Meticulously Mastering Mind Over Matter: Mike Mangini

Dream Theater’s Newest Member Passes Trial by Fire with Flying Colors

By John Collinge, Progression Editor

Referring to Mike Mangini’s high-tech workstation as a “drum kit” is like calling the Titanic a boat. To the untrained eye it looks more sci-fi than rock ‘n’ roll – 12 foot pedals, strategically mounted electronic controls and gizmos that do who-knows-what. Plus personal effects, including a comb, bottles of Fiji water and a dispenser of cooling Huggies wipes, which suggest that drumming for Dream Theater is as much athletic event as rhythmic artistry.

In a band renowned for copious chopzilla, Mangini is new kid on the block and the engine that makes it run with requisite virtuosity. Entering his second year on the riser as successor to popular band co-founder Mike Portnoy, Mike II slowly but surely is finding his groove in the job he feels he was born for.

Like most worthwhile things in life, it hasn’t come easily. Mangini stepped straight from academia at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music into a rigorous life on the hard-rock road, learning his role on the fly. He credits applied cognitive science with overcoming stage fright amidst the scrutiny of succeeding a music legend and the group’s self-proclaimed leader.

It’s gone well so far. Diehard Dream Theater fans welcomed Mangini with open arms, while band mates say his infectious optimism has stoked a collective vigor missed under Portnoy’s brooding influence. Last year’s A Dramatic Turn of Events, the band’s 11th studio album and first without Portnoy, reflects a consequent shift in tone – still powerful, still aggressive, still very much Dream Theater, minus much of the darkness and anger imbuing prior efforts.

Popularly regarded as the prototypical progressive metal act, Dream Theater was formed in 1985 by Portnoy, guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung while (coincidentally) studying at Berklee. Twenty-five years, 28 tours and 10 albums later, Portnoy decided he needed a break and proposed putting the band on ice for five years. Petrucci, Myung, singer James LaBrie and keyboardist Jordan Rudess balked, paving the way for Mangini’s eventual arrival.

Mike auditioned alongside several high-profile drummers, including prog-rock luminaries Marco Minnemann and Virgil Donati. He was teaching full-time in Berklee’s Percussion Department as an associate professor – a job he quit to join Dream Theater. But he came armed with a resume chronicling experience, skills and aptitudes far beyond the classroom.

Mangini’s professional music career includes stints with rockers Extreme, guitar maestro Steve Vai, and thrash-metal band Annihilator. His greatest claim to fame, however, might be record-holding distinction as World’s Fastest Drummer in the early to mid-2000s. Among other feats of extreme dexterity, Mike was the first to break 1,200 notes in 60 seconds when he rolled off 1,203 single notes at the 2005 Winter NAMM Session.

With Dream Theater, chops count. And, as Mangini explains, the stars aligned in his favor.

Progression: Was it important to you owning the title of World’s Fastest Drummer? That also begs the question, where does music end and sports begin?

Mangini: “The WFD title is important to me only in that it validates my technique, which makes me feel better. The whole contest thing, being number one or number 10, that doesn’t matter to me much. It did just for a second, because you like to win. But after one time it’s enough, I’ve had enough. Where music ends and sports begins is a matter of definition. Speed is a mathematical term, so it’s usage that matters, not simply what it is. That’s the difference.”

Progression: As you know, the band filmed drummer auditions for a fascinating three-part documentary (available on You Tube) called The Spirit Carries On. Your reaction upon being offered the job is priceless. How did you approach your tryout with everything on the line?

Mangini: “It was like every other audition I’ve ever done in my life. I’ve done about 45 of them and in each of those auditions where I have succeeded, I did the same thing – I kept my mind focused on what I was seeing, hearing and feeling. I kept my mind focused on looking at my hands or looking at the other musicians to see what their body language was. I was thinking about the reality of what was going on rather than about being evaluated or thinking about being nervous, or what would happen if I didn’t get the job. I ‘changed channels’ and just stayed on what I prepared for, the songs. So, I tried to focus on what it took to play those songs and that is how it worked for me.”

Progression: You had a great career going with professorship at a top music school, conducting drum clinics in faraway places, doing session work, etc. What made you decide to drop all that for a band?

Mangini: “Something beyond my control is attraction. I can’t control who, or what, I am attracted to. I don’t know if any of us can. I’m attracted to the kind of music Dream Theater plays and I’m seriously attracted to the kind of situation where working in a band – which is much like a marriage – contains people that are very respectful people, very focused people at trying to be the best they can be. That’s what attracted me but it was out of my control. What’s in my control is working my butt off trying to make it happen.”

A Dramatic Turn of Events was written by the time Mike joined the band. Playing drum parts laid out by the others was expected as he had other priorities, including construction of a road-worthy drum set. “They had never composed without a drummer. I know what it’s like to compose on other instruments with or without drums,” he says. “Sometimes without drums, it’s a little bit easier to make the parts kind of just flow one to another; for instance, if you’re composing only on guitar. They wanted to try that by themselves.

“For my sake, look, I had a full-time job at Berklee – I had other responsibilities to my students and to my family. Also, I had to put together a massive drum set. This meant I had to review the Dream Theater catalog in order to construct the right drum set, not only to record the record but play the old songs live. My plate was full, so it was mutual that I wasn’t there.”

The hardest adjustment for Mangini was preparing mentally and emotionally for an exhaustive world tour. For a 48-year-old virtuoso who never particularly enjoyed playing live, facing inner doubts and fears was unavoidable. “For me to get over panic attacks onstage, for me to get over the stuff that I had to get over – really not liking to perform live or play in front of people – I had to work harder at that than I had to work at hitting a drum,” he says.

This gets to the heart of Mike Mangini’s almost fanatical approach to preparation through trained focus and strict regimentation, including 75-minute warm-up sessions in his dressing room before each show. As impressive as his performances have been with the band, Mike has yet to work a spotlight solo into the two-hour set. That is expected to come, with time.

“Specifically with Dream Theater, I’ve had to overcome thinking onstage about what everybody’s thinking of me, because I’m replacing a very popular person. So I can’t sit there thinking, ‘Oh, they heard that! What should I do now?’ Or if I change something, or if I lose my place and something happens, then I think about what they think about me,” he says. “I have to just turn that away.

“I’ve studied a lot of cognitive science and I put this into action by being focused on the senses – what you see hear and feel in a more root-oriented way. It’s called selective attention in the mind. You can select certain information to listen to or not pay attention to. You know, we work like a computer. Even though there are six programs open, the human mind can’t pay attention to more than one thought at a time, so you can choose. For example, my mind might be telling me one thing or I might be talking to myself in my head. I can choose to not shut it off but instead focus on what I’m actually seeing, hearing or feeling. Or I can focus on a different dialogue in my mind.

“That is how to do it. You and I and the rest of the world, we all are human so we lose our faith in this. You have to keep practicing it. It’s really hard, believe me.”

Progression: Have you at least made peace with playing live night after night on the big stage?

Mangini: “Yes, I have. I’m comfortable with a lot of things, but I never, ever will be comfortable on stage totally. I never will be until I’m in the coffin. It’s just in my nature to be really ultra concerned. It makes me kind of need my own space before a show. Look, for me to be at my best, this isn’t a social event to me. What’s sad for me is I can’t even spend time hanging out with friends before or after a show, that’s not what this is about. I have to prepare myself to go onstage and do the best job I can. In order to do that I have to warm up and it’s not a social event. I’ll never be comfortable unless I’m warmed up right.”

Progression: Do you ever reach a point in performance where you can lose yourself in the moment and not be anxious about anything?

Mangini: “Lets put it this way: I’ve learned to convert anxiousness to positive energy, but it’s so focused. I’ve learned to convert that into good energy instead of negative nervousness. During the show I’m always going to be anxious because it’s in my nature, but during the show I have learned to convert that.

“What hurts me the most is when my time is asked of me before a show. I don’t think anybody really understands what I put into this. Nobody really gets what it takes for me to go do this. People want to come say hello and take pictures with me, go out to dinner, and blah, blah, blah... I love doing that stuff but I don’t know how many times I have to tell the same 50 people that I can’t do this or that. And it hurts me to hear back about it because it puts pressure on me to accommodate when I have a job to do. They sometimes take it personally that I don’t want to meet them or don’t want to talk to them or don’t want to meet their son or don’t want to go out. Hopefully, they know I’m not like that. When I have a job to do and want to be the best in the world at what I do, it takes incredible focus or I’m going to be lousy and it’s going to drive me crazy if I don’t play right. It’s all about that for me – the preparation and being at peace, being left to do my job.

“I need a solid hour and 15 minutes to prepare for a show. What happens is I usually get about 45 minutes to an hour, but then the press [interviews] runs late, so that cuts into my time. It really affects me. And then I have people who want to get backstage and are trying to contact me when I tell them ahead of time please, just leave me alone before the show! And nobody does! It kills me, it really kills me.

“After the show I need to shower because I have to get on a bus to travel eight hours, and I’m not going to get on a bus with my underwear soaking wet with sweat, you know what I’m saying? I mean, you should write about this stuff, because people don’t hear it. I need 30 minutes after a show to take a shower. Look, here’s the fact of the matter: I probably want to hug and kiss at least 20 people a night after a show. Sometimes it’s more than that. I really just want to sit and talk to people and catch up, but then the bus has to leave. After it’s much easier to do than before, because before the show compromises my ability to play. It’s very difficult for me.”

Mike says fan acceptance has been “extraordinary.” But he takes nothing for granted and is wary not to sell discriminating Dream Theater buffs short: he trusts they know he works hard to meet lofty expectations. “Number one is they know that I practice and I can play the drums, even if I’m not their favorite drummer. At least they respect the fact that I work hard. The thing I believe matters most is they know I want to be in this band,” he says. “They know – and again, this is out of my control – that I really love the music. They know it! And I think they appreciate the fact that I came into this situation helping them hear more music from their favorite band. I think they respect that.”

Mangini and Portnoy were professional acquaintances going back 15 years, occasionally crossing paths at drum clinic events. Mangini calls their relationship cordial and mutually supportive. “Most of us in the drum community act this way,” he says. Mangini also hung out backstage when ever Dream Theater played Boston. He says he was politely respectful of Portnoy’s space. “As protocol I think I always acted properly, and as a drummer I just always tried to be the best I can be. Those things are in my control. I think the band noticed these things but the fact they asked me to [audition] was on them.”

Progression: Mike Portnoy often referred to Dream Theater as “his” band. As you know, a while after you replaced him he wanted back in. Do you feel any qualms or misgivings about this?

Mangini: “No. Because I felt that in his heart, he didn’t want to be there when he asked the band to go on hiatus. I can’t speak for Mike but I felt based on the signs, based on what he said and put online, I figured his heart was into a different kind of band, whether it was for a while or not. Again that’s out of my control – how the band operates and how he operates. I just felt it was what was in his heart and was right for him. Frankly, I thought he would be happy in the band Avenged Sevenfold [one of Portnoy’s many post-Dream Theater collaborations]. So I felt I didn’t step on any toes as a friend because I thought he was happy.”

The summer, 2012 portion of what must have seemed to Mike “the never-ending worldwide coming-out tour,” concluded Sept. 1 in Brazil after 14 months. (Two shows Aug. 18-19 in Buenos Aires, Argentina were filmed for DVD release late this year.) Compounding Mangini’s workload was Dream Theater’s policy of altering its set from city to city to keep things fresh for audiences. Soundchecks doubled as writing/jam sessions for the group’s planned 12th album; studio work is scheduled in early 2013.

Mangini says he is content to let his role in the creative process unfold naturally. “John Petrucci always has been the guy coming up with the main riffs throughout the history of this band. So that’s going to continue. All I’m going to do is support it,” he says. “For example, if he shows up with 27 riffs, those are probably going to be the songs. As we do show warm-ups and work on little pieces and little riffs here and there together, we record them. Maybe some of those will make it into the fold, maybe some of the ideas that I’ve composed will get listened to, maybe not. The bottom line is I’m just going to follow along to see where they want me to fit in because I’m still new. We’ll see.”

Until then, he will remain passionately focused on the essential here and now – adjusting his left knee, lifting his right foot just so, watching his hand while gauging pressure on the drumstick between thumb and forefinger. For Mike Mangini, the curtain finally has risen in his personal theater of dreams.