Jordan Rudess interview (excerpts)

Chris Karadimitris: When you’re jamming and gathering ideas, how do you distinguish which ones would fit better for your solo staff or keep it for Dream Theater? Is there a fine line that divides ideas for one or another while you’re working on stuff?

Jordan Rudess: Yeah, it’s a great question. It works pretty well for me, for a couple of reasons. One of which is the timeline. You know, if I have that space for the solo album, then very likely I have some things that happen right before that process. And they will fit in and they are made while thinking “OK, these are things from my solo world”. So, when I’m in a Dream Theater time/space and when we’re working, then all my ideas, all my musical ideas are funneled towards that, because it’s time to come up with some stuff for the Dream Theater album. It’s not like we have to go back, like a year before or six months or whatever to find ideas, really. A lot of the ideas are happening right in the window of time that we’re working on this stuff. But, you know, sometimes there’s a riff or something that’s appropriate. But generally my ideas are funneled towards a certain project. I know “this is appropriate for a solo album” or “this will really work for Dream Theater”, so I kind of almost like naturally keep that separation.

A lot of the songs on Permission To Fly were things that I knew they’re not going to be for a Dream Theater album. They’re more stylistically from my world. And the thing that also makes that a little bit easier – and it’s a really great reason to have solo albums – is because, as stylistically wide as Dream Theater is, there’s a lot of things that I do and that are really very different. I mean, everybody comes from their own place and really when you think about it, everybody could do a solo album. But for me as a musician coming from the classical background and then really immersing myself in like progressive rock, those two factors are kind of spinning around my brain and they don’t necessarily relate so much to the Dream Theater world. So there’s enough stuff going on in my head that can come out in this place or can be directed towards the other place. And Permission To Fly is a great example of that, where I think people will listen to that and go “Oh, yeah, I kind of I hear some of the Dream Theater stuff”, but they also can say “wow, this is very different than Dream Theater”. And maybe then, when they go back to listen to Dream Theater, they can say “oh, that’s probably a part that Jordan wrote”. If they really know my style. Because they can tell “Yeah, that’s a Jordan kind of thing”. So, anyway, it all kind of works like that.

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CK: How does it feel right now, as you’re approaching to go back on stage with Mike Portnoy?

JR: It feels really exciting! As matter of fact, there’s a lot of things are going on! One is it takes a lot of work to pull it all together, because we’re doing “an evening with” type of show, so that means it’s longer. It’s a lot of songs, a lot of music to learn/relearn. And for me as a keyboard player a lot of programming, because I’m not the best file keeper in the world. So for playing something really old, I’ve gotta go through my files and go “oh, where is it? Which disk drive is this song on?” And when I find it I go “Is this the most recent version?” And I feel like “Shhh, I should have been a computer engineer with all the files that I need to keep”... [laughs] It’s definitely not my specialty! So, I’ll find a file for an old song and I’ll go “OK, well, I found it, but I don’t know if it’s the most recent”. And then I’ll go through it and say “Oh, I guess it’s not! Because there might be something weird about it”. Like, I’m moving the pitch wheel, but my hands on the ribbon is making it do something weird and I go “I think should I turn that off”.

Anyway, there’s a lot of work to be done to do this. Let alone the muscle memory of some of these songs... you know, the keyboard muscle memory which gets lost after so many years, having not played some of the songs that we’re gonna play. So, when I hang up with you guys, I’ll be going back over to the keyboard and doing exactly that, like preparing all these things.

But, yeah, besides all the work and the pressure and the “Oh my God” feeling of what’s going to happen, there’s also a lot of excitement just about the whole thing. It really is going to be a very special tour. It’s going to be a very special album and it’s gonna be a really special tour as well. The vibe in the band is really so great. It’s what we want it to be. And it’s what all the fans want it to be as well. We’re all super pumped and excited and feel really good working together, and just kind of enjoying getting back to that kind of core magic, whatever. You know... that element that’s a little bit indescribable. People sometimes try to put in words in either graceful or non-graceful fashion on the Internet. You know, there is something about it. There is something about Mike Portnoy’s drumming, and having him in the band which is different. It’s just different. And I think we’ve all been loving having him back and just experiencing that.

And for anybody who might think that what I just said is a little bit unclear when they hear the album and they see the tour, they will feel it and they will hear it and they’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. So, I feel like it’s been a really great time in the Dream Theater story now. Especially now, personally I’ve been listening to the music that we’ve created in the studio and I couldn’t be more thrilled to the fact that we got here and we’re doing what we’re doing.

CK: You gave us a lot of pieces with a new album, I have to say. And I know you probably cannot give too much info on this...

JR: No, I can’t.

CK: So, going back to the studio to writing a Dream Theater album, with Mike back in the band, what was your main thought? What was your main target? Did you have something specific in mind or did you go into it and say “OK, let’s see what happens...”?

JR: When he walked in and we started working, we felt like we didn’t miss a beat. I kept having to tell myself “wow, it’s been 13 years since we worked together”, because it really felt like “Hey, we were just together the other day”. It quickly came together, in terms of establishing that we were going to go back and almost rediscover some of the core magic that we had. And that was easy, because Mike... I’m always telling people that in addition to Mike Portnoy being a great drummer, he also has so many other interesting skills that he brings to the table when it comes to anything to do with music production. I mean, he’s just – as we all know – an interesting, rare kind of very smart, very musical person. And so he just brought it all to us like “hey, guys, if you want it, here I am again. What do you want from me?”... [laughs] He’s been very cool, because he knows he can’t walk into a situation that existed without him for 13 years...

What I like to point out and not to be forgotten about is that for the 13 years that he wasn’t with Dream Theater, we had an incredible drummer. I mean, Mike Mangini is one of the world’s greatest drummers. And he did a fantastic job with Dream Theater. I mean, as you guys know, we won a Grammy, we made a whole bunch of albums, we recorded some really good music... We did fine!

But here we are, in this interesting chapter and it is what it is. It’s amazing. It’s so beautiful. When you listen to the music of the new album, you’ll all be like “Yeah, I get it”. There is an energy there, when Portnoy plays in Dream Theater, in his home band. Let’s say there’s something really special about it. It’s undeniable. So, there is that.

CK: Discussing about this excitement and us being longtime fans, with Nick we always keep looking for any information about when the album going to come out. And I was thinking that it takes a lot of time in these days, from when the album is written, recorded and ready to go, up to the date when it’s finally released to the world. And I think it’s a bummer for more musicians waiting so much. You know, we are all red with excitement right now waiting when the album is about to be released. So I hope it does come out no really soon...

JR: Yeah, I can’t give you any indication right now of the release date just cause it’s not public knowledge. But I’m sure we’ll all know as soon as possible.

But, yes, I agree with you! It takes a long time. Like, now we’ve basically all done our parts, it’s being mixed and then obviously has to be mastered and produced and all the different things that go into an actual schedule... So yeah, we’ll get the announcement pretty soon about when it’ll be released...

But, the good news is that in four days my album is coming out. So, everyone will have something cool to listen to, to keep them entertained while they’re waiting for the next big entertainment... [laughs]

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CK: All right. And Nick will allow me to do one more question because it’s a coincidence that happened today. I had a call with a major promoter here in Greece for another reason. And when they called me, knowing that I’m a huge Dream Theater fan, they told me “we have some great news for you, but we can’t tell you anything”. And of course I asked them “Is it Dream Theater? I’m talking with Jordan Rudess today, so just tell me”... But, I got nothing... They left me hanging...

JR: You’re hanging. And now you left me hanging, because I don’t know anything about it... But I think that our European Tour is already scheduled, so...

CK: We were talking about a festival date, in the summer.

JR: Oh, nice! OK, I see... I’ll find out when the fans post about it. Then I’ll be “oh, look, we’re going to Greece”. Really...

CK: The bottom line is that we’d love to have you here. Sooner than later.

JR: I would love to come back. I have a lot of friends there and it’s always great to be there, so let’s see. Let’s hope. It’s gonna happen at some point. That’d be nice if it was in the summer. So maybe your friends knows something that I don’t.

CK: I don’t know. Maybe they were teasing me because they know that Dream Theater is my favorite band...

JR: Ah, maybe not... I’m struggling still to get like dates that are much sooner than the summertime... [laughs] I’m always like “tell me where we’re gonna be playing. Tell me where we gonna play”. I don’t wanna find out from a fan on the internet where my next concert is... But that’s what happens...