Mike Mangini interview

Artisan News Service: When did it occur to you that A) This is something you wanted to do, and B) Something that you were determined to get?

Mike Mangini: After I found out that Mike quit, which was because my phone was inundated with text messages, emails, the whole bit, I was like, “All right, did a tidal wave hit Boston today? What happened?” I immediately knew it was something I wanted to do badly, and it was something that I prepared for with many plans – plan A, B and C: “What if this? What if they ask me that? What if they need this? What if I show up and my left foot hurts? What if I don’t have the right headphones? What if I don’t get any warm-up time? I kind of accounted for all those things because my heart was really in it.

ANS: People are saying Dream Theater already knew you were going to be the new drummer. Was that the case and did you know it was going to be an open competition?

MM: I didn’t approach this any different than I approach any audition. I’ve had approximately 44 or 45 auditions in my life – and I want this to come out right, now I’ve won every single one of them – but I never think I’m a better player than the next guy. I have the fear of God in me – I really do! I’ve been given some gifts. I don’t want to fall short of those, so I work really hard and I always think somebody else is working a lot harder than me, because I know as a teacher talent gets you to a point, but then you have to work. My old drum teacher used to say, “I don’t care who you are, who you think you are, whatever. The guy that plays each song 300 times, he gets the job.” So it’s very humbling being brought up with that in me from age 10 to 18. So I approached it the same way I have done everything: everybody else has a little bit more than me and these guys are going to work harder than me, so I just have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and do everything I can do.

ANS: Was it difficult to leave your teaching job at Berklee College of Music?

MM: It wasn’t difficult. Now this has to come out right: I had been wanting to leave for a few years anyway, but it was more like I wanted to go to something, I wanted to go to a band, because I love teaching and I learn a lot from the students. When I teach, I become a better player, and it helps me become a better person too because I have to be unselfish, I have to put another person first every day, and to do that eight, nine, ten times in a row a day, it begins to form a habit where you learn to listen to others and put them first. So I love that. It’s just that I wanted to leave the college environment where I had to be there so much and I couldn’t perform. If I could have performed a lot more and maybe gotten away with being away four weeks... Because I made up all my classes – I never missed classes and I always made them up. Late nights, weekends... and I always gave students extra classes too. I have more than a couple hundred emails in case I ever had to prove it. But I wanted to do it on my own terms and you just can’t do that in that environment, so I really needed to play and so it wasn’t tough for me to leave that, but it was very emotional for me to leave my colleagues who I loved to death and the students and just that feeling – it was just such a great place.

ANS: While John Petrucci has said from the beginning that you are a full member, if it was me, I would always be leery of Portnoy lurking in the background considering Dream Theater’s history – plus the fact that I left a solid position would make me think hard about the choice. Not to mention the fact that Portnoy asked back in the band at one point. Thoughts on that?

MM: I didn’t even know he wanted to go back. We don’t talk about any of that. None of that is my business. All kinds of stuff that comes out online really is not my business. I don’t ask and we don’t talk about it, so I find out online. It’s like, “Oh my gosh!” but yeah we’re just moving forward. And I need to say that perhaps the reason John has responded to these kinds of questions the way he has is because... Look, I think when we all want to know the unknown or learn something new, the truth is not an easy thing to find. The best decision is not easy for us, otherwise none of us would make mistakes. But there’s something that happened in that room, when I auditioned that day, where the truth as far as passion, heart, spirit, things that are out of our control, things that are just in there – I don’t even choose them sometimes. The truth of all that, where everybody was and how we all are as people, what we want in life, we knew that day that we were on the same page musically and with everything pretty much. I mean we order the same food all the time and I could get funny saying how much symmetry or synergy or synchronicity, whatever word you want to use, it just works and it’s natural. So none of that really crossed my mind – it wasn’t anything I was ever worried about, because I knew that the bond was strong. Now I’ve known Mike for a long time. He’s amazing, he’s made more things happen, and I’ve told him this in private for many, many years, I’ve said it in public, I’m saying it right now, I’ve been consistent from point A ‘til right now. That guy, when something’s in his heart, he can make it happen and I have no worries that he won’t make the most amazing thing happen, so I had feel good vibes the whole way for many reasons and that’s one of them.

ANS: Two part question: How do you feel about playing songs that were already pre-written, and secondly are you eager to get to the next album so you can have some input into the writing process?

MM: All the music was written before I joined. I felt so relieved that they wrote without me and it was just them. And I’ve made comments before just to be clear, like, “OK they wrote with no drummer,” and it’s not a way to avoid saying, “Well they didn’t write with Michael.” “They didn’t write with me.” That’s just a description. When I say that it’s just a description of it, [it’s] because they’re composers on their instruments and the music can come out differently. I write differently on instruments without me playing on the drums, so my not being there has nothing to do with anything. It’s just they wrote with no drummer, and I was relieved that they did that for two reasons: number one, they were at peace with composing on those particular instruments, just putting parts together that they felt worked quarterly and so forth. Also it helped give me a map so I wouldn’t have to think so much, so I wouldn’t have to try to be anybody I’m not. It’s just like, “All right, this is how it is. I’m going to go play the music the way I would orchestrate if I was in my room by myself,” which is what I did, in a room, at my house, by myself having some fun, so I could come and present John these ideas and then he could just go through them all and figure out what worked.

ANS: Being out there with these guys, what is the most fun to play, and which out of the Dream Theater catalog do you get more stoked to perform live?

MM: I’m a fan of all of it and it’s because all of it is interesting. There’s nothing boring about this music in this band, so for me it’s a pleasure to play the pre-existing parts – they’re absolutely tremendous fun. I don’t know – I don’t have a favorite or not, because I’m always digging deeper into the catalog, into little nooks and crannies and finding all these gems and moments, so it’s great.

ANS: I read this online so I don’t know how true this is, but you actually quit music for a bit to be a programmer working on the Patriot missile?

MM: Yes I did. I started out as an engineering aide because I didn’t have a degree. So I started working at Raytheon and working on the documentation, and then once I learned how to use the computer again, [laughs] I worked my way in and I ended up, at the end of my tenure, being awarded a full-time staff position. That meant that I could be creative with the programming and the very day I got the stack of programs, I stared at them in my office, and I stared at them and all I thought was, “It’s time for me to now go,” and I started my own teaching business, I started playing. You know the music business is difficult. I think the way to do it is be able to pay your bills and still enjoy your music. If trying to combine the two – making a living playing music – is going to give you so much stress that you end your life early because of it, then it’s not worth. I mean not personally, like a jump off a building, but I meant that stress kills people. Stress kills people. That’s just not worth it, that’s not fun. I had a job, I could pay my bills, I got my teaching business going, I got in a band, and it was time to just make a transition.

ANS: I know you auditioned for Dream Theater, but tell us about auditioning for Journey’s Steve Perry.

MM: That was the worst bit of nervous tension, making all kinds of mistakes and just breaking everything that I ever had happen. Now I’m exaggerating a bit, it wasn’t that bad, because he wouldn’t had me back the following days to record, but I had my very first drum clinic the same day I had the recording session with Steve Perry, and I was out of my mind. I honestly couldn’t even keep my place counting like three or four bars. And my head was spinning. I was sitting there listening to the greatest rock voice I had ever heard in my life in my headphones, and there he is! I’m like, “Oh my gosh! Steve Perry’s there and his voice is so good!” And there I am trying to, “Oh my gosh, what bar am I in?!” I couldn’t manage it and then I had to go for a drum clinic!

ANS: At this point, what is your comfort level in Dream Theater, and do you get a sense of belonging?

MM: I feel like being in Dream Theater now is a sense of completion. The example I can give you is me a few years prior looking at my drum set in my room and thinking, “Who the heck can I be happy with? Where can I be myself? How can I be happy? Who’s going to let me play drums and not tell me I can’t set up a cowbell? Why can’t I be like a nine-year-old kid when I wanna be and just hit the drums?” That’s what I have in this band, and it’s a sense of purpose for me. I’m so thrilled, I’m grateful every night I go to bed.