Dream Theater – Nightmare Rhythms

The moment when Mike Mangini first became a member of Dream Theater was captured on film and released by the band as part of an online documentary into their drummer search. It takes a particularly talented player to step into the shoes of Mike Portnoy; you need personality, presence, tone and technical ability. Mangini’s resume is loaded with fine examples of his work with artists like Steve Vai, Extreme, Mike Keneally, and Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie. Mangini was up for the job alongside Marco Minnemann, Peter Wildoer, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Derek Roddy and our own Virgil Donati, but it was pretty clear that although everyone who auditioned was great, Mangini was simply Dream Theater’s new drummer. Now with two Dream Theater albums and a bunch of touring under his belt, Mangini and his Dream Theater bandmates are heading to Australia for shows in Sydney and Melbourne, after which Mangini plans to hang around for some drum clinics.

I first saw you in Australia with Steve Vai back in 1997...

Wow! Yes, I’ve been there with Steve and then at least twice on my own for clinic runs with DrumScene magazine and I’m actually gonna do some clinics after the Dream Theater tour. I’m gonna stay there.

What does a clinic with Mike Mangini involve?

Well the clinic involves me playing and entertaining people, and then I do a presentation based on the product sponsors, gearing what I say and play towards the use of that product and why I use them, and I give demonstrations of the application of that in the music, either Dream Theater music or practicing or something that somebody might request. I usually get asked a lot of questions about the mechanics, the speed, the practicing, the pattern recognition, musical styles... people want to know how to do things, so that’s the focus.

What are the problems that people are coming to you for help with?

Oh if you look at everything that can be played on a drum set... which I will, I actually organize that in my DVD; everything that has ever been played, everything that could ever be played and everything that will ever be played from now until the planet burns up is on one page. The thing is, once people see what is only possible then you start to work backwards, so when someone has an issue, it could be an infinite amount of things, but basically it’s with the mechanics and the understanding of what they’re doing, so a lot of times what they can’t play is really a lack of understanding. So to answer your question, I focus on explaining what something is. It’s very philosophical, a very Marcus Aurelius approach, a Roman emperor who had an amazing way of solving issues. If you have an issue with something you ask “What is it?” And it’s funny, but most things are difficult to deal with when you ask that question, “What is it?” You know? Write an essay on what anything is, it’s really hard to do it! But that is in essence what happens. People go “I have a problem with speed; how do I get faster with my hands?” Well, what is speed? What are your hands? What are they made of? How do they work? I end up showing them that they have a lot of other muscles and a lot of thoughts that are associated with either the lack of speed or the attaining of it. And when I break it down they’re able to then achieve it when they work hard enough. That’s how I get through Dream Theater songs. I break the songs up into chunks in my head and I say “Okay, what’s next? Oh it’s this shape. What’s next? Oh, turn my head, look over here, here comes that bass part.” And I talk to myself while I hear the subdivision of time in my head, because I work with metronomes so much that I can imagine sound. So I’m hearing my own voice, I’m hearing time divided into subdivisions, and I’m hearing my drums, I’m listening to the other musicians and I’m this mental zone. It’s pretty deep.

So what’s it like, being the drummer in Dream Theater? It’s the dream job for a lot of drummers.

It’s been a major point in my life with the fulfillment of what I want to be and who I want to be. My path up until that point was that I had been in bands or working as a drummer, and I got to the point where I really didn’t want to work for someone else and be at someone else’s whim because you’re not paid retainer sometimes, you’re hired when you’re hired and you’ve gotta look for jobs in between. I took a job at Berklee College and I started to really bloom over there in terms of learning way more things than I thought. There was so much to make me think, because I was being asked so many different things by students. I dug in and I did well there, but the thing is I was taken away from what I loved the most, which was playing. And once you start to teach at a college, they say ‘This is your main gig,’ and I understand what they mean; it’s my main income. That’s what it is. But the main gig is in my heart, y’know? That’s playing, and you teach based on playing. Eventually I had to play more. I didn’t find a way to let both worlds exist, well, I did but then there were some changes happening there and then the opportunity for me to take advantage of gigs and things got squashed so I didn’t wanna live with that. I became open to getting into a band and lo and behold, the opportunity hit me. I had to be prepared for it though, and I really wasn’t physically prepared for it even though I was emotionally prepared for it.