Jordan Rudess interview (excerpts)

MM : John Petrucci, Guthrie Govan and Vinnie Moore also collaborated with you on this album. Please tell us how and why they got involved for this project”

JR : I’m so lucky to have such great guitar players in my musical world. John was kind enough to put aside some time to make an appearance on the album. It means so much to me to have him on it because we are musical brothers and I love his playing and wanted to add his expression to this album. Guthrie Govan is a phenomenal guitarist that any chance I can I will work with him. He plays on the song entitled Off the Ground And does a beautiful job playing over some very interesting and unusual chord changes. Vinnie Moore and I go back a long way. I first appeared on his time odyssey so many years ago. He is one of my favorite guitarists as well and I always love to have him involved in my projects.

MM : Not only John Petrucci, but also James LaBrie worked for this album. There could be a possibility that the track sounds like Dream Theater. How did you prevent from music sounding Dream Theater?

JR : I’m not worried that any of my music will sound very much like Dream Theater. I have many musical ideas that go in directions that are different than Dream Theater. James, makes a beautiful appearance at the end of the title track and his voice is very powerful and really suits the character of that compositional section. Since my background is classical music having studied at the Juilliard school and moving to all electronica music when I left and then progressive rock I feel that my musical mind can easily flow in directions that are independent of what I do with Dream Theater. That said of course there will be some elements of my music that one could relate to Dream Theater since that is a big part of my compositional life.

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MM : After the release of “Distance Over Time”, Dream Theater’s tour has started already. How is the tour going so far?

JR : It’s incredibly exciting Dream Theater is at a wonderful point in our career. Not only has a new album been successful and loved all around the world, But we are also celebrating the album and Scenes from a memory which is my first album with the band 20 years ago. The combination of these two elements together have created the recipe for an amazing touring the experience. All the shows are sold out and the excitement is tangible. It’s a wonderful time for us.

MM : When are you going to tour Japan as Dream Theater?

JR : I don’t have the exact dates but of course we will get to Japan in 2020. I always look forward to coming to Japan because it’s one of my favorite places in the world. I love the culture, and the people in the food and we will hopefully be there very soon.

MM : Please leave a message to your fans.

JR : It’s been an amazing time for me with the new Dream Theater album and tour as well as my Wired for Madness album being released. I am beyond excited to release this music to the world. I can’t wait to hear the reaction from all of my fans in Japan! Thank you all for the incredible support and I look forward to sharing more music with you in the future.