Mike Portnoy

The Mirror, the Official German fanclub, conducted an interview with Mike Portnoy in April 2009, during the European press tour. This Interview Is available to view on YouTube but we thought that it was so interesting that we also transcribed it for inclusion in the fanzine.

On Title Of The New Album

MP: I was driving into New York and looked up at the skies and saw black clouds. The mood sums up where the band are – musically and lyrically. Nevertheless every cloud has a silver lining. Everything you look at – you can either be optimistic or pessimistic.

Lyrically, this album is dealing with very heavy, dark, subjects: death, recovery from addiction, near-fatal accidents and near-death experiences. In all these cases, the lyrics are dealing with these subjects but with a really optimistic outlook. Any of the lyrics on the album can be looked at with a positive spin and that’s the silver lining in every black cloud.

Musically it applies as well because musically there are some moments on this album which are really dark and heavy, but at the same time it still has that progressive, dynamic melodic edge that is part of the Dream Theater balance.

So I think it was a perfect title to sum up this album musically and lyrically. It just had that feel.

On Producing The Album

MP: Often John (Petrucci) and I will be in the studio and will look at ourselves and ask “are we making these decisions as the musicians and the writers or are we making the decisions as the producers?” A lot of times you have to take off one hat and put on the other in or der to have an objective opinion. A lot of times, the writers in us want to do some crazy, bombastic parts and turn everything into odd time signatures and expand everything into 20 minute songs but it’s our role as producers to keep an eye on this and make sure that the song remains the focus, that the melodies are strong, and the ideas are compact, concise and direct. You have to balance that.

Yes, there’s an argument that the fans have that why don’t we get an outside producer to help balance that so you don’t have to do it yourself. We’ve found in the past that outside producers have come in and spoiled the chemistry. There’s something very sacred about the music that we write together. We’re not writing five minute pop songs that an outside producer can come in and shape into something that they want it to be. Only we know what we want it to be. An outside mixer or engineer which we still do utilise, will be great in bringing those ideas to life – how to mix them, how to record them, how to process and EQ them. We can use their expertise to help bring our vision to life but at the end of the day we want it to be our vision. We don’t need an outside producer. We already have enough chefs in the kitchen as it is!

On Favorite Song On The Album

MP: It’s a cliché, but it’s like a parent choosing their favourite child. You can’t. Each day it’s a different song. I think probably down the road the ones that will stand the test of time as Dream Theater classics are always the bigger tunes. If you look at our back catalogue, when I look at Systematic Chaos. I think of ‘In the Presence of Enemies’. When I think Octavarium, I think of the title track, ‘Octavarium’. When I think of Images and Words, I think of ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Learning to Live’, so always the big tunes are the ones which stand the test of time as classics.

So, for this album that would be ‘A Nightmare to Remember’ and ‘The Count of Tuscany’, the opening and closing tracks. Those are true epics. Those tend to be my favourites because there’s always so much in a song like that. ‘The Shattered Fortress’ I really love as it really ties up the 12 Step Saga perfectly with the riffs, the moods and the themes. I think we have just tied it all together perfectly. ‘The Best of Times’ has a real special place in my heart because of the content. ‘Wither’ and ‘A Rite of Passage’ are good, strong and concise singles. So I think each of the six songs bring their own importance to the album and I think any album is going to have that where every song is strong in its own right.

So there you go, you didn’t get an answer out of me! I can’t pick a favourite. Depending on the day of the week, they each bring something to me.

On The Tour In The Summer

MP: There are some new markets. We’re going to go to Israel and Russia for the first time. We’re going back to Bulgaria for the first time in about seven years and Turkey as well. For the most part, it’s about getting us underway and rocking again and getting some shows under our belts, but not really to concentrate on the new material just yet because the album will only just be coming out. Then when we come back later in the year, that is when we will dig deeper into the new album.

On Progressive Nation 2009

MP: I picked bands that first and foremost I love and I am a fan of and that I am excited to watch every night and listen to, but also bands that I think our fans will really like. In all cases of Progressive Nation, the 2008 version and in both cases here in 2009, the format is to have a band underneath us who have a bit of a following, in this case Opeth and Zappa Plays Zappa. The two opening slots are my personal wildcards where I can have anybody I want. They don’t have to have a following or be a marquee name. They are bands that I want to really help. I feel that it is my duty. I feel that I am the goodwill ambassador of Progressive Music and it is my duty to help other Progressive bands that cannot get a break on their own. So I think Progressive Nation is the perfect form to give some of these great bands an audience to play for.

So in America, I have Beardfish who I love and Pain of Salvation who have a bit of a name of their own but they haven’t done much touring in America so this was an opportunity to bring them to America. (Subsequent to the interview, circumstances forced a change in the lineup for the US dates due to the insolvency of SPV GmbH, the owners of InsideOut. The label of Beardfish and Pain of Salvation could no longer afford to support the bands’ tour. Bigelf and Scale the Summit will now complete the US line up – ed). Here in Europe we are going to have Bigelf who is my favourite new band and Unexpect who is this insane band from Canada.

In all of these cases, the main objective is to give these bands an audience to play for. I want to share our audience with these bands and vice versa, I want to share these bands with our audience, so it is a win-win situation for everybody.

The bands get the opportunity to play in front of a few thousand people per night and our existing audience will get the opportunity to hear some great new bands that maybe they wouldn’t have had a chance to see otherwise.

On Transatlantic – The Reunion

2 years ago, on Neal Morse:

MP: I would expect that he would say anything’s possible. I think that he’s surely open to it if God tells him to do it!

Now:

MP: As far as I was concerned, it was never ‘if’ Transatlantic would work again, it was a matter of ‘when’. It was always in Neal’s lap really. It was up to him, when he was ready. He and I have remained friends and creative partners for all these years. So I knew at some time, the time would be right. As he makes all of these decisions, he turns it over to God. I guess in this case, God made a great decision, thank you God! [laughs]

Neal made the call to me last year around December. He said, “hey, do you wanna do it?” I said “we’ve been waiting for you to call, let’s go!” It was just a matter of working out the scheduling. For me, I haven’t had any downtime. I spent six months in the studio with Dream Theater, I handed over the record, made the video, oversaw the artwork and the upcoming tour and then basically went right into Transatlantic land and spent few weeks in Nashville making that album which came out amazing. I can’t wait for people to hear it. We really stepped up to the plate with it. And now, we’re doing this press tour. So basically, we had a very small window of opportunity to do Transatlantic but as much as I would really like some time off and my family would like me to have some time off, I knew that that window of opportunity for Transatlantic had to be grasped and we had to do it while we had the chance.