Mike Portnoy interview

SonarFM: How did the reunion with John Petrucci happen?

Mike Portnoy: We stayed in touch all the years. We didn’t get together and reconnect as friends until about 2017 or so. Our daughters were sharing an apartment together in Brooklyn, and our wives are also in a band together, so really it was our wives and our daughters that really made a point to bring us back together, and they arranged for us to all go for dinner together. So that was the first time John and I went for dinner, gave each other a hug and really spent time together breaking bread so to speak. But honestly, through all the years, there were always emails and texts; sometimes about business, sometimes they needed to run something by me or I needed to run something by them, or maybe just sharing something. “Hey, did you see this? Check this out.” So there’s always casual emails through all the years, but I would say it was mainly the last five years or so that we really reconnected. I guess it was the Covid lockdown of 2020 that really made this whole thing happen because I couldn’t tour with any of my bands and Dream Theater couldn’t tour, so we’re all staying at home and that’s when John asked me if I would play drums on his solo album. And then from there we decided to make a third LTE album; that was my first time working with Jordan again, and then I went and did John Petrucci’s solo tour here in America. So over the last couple years there were these kind of situations or events that brought us closer and closer together. And it’s the same for all the guys. Like John Myung lives right down the block for me, and his wife and my wife are very good friends and they’re in a band together. So there’s been a lot of contact with the guys, but through the years is when it really started to gather steam. But this was not some sort of master plan we had, “Oh we’re gonna get back together in 13 years!” This wasn’t something that a promoter or a record company tried to reunite; this was absolutely organic. It was based on family and friendship first and foremost.

SFM: Did you miss playing Dream Theater songs when you left the band?

MP: Well, of course I always missed Dream Theater and the music and the guys and the fans. Not all Dream Theater fans went on the ride with me, with all of my other bands. So every time I would tour with Sons Of Apollo or Winery Dogs or Shattered Fortress or Neal Morse Band, I would see some Dream Theater fans, but there’s a big portion of the fanbase that wasn’t with me for all those years. So yeah, I missed them and I missed the guys and I missed the music. Like I said, we were always a family first and foremost.

SFM: What is it like to be in charge of the setlist for Dream Theater concerts?

MP: It’s an area that was always my department and my passion. I always wrote all the setlists for Dream Theater, as well as any of my bands or projects. That’s an area that’s very important to me. And when I came back to Dream Theater, a lot of the things we have to figure out: who’s gonna be in charge of what? There’s a lot of areas that I used to be in charge of, which now John may do, or maybe the band makes band decisions. So I have to kind of find my place within the band’s chemistry now. But yeah, one of the things that they did give back to me was writing the setlist. It was something that was a lot of fun and exciting; a great open palette to work with, really. 40 years of music, and I haven’t played any of this music with the guys in almost 15 years. So it’s all so fresh. Back in 2010, I might have been bored with it, but now in 2024, I’m just as excited to play those songs as any of them.

SFM: Did you feel changes in the dynamics of Dream Theater when you returned to the band?

MP: There’s two sides to that question. The first I’ll say, personally, I think we’re just all older and wiser, more mellow. I am not as much of a control freak as I used to be; I’m a lot more easygoing, a lot more mellow. So, there’s the one side of the natural age of everybody just... we’re now in our fifties and sixties, and I think we’re just more mature and experienced. But the other side to that question is, like I just mentioned, finding my place within this new chemistry. [I used to be a control] freak and overseeing every area. And then when I left the band, they needed to take some of these areas and divide them up amongst themselves and have different people overseeing different areas. And now that I’m coming back, I have to see what’s comfortable. I have to very much respect that they’ve had 13 years without me and they may do things a certain way differently now. So it’s up to me to really be very respectful to that and not try to force myself in any of the areas. So anytime something comes up, whether we’re talking about a setlist or the merchandise or how they wanna record in the studio – no matter what the subject is – it’s always like, “OK, how do you guys do it now? How do you want me involved? Do you want me to oversee it? Do you want me to stay out of it?” That’s fine too. And it’s kind of like a learning process to find myself comfortable with the way that the band works now.

SFM: How was the experience of recording an album with Dream Theater again?

MP: We started the new album in February of this year, and we figured that was about 15 years since we last made a record together with Black Clouds and Silver Linings in 2009. So we got together – February 7th, 2024 I think is when we moved into the studio to begin – and it felt like it had only been one week since we finished ‘The Count of Tuscany’ and wrapped the last album. It felt like only a week had passed. Like, “OK, here we are 15 years later, but it felt like just yesterday.” That’s how familiar and comfortable the chemistry is with the five of us. We immediately felt comfortable, like not a day had passed, and immediately started writing ideas and bouncing ideas off of each other. And it just quickly snowballed and we were up and running and off and going. Now here we are, it’s June. We’re still working on the record it’s been four months now and we still have a few more months to go before we deliver it. So it’s been a long process, which is very nice. I haven’t spent this long making a new record in a... well, probably since the last Dream Theater album I made 15 years ago.

SFM: How has your relationship with Chile evolved since your first performance in 2005?

MP: Yeah as you mentioned our very first time playing there in 2005 immediately was so memorable and so special. It was like 20,000 people for an ‘Evening With Dream Theater’ playing this big open field. It felt like a festival, but it wasn’t a festival; it was just us and a few small amps on stage and 20,000 fans. It was just this larger than life experience to introduce us to these great passionate fans, and we’ve been coming back ever since both together and separately. We came back together several times and then Dream Theater has continued to go all these years when I wasn’t in the band, and I continued to come to Santiago and Chile all these years that I wasn’t in the band as well. So now to be back together and coming back together almost 20 years later from the first time, it’s obvious that there’s a special relationship. The fact that we had to add a second show showed that the reaction to the shows and the tickets were so immediately embraced and excited that we had to add a second show. So it’s very obvious that there’s a special relationship there.

SFM: What is your most memorable moment playing in South America?

MP: I’ve been able to share it with a lot of bands. I’ve played now in Chile with Sons Of Apollo and Neal Morse Band and Winery Dogs. I did my Shattered Fortress shows down there. There’s just so many experiences. I love them all.

SFM: How do you remember your time in Avenged Sevenfold?

MP: I have mixed emotions for that period because on one hand it was a big honor to record that album and come in and finish the work for the Rev. It was a big honor, it was very emotional; those guys were still very much in mourning; the wounds were very fresh for them. So on one hand, it brings these great emotions and memories. On the other hand, it also came at a similar time from when I left Dream Theater. I was on tour with Avenged Sevenfold when I left Dream Theater, so it brings back a lot of those emotions as well which were very difficult emotions to deal with, because I was going through a very, very big change and there was a lot of drama and things that came out in the press and interviews that made the split even more difficult. So I have a lot of mixed memories of that of that time.

SFM: Which modern band do you think will become the big stadium band?

MP: I think the closest you get right now is a band like the Foo Fighters. What bands can play stadiums? Foo Fighters, maybe Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot. But these are all bands that started in the ‘90s. In order to get to that level you need to be around 25, 30 years. So who from today’s music? We need new bands to be able to carry the torch and be able to headline festivals and play stadiums. It’s encouraging when you can see bands like that. Even a band like Sleep Token – they’re very, very new. Or there’s a band called Bad Omens. These bands are like the next wave of bands that can probably be at the top of some of these festivals and things like that.

SFM: Which drummer from the new generation surprises you the most?

MP: I get my mind blown every single day. Every day I open up my Instagram, there’s young up-and-coming drummers that are incredible. Some of the ones that are some of my favorites these days – and they’re not even so young and up-and-coming – but Eloy Casagrande who’s now with Slipknot, and then Grayson who who took his place in Sepultura, he’s a great drummer. El Estepario, the Spanish drummer, he’s amazing. Aric Improta who plays drums for a band called Night Verses, he’s really incredible, very inspiring. I mean, literally every day, there’s drummers that are doing things with one hand that just blow my mind and it’s very inspiring.

SFM: What is the most important Dream Theater album for you?

MP: [That] would be Images and Words and Scenes From a Memory. Both of those albums were made coming out of a lineup change. Images and Words was the first album with James in the band; Scenes From a Memory was the first album with Jordan in the band. And both of those albums were coming off of periods where the band was going through a lot of tough times and frustrations and not being able to move forward with the record company and almost breaking up both times we made those albums. And in both cases we made really career saving, career resurrecting albums. Both of those albums were turning points for the band. And I very much see the new record we’re making being just as important as those two. It’s a new album with a very important lineup change once again, so it reminds me a lot of that feeling that we had with Images and Words and with Scenes From a Memory. In both of those cases it was such an important album for us to make and we had this real renewed, energized spirit because of the lineup change, and it’s the same right here with the new album we’re making right now.