Originally published in Derek Sherinian YT channel · March 2016
Derek Sherinian comments
ArticleDerek Sherinian1 min read
One of the questions that I'm asked a lot by Dream Theater fans is, “What songs did you bring to Dream Theater? What are your main musical contributions to the band?” Off the top of my head, I would have to say ‘Lines In The Sand’ was my biggest and most identifiable riff or song. It was the first thing that I started playing in rehearsals, and Portnoy heard it right away and thought it was great. He goes, “What is that?” and we started working it out. It all started off with this riff. [plays riff that starts at 1:52] ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ used to be the intro to ‘Lines In The Sand’ and on the original demo, it was like this nineteen minute piece and it was really cool. By the time you got into pre-production for the record, it was cut into two different songs. But yeah, the intro to ‘Hell's Kitchen’ is another thing that I was very instrumental in bringing in.