Mike Portnoy interview (excerpt)

Alfredo Iraheta: You are very involved in social media and also with your fans. You are always really honest in your interactions. Unfortunately, things are oftentimes taken out of context or misinterpreted, and this is a big deal. How are you able to shake off these inaccuracies or negative stuff and remain as open and accessible as you are?

Mike Portnoy: It’s frustrating, because I put a huge importance on always telling the truth and being honest and open with the fans. I never try to sugarcoat something with bulls*** or say the politically correct thing. I speak from the heart. So sometimes that comes back to bite me in the ass, and I’ve learned to have to try to watch what I say. A lot of times I’ll see stuff misinterpreted, so sometimes I’ll chime in to try to at least set the record straight, and then even that gets misinterpreted. I’m trying to learn how to bite my tongue as much as I can. I told you before we started I don’t wanna talk about Dream Theater, because even in the case of them, even when I try to say something nice, like, “Oh, I miss those guys”, or whatever, then even that gets misinterpreted. People are like, “Oh, he’s lingering on the band”, or, “He misses them”. Oh blah blah blah. Without getting into a Dream Theater question, I’m saying even when I say something nice, it somehow gets twisted, and it’s frustrating – it’s really frustrating. But what am I gonna do? I’m not gonna not do interviews. There are some people that would just shut down and stop doing interviews. I’m not gonna let social media shut me up. I just try to be careful.

AI: Yeah you [can] see an accessibility something, and that brings us all closer together.

MP: Well I’ve always been like that, because I’m just as much of a fan myself. I was always the tape trader in the band back in the ‘80s, and then when the Internet came around, my forum and all the other bands’ forums – of the bands I love – I’d always chime in and get involved with that. So social media was a natural form of expression for me, because I wanna interact with the fans because I’m just as much of a fan. And then I get blasted for that, too. The other day I made a comment about Joey Kramer of Aerosmith, just talking like a fan, like anybody else, and then somebody blasted me, like, ‘Why don’t you just concentrate on your own stuff? How dare you talk about another band?’ It’s, like, really? You’re allowed to talk about another band, but I can’t? I’m a fan as well! I’m allowed to have an opinion just as well. I’m not saying my opinion is right; it’s just an opinion. It’s just my take on a situation as a fan.

AI: So you mentioned that you are a fan, you have a deep love and passion for the arts in general. It’s apparent your interests go beyond the drums. How did you decide to become a drummer and not, say, a guitar player, a bass player – which you are a great bass player – a singer or an actor?

MP: Thank you. I love playing bass. One day I want to perform a Ramones cover band, but I want to be the bass player. Well, I started on piano actually when I was young. That was the first instrument I took lessons for, and I started to learn how to read music and stuff by playing piano, but it just wasn’t rock’n’roll enough for me. I was a fan of Keith Moon and John Bonham. I needed to have something more aggressive and more rock’n’roll, so I ended up migrating to the drums. But it didn’t change my love for all the other instruments, and all throughout junior high school and high school and even going to Berklee, I studied music theory and harmony and ear training and sight singing and all those other things. I wanted to learn everything about every instrument and about music in general, not just be a drummer. So, I mean, all that stuff has helped me be a better musician in general, whether I’m writing vocal melodies or harmonies or being involved with the song structures and arrangements. I’ll be writing with any of the bands I’m in, and not only arranging parts but saying, “Oh wait, what if you go up a minor third for the bridge?” or whatever. Having that knowledge has helped me be able to communicate with all the players I work with.

AI: Yeah, that’s certainly important for a guy like you who plays with a bunch of people. Now you play in many different bands with completely different styles. Are there other styles of music that you’re interested in getting integrated?

MP: I think I got them all covered. I mean, I’ve never wanted to do jazz or Latin. I’m just not good at any of that stuff. So everything within the rock and metal world that my musical tastes like, I think I’m pretty much covered. With The Winery Dogs I got classic rock power trio. With Metal Allegiance my thrash metal roots and love is utilized there. Sons Of Apollo is the more prog metal, shreddy, over-the-top stuff. Flying Colors is more poppy and alternative with that kind of Muse and Radiohead [influence] sprinkled in. And then Transatlantic and the Neal Morse Band are both real pure prog. So that’s my musical taste right there. But I can’t say any one of them really sum me up. I think you need to see the spectrum of all the bands I’m a part of to really understand the spectrum of my love for different styles of music. But in answer your question, I don’t think there’s any other areas that I haven’t hit yet. I think we’re pretty well covered right now.

AI: So no country record?

MP: [laughs] Definitely not.

AI: For all young players and even old players out there, how important do you think playing together with different musicians is to the development of a musician? Seeing Sons Of Apollo live, I can certainly say that it’s so much beyond five players playing their instruments.

MP: Well, I would say to any young musician it’s mandatory to play with other musicians. It’s great to be in your room practicing for hours and getting your chops together, that’s equally as important, but you can’t just do that. You gotta play with other musicians in the context of songs and listen to other players and play off of other players, so that’s really important. But I will say I wouldn’t recommend to young players to be in six bands like I am now. Don’t forget I spent 25 years in one band, and that was why that band succeeded, because all of us focused on that one band and we were absolutely determined and we persevered. So, I mean, if you really want to make it, you gotta find your band, find your voice, and stick with it and be faithful to that and passionate about that and focused on that. I think it’s OK to play with other bands once you’ve developed, once you’ve gotten yourself to where you wanna go. Then it’s nice to have those options. But for young players, I would say find your dream band playing your dream music and then stay focused on that, because you need to stay focused and persevere in order to make it.

AI: All right, certainly some great advice. So Mike, this month has been a pretty difficult month for music fans, losing—

MP: Sean Reinert yesterday, and of course Neil a few weeks ago was absolutely devastating.

AI: Yeah. So let’s talk about Neil. I mean, you’ve gone on record saying that Neil has been a great influence on you.

MP: The biggest.

AI: When was the first time you listened to Rush or saw Rush live?

MP: The first time I saw them live was December 9th, 1982, on the Signals tour at Nassau Coliseum. And at that point, I had been a fan for about a year or so. I really dug into them and then got obsessed around when Moving Pictures came out, and Signals, and then worked my way backwards. All my favorite albums were the ones that preceded those, like Hemispheres, A Farewell To Kings, Permanent Waves. Those are my favorites, but I didn’t really discover them till a few years after those albums, and it turned my world upside down. It was the right band at the right time for me, because before that, I was starting out on drums, and I was learning from John Bonham, Keith Moon and Peter Criss and Marky Ramone – more simple, straight-ahead stuff – and that was good for me to learn how to get around the kit. But then, when I was around 13 or 14, in the early ‘80s, that’s when I discovered Rush and Neil, and at that point, I wanted to grow and learn more and learn odd time signatures and build a giant big kit and play more complex music. So, it was the right band at the right time for me, and I got completely obsessed. Also I discovered other progressive music, like Yes and Genesis and Crimson, and those drummers – Bill Bruford, Phil Collins, Terry Bozzio, all those guys – but Neil and Rush were always number one for me.

AI: So what’s one thing that you remember the most about Neil?

MP: As a drummer or as a person?

AI: Either.

MP: I’m honored to have known him. I spent 20, 30 years idolizing him and being his biggest fan. And all those years, it was mainly the drum kit – the drum kit was such a fascination for me. He always built such amazing kits and put so much thought into it. I’d always get the tour programs where he’d write about the kit and what the new things were on it, and I would just look at those photos. Most other kids were looking at Playboy centerfolds, I was looking at Neil Peart drum kits. And then, obviously, his playing – it goes without saying. I learned how to really develop parts and orchestrate drum parts to build and change and develop within the song. So that was the biggest stuff for me as a fan. And then later on, once I got to know him, I was so inspired by what a gracious person he was. He obviously always had this reputation that he was so quiet and isolated and private – and he was – and it was very important for him to guard that. But once you were somehow allowed into that inner circle, he was always so sweet and kind and generous. He’d always send me holiday e-mails and always send me his new books and stuff like that. It was a relationship that I’ll always cherish and I was honored to have.

AI: That’s amazing. Thank you for sharing that. A couple questions from our World Prog-Nation citizens. This one goes: you’re a very sentimental person. Your house is filled with really sick memorabilia, and you even started to clean out the closet and sell some very rare pieces from your musical history. What are some things that you’ll never give away?

MP: Well, almost everything I’ve shared or sold or given away are things that I have duplicates of. I don’t think I could ever part with any... I have at least one or two or three of everything. So it got to a point, it’s like, ‘Well, do I really need three Siamese monsters? Really?’ That’s a huge example. But even small examples, like, ‘Do I really need a pile of Dream Theater laminates of hundreds of them? Why?’ I might as well share them. It’s just cluttering up my house. My wife is always on my ass for all the s*** I collect, so I might as well give them to people that would really appreciate having them. So in answer to your question, what would I never get rid of, I mean, well, I have a Rush replica drum kit that Neil actually signed for me, so I would never, ever get rid of that. Actually, all my replica kits. I have a Who kit and a Zeppelin kit and a Beatles kit. I think of all my kits, I have to keep at least one of each. Those are great. But luckily, I did make multiple versions of most of my kits while I was in Dream Theater, because I would have one in America, one in Europe, and one in Japan. Tama would always give me multiple kits, and it’s really silly for me to have all these. So now there’s Backstage Auctions. It’s a great company that does these kind of auctions, and they’ve come to me and they go to everybody else, whether it be Megadeth or Anthrax or Metallica or whatever. Everybody always contributes stuff to these auctions. So I started working with them the last couple of years just helping unload some of the stuff, and then I put a lot of stuff on my website as well. I mean, when a tour ends with Flying Colors, I don’t need 400 Flying Colors sticks at home, so I might as well get rid of them. So that’s where I’m at now, and maybe I’m growing up a little bit. [chuckles]