Dream Theater Isn’t Writing Heavier for Roadrunner

When Dream Theater’s 10th album, ‘Black Clouds and Silver Linings,’ is released on June 23rd, it will be their 2nd album on Roadrunner Records. In the past few years, the quintet has had somewhat of a resurgence, with their last album, (2007’s ‘Systematic Chaos’) debuting in the top 20, and their Progressive Nation tour about to enter its second year. But while Dream Theater has gained a new found acceptance among metal fans 20 years into their career, drummer Mike Portnoy tells Noisecreep that it’s not a result of them trying to write heavier for their new label.

“When Roadrunner signed us, ‘Systematic Chaos’ was already recorded, so that album could have gone to any label,” Portnoy says. “It was written and done and they picked it up. I wouldn’t say we wrote for Roadrunner either. They didn’t even hear a single note of ‘Black Clouds’ until we delivered it, so they leave us be and respect our history, and I don’t think they want to f--- with it. They know that we know what we’re doing and we’re not trying to write five minute singles. They leave us alone to do what we do. But the great thing about them is that when we deliver it, they’ll give it the attention and put it out there for people to hear. Our previous label, towards the end, was really just posting to our fan bad and not doing anything. Now it’s nice to have the support from the label.”

Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy Thinks Progressive Music Scene is Better Than Ever

Filed under: Interview 6.23.2009 12:00PM | By: Bram Teitelman

When Dream Theater started in 1989, the words “progressive music” conjured up images of bloated 70s rock well past its due date or music that was more about how many notes the musicians could fit in a solo than actual songs. 20 years later, as the band is about to release their 10th album, ‘Black Clouds and Silver Linings,’ Mike Portnoy says that not only is progressive music entering a new golden age, but the word has come to encompass a much wider swath of music.

“I think it’s bigger and better than it’s been since the early 70s,” Portnoy tells Noisecreep. “This is the most fruitful time in progressive music than there’s been in 35 years. When prog was in its heyday in the early 70s, you had Yes, and Genesis, and Gentle Giant and Pink Floyd and ELP, but they were all kind of in the same mold. Now progressive music is everything from Mastodon to Oceansize. It’s at an all time creative level, and now it’s being embraced. I remember 10 to 15 years ago, we would get criticized. Critics would call us progressive and tag us with a vengeance like it was a bad word. Bands like Radiohead were petrified to have that word associated with them. Now the new Mastodon album is getting so much acclaim because it’s progressive, and it’s being used as a compliment, so it’s funny to see how that’s changed.”

Progressive music now has its own tour, headlined and curated by, of course, Dream Theater. While last year’s excursion featured the band playing with Opeth, Between the Buried and Me and 3, this year’s, which kicks off on July 24 in Miami, will feature Zappa Plays Zappa, Pain of Salvation and Beardfish. The European incarnation, which starts in late September, will feature Dream Theater playing with Opeth, Bigelf and Unexpect.

Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy Proud To Have Influenced Opeth, Slipknot

By: Chris Harris

8.03.2009 4:00PM

A couple of weeks back, ‘True Blood’ fan and Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy stopped by the Noisecreep offices – not long after the launch of the band’s Progressive Nation tour with Zappa Plays Zappa, Scale the Summit and Bigelf – to talk to us about a number of things. Like what? Well, he spoke with us about the band’s newest album, ‘Black Clouds and Silver Linings,’ and its recent explosion into the Billboard Top 10.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the interview came when we asked Portnoy, who we also discovered is a huge Howard Stern fan (props!), about the bands who have followed in Dream Theater’s wake – bands that have cited his own work as having been influential on theirs. A band like Opeth, for instance, who acknowledge Dream Theater as an influence. Does that make Mike proud?

“I love the bands that cite us as influences but don’t sound like Dream Theater,” he says. “I mean, through the years, I’ve seen hundreds of bands that have come along in the wake of Dream Theater’s success that are kind of ‘progressive metal bands’ and they just ... sound like us. And that’s flattering and everything, but I’d rather hear bands take our influence but do their own thing. So, when I hear bands like Opeth, or Stone Sour, or Trivium, or some of the guys in Slipknot – when they cite us as an influence, but they don’t sound anything like Dream Theater, to me, that’s the best compliment.”

Portnoy later told us about how he’s seeing longtime fans, who’ve been champions of the band since they first started some 20-odd years ago, coming to shows with their sons, passing the band on, in a sense, to a new generation of progressive rockers.

“We’re seeing the second generation of Dream Theater fans, and it’s for two reasons ... the first is, all of our existing fans that have been with us for 20 years or whatever, they’re now adults in their 30s or 40s or whatever. Now, they have children of their own, so now we see this next generation coming to the shows,” Portnoy says. “But then, the other side is, I think we still stay modern. I think we still appeal to a lot of younger kids that are only just discovering us all these years later.”

And when can those fans, both young and old, expect Dream Theater’s next LP? Portnoy says it’s a way off, but that “there’s never a shortage of Dream Theater material, and I’m the one that oversees the archives, and constantly churns out stuff.” He said that a studio album is still some years away, but that the band generally issues “a live release every two years on the opposite year of the studio album, not to mention the fact that I usually oversee at least four official bootlegs every year, and then we all have side projects. There’s just countless projects that are always in the works. Right now we’re focusing on ‘Black Clouds and Silver Linings.’ We’ll be touring off that, but inevitably, by the end of the tour, sometime in 2010, I’ll start thinking of what to fill in the blanks with until the next studio release.”