Jordan Rudess interview

Highwaystar Magazine: This year it's been 25 years since you are in the band, am I right?

Jordan Rudess: Yeah, more like 26 if you count from the day I started, but yes, you're basically right.

HM: And almost 40 years since the band's been on the road.

JR: Right. Yeah, we're celebrating our 40th anniversary with these concerts.

HM: My question is how do you still have inspiration for recording songs?

JR: Music is my life; it's our lives. That's how we express ourselves. That's what we do. That's what we love. So it's not hard to always be inspired to come up with new music.

HM: Considering that your songs are very complicated when we compare them to songs of many other rock and metal bands, how long does it take to come up with one song? Do you have a writing template or something similar like that?

JR: These songs come from seeds, ideas that we have. Maybe I come into the band with eight measures of music, and then everybody says, “Yeah, we like that,” and then we start working with it, and one idea kind of leads to another one. We are really good at bouncing ideas off of each other. Like if John Petrucci comes in and plays something that he's thinking about, I'll go, “Wow!” and I'll put my hands on the keys and respond to that, and often that response can lead to the next section. It's really an interesting combination of skills in our band. Somebody like Mike Portnoy, who is a very conceptual thinker, he'll be like, “Oh yes, because you played that part, we should repeat that part later and maybe modulate the key that is in or make it more grand.” So we just happen to be lucky to have that interesting combination of talents where we can go into the studio, and over the course of two, three, four days, whatever, write a piece of music.

HM: In the end it happened something that even you can’t imagine in the start.

JR: Yeah, you don't know. Then when I listen back – like if a little time goes by and I listen back to what we did – I go, “Oh my God! How did that even happen?!” [laughs] It's a crazy process, it really is, but it's very rewarding. We are all very passionate about it.

HM: Mike Portnoy came back to the band after 13 years last October; how [has] that affected the way of functioning of your band?

JR: Well, it was so great to have him back. In many ways, it feels like we never lost a beat. Because he was one of the ones who started this band, and he loves it so much, the welcoming process was really immediate and we're all so happy to re-establish what we had. It feels like getting the core band together again.

HM: When we are talking about that concert [in Croatia], what fans that will come to your concert can expect?

JR: Well, it's gonna be a very, very exciting concert as you know, because everybody's so excited about this reunion of all of us. And Mike will also have a lot to do with helping to pick the songs that we play in the setlist – that's one of his great talents, to decide things like that. And it'll be just a celebration. We're gonna play a bunch of songs from our catalog. We'll pick some ones that everybody really wants to hear. And I think they can expect probably one of the most exciting Dream Theater shows that they've ever been to. I can almost guarantee it.

HM: This year make the very big anniversaries of your two albums: the 30th anniversary of Awake and the [25th] anniversary of Metropolis part 2: Scenes From a Memory. Would you perhaps pay special attention to those two albums?

JR: I don't know what the setlist is exactly yet, but we're very conscious of these kind of things, so I'd say there's a good chance that we'll be providing the fans some selections from these important albums.

HM: Your most famous instrumental [‘The Dance of Eternity’] – will you play it?

JR: Again, the setlist is not something we're announcing or determined, but I can tell you that everyone will be very happy.