queensryche gig, meaning he’s been in New York, so I’m guessing he’s been in the studio with You. What has he been taking part in?

MP: He’s been in and out, as he has for Octavarium and Train of Thought. He’s been present during the writing of the music and as he was for the writing of Octavarium and Train of Thought, he’s more kind of like a fly on the wall. He will have an occasional opinion that he’ll throw out there for us to consider or think about, but for the most part he’s letting us work our chemistry, as we always do. But him being present is really important for us, because even if he’s not necessarily really writing with us in a traditional sense, it’s really good for the band’s chemistry and camaraderie for him to be here. It also helps him really get familiar with the music so when the time comes that me, him and John start working out the vocal melodies he’s very, very comfortable with the music that’s been written and is aware of the process that it took to write it.

RP: So you already mentioned going to South America and Australia with G3; is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to about that? One of the things that comes up quite regularly is if it goes well from your perspective with the visit to Australia, might that have an impact on the likelihood of Dream Theater making it Down Under at some point?

MP: Yeah! I think that’s what I’m most looking forward to is getting to Australia, because I haven’t been there since ‘96 when I did a drum clinic tour and Dream Theater’s never been there. So I think me and John finally getting there will really help open up the eyes of the promoters and maybe open some doors to be able to get the band down there on our next tour. I’m really looking forward to that for sure. I’m definitely not looking forward to the flight though!

RP: When is the next batch of Ytsejam releases due and what can we expect?

MP: Probably not ‘till early next year. Between the Dream Theater album and my instructional video and possibly digging into the Amazing Journey tapes I can’t see me having time until possibly January or so to begin looking at the next wave.

KP: You mentioned a couple of things in a post on your forum in July about Rich Wilson’s book and a String Quartet project. What are your opinions about either of those things and do you have any information to share for the readership?

MP: The string quartet tribute is basically being done completely independent from us. I’ve been in touch with the label, they asked me to write the liner notes, and choose the track listing, so that was the extent of my involvement for that, but otherwise the project is in their hands. I’m honoured. They’ve done string quartet tributes for everybody from The Beatles to Zeppelin to Tool and System of a Down so it’s about time they did Dream Theater!

RP: You’re in good company!

MP: As far as Rich Wilson’s book? I’ve been involved in the respect of being able to proofread his chapters and stuff like that just for historical accuracy, but basically it’s his project and his baby, and I’ve spent a lot of time doing interviews with him, as everybody else on the planet has! I think it’s going to be an absolutely amazing book and I can’t think of anybody better to be doing it because he’s so incredibly knowledgeable and thorough, from the people that he’s interviewed down to the information that’s in there. It’s kind of like if you take the one-hour documentary that I did for the Score DVD and expanded it into a giant... book! Really it’s amazing the ground that’s covered. I can’t wait for people to read it; I think it’s going to be a great read for all Dream Theater fans.

RP: And now another question inspired by Scotty: Was there anything from the Score DVD that hit the cutting room floor that you would have liked to have seen used on that project? Whether in the documentary or anything else?

MP: The only two things that I would have liked to have had on there that we didn’t put on is an audio commentary – would have been nice to have it, but for technical reasons it was just an impossibility. I tried my best to make it happen, but it turned out to be impossible. Then the other thing is I would have loved to have had some more bonus tracks on the second disc. In fact, I wanted to have one bonus track from each era, that was my original plan from the archives, but it turns out there was only a certain amount of space on the disc in order to retain sound and video quality to the level that it is now. So basically I only had about 30 minutes’ worth available for the bonus tracks, so I narrowed it down to the three that are on there. I would have liked to have had a few more, but it’s packed to the gills as it is! I’m very happy with the final product.

KP: And now for my pet question! During the Octavarium tour you were seen to be wearing various sports shirts from different countries an different cities. Whose idea was that? How did you choose which sports the shirts were to come from? Whose responsibility was it to get those ordered and your name put on? And did the numbers countdown to NYC which was number one?!

MP: [laughs] Uhhhh!!!! Oh God!

RP: She bombarded you!

MP: Basically, I like wearing sports jerseys when I’m on stage because they’re very comfortable. So basically I had this idea of putting it on the band’s rider. It’s on the rider so it’s the responsibility of the local promoter of every place we play to provide a jersey of the local team.

KP: Ahhhhh!

MP: As far as which sports goes, usually in America if it’s a summer tour I prefer basketball jerseys and if it’s a winter tour maybe baseball jerseys. All throughout Europe it seems like basically football (or soccer) is the sport of choice everywhere so the promoters generally tend to provide those. It’s up to the promoter to choose the team, but if ever we’re in a place where there’s a local rivalry, I tell the promoter to just go with a national shirt. As far as the numbers go I requested it to be number eight wherever possible for the Octavarium Tour and put my name if possible. But it wasn’t a countdown no.

KP: it’s just I’d seen various different numbers and with NYC being number one, I wondered if they counted down since I hadn’t seen them in order...

MP: For some reason they couldn’t get eight in New York so they offered number one, which was cool, but afterwards I regretted it – actually it should have been 20 for the twentieth anniversary!

KP: That’s the end of the interview!

MP: Phew! [laughs]