Originally published in Mistress Carrie podcast · February 2021
Mike Mangini interview (excerpts)
InterviewMike Mangini8 min read
In a new interview with “The Mistress Carrie Podcast”, Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini was asked if the coronavirus pandemic had affected the writing and recording process for the band’s upcoming follow-up to 2019’s “Distance Over Time” album. He responded: “It was October, so COVID had been raging, and all kinds of other things, and travel restrictions and craziness... We had protection up, and all that, we had these panels brought in with plexiglass.”
When asked about Peart’s departure, Mangini replied:
It’s a heart-wrenching thing. The amount of influence that he had on me was profound. I remember different moments in my life. For example, remember the Columbia Record Club you could rent all kinds of records for a penny, what you thought was a penny? I was at the Columbia Record Club, I had to be 16 because I was at Cape Cod, my family had a place there while I was still in high school; I ordered it and I got Rush, ‘A Farewell to Kings’ album. And I didn’t even have proper headphones, I had two car speakers that I would put on my bed to listen to music just the way I wanted to hear it. I put that album on, and I can still picture myself at that moment – it was quite profound. Plus, I’ll be specific, what he did was so amazing to me is – because I was in a school band, nobody wants to play the glockenspiel, the bells, so I did the marching band for the football team, that was fun. But Neil made those percussion instruments cool. He made them cool, and he used the greatest instruments in history. I think it’s on ‘Cinderella Man,’ he used a vibraslap. I’m like, “What is a vibraslap?” I’ll never forget it. I’m reading the back of the LP record, I would just keep reading it over and over, and I look at the two pictures that were there, and so I’m like, “What is that?” And when I got back to the school band, they had a vibraslap. I just sat there and hit it like 800 times. Anyway, it was profound.
A lot of people know him as being this amazing drummer, but all of these stories come out about just what an unbelievable intellectual he was when it came to music in general.
Well, I’m glad you said that because that’s what I was gonna go to, to speak about his soul permeating these different things and coming out the same, whether it was the bicycle, riding, or whatever it is that he did, his car collecting, it didn’t matter. From what I understood – I never met him and I never intruded on him. The opportunity was there, but I didn’t and I couldn’t. I don’t know, there’s just something, I just don’t do that. But did I want to? Yes. But, I didn’t. He permeated, his soul had permeated these things, so it came out no matter what he did; his lyrics, and of course, his drumming.
In 1996, Extreme singer Gary Cherone joined Van Halen for what became a three-year tenure that resulted in 1998’s “Van Halen III” album. The musician commented:
When Gary was in the band, we would typically have the same weeks off. I was off with Steve Vai, and he was off too with Van Halen. So up at 5150 Studios, it was the point where Eddie gave me the codes to the gate, I came and went as I pleased – could you imagine that? Pulling up and getting the codes to the gate? I’ve got some stories from then, oh my gosh, what fun that was. I was speaking to him, because at one point, I was just there talking to Gary all the time, and we would go to the studio and hang out, and then Eddie was generous enough to give me [access to] the studio. I had no place to go to practice for two weeks before a tour, and he said, “Here, take your stuff, put it in there, and just go and play.” It was amazing. What he said to me one day was, “Yeah, Nuno, how does he do that? How does he sound like that?” That is what he said to me.
Does Nuno know that story? After the conversation he and I had a few weeks ago, obviously talking about the immeasurable loss of Eddie Van Halen, but also for Nuno who holds Eddie at the top of his Mt. Everest. I bet it would floor him if he knew that Eddie was asking how he did something on an Extreme record...
Yeah, more like, “I can’t sound like that – how does that happen?” And it’s a vague memory – I don’t know what Eddie said specifically, but he mentioned ‘He-Man Woman Hater,’ something like, “I can’t do that!” I don’t remember the specific words, but, “I can’t do it,” or, “I don’t do it,” or whatever. But it was like, no, he doesn’t sound like Nuno, whatever the exact words were. I’m just trying to be careful these days.
It’s amazing that that mutual respect from a guy like Eddie, who was held in such high regard by a guy like Nuno that Eddie also recognized Nuno’s ability, and that Nuno was so quick to give the credit right back.
Steve Vai did the exact same thing. He spoke about Eddie and Nuno like they were from another planet; Steve was so kind and generous, but he would be specific and say things so amazingly, so kind. And one day when we were – I don’t remember what I was doing, when I was with Steve in his band, I might have been recording ‘The Ultra Zone’ record or something. I don’t even know what it was, but I was in the studio and somehow Eddie was on the phone with me. I think what happened is – I would have called Gary or try to get to him and Eddie picked up – he was living there, Gary was living on the property – and I’m sitting there yapping to him, and I remember Steve was like, “Would you get off the phone? Who are you talking to? Hurry up.” I was like, “Well, it’s Eddie.” “Eddie who?” “Eddie Van Halen.” He goes, “What?!” Anyway, the point being is the same thing – it’s like the trifecta of greatest guys ever speaking these wonderful words about each other, so it’s just great, and me, in the middle of it all.
Your recent Facebook post about how you did the drum tracks for the new Dream Theater record – do you have to build a whole new drum set and work with Pearl and work with Zildjian and all these companies? Is that how you work?
I actually have done that with Dream Theater, yes, and this latest one is like nothing I’ve ever played. It’s probably in my childhood that I played something like this. I don’t want to give too much away, nobody knows yet, but yes, the companies have been so helpful. In fact, part of the reason why I get all the gear that I get is that I have come up with things out of necessity that they didn’t think of, so they made new products that they’re able to go sell, and so it’s a good deal. I make something, and then they go ahead and make it into a product and sell it, but I get lots of them, I don’t have to buy them so to speak; in essence, nothing’s for free. I mean, I work very hard to get all this stuff, it’s not like I get this big drum set and I get it for nothing, that’s no way, I work really hard and did a lot of promo and they sell a lot of these.
You guys are always used to working separately and getting together, but it didn’t change the normal Dream Theater workflow because of Covid?
Yeah, the normal Dream Theater workflow is we show up – at least for this one and the last one, and we just write it on the fly. People show up with ideas, but not that many, just a few. Records prior, people would show up with way more ideas, but then it was a lot less of a group thing. My first Dream Theater album, ‘A Dramatic Turn of Events,’ I wasn’t even invited to be a part of any writing. They sent me music, I went in... I mean, they sent it ahead of time, but it’s like a 12-minute song with 83 parts that are just ridiculously complex – X amount of days before the session, and something like that would take like a month to configure, so I just don’t bother. I write some notes and try a couple of things and show up, and I literally learn it on the fly and play on the fly and record it and move on to the next thing. Because that’s how I prepared my body, I made sure that my four limbs were as strong as they could be, and there will always be a weak link and I will always be a right-handed person. But I try to configure so I can manipulate these four limbs into 24 different combinations, meaning it’s really 12 limb pairs, not six that we have, meaning – you might think I’m crazy, I have two pairs of hands, imagine what that sounds like? But, you see, my brain as a drummer, my right-handed leading ahead of my left is way different to my brain than my left hand leading my right, the other side of the drum set, lefty and right, they couldn’t feel any more different.
What’s the timeline on the new record?
It’s supposed to be released in September; what’s happening is – I finished my drum tracks, but now the guitar and bass might be done as well, keyboards will be done – if not already, I don’t know actually. We get together, write this insane amount of material in the shortest amount of time, record it and go home, just like, ‘OK...’ Although this time I did spend – yeah, it was a number of weeks to compose it and then do the drum tracks, because I’m traveling, I didn’t want to go back and forth as I’m quarantined. In the hotel, there are no maids anymore, and I’m quarantined in the place, we have separate rooms, so I’m just alone all the time, I’m in a bubble. Bottom line is that it will be out in September. The instruments are being finished, and then we’ll have to deal with the lyrics and vocals, stuff like that, and then it has to get mixed, which is being mixed along the way anyway this time because we have our own facility now. This is HQ, we just call it Headquarters, DT Headquarters, and it’s in a remote location on another planet. It’s got more gear than any 12 bands should be allowed to have, and we got everything, it’s beautifully done. Anyway, it will be out in September.