Thomas Lang interview (excerpt)

Beat It: We would like to ask you about the Dream Theater thing as well. How do you remember that situation? I mean musically, what type of experience was it for you? You mentioned in your early days you did like prog rock and–

Thomas Lang: Oh yeah. I love progressive rock. Absolutely.

BI: –so it was up your alley anyway.

TL: Oh totally! Yeah! I'm a big prog rock and prog metal fan. And I played with John Whetton for years and years, with Asia and with UK. Of course. It was like ending up working with somebody who I really admired growing up. [I’ve played] with Steve Hackett and a lot of the music from the original English prog rock scene, and made me very proud and happy. With the Dream Theater thing, I was never really a huge Dream Theater fan, because they were more prog metal than prog rock, which is cool and I like some of the records, but I was never really following them much, until they called me and asked me to audition. I did obviously some research, and they sent me the material to learn, and I wasn't really sure I was interested or not, in the first place. But after checking out the stuff I was like “yeah, this is right up my alley. This is cool.” The overall experience was really fun and positive. I learned the songs and I killed it at the audition. I nailed the songs completely and it felt good. The guys liked it, and it was cool. It was a very interesting audition because it was very long, very elaborate. It’s not like your normal audition but it was like a really in depth, like three hour production, with sort of different levels of difficulty and stuff. And there was like a jam that was like an hour long and then there was playing the music, and getting into the details of the actual songs. The other stuff they had prepared for every drummer to interpret new music and play sort of complicated patterns in different ways. It was cool and it was fun. I remembered it as a challenging, but very fun experience. Obviously, I wasn't the right guy for the band, and there’s many reasons for that, and those are all cool with me. The whole experience was a positive one at the end of the day for me. There’s always things to consider for the band that aren't necessary always just musical. There are personal things – you have to get along, the band has to like you, you have to like the band personally. There are budget things – I’m a West Coast guy, the band is an East Coast band. That always would cause a problem with flights and hotels. There are certain issues, like visa issues where if Aquiles Priester from South America or Peter Wildoer from Sweden that would've been a big issue for the band. There’s so many other aspects to this that have to be considered in a decision like this. I’m just saying that the best guy for the job’s probably Mike, who’s local, he’s right around the corner, he’s worked with the guys before – fantastic. And he’s obviously a great drummer. Anybody could’ve done the gig – any of the guys who auditioned, of course, but they found the right guy, and that’s great. In the end, it’s a positive experience and it was fun to watch the publicity element of it after the thing.

BI: I would say probably that's the single most publicized audition in the music business, ever.

TL: It was interesting to see that. I was suspicious even when they first called me, because they sent me camera and said “can you film yourself preparing for the audition?” I said “not really. I don’t wanna do that. I mean, I’ll be happy to prepare,” because it was a private and confidential audition – that’s the way they approached me in the first place. Then when they sent me the camera, it had this other element of showbiz suddenly attached to it. It’s not private and confidential if they want me to film myself. I doubt that it’s only for them to check out how I prepare myself. I guess it would be included in some sort of product after-the-fact, if I’m the lucky one who gets the gig. I know the world of publicity because of my wife, and my wife says “yeah, of course they obviously must have plans.” When I started thinking about the publicity and marketing aspect of the whole thing, I got a little turned off. And I said “I don’t wanna do the audition, because it wouldn’t be private and confidential.” But then I had a conversation with the management again and with the other drummers, ‘cause we’re all friends. I spoke to Virgil and to Derek, and to all the other guys. Everybody was like “yeah, whatever. What the heck, it’s all gonna be good, it’s all gonna be fun.” I did expect a certain sort of media frenzy after that in the drummer world or music world, but it was bigger than I thought.

BI: Exactly. It made you a part of something really big, something unexpectedly big. Especially for an audition, right?

TL: Yeah! There’s two ways to look at it. You know, I got away really well, and I feel good about what I did it, so it's all good. Maybe some of the other guys weren't as lucky as me. [laughs] You can look at it in two different ways. One way is to say “you’re part of something very well-publicized and big.” And the other way of looking at it is you can say “yeah, you’re one of the seven guys who didn't get the gig.” So there’s always two ways to look at it.

BI: Yeah, but that's like is the glass half full or half empty?

TL: Exactly. But I’m just saying that it’s a two-sided thing. But the optimist that I am, and the person whose learned to deal with rejection early on in his career, I'm cool with it. ‘Cause I feel good about what I did, and it was a great experience and a lot of fun. And it had that publicity aspect to it. So it was all good at the end of the day.