Dream Theater Interview

A Conversation With Keyboardist Jordan Rudess

By Chad Bowar

Dream Theater have been one of the pioneers of progressive metal. Their latest album Systematic Chaos was recently released, and was the highest charting Dream Theater album yet. They recently returned from Europe and kicked off an American tour with Into Eternity and Redemption. I spoke with keyboardist Jordan Rudess about the band’s new album and tour, his upcoming solo album, and several other topics.

Chad Bowar: You just got back from playing some shows in Europe. How was that?

Jordan Rudess: It's always an experience doing all of the European festivals. It's a wild and crazy scene. Some of the shows were really great and exciting for us. We played at the Download Festival in Donington Park in the UK. We had never played there before, so we were psyched to go do it because we had been hearing about it for years. When we got there, the tent was just overflowing with people. A lot of people came out and wanted to check us out.

CB: Do you still have different set lists every night?

JR: Yes, we change it up a bit. It's not completely different. We decided that on this tour, we are not doing “An Evening With” format. We have a couple of bands that are coming out with us and we'll open up for us. We are still going to play for a couple of hours. It is still a hefty night of Dream Theater, but it's not the madness that people have witnessed in the past where we walk off stage and have to resuscitate the drummer. We're not going there this time. We thought we deserved to be a little more human about the whole thing. Even with that, we change it up. Before we go out on the road we learn a lot of music. We have a bigger repertoire to call upon and we try to keep it fresh. And each leg we go on, we add different songs to the set. It's definitely one of the things Dream Theater is all about.

CB: I’ve read that you keep a detailed log of the set lists and refer to them when deciding what to play in each city.

JR: Mike (Portnoy) is very anal about the whole setlist. He will sit there with lists and look at the last time we played in San Diego, for example. He will make sure that there are not a lot of repeats, analyze what happened the night before, what will happen the next night, how far way it is, and give some thought to how the fans might respond to different set lists.

CB: Since you’ve been in the band, is there anywhere you haven’t played live that you would still like to get to?

JR: We are really looking forward to getting to Australia this year. The band has never been there. We are going to go this year and that should be a lot of fun. That will be breaking new ground. It would also be cool to get the band to Israel. There have been a lot of requests. We've never played in India, and that would be an interesting place to give a show.

CB: How did the response to Systematic Chaos compare to your expectations?

JR: This is been a very different kind of album release for us in every way, at least since I joined the group. There's been a lot more marketing, more of a general buzz about things. I've seen the group reach a new level. Even before the new record company started to do anything we started to get to this other place where more people seem to know about Dream Theater. It's hard to completely judge by what you read or by what people tell you how the album is being received. In a way, it's more like time will tell. There's a magazine in Europe that is a pretty big music magazine that reviewed our album. They gave it a 100. The magazine has been around for 10 or 15 years and have never given a 100 before. We've been getting amazing press. Critics have been saying it's great, but occasionally you'll read a critic that doesn't like it. But it's Dream Theater, it's not your standard fare. It's a little more demanding, it goes a bit deeper.

CB: Systematic Chaos was your highest chart debut ever in the U.S. I guess you don’t need to be on a huge label to have commercial success these days.

JR: The cool thing about Roadrunner is that they have that independent kind of mindset, but they have a lot of power. Just after we signed with them, they were bought by Warner. They went from being owned by Universal to being owned by Warner. It's a funny weird thing, because we were just released from a contract by Warner. We were OK with it all because Roadrunner operates independently, and they are very effective in what they do.

CB: Other Dream Theater members have said Systematic Chaos was a fun album to record. Do you agree?
JR: We did have a good time. We just write the kind of music we like and have a lot of fun doing it. What it's all about for us is following our musical vision, just do what we think is best. I think that is a really positive way to go about creating, and it creates a good time all around.

CB: Tell me about your upcoming solo album.

JR: It is scheduled for release on September 12. It's called The Road Home, and it's an album where I covered some of my very favorite and influential progressive rock tunes. I also play a piano medley of some of the classic progressive melodies, and I wrote an original piece which I originally wrote for the Dream Theater album. We had this idea along the way that we are each going to have a little solo spot on it, but we wrote too much music. And since I was only one that actually had gone out and done the solo piece, I decided to put it on my solo album and it worked out well. I have been collecting quotes from the various musicians from the original bands, and that's been fun.

CB: You’ve also released some instructional books and DVDs. What other projects are you working on?

JR: I've been focusing on getting my online conservatory going. It's my way of reaching out to get my message to the most people, and I have a wonderful team of guys that allow me to do that. The web site is jroc.us. We have been expanding it, and we even have a section for drummers, we have a section for guitar, we have keyboard videos, drum videos. It's a little world unto itself which is growing nicely. One of the nice things it features is an area called Jordan’s Riffs. People can go and actually see fingerings that I use to play riffs from the new album and hear the parts soloed out to be able to analyze a little bit more. I try to keep that up to date.

CB: Many musicians don't have much of an interest in teaching their skills to others. What drew you to this area?

JR: My background is from a very formal, classical training. I realize how much that provided the basis for everything I do. Because I made the shift from classical to being a progressive rock keyboardist, I feel my path has been interesting and there is a lot to share. Not many people have the same background. I'd love to see the world of keyboards evolve to the next level, and I feel like there is something I can do to help push that along.

CB: Recording technology has changed immensely in the past twenty years, but the actual instruments haven’t changed as much. The one instrument that’s changed dramatically is yours, the keyboard.

JR: It's really incredible. As much the technical style of guitar has changed over the years, it continues to grow and change because of the amount of players. With the keyboards there is a strong emphasis on technology, because the focus is not so chops oriented. Keyboards are used by people who are designing sound effects, scoring films, writing jingles. It's a different kind of world from somebody like me, who is interested in performance. I'm using it in a different way. My demands for the instrument are different. Along the course of technology, so many things have happened with the ability to create sound and manipulate sound. One of the interesting discussions I have with these companies, the Korgs, the Yamahas, the Rolands, is that yes, while there has been so much thinking about the nature of synthesis and sound creation and the design of physical sliders and controllers, there are certain things that get left out. My concern about using a keyboard as a performance instrument seems like it would be a major concern, but honestly is just one of them in the bigger picture.