Jordan Rudess interview

Rocksverige: You recently released an album in September and it has been very well received. You were even nominated for a Grammy – how does that feel?

Jordan Rudess: It feels awesome. It’s been a wonderful last couple years basically with the group since we had some major changes; things have actually been going beautifully. The Grammy thing is great. I mean we do our music – it’s rock music and but it’s not commercial rock music – so the fact that we get some acceptance from the mainstream and get noticed on a broader scale is always good. Some people are afraid, “Oh, Dream Theater is gonna change their style. They’re gonna become a commercial band,” but the reality is we do what we do. We’ve been doing it for a long time, we’re going to continue doing that to the best of our abilities and make great music. And if we can latch on to a larger audience and have more people know about us, then fantastic.

R: It’s great but it feels progressive music had a bit of a revival the last few years.

JR: I agree.

R: Why?

JR: It’s so interesting. Speaking from this point of view, we can see our band expanding the market and it’s growing, but beyond just us, I see things. Even like the magazine that comes out of the UK which is the classic Prog [is] this big thing and it sells a lot of copies and people are really interested. And there’s a lot of groups doing this kind of music and it’s definitely something that is coming back.

R: Yeah, I think that’s great too. You have a very devoted fan base. Do you think that it’s something to do with you being very devoted to them, because from my point of view you are really.

JR: We’ve always given our fans around the world a lot of energy. When we tour, we try to cover all the ground, make sure we get there and we try to open up new markets, and we really appreciate the fact that we’re appreciated as well. Personally, I’m happy and interested and willing to reach out and do things.

R: You have something really cool in your backpack: you have been voted the best keyboard player of all times.

JR: It’s really hard to take that kind of stuff totally. Maybe it depends what poll you look at as well. But the fact that a major publication could say that is very flattering. I mean I just do my work and practice.

R: ...of all the times.

JR: [laughs] I practice hard and I tour the world and do what I do, and if things like that come back, well then it’s really wonderful, it’s rewarding.

R: What’s coming next?

JR: This tour has really just begun. This is the first leg – it’s been a long leg, it’s two months long. And then we get home for two weeks and then we tour North America. Certainly after we’re all done touring – I don’t exactly know when – then we’ll take a nice break and then as we usually do, we’ll go back into the studio, work on another album. We’re already kind of bouncing some ideas back and forth about what that could be, nothing announceable or even formed enough to speak of.

R: You get ideas being on tour?

JR: Well, we start to think about the preparation. We learned a lot with this tour because I think that we all feel like this is the grandest Dream Theater tour yet, and the feedback has been that it’s really the best Dream Theater tour that people have seen; it’s a big show, it’s a lot of elements to it, and it was intense putting it together. Because of that, we learned so much and we want to make the next tour even better. So we talk about how to do that – the tour plus the album – and kind of like relating them and bringing them together. It’s funny how the process works. It’s step by step putting it together until it becomes real and things happen.