Mike Portnoy comments

Returning To Dream Theater

I reunited with Dream Theater at the end of 2023. We immediately went into the studio and began work on a new album. So we spent most of 2024 in the studio making the album Parasomnia, which is now out. October ‘24, we kicked off our 40th anniversary world tour. At the time of this filming, we’ve already been around the world celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary. We did a full European tour, a full South American tour, full North American tour, and now we are gearing up for a summer tour, doing a lot of festivals and some more 40th anniversary shows. And then in September, we kick off our Parasomnia tour.

Being back with the band after all this time has been very emotional. Each and every show on tour, you just feel the love and the support, the emotions in the audience. Everybody’s just been so happy to see this lineup together. It’s been a great, great experience getting to play once again with this band for so many great fans all around the world.

Those early Dream Theater songs, some of those albums go back more than 30 years at this point, but it’s so embedded in my being. So there’s a lot to be said for muscle memory. Everything was still there. I still have that same inspiration and spirit playing these songs as I did 30-plus years ago when we wrote them and recorded them for the first time. Having not played those songs for a decade and a half at this point has just reinvigorated my inspiration. It’s inspiring to be playing these songs again after all this time. I haven’t changed much. I mean, the parts are the same. They’re just in there for life. Even the very first rehearsals for the tour, I came in and just immediately it felt comfortable, like no time had passed.

It’s been fun playing the songs that I didn’t record with Dream Theater. They obviously made a lot of albums with Mike Mangini while I was gone. Luckily, the guys in the band gave me full freedom to approach ‘em how I’d like. I’m pretty faithful to his parts, for the most part, but there are moments here and there that it’s, like, “Oh, I don’t know if I would’ve played that.” So playing those songs has been a lot of fun, to be honest, because it’s something very fresh for me.

Some of the more challenging songs on the 40th anniversary tour are the longer ones inevitably. ‘The Dark Eternal Night’ – we’ve been playing that one again as well, and the middle section of that song is really challenging. ‘The Dance Of Eternity’ is famously the most complex technical Dream Theater song there is. Even though we haven’t played that live yet, we have rehearsed it, just get it going again. And it was just like riding a bicycle. It’s just in there for life.

It takes a lot to be in condition to play a 3-hour show. It’s a marathon. We wrote these songs in our 20s and 30s, and now we’re in our 50s and 60s. Dream Theater’s music is very technically challenging, very heavy at times and relentless. So, it’s definitely a challenge.

I’m lucky that I’ve been able to collaborate with so many amazing musicians through the years. I mean, the list of guitar players alone from all the bands and projects I’ve done, it’s just a who’s who of anybody I could have ever wanted to work with. But in all these cases, I’m a bit of a chameleon. I’ve learned how to play differently for different bands. A band like Flying Colors has some really poppy kind of songs and I could tap into my Larry Mullen Jr. influences. Listening to bands like U2 or Coldplay or Radiohead, I could bring that to a band like Flying Colors. And then playing with Metal Allegiance, all the years of listening to Slayer and Pantera and all that stuff comes into play.

Choosing Brand Of Sticks And Developing Way Of Playing

I’ve now been playing ProMark Sticks exclusively for over 30 years now. I began working with ProMark. I think it was around ‘95. I was drawn to the sticks because they just felt great. The most important thing about a drumstick is it’s got to feel good.

When you’re a young drummer and you’re trying to find what you like and what you want to play, inevitably you’re drawn to what your favorite drummers play. Certainly enough, that’s how I ended up playing ProMark. Neil Peart was a giant influence for me. I was using his 747s because that’s what he used. So for the longest time I would play with 747s just because Neil did. But obviously so many other drummers that are favorites of mine [also used ProMark drumsticks]. Ringo Starr is a big one and Simon Phillips and the list goes on and on and on. But yeah, inevitably I was drawn to ProMark because so many of my heroes played it.

One thing I get asked about a lot is the way I hold my sticks. I actually hold my right stick with the tip out and my left stick with the butt end out. It’s a little unorthodox. I don’t know many other drummers that do it, but when I first started flipping my sticks, I started playing with both butt ends out. I think Neil Peart used to play like that. So of course, I wanted to try it. He was my hero. And I played with both butt ends out, but I felt that I wasn’t getting enough definition on the ride and the hi-hat with the butt ends. I like the power I would get on the snare with the butt end, but I decided to flip my right stick with the tip out so I can hear the tip on the cymbals on the rides and the high hat especially and still get the power with the left hand. So it makes my drum tech crazy having to wrap half and half and separate them in the stick bags accordingly. But for me, it feels so natural. I’ve been doing it this way for so long. I mean, as long as I’ve been with ProMark over 30 years, I’ve always held my sticks this way.

Designing Signature Drumsticks

I immediately designed my 420 model when I started working with ProMark 30 years ago, and designed the 420 to feel comfortable. 420 is actually my birthday. Actually, I think when we named the stick back in the ‘90s, the 420 pot reference, I don’t think even existed back then or it was very, very unknown. Now everybody knows the 420 reference, but yeah, my sticks were already called that because of my birthday. I was born April 20th, 1967.

We came out with the 420X model, which was a little bit of a thicker stick, a little heavier stick when I was doing a lot of other things outside of Dream Theater. [For] some of the more heavy things, whether it be Avenged Sevenfold or Twisted Sister or Metal Allegiance, I wanted a heavier stick than the 420, so that’s when we developed the 420X. They feel great to me, they feel natural.

Drumstick Varieties

If you’re a stick collector, especially a stick collector of my sticks, there’s dozens and dozens of variations of different sticks I’ve used through the years. They’re always the 420s or the 420X’s, but when I tour with the band, I put the band’s name on the stick for live purposes.

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Coming back to Dream Theater, we actually added the Dream Theater Majesty symbol into my signature. Once I left Dream Theater, we took that off of my signature and now coming back to Dream Theater, we added it into my actual autograph as well.

I pretty much exclusively use the 420X now, but we still offer the 420s for people that have been using them for all these decades that are comfortable with them. My hands have become so used to the feel of the 420X’s. They’re just a little bit bigger. They also have the active grip, which is a great, great feature. Personally, I wrap my sticks just because I’ve become so used to the feeling of it. But if I hadn’t already been wrapping my sticks, the active grip feature is an amazing feature.

I don’t know what drew me to the color purple, the color itself, not the movie! [chuckles] Before we were Dream Theater, we were called Majesty and the original logo was in purple. It’s kind of stayed with me ever since, so it kind of evolved down to the color of my drumsticks that I’m using on the latest Dream Theater tour, as well as the kit that I’m using on the latest Dream Theater tour. Coming out of the gates and coming back to Dream Theater, I kind of to want to come full circle to where it began. It just felt like a right homage and the right color and the right fit for where I’m at coming back with the band.

The Drumkit

As you can see, this is a mammoth monster kit that I’m using on the latest Dream Theater tour. Some people that aren’t really aware of how I design these kits might look at this and think it’s ridiculous. You know, how are you going to play 100 drums? This isn’t meant to be seen or perceived as one kit. It’s actually two kits in one that sit side by side. Once you understand that concept, you can understand where I’m coming from when building something like this.

On this side of the kit, which is my left side, audience’s right side, is a more traditional double bass kit: double bass, three rack toms, octobans on the left. I play the more metal or more progressive songs on this side. But on the right side of the kit, it’s a completely different setup. It’s a single bass kit with the double kick pedal, single-headed concert toms – 6, 8, 10. More untraditional setups like in terms of the cymbal work like have a mini hi-hat and a lot of different things. But basically the idea is to go back and forth from kit to kit live. There’s some songs I play on [the left] side, some songs I play on [the right] side. Sometimes I’ll get up and change within the same song. It gives me different options, different sounds to work with, gives me inspiration to be in a different setup and not always be playing the same thing.

One of the beautiful things about all those years away from Dream Theater is all those different bands I played with had different setups. So I was constantly inspired by being surrounded by different setups that I needed to adapt to. But yeah, the big giant Dream Theater setup [has] kind of become my trademark, so I knew coming back to Dream Theater, I had to go big. And here we are in this drum village. [laughs]

There’s a lot of eye candy on this particular kit. It’s pretty amazing to not only have one of these, but to have two of them. The finish that Tama came up with for this kit is just absolutely incredible.

Limited Edition Drumsticks

And now the great people at ProMark have created these sticks that are limited edition. They’re my 420X sticks and they match this incredible finish. So, it was already beautiful enough to have this finish on my drums. Now, I’m going to have a limited edition run of sticks with them as well. These are wrapped for my use and absolutely beautiful limited editions. Get these while you can.

If I play on somebody else’s kit and they have a different stick and I have to just pick them up and play, it doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel like I’m playing drums. I’ve just become so comfortable with my ProMark models.

Conclusion

Having all these different experiences, all these different types of roles, coming back to Dream Theater now really helped me be a more well-rounded musician. Helped me be more of a team player in terms of collaborating and working with the with the guys. And we’re more of a team than ever before.