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Dream Theater



Every Dark Cloud Has a Silver Lining



Prologue
Getting an interview with such progressive metal idols as Dream Theater is without a doubt a great event and a stroke of luck, and needless to say there were a lot of preparations to this talk. Paraphrasing the lines of a very famous song by Rainbow, I “spent my time waiting by the phone, oh darling call back to me!” “Darling” by the name of Jordan Rudess, the keyboard player of this legendary band, really called, but as it usually happens with long anticipated events, the talk flashed by as a moment and got lost in time like a drop in the ocean. Nevertheless we managed to cover most of the pressing issues regarding Dream Theater and its new album, and, to my mind, the interview that you are going to read below is a good remembrance of those minutes in which I managed to come a little bit closer to the enigma of Dream Theater…
Dream Theater
Why did it happen that your band has such a long history but hasn't been in Russia so far? And what made it possible now to play in our country?

Well, we wanted to come to Russia for many years now. It’s pretty far away – this is one thing. And moreover it is a little bit difficult to come to a place where aren’t a lot of concerts. For example when we go to Europe, when we fly to Europe, we may play some concert, then take a bus and play more concerts, so it is a little bit easier. But still we go to countries where it’s like one or two shows, it’s a little bit harder for our band to come there, because it is so much complicated – we have so much equipment, and so many people, and we want to come there and do a real Dream Theater show with the right equipment, and we want to bring everything on stage – so we have to do it right. Finally this year we managed to work it out with our management, and promoters there in Russia the situation that made sense for everybody.

You are going to play in Russia for the first time. Shall we expect a
Dream Theater
special program? Or will you play your usual set list?


Our drummer whose name is Mike, spends a lot of time thinking about set lists, and there are always a lot of consideration for where we are playing. Moreover now we should remember that this is our first time in Russia, and there are a lot of expectation and, hopefully, a lot of excitement. So he is taking great care in order to make up the best set-list for you guys out there, so it should be really special.

What can we expect of the new album? What can the new fans like in this work and is there anything that can attract a new audience?

Well, I think that this album is a true Dream Theater album. What I mean by that – it is true to our style, there is nothing down on it that goes a completely new direction. I believe and I feel like this is a Dream Theater album that is very well executed, and with a very good music on it. I think it has some stylistic elements that people really like, everybody’s favourite elements. And so far the reaction of people who already heard it is r
Dream Theater
eally really good. So and we fell really good about it, so I think it should please a lot of the older fans and I think that it’ll also make people who have never heard our music, first time listeners really interested in our music.

You've played a number of classic albums live. And do you know what is the reaction of those musicians whose albums you performed?

A lot of musicians are really excited about it, and very flattered to have us playing their music. For example the Deep Purple album that we played live in Japan – the guy were really happy with the way we did it, and they thought very good about it. Metallica also supported us when we played that, and Iron Maiden – well, actually all the bands that we played covers of supported us – our arrangements and even the mare fact that we did it. And I think it’s a nice thing with them, because I some case, well actually in all cases their albums deserve more attention, and in this way their albums become even more exposed to people.

Who came up with such an idea for th
Dream Theater
e first time, and of course, we would like to know if you are going to continue this tradition? If yes, what album will be the next?


Mike Portnoy came up with the idea to do that, and right now we don’t have any plans to do it. But I’m sure that at some point the band is going to do something like that again – it’s a lot of fun for us, but it is also a lot of work. But still it is a cool thing and I think we’ll do it again.

To continue the theme of cover-versions. For the new album there will be a number of such compositions. One of them is "Stargazer", which is one of the central songs in Rainbow history, and where the role of the keyboards is of a great importance. You masterfully created the atmosphere of the 70-õ - how did you work at this song, did you use any instruments of that time or did you achieve such a sound via some modern devices?

That’s a good question! I used my modern instruments to create the sound that I needed. My instrument, you know, are very capable of producing different organ sounds, string sounds. With th
Dream Theater
e instruments that I use I am able to get a sound I need. If I want to get a vintage sound, a have a whole library of really nice vintage sounds, like mellotrons and things like that. So yes, I use my new tools to create this effect.

Do you think you made the right decision when at first you rejected the position of Dream Theater keyboardist and went to The Dixie Dregs?

It’s true, I was asked to join Dream Theater, but then I said no, because back then it wasn’t the best thing foe my life. There were a lot of parameters that helped me to make this decision, and I think it was a very good decision as it turned out. After Dream Theater first asked me to join the band I made one concert with them at a big heavy metal convention. And then after that they wanted me to join them and go with them on tour and be a part of the band, but I said, “No, I will join The Dixie Dregs.” On the one hand, playing in Dixie Dregs allowed me to play with great musicians, and on the other hand, I could do all other things that I wanted to do in my life. And also back then m
Dream Theater
y wife and I had a little child, so at that point it really made sense. And later on, a few years later I was asked again to join Dream Theater and I said yes, but at that point everything was different – things changed for the group and things changed for me, and we also had an experience of working together at Liquid Tension Experiment – it was great experience.

When you look back at the history of the band what album of Dream Theater do you personally consider the hardest and which album turned out to be the most important for the band?

Well, let’s see. Every album has something… “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” (2002) was an album that has a lot of interesting sound effects on it. We were really interested to go into the studio and try some new things, sound effects and things like that. And it was a challenge for me, because whenever we were going to play this album live it took some extra work for me to get those sounds, which is fine, but it definitely takes more time. You know, when I am in the studio I’m surround by my interesting technolog
Dream Theater
ies, I have computers, I have all different keyboards. When I am going out to play live, my equipment is smaller than that, all those things, I bting only a few things. And my task is to recreate the sound accurately. So it takes the preproduction, that is why I think that “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” was the hardest for me. As for the two albums that are really important for me – I think there are two albums in a whole Dream Theater history which are important for the whole band – these are “Images and Words” (1992 ) – the album which everybody discovered Dream Theater with. And the other is “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory” (1999) – the album that has a meaning for the Dream Theater history as well, I think. And I think that the new album will also be a very important point, a very important landmark in Dream Theater history. We’ll see.

The band members are involved in a great number of side projects – how does it affect their work at Dream Theater? Does it help to compose music for Dream Theater?

I think it’s very important for all of u
Dream Theater
s in Dream Theater to have some side projects in a row. Dream Theater to my opinion is a great band, it’s a lot of fun to play music in this band. But all of us have different projects where we play different kinds of music, which Dream Theater doesn’t play, but which we also like. For instance myself – I like to play solo piano, and I have a new album of my piano music, based on Dream Theater songs with a new arrangements, these are Dream Theater ballads. And this is very important for me as a musician to have this self expression, because it was something that Dream Theater would never do, but something that I wanted to do. Mike is buzy in a project where he makes more melodic progressive rock, not metal at all. It’s very important to do, so I feel like if we have an opportunity to walk out into some different situations and express ourselves musically and personally, and then we come back to Dream Theater and that’s good, we understand that this is Dream Theater, we understand what music we are expected to play in Dream Theater, and we put ourselves completely into it – it’s great! And I think we wo
Dream Theater
rk even better, because we are as complete artists managed to express ourselves in some other kinds of music and projects. That works out.

As far as we spoke about side projects – soon you release a solo CD with the favourite ballads of Dream Theater. Why did you decide to release this CD right now? And why did you choose ballads and not some harder stuff?

The album is a solo piano album, it is called “Notes On A Dream”. And I thought that I wanted to do the ballads, because this is a softer side of Dream Theater, it is sometimes underappreciated and sometimes even overlooked, because a lot of our music is very challenging and heavy and all our albums have ballads on them. I felt it would be a nice way to have me and the piano, a nice way to bring up the beauty of the melodies of Dream Theater. I was considering to do songs which maybe a little bit more progressive in Dream Theater catalogue for piano, but then I thought that I’d better do ballads, and some time later probably I’ll work with more intense progressive songs of Dream Theater.

Website DigitalDreamDoor.com placed you among 20 best keyboards players in the world ever. Whaty was your reaction when you got to know about it? Do you consider yourself to be among these 20 best keyboard players?

Well, I don’t know the DigitalDreamDoor.com, but I probably should, I’ll look at it. It’s nice that they decided to place me among the best 20 keyboard players in the world, you know it’s funny, but when I was younger and was growing up I had my absolute keyboard heroes – people like Keith Emerson (ELP, Nice), Rick Wakeman (Yes, Strawbs, David Bowie), Patrick Moraz (Moody Blues, Yes, Solo) , Jan Hammer – these were my heroes. So now it ‘s funny for me to be among them, it’s like a dream! I even feel very humble about it, even given that I’m no longer a kid and I’m much older (laughs). But on the other hand, when I was a kid I practiced classical music, playing keyboards for several hours a day, and I think it’s a ballans of my life – the way it worked out. It made sense that I would be in a rock music, and be a good player. But I’m always flat
Dream Theater
tered with such things.

How soon did you get on well together with the guys after you joined the band?

The guys were really nice, and when I met them we got along together at once, from the very first day. I remember the first day I met them, at that day I learned “Pull Me Under” and “Take The Time”, I learned it and I played those with the guys. And I also let them listen to my song, “Over The Edge”, which is a very progressive song. We had a good time, we laughed, it was very musical. My energy mixed well with that of the guys in the band.

Can we expect new albums of Liquid Tension Experiment or you will organize or join some other side project with the music similar to Liquid Trio Experiment?

Well, I would love to do another project with Liquid Tension Experiment right now, but now Dream Theater are going to set off for a world tour, so nothing is gonna happen right away. We live – I mean Liquid tension Experiment – in New York, California, so it will not happen right away, but I’d like it to happ
Dream Theater
en. As for the matter of doing something like that – for sure! But so far I don’t have any definite plans about it. I have a lot of possibilities, and we’ll see.

I’ve just been told that the time is over, so probably the last question. Will you say a couple of words to your Russian fans and to the readers of Darkside.ru?

We are so excited to come to Russia, we haven’t played there, but we wanted to play there for a long time. Personally I’m very excited, because I’ve never been there, either. I’m looking forward to meeting the people and to looking around. And I wanna say that Dream Theater are very happy to come to Russia, and we will have a great concert and spend a great time!

Bye! Thank you very much for this talk! We are looking forward to your concert and hopefully you are going to make a great show out of it!

Thank you! Good luck! Bye!

Interview by Ksenia “Wolfin” Khorina
Questions also composed by Blindman and EPIC
© Russian DarkSide E-Zine
28 ìàé 2009
the End


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