Interview of: Mike Portnoy – Dream Theater

Dream Theater have been at the forefront of progressive metal for two decades now, thanks to the success of releases such as 1992’s Images And Words, 1994’s Awake and 2003’s Train Of Thought. Having recently released their new opus Black Clouds And Silver Linings (their second album for Roadrunner Records) and with their second tour of Australia scheduled for December, I chatted with drummer and chief songwriter Mike Portnoy about the therapeutic process of recording the new album, the band’s songwriting process and the upcoming tour Down Under.

Spiritech: Hey Mike, what are Dream Theater up to at the moment?

Mike Portnoy: I’m home at the moment, in between legs of touring. We just finished our American summer tour and we leave in a couple of days for our European tour, so I’m kind of just been enjoying a few last days at home before heading over to Europe.

Spiritech: How has the touring for the new record been going?

Mike Portnoy: So far, so good. All the touring we did this summer was totally awesome. We started with a month in Europe and basically spent the rest of the summer in America and Canada. So far it’s been great, so now we’re looking forward to a more thorough run of Europe through November and then making it down to your neck of the woods, your neck of Planet Earth in December.

Spiritech: Great stuff, but we’ll get to that later. Now, with songs such as ‘The Best Of Times’ (written about Portnoy’s late father) and ‘The Shattered Fortress’ (the final chapter in the drummer’s 12-Step Suite) this record must have been a rather personal experience for you. Was this a therapeutic album for you to write and record?

Mike Portnoy: (Pauses) Well yeah, I guess it was. I mean, those two songs in particular were definitely heavy for me and very personal for me. I’ve been writing about my recovery from addiction and alcoholism for the last five albums, because there’s been a 12-part series of songs that interconnect and it’s taken five albums to complete. So finally completing that process with ‘The Shattered Fortress’ on this album has definitely been therapeutic, to finally be done with that project, which has been kind of hanging over my head for eight years now. So that’s a relief and definitely therapeutic to have written about all 12 steps. And the other song ‘The Best Of Times’ was a real heavy situation for me be to be going through during the making of this record. Flying back and forth from New York to California all throughout the making of it, visiting my dad who was sick and dying. Writing this song and being able to play it for him before he died was truly one of the most incredible gifts I was ever given. I wanted to write a song that was about our 41 years together and the you know, the good stuff, that’s why it’s called ‘The Best Of Times’ even though it’s about such a sad, sad subject. But yeah, being able to play that for him at his bedside before he died was unbelievably meaningful and powerful for me and something that I’ll never, ever forget.

Spiritech: With regard to the ‘12-Step Suite’, there have been rumours for a few years that once it was finished the band would play the entire thing live. Is that in the works at the moment?

Mike Portnoy: It’s happening, yes. It was always inevitably going to happen; it was always part of my masterplan to write these five songs that would connect and ultimately be played together, that was always the intention. We just haven’t started doing it yet, but surely sometime down the road we will.

Spiritech: Now that the project is complete is there one particular “step” that stands out the most for you?

Mike Portnoy: I can’t say there is one really, they’re all cool in their own way.

Spiritech: Fair enough then. To my ears, the new album strikes a strong balance between the Progressive elements, the Metal elements and some of the catchiest hooks you’ve ever written. I think the last time you really nailed that balance was on Train Of Thought. Was that the aim with this record?

Mike Portnoy: To be completely honest, no bullshit, that’s our aim with every record. I think that sometimes people get it easier than others, you know? You mentioned Train of Thought – I loved Train Of Thought and thought that we definitely nailed that album. But there are people that don’t like that album and it was too heavy or whatever. Then there’s people that love Octavarium and other people who say it wasn’t heavy enough. It’s impossible to please everybody. I mean, if you take a poll of a hundred Dream Theater fans, you’re gonna get different answers from each one of them. So really, it’s just our goal each and every time we make a record to have that balance of the three things you said – the progressive, the metal and the melodic. Every time we try to have all of those as strong as possible.

Spiritech: Because of that, when an album gets a few negative reviews or some fans criticize it does it not really bother you simply, because they’re just as likely to love the next album?

Mike Portnoy: Well it bothers us, but at the same time we’ve come to know that we just can’t possibly please everybody, it’s impossible. So at this point of our career we just do whatever it takes to please ourselves first and foremost and hopefully the fans will stay for the ride. I’m probably the most fan-oriented musician you’ll ever meet and I pay a lot of attention to what the fans say. I try my best to direct this band in a fan-friendly way and try to give the fans what they want. But there’s such a diversity within our fan base that I can’t possibly please them all, you know? (laughs) ‘Cause some people like one side, some people like the other side, some people like the heavy stuff, other people can’t stand it. So at the end of the day, we just do what we do, keep ourselves happy and try to make the fans happy, but we know we possibly can’t please everyone.

Spiritech: Interesting. Did the songwriting approach on this record differ at all from previous efforts, or was it mainly yourself and John (Petrucci, guitars) taking the reins again?

Mike Portnoy: Well, our songwriting stems from myself, John and Jordan (Rudess, keyboards), I think he’s a big part of that puzzle as well. So I would say, really it’s mainly the three of us that write the music and the only difference with this album was that the lyrics and melodies were all just me and John, whereas in the past James (LaBrie, vocals) usually had one set of lyrics and was also contributing to the melodies, but it wasn’t the case this time. So that’s the only difference, but otherwise, I mean the music itself and the process of recording was really no different than it’s been for so many years.

Spiritech: You mentioned the heavier elements and that aspect of your sound is definitely emphasized on tracks like ‘A Nightmare To Remember’ on the new record, which almost flirts with black metal in certain passages, as well as utilizing your harsher vocals. Is this something we can expect Dream Theater to explore further on future albums?

Mike Portnoy: Well, I’m a huge fan of that stuff and I’ve always been really into heavy stuff and the metal world is a big part of my world. So that’s something that has always been a part of Dream Theater, but I guess maybe more and more as time goes on... Metal is becoming so diverse, so we can be listening to Opeth or Slipknot or Trivium and it takes the music to all different places. But really, people who have listened to this album and said, “why are you getting so heavy?” (laughs) But we’ve always had this heavy side to us. I mean, if you take the very first song from our very first album, ‘A Fortune In Lies’, that could have been a thrash song! It was all fast and double-bass and chunky guitars, it just didn’t have a big production. So I think maybe since our production gets bigger and better each album maybe it becomes more apparent. And as you pointed out, I’ve been injecting my more growl-y vocals, only because I think it suits the music better than James’ clean vocals would at times. Not all the time, but sometimes. So I think maybe it’s more apparent, but really that heavy side has always been a part of Dream Theater.

Spiritech: Indeed. The special edition of Black Clouds And Silver Linings contains a bonus disc of covers of the likes of Iron Maiden and Rainbow and the band have often performed entire albums live, such as Master Of Puppets. What’s the decision-making process like within the band when selecting which songs to cover?

Mike Portnoy: To be honest with you, it’s just me just basically picking the bands, picking the songs and bringing them to the guys and just handing off a list. The other guys trust my direction with that kind of stuff, because as any of them will tell you I’m like a walking rock ‘n’ roll encyclopedia or a jukebox, you know? And I’m definitely the biggest music fan in the band, whether it be metal or prog or classic rock or whatever. I’m just constantly immersed in music. So those guys trust my direction when it comes to picking covers or picking songs or albums or things like that.

Spiritech: Do you have any more interesting covers in the works at the moment?

Mike Portnoy: Oh, my head is always filled with dozens at any time. Not only has Dream Theater done so many through the years but I’ve done lots of covers with Neal Morse and with Transatlantic and even doing ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ with Liquid Tension Experiment. I mean, there’s a long list of songs in the back of my head that range from David Bowie to Metallica that I’ll find the place for in one of my bands or projects.

Spiritech: Changing topics then, you’re heading back to Australia in December. Were you surprised by how strong the reaction was when the band toured in early 2008?

Mike Portnoy: Were we surprised? Well, honestly, no. We kind of knew that there would be fans waiting for us because me and John Petrucci kind of tested the waters between the G3 tour and a clinic tour that I did years before that. So I can’t say that when Dream Theater arrived we were surprised to find fans, we kind of knew they were there and waiting. Plus with the Internet you could see people posting from all around the world, so you kind of can tell if you have fans or not. But it was nice, it was nice to finally get down there and make up for some lost time and now getting back on this album and tour will hopefully establish the relationship as something that could be hopefully be regular or semi-regular.

Spiritech: The last tour was an “evening with” and featured a three-hour set. This time around you’ve also got an opening act. What will the structure of the set be like this time around?

Mike Portnoy: Usually when we have a support act we’ll play for about two hours, I think it’s a good show. Three hours to us is long, it starts to feel long and starts to take its toll on us. We did the “evening with” three-hour shows for many, many years. We made an exception for Australia last time, only because we wanted to make up for lost time and we had so many songs that we wanted to play that we felt it would be right to do an “evening with” for the Australian fans the first time down. But now this time around we’ll have an opening act – still to be determined, it hasn’t been picked yet. But we’ll still play two hours, which is a very good, fulfilling evening of music.

Spiritech: Given your extensive back catalogue, when you’re putting together a set list are there many staples that you feel compelled to play each night?

Mike Portnoy: The only ones that are staples are new ones, you know? When we’re going out in support of a new album, you want to play certain songs off the new album so people can experience that while the album is new. When writing set lists, it’s really only the new ones that are staples, everything else is fair game. I don’t ever feel like I have to put ‘Pull Me Under’ or ‘Metropolis’ in a show any more than I would put ‘Erotomania’ or ‘The Great Debate’. They’re all fair game; the whole catalogue is fair game when I’m writing set lists, with the exception of new songs. When we come around this time we want to play ‘A Nightmare To Remember’ for everybody, we want to play ‘The Count Of Tuscany’ for everybody. Those are the ones that you want to make sure everybody gets to see this time around. But the rest of the catalogue – it’s all fair game.

Spiritech: I look forward to it! Now, you’re renowned for being involved in a variety of projects and one such rumoured collaboration is one with Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) and Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree). Can you shed any light on if this project may actually happen one day?

Mike Portnoy: No, that’s just talk. I mean the three of us each mentioned wanting to work with each other years ago and since then it’s kind of been this rumour that won’t go away. I think all three of us regret ever mentioning it at this point, but I think the hype or anticipation around it has surpassed anything we possibly could realistically deliver. So I think now all three of us are kind of hesitant to do it, because there’s been so much hype about it (laughs) This is an example of where the Internet can somehow be a bad thing and I think... that’s why I try to keep as tight of a lid on things as possible when we’re making a record, because anything that is said or leaked or heard, it opens up this can of worms of discussion and once people start discussing and discussing and discussing and dissecting and anticipating, they build up such a level of hype and expectations in their head that it’s impossible to ever satisfy it. So that’s one of the bad things about the Internet. In answer to your question though, I think we’d love to work together but at this point we just don’t know when.

Spiritech: Good to hear. As you mentioned earlier you’re very knowledgeable on all things progressive, metal and classic rock. If you had to give our readers three essential albums – of any genre – that they must check out, what would they be?

Mike Portnoy: Oh, man. That’s a tough one! I do have in my head a top ten list that I’ve... because I get asked this a lot, so I do have a top ten of all time, but even that just doesn’t say it all, I don’t know. That’s an incredibly difficult question!

Spiritech: To make it easier then, just three bands in particular.

Mike Portnoy: Three bands? For me, if I was to break it into those three categories, the classic rock bands for me, it’s The Who, Zeppelin and The Beatles. Those are my big three of classic rock. For prog-rock, it’s Pink Floyd, Rush and Yes – those are my big three for prog. And for metal, it would probably be Metallica, Maiden and Sabbath. It’s really hard to answer that, but if I guess, there you go, if you broke it into those three categories that’d be my top three for each.

Spiritech: Final question – do you have any last words for PyroMusic.net readers?

Mike Portnoy: We’re looking forward to getting back down there man, it’s going to be fun and we enjoyed connecting with them last time, so we’re looking forward to following it up this time. We’ll see you soon!