Jordan Rudess interview

Frank Godla: You recently released Greatest Hit And 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs, the first official compilation at Dream Theater was put out in many years. I was just wondering what went into choosing the songs in particular that went onto the album.

Jordan Rudess: This was a project that was very much looked over by Mike Portnoy. He really gets into things like setlists and picking songs for a compilation like this. I’m sure that he did a lot of research and put a lot of thought into that process. For myself, my involvement is more just in writing the songs as they come up in the studio. I didn’t really have much to do with actually putting that package together.

FG: Joining the band. How did that come about? Was that an easy process?

JR: Thank you for switching topics so fast, that’s cool, to a topic that I can actually speak about. What happened was that many years ago I was asked to audition for the group and it was when Kevin Moore had left the band, and they really needed somebody to take over. The biggest thing they needed is they had a major concert to put on at the Foundations Forum convention. They were headlining and they didn’t have a keyboard player and they had just put out Awake. So they needed to have somebody do the job. So at that point, I said, “OK, I’ll help you with that particular gig, but I can’t really do the whole Dream Theater job.” We went our separate ways, and about two years later, I got a call from Magna Carta Records about joining up with Mike Portnoy doing this project of what he considered to be like a super group kind of thing of the best players in each of the categories. So that turned into Liquid Tension Experiment. Both of those albums were pretty successful instrumental albums, which was an unusual and a cool thing. Through working with Liquid Tension, I established a relationship with John and Mike, and we got along really well, and musically everything was really cool. So at the end of that process, they asked me again if I’d consider joining Dream Theater, and then I said yes, because a lot of things had changed, both in their professional life, and also in my personal life and professional life. So at that point, which was almost 10 years ago, that’s when I joined the group, and then the first album we put out was Scenes From A Memory. It was pretty smooth, because I just stepped into it from already knowing the guys and having some experience writing together.

FG: Was there anything in particular that drew you towards working with Dream Theater?

JR: Well, when they first called me, I didn’t really know who they were at all. This was after Images And Words was put out. But they called, and so I did a little research, and I went and I checked out their album, and I thought, “Oh, these guys are really good, they play well.” I was struck, actually, by the mixture of the metal sound, but also the progressive rock sound, and just how virtuosic the guys were. I’d never heard anybody, any group, play with that ability before in rock. I mean, usually that’s reserved for classical musicians who just have extreme techniques. So it was kind of a new sound for me. I was really, really familiar with a lot of progressive music. I was familiar with some metal music. But this particular combination that they hit upon, it was the first time I had really experienced that. So I thought that was really cool.

FG: For a Dream Theater concert, you’re bound to run into several conversations about album artwork, nuances, down to the 17th measure of ‘Learning To Live’ or something like that. Have you seen, since you’ve been in the band, any changes in the kind of crowds that you draw?

JR: It’s been a really, really cool ride with Dream Theater since I joined. I’ve seen the group just grow and blossom into this really amazing thing. It’s hard to really take in because it’s bigger than any one of us. I mean, this group, there’s a lot that goes into making a successful group, and we happen to be an organization that has a lot of different factors that I think make it as grand as it is right now. I mean, it’s still an underground thing, it just happens to be a big movement. So it’s really changed and it’s amazing. I just see when we do these signings after the show for people who do what’s called platinum tickets, whatever, they just come meet us and get things signed and sit in the front row and everything. They’re glowing. It’s amazing. I mean, I’m tired at the end of the night, but then I try to look in their eyes and see what it really means to them. You can catch it from different perspectives. One is like the rock star sitting there, he’s signing stuff, there’s these punters, fans, whatever. But in the end, everybody’s a person and who knows who they are. It’s just interesting to see the meaning it has, the relationship at that moment. It’s pretty cool. I just feel like people are just glowing and they’re excited. And the fact that our music can do that and has built up this energy around it is awesome.

FG: Both Dream Theater and Opeth are bands that I’ve seen in the past do solo tours on their own. Do you feel it’s maybe harder or easier playing 90-minute sets versus your usual full set?

JR: Well, it’s relaxing in a way. This whole vibe of being around the hotel late at night and waiting to go over to play for 90 minutes is kind of unusual for us. We’re used to being at the venue and getting ready and having a big long three-hour show or something like that. So this is a different kind of experience. It’s cool because the Dream Theater music is kind of high energy. So even after 90 minutes, I feel we walk off stage, we’re kind of tired. But I think it’s a cool thing. This is a dream, something that Mike and my manager really worked hard on to really put into reality, and it happened. It could be the start of something that really goes on for a while. I think it seems to be getting a pretty good response. I think the choice of groups is pretty cool too. It’s a lot of talented musicians. I have to say that I wasn’t really that familiar with any of the other groups until this whole idea came about. Mike turned me on to 3 a little while before, and I listened to some of that, and I thought, “Wow, these guys are talented”, and had some awareness of Between The Buried And Me from a tech that I had a couple years ago, and checked them out a little bit, and they’re very talented. And I surely have heard Opeth’s name, but I never really listened to their music. But when they started to play, when they were invited out to do this, I said, “Oh, let me check this out”, and I’ve been listening. I can’t tell anything from backstage, everything sounds horrible from the back of the PA, but I listened to some of the records and I thought, “Oh wow, this is cool stuff.” It’s growly and all that, which is like the newer metal kind of thing, but it also has a lot of other elements that I find interesting. In fact, it’s very dynamic, and they’ll do some more traditional singing, and they’ll lighten it up, and they’ll do odd meter stuff, and then they’ll go into the [growls briefly] stuff, and I think that’s pretty cool.

FG: What kind of bands are you listening to when you’re not on the road?

JR: Well, I listen to a lot of different kinds of music. I’m a big fan of Porcupine Tree and groups like the Super Furry Animals, and of course the old progressive rock stuff is the main rock things that really influence me. The Genesis and Yes, Pink Floyd. Then I listen to a lot of electronic music also, things like Aphex Twin, or Autiker, or Words of Canada, stuff like that.

FG: Years back, I know that Dream Theater’s been doing this and still doing it today, but you tend to take your songs and kind of make your own remixes live, another song.

JR: A medley of sorts, yeah.

FG: I was just wondering if that was the result of some just outright jamming, or was that very pre-planned and ahead of time?

JR: It’s usually, it comes under the category of Mike kind of creations. Like usually before a tour he says, “Guys, I want to do like a medley of sorts”, and he’ll say, “I want to mix this.” He puts it together and says, “Let’s do it this way.” We’ll go, “Alright, that’s cool.” And it seems like for the last bunch of tours we put something together that’s some kind of a cool medley of stuff. When we have so much instrumental music, it’s nice to be able to feature different sections of different things.

FG: It’s great to hear Liquid Tension in there too sometimes.

JR: Yeah, right, right. And of course Liquid Tension is playing together again soon. We’ve been starting rehearsals for that already. It’s been 10 years since I touched any of that. It’s a big job.

FG: Do you find that it’s hard to revisit some of the old stuff again?

JR: It’s challenging, man. It’s taking me longer to resurrect and reprogram because I don’t use the same keyboards I did back then. I don’t even have them. So to resurrect all that material is harder and more time-consuming than to do the whole album from start to finish.

FG: Anything new happening or near future with Dream Theater?

JR: We’re gonna finish the tour. We end on June 5th in lovely Puerto Rico, and then we’ll come back and we’ll take a few months off and we’ll all get a chance to do what we want to do. Then September, October, we’ll look at jumping back in the studio to start recording something else.