Mike Portnoy interview (excerpt)

Eddie Trunk: The Dream Theater fan base – we've talked about this – celebrated the 20th anniversary of the band a couple years ago. Sold out show at Radio City Music Hall. It grows every year, more records sold, bigger venues, more acclaim, but meanwhile it's a band that 20 years on still gets no radio, still gets no video. I guess it’s just a testament to how loyal the fan base is and how it's word of mouth more than anything, right?

Mike Portnoy: We’re just a fungus that won't go away, just keeps growing.

Jim Florentine: Eddie's your friend and he doesn't play you on the radio! [lots of laughts] It's like, “Come on already!”

ET: That's not true. Mike will tell you that's very much not true. But then again, I only have three hours and one of their songs can be that long so... [laughs] There's not exactly a huge female fan base at Dream Theater shows is there?

MP: Our five wives usually, that's about it. [lots of laughs] Maybe a couple of our daughters, too – that's the extent of it. Usually it's the wives and the girlfriends of all the musos and guys that are fans of ours, and you could tell they don't want to be there. They're falling asleep, they don't want to be hearing these 20-minute crazy songs.

JF: It makes it easier to be faithful to your wife, right, with no groupies?

Don Jamieson: There’s like ten fat sweaty guys trying to shake your hand – there's no temptation.

ET: Was it a bummer though before you guys were all married with kids and stuff, when you [say], “Here we go! Rock and roll, baby! Let's get on the bus!”

MP: We had about one year back in like ’92 [lots of laughs] when ‘Pull Me Under’ was on MTV all the time. That's when the girls were coming out to the in stores to get their tits sign and stuff like that. It was a fun year but then it all kind of went away after that.

ET: You guys are making a new record right now as we tape this. You're always recording and you have a new DVD – you've documented just about every tour as well. Matter of fact we have a copy of it right here it's called Chaos in Motion 2007-2008.

MP: This is different than the last few. The last few – like Budokan and the Radio City Music Hall one – those are very big budget, polished, single concerts. This is more of a compilation of the whole tour. The footage is a lot more raw with stuff from all around the world. It's not just one concert.

DJ: And how do you get the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame? You get any perks with that or anything? Gift bag or something? [lots of laughs]

MP: The readers voted me in. I'm I think the youngest one to ever be inducted and I think I'm also the only like hard rock/heavy metal drummer. It's all like classic rock guys, prog rock guys, the old school people. So it's very cool, it's the biggest honor in the world actually.

ET: Real quick tell us the Dream Theater record, because there's so many different turns you guys have taken. Do you write in the studio or in advance of going in the studio?

MP: No. We basically lock out a studio, move in, set it up like a giant music shop and just write and record simultaneously. It's just one giant creative process, so we never know where we're going to go until we're on the ride and going.

ET: So you really do it old school style. It's not MP3 and, “I'll send you my tracks. You send me yours.” You guys all get in and hash it out.

MP: We're like one of the only bands that are stupid enough to spend like half a million dollars making a record, but we enjoy being able to just pick up the phone and say, “Get Starbucks” four times a day. We just like the luxury. We're also too lazy to build our own studio, I guess. So we all come together in New York City and live in the studio for about five months and make a record.