Mike Portnoy interview (excerpt)

You were always writing lyrics in Dream Theater, while in Adrenaline Mob, I think it’s all Russell’s...

Russell and Mike Orlando.

Is it going to change or ...?

I have no desire to write lyrics with Adrenaline Mob. I think Mike Orlando and Russ are very happy doing it and I’m happy with my role. I don’t feel the need. To be honest with you, after I wrote The Best of Times for my dad and after I completed the 12 Steps suite with Dream Theater, I very much felt like I had said everything I wanted to say lyrically. I felt like those could have been my swan songs and I remember even saying to John Petrucci after those songs, “I’m done, I don’t wanna write lyrics anymore. I feel like I’ve said everything I wanted to say.” It’s not one of my favorite creative outlets. It’s of all the things I do, it’s not my most passionate one. So, you know, I guess I’m kind of in a lyrical retirement for the moment, but that being said I’m about to do an album with Ritchie Kotzen and Billy Sheehan next month and there is one song that I felt some inspiration for, so... You know, I think I’ll write lyrics if I really feel the inspiration to do so. But I don’t really want to be like I have to do it.

Since you just mentioned that you finished the 12 Steps suite: You never played it live...

Yeah. Disappointing, a shame. Cause that was always my intention.

Why didn’t you do it? I mean, you toured quite a lot for the last album.

Well, when we finished Black Clouds... The whole Black Clouds tour was Progressive Nation, which was only 90 minutes set and I wasn’t gonna eat up 60 minutes of it with that, and then we went to the Maiden tour, which was only like a 60 minutes set. So there were very few opportunities on that last tour with Dream Theater to do it and it was always my intention.

You didn’t even play all that much from the album, only four songs...

Well, we did Count of Tuscany, we did Nightmare to Remember, we did Wither, we did A Rite to Passage, so actually we did four out of six songs, but I didn’t want to do Best of Times, because it was very, very difficult for me, and I didn’t want to do The Shattered Fortress, cause I was saving it for the day to do the whole thing, so... Believe me me, there’s a method to my madness with choosing songs and that was the reason, those two were both – one was kinda sacred and one was being saved.

Yeah, I perfectly understand, just you didn’t play almost half an hour from the new album, which was quite unusual.

Oh, we played four songs. Four out of six, and those were very... Two of which were 15 or 20 minutes each.

It’s just, I had gotten used to you playing everything at some point, so...

Well, I wasn’t planning on leaving. [laughs] I thought there will be further tours to work with. [laughs] You know, actually it was always my intention all along for the next tour. Actually, to be honest, before I left the band, me and John Petrucci were already discussing that the next record was gonna be a concept album. And I already had the setlist written for the next tour. It was gonna be “An Evening With” and the first set would be the full concept album, the second set would have been the 12 Steps suite. I already had the setlist planned, but obviously, you know, best laid plans... You never know what’s gonna happen. But that was always my intention if things didn’t end up happening the way they happened, so... Obviously everything changed.

Just to get a little bit technical, you did play the first two songs of the suite, back to back, on the Train of Thought tour, I think. How would the transitions have worked to the next parts?

Absolutely, the all of these songs were written in order to be able to transition from one to another. They were all written to interconnect. That was always the intention.

Would you have played that ambient intro for Root of All Evil or would you have gone straight into the riff?

Well, we didn’t get that far into the figuring out how... You know, we knew that they would connect in terms of keys and segues and songs and stuff like that...

You obviously wrote it that way.

Exactly.

Since we’re already discussing Dream Theater... I don’t really want to talk about the split per se, just: Are you happy now?

I could not be happier. I am, you know, I’m getting to do everything I’ve ever wanted to do, anything my imagination can think up. I’m getting to play with some of my favorite musicians in the world, ranging from Russell Allen to Billy Sheehan to Paul Gilbert to Steve Morse. You know, these are all people I admire and respect, and I’m getting to work with them all and make music with them all and getting to do such a wide range... You know, from the metal of Adrenaline Mob to the pop kind of stuff with Flying Colors to... You know, I’ve got this thing with Richie and Billy which is more like a classic rock power trio thing. So I am incredibly fulfilled and to be honest, if I had stayed with Dream Theater, in the last two years, I would have made one album and just done one tour with one band, playing that same album over and over and over, but what I’ve done in less than two years, I’ve made six albums and I’ve played live on stage with, I think, ten or twelve bands now. Not only the bands that I am a part of, but I also got to fill-in gigs with Stone Sour, Hail and Fates Warning and I did the Metal Masters gigs with the Slayer, Anthrax, Pantera and Megadeth guys... I mean, it’s the last two years have been maybe the two most creatively fulfilling years of my entire career.

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Now to my favorite of your new projects, the Sheehan/MacAlpine/Sherinian thing. What is it like to be working with Derek Sherinian again?

It’s a blast. I love Derek, he’s a fun guy. I still stand by the fact that I’m not sure if he was ever right for Dream Theater. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t love the guy as a player and person. I really do, I love being with him and I love playing with him and I’m glad to be able to work with him again. And you know, it’s a cool project because obviously it’s very much... I think of everything I’m doing it’s the most like Dream Theater or it’s more even like Liquid Tension experiment, probably. But you know, it’s just me being able to play that kind of music with some amazing musicians. Not only Derek, but obviously Billy Sheehan’s a dear friend and I’ve got two different things going with Billy at the moment and I love working with him, he’s one of my favorite bass players of all time. And Tony MacAlpine is an amazing guitar player, so I’m honored to be playing with him as well. It’s a great, great line-up and we have a DVD that’s gonna come out soon from when we played together back in January and then we have this run of shows coming up in the fall.

Are you going to create some original music with that band?

There’s no plans for it, but obviously we are gonna spend months together playing every day, so I’m sure it will inevitably be discussed, and who knows I think it could be very, very cool. So, you know, we’ll see, I’m sure we’ll talk about.

Derek mentioned that you’re going to play Apocalypse 1470 B.C.

He said that?

Yeah, he said that on the Planet X forum. Have you been practicing yet?

No. I’ll figure it out when we get there. I have three other tours before then to worry about.

You know the track?

Yeah.

Did you consider that a challenge? I mean, that’s really a signature Donati track and he’s pretty good.

Yeah, Virgil is awesome. You know, I’m not a technical drummer like that, so I’ll do my own version. I’m a rocker. You know, I can play prog, too. [laughs] So I’m not worried, but I’m not gonna play like Virgil, because he and I have completely different styles. So I’ll do my version. Hey, I have a great video of Virgil playing every single Dream Theater song. He started in a Dream Theater cover band in Australia and he did his versions of my songs, so now I’ll do my version of his song.

I gotta say, from that Dream Theater “we are looking for a drummer” videos, seeing Virgil play those songs sounded sooo alien to me. A really weird thing. Interesting, but...

Yeah, he and I are very different players. I obviously respect his technique, but to me... I don’t care about technique, I’d rather be a performer, I’d rather rock, I’d rather feel energy and personality.

You’re like on opposite ends of the spectrum in so many ways...

Yeah, but you know what, that’s what makes different drummers different drummers. That’s what makes styles.