Mike Mangini interview

Chaoszine: You are on the Images And Words anniversary tour playing that album [in] full plus some classics from the Dream Theater catalog. So, in general, how has the tour been so far?

Mike Mangini: The tour has been outstanding, and it’s nice to be a part of this. The crowds have been mostly sold out or packed. The response has just been super. And the actual performing part of it for us has been fun. We’re having fun. And people know that, they can see on our faces. The ones that are there, not the ones that are maybe on YouTube. If you can’t be at a show, sorry about that, but the ones that are there – there should be YouTube videos showing the truth of what people actually feel when they’re at these shows, by their faces. That might not be a bad idea. Instead of the videos of us, show the people and all the smiles. It’s just great. I mean, if you could see what I could see, you’d understand why I have fun.

CZ: So Images And Words was released like 25 years ago, and obviously you weren’t in the band at the time when it came out. But what kind of connection do you have with the album? Do you remember the times when you heard it yourself for the first time?

MM: Yes, I do actually. One of my drum students brought it into a drum lesson and said, “Take a listen to this, I think you’re gonna like it.” And I did, and I did! This was when it first came out.

CZ: So how does it feel to play those songs live? Does it give you a different feeling compared to if you are playing like the Dream Theater, your-era songs live?

MM: Well, of course it’s a different feeling, but I hit things. Eventually, at the end of the day, that’s what’s on my mind – is hitting things! So, the effect of being part of something does change things, it absolutely does. But most of my career I’ve been called in to bail out a situation, or enter a situation, or take over for somebody. So I’m quite used to this. I recognize the feeling, and it is not the same as playing to something that I was a part of composingan, d that’s normal. So it’s all good.

CZ: You also have a new album The Astonishing out. In general, what kind of feedback have you guys gotten from it, and have you been pleased with it?

MM: Well, the feedback that I’ve seen is both sides – people that accept it and people that don’t. And that’s, again, it’s like OK, that’s normal. And we, again, just go out and hit and play things. That’s all I can tell you, and we’ll be writing new things and continuing the process. I mean, for me studying a little bit of philosophy, this is human nature at work, so I just observe it. I don’t have my feelings swayed too much one way or the other. I just let it be what it is. So that’s what it is.

CZ: For me, the band sounds more tight as a unit with the last three albums that they have basically done with you as a drummer. So what’s actually your whole role when it comes to like the song arranging? Are you heavily involved with that, or do you, so to say, just do the drumming parts yourself?

MM: Let’s put it this way: that’s the difference on one level between Mike [Portnoy] being in the band for so long and then me coming in, is that he’s vested in that. You know what I’m saying? So he’s part of the arranging and part of all that, while I, just being an observer... John, Jordan, and John are writing the music, I mean like literally. They’re writing the music.

CZ: They are the core in the band.

MM: Their instruments demand it; drums don’t write songs like that. But you affect the songs, just like I’m sure the role that I had on the self-titled album was something similar to what Mike was doing, but way not as involved. I was involved as a drummer, but how much can I suggest? I have to say, “What, oh, sound like this, play that, let’s do three of these, five of those.” But it’s still the other guys making those chord progressions. So the difference, if you’re wondering, that’s got to be a big difference where Mike’s part of it, he’s involved in those arrangements and things more than I have been yet. But understand something: I’ve entered a few bands, OK? And I watch a lot of sports. You don’t show up on somebody else’s team demanding – you don’t demand respect, you earn it. It takes time. And so little by little, I’m doing what I’m asked, I’m doing a little bit more, and that is where it is a different thing. So they have this core difference. The drumming, as you said, the albums sound tighter to you. What that means is that when the music is composed – and it has largely not been composed with me. It is largely two out of three albums, and even a lot of stuff on the album I was on – not yet composed with me. I can compose full songs and I’m doing it, but again, I’m trying to earn respect little by little here, I’ll get in there. But the bottom line is that the other guys are composing as they always have. And this time now, if they’re putting together a song and they feel that the music, a song, needs to be presented a certain way, with a certain feeling, that means that the drummer has to play the external time. So that is a huge difference where I, in my whole life, have submitted to this. I submit to the composer. Like, “Well, I would like it like this, and I would like it like that, and I would like it like this.” I mean, I worked with Steve Vai. In a lot of cases, he’s like, “Well, can you hit the splash cymbal on the seventh note of that eleven tuplet? Can you do an eleven tuplet in that space?” I’m like, “Yeah!” And I loved it. Now, that has been my career, and I’ve enjoyed it. It has to be real, you can’t be fake with these things. That’s a long answer, I understand that, but it’s probably the best explanation I’ve ever given to anyone in any interview.

CZ: Yeah, yeah, yeah – and that makes sense. So your playing in general, is obviously a big difference with what Mike’s playing was. So are there some Dream Theater songs from the older albums that you are playing live that you consider them as difficult for you to play?

MM: Well, I have some different feelings. For example, I know people are enjoying ‘Change Of Seasons’. Like many songs, there are some drum parts that, as I’m playing them, I’m thinking, “Ah, this is just brilliant!” I mean, it’s just perfect. It’s perfect. Now that’s someone in their element that I appreciate. I really, in my heart, wish more fans that understand that difference would just let it be what it is. You don’t have to be upset about it, and you don’t have to wish for me to be something I’m not, or for the band to be something that it is not anymore. It just isn’t. It has gone somewhere else. But there’s a beauty, and I’m the guy back there – I’m the person playing the drum parts – and I’m thinking, “This is absolutely brilliant!” I just love it! It’s a total joy. I’ve been that way from the beginning. I’ve been consistent since I auditioned, since I heard the music, since I’ve done about every interview. I’ve not veered off this, because it’s the truth. It’s what I really feel. And I have a host of emotions in different ways. I see some drum parts, like fills in ‘Metropolis’ – I totally need to play my own thing there, and I should play my own thing there. And I’ve learned how to mimic, but now not be so creepy getting every note. It would be weird if I heard someone playing everything I did exactly, knowing that no two people can sound the same. So I have to try, I have to make an attempt to do it for the band’s sake.

CZ: From the Dream Theater Finnish group, one wanted to ask: do you consider Dream Theater basically as your dream project, since you have been involved with different kinds of projects throughout your career? Do you feel that this is like a dream in a way for you?

MM: The thing that’s like amazing to me, that’s most important, are the guys. I can’t believe that I’m existing in a group, traveling with people that like to get along, that like to get together, that like to talk about things, that like to sit together after a show for two hours and just talk about stuff.

CZ: I guess that doesn’t happen with everybody, I would imagine.

MM: No, it doesn’t happen. And we go to the stage with the same thing. We don’t even have to say anything. It’s like, “We’re gonna go out and do our best.” That is what the fans that go to the shows are picking up that the fans that are not going to the shows are not picking up. And I feel so badly, we all do, when we can’t go to certain places, or it doesn’t work out with the equipment or the touring or the way the structure is, and the days off, and the trucks driving. We feel so badly about that. This is important – it really is – for fans to know this: that we want to play everywhere, but these other things determine that we can or cannot. And they are missing out on what I’m talking about – that we are carrying this feeling to the stage. We are executing these songs to the point that we each know which three notes we slightly miss. For example, let’s say I hit a snare drum in a place I don’t mean to that is a mistake in ‘Learning To Live’. Let’s say I hit the snare drum in a place where I mean to, because I just want to hit that, like James is saying a vocal accent – and like I did with [Gary] Cherone and other singers – I just want to hit that to make him jump. Well, whether it’s a mistake or whether I mean it, to many people observing it – let’s say on YouTube – I didn’t play the part right. But they’re missing out on why it was done. And the fans there – that’s why I wish there was a camera on fans – they understand it. And if I didn’t mean it, I sure let them know about it – like I’ll look up and go [makes a goofy face] or I’ll make a funny face, or I’ll go [makes awkward look] or I’ll roll my eyes or go, “All right, you got me. All right, you got me. Why don’t you film that on YouTube and make a whole YouTube page on a mistake that I made?” People do that.

CZ: You also released like an art collection recently. Symmetry Beyond Blank is the name of the art collection. So could you tell us, like in general, a bit about that? It sort of symbolizes, I guess, the symmetries within your drumming techniques, and then you have made art from that.

MM: Yes. Well, what it is – just some lighted drumsticks filmed with a very slow exposure so that the motions of drummers can be seen and not heard. It’s just a different way to observe. It’s art. It’s a way to observe people.

CZ: Important for a drummer to understand all these kind of like symmetries.

MM: It can’t really happen with the drummer unless the drum set is set up for it. But I know that when I started to put things on my left side, the only drummer I had seen do anything – only two drummers: Simon Phillips put his ride cymbal on his left side, Billy Cobham had put things on his left side that I was aware of anyway. So these are the only two guys that ever did anything like this, and I decided to make it wholly symmetrical. As Simon Phillips told me, he had not ever seen that by anybody before. Simon is a hero of mine – and to have someone like that take the time to come up to me and say, “I tried that, and I realized the work it would take, and I’m like, ‘Forget it, I don’t want to do that,’ and so I respect that you did this.” And so I felt that that’s my special place in drumming – that even if someone else did it, I don’t know about it. All I know is I knew no one that did it. I did it from my soul and my heart, from reading these books on physics and just wanting to have fun with shapes on the drums. That’s all that it is. But it’s a piece of me.

CZ: Thank you Mike a lot for the chat, and best of luck for tonight’s show as well as for the future. Anything you want to say – last words to the Finnish fans who will be watching this afterwards?

MM: Yes, I do. The last thing I want to say is – forgive me if I spoke too quickly. It’s all the espresso’s fault, I just woke up. Forgive me. And I might have given very long answers – but there you go.

CZ: Thank you, Mike.