Mike Portnoy scoops us on Dream Theater
By Dave Schwartz

So what do successful musicians do on their day off? I believe it would be a misnomer to suggest that Mike Portnoy was just lounging around the house in an old bathrobe and bunny slippers until it was time for our interview. But then, what would I know? Anything is possible, right? While researching this article I stopped off at Portnoy’s Web site to discover a rather intricate "Tourography" that outlined every tour date Dream Theater has played since May 28th, 1986. And when you add to this substantial list of dates, his endless appearances at drum clinics and the multiple side projects he is involved with you begin to wonder if this man even sleeps!

I swear the he must have boundless energy. The day I spoke to Mike Portnoy, drummer of America’s definitive progressive rock band Dream Theater, he was bubbling with enthusiasm. Having just returned from a five-week European tour, he was excited to share their successes, but at the same time I was surprised to hear him say that he was also enjoying some time off.

"Normally we’re fully charged and ready to rock," Portnoy explained. "We don’t get tired until we’re six to seven months into it. I don’t know if it’s because we’re getting old and the music is so heavy or the sets so long, but man, when we got done and came home from this first leg, it was like we were coming home from war!"

On this latest tour in support of their recent album, "Train of Thought," Dream Theater found themselves playing in some of the largest venues they’ve ever headlined. To step up to the challenge, they put together a huge production and video show and ultimately the band found themselves playing three and a half hours each night to packed houses. There was an obvious ring of pride in Portnoy’s voice when he commented, "Everything about it was probably the best presentation we have ever done."

I’ve been lucky enough to have previous interviews with Dream Theater and each time I find myself commenting on the departure that the most recent album has taken from previous efforts. Honestly I think that I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but here I go again! For those who haven’t heard the album, "Train of Thought" is much darker and as a whole, heavier than past records.

"I don’t know if this was necessarily a change," Portnoy began. "We’ve always had heavy songs. We’ve always had the occasional dark subject matter. So I don’t know that this was necessarily a change. I think this was more of just a focus. This was a conscience decision to make an entire album of that type of songs. That’s it. Like I said, we’ve always had that in our repertoire, in our past catalog. This time around we just decided to do an entire record like that. The reason why? I don’t know, it just felt like the next logical step for us to go in. I should state that this isn’t necessarily the ‘New Dream Theater.’ It’s more just the 'Now Dream Theater'. We never want to do the same album twice. So the next album after this will probably be completely different from ‘Train of Thought.’ This is only where we’re at right now."

I found myself agreeing with his analogy. On their last record, "Six Degree’s of Inner Turbulence," the band took a somewhat lighter, more retro approach to the music. While still addressing heavy subject matter, they delved into the delicate topics of mental illness and anger displacement without an obvious grind. Musically there was certainly a great deal of experimentation happening, but once again, that tends to happen on a Dream Theater record!

Perhaps the biggest departure on the current release came on the production end. Back in the early days of Liquid Tension Experiment, a side project put together by Portnoy and Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci, they discovered the creative spontaneity of writing in the recording studio. The adrenaline rush carried over to Dream Theater soon after when Liquid Tension Experiment’s keyboardist, Jordan Rudess, joined the band. But for this album Portnoy was interested in trying something different.

"We wanted a real heavy live sounding album. We wanted to write it in a rehearsal studio with the amps on just playing it like a live band, as opposed to writing in the studio where you’re playing through headphones and the composing is done on tape. To make this type of record, we needed to write it before entering the studio," Portnoy explained.

As any musician can tell you, there is a certain motivation discovered while playing through your amplifier with the volume knob cranked to 11. The time in rehearsal also afforded Dream Theater the opportunity to focus on the songs as whole rather than constructing them in portions in the studio. And I suspect the largest advantage came during performance, they didn’t have to sit down and learn the songs they just wrote.

"Exactly, that was exactly one of the reasons we chose to record this way for this album," Portnoy agreed. "We wanted it to sound like a live band. We’ve never really just pieced stuff together, I mean, when we write there are a lot of things on the table and constructing it is part of the whole art of song writing. So that much is going to be a constant formula for us. But we weren’t really piecing things together so much as we were writing songs."

Having alleviated the challenge of learning the songs, I asked what was left. What are the remaining challenges?

For the moment Portnoy became rather serious with his answer, "It’s the stamina aspect. When you’re playing a three- to three and a half-hour show, and we have a completely different set list from night to night, we have to have something like six to ten hours of music rehearsed and polished at our fingertips. So the stamina factor is one of the biggest challenges. It’s a very draining live experience night to night. It’s draining for the audience and they do it once-- we do it every night!"

For most bands there are many considerations when recording an album. It’s the lucky few who get to focus on their art with little concern of satisfying the record company. Whereas most bands find themselves burdened with the necessity of writing a marketable radio single and appeasing the label executives, Dream Theater is somewhat different. I asked Portnoy if radio was even a concern at this point in their careers.

"No, not at all," Portnoy replied. "In fact, for the last three albums or so, we’ve been able to completely do whatever we want on our terms. We haven’t delivered a single song to the label until the album was finished. We do what we do. We don’t expect radio or the media to get it. We just care about keeping ourselves happy and hopefully keeping our fans happy along the way. Our career at this point has never been based or attributed to radio. Early on, ten years ago or so, it was a consideration. But now in 2004, radio has absolutely nothing to do with our careers, so why should we write to accommodate them? They have done nothing to accommodate us. Our progress has been based on our fans. They are the only people we concern ourselves with pleasing."

Over the past year Dream Theater has also begun releasing "Official Bootlegs" through their own label, Ytsejam Records. This is a marketing step that has been proven by other bands and is popular among the fans. Bootlegs easily predate the Internet and the advent of file sharing software has perpetuated the, until now, music black market. To help combat poor quality bootlegs, Portnoy and crew began making portions of their massive live archive available to their fans. I asked if he thought this would cause a conflict with any future live Dream Theater albums.

"No, the biggest reason for that is because it’s only available…" Portnoy paused for a moment to consider his words, "First of all I should say that our real fans want everything. They want to have and collect every release they can get their hands on. With that being said, it was real important to us that these official bootlegs only be available on our specific Web sites. Originally when we were in talks with Elektra, they had mentioned putting these at retail like they do with Phish. Phish has a whole official bootleg series with Elektra and it’s available at retail. But it was really important to us that we not let these be available at retail because we don’t want the general consumer, if faced with a choice between ‘Train of Thought’ and the original Majesty demos, we don’t what there to be any confusion over which is the real album. So they are only available through the Ytsejam Records Web site and are directed at the existing fan base."

In many ways Portnoy holds a close association with his fans. He has long been rumored to be a bit compulsive with his collections of music and movie titles. For many it’s the thrill of the hunt. The excitement of finding elusive and rare recordings of their favorite artists is the payoff for hours of on-line browsing.

"I’m definitely a complete-est," Portnoy admits. "For me, file swapping is not a problem because I will go out and buy every CD anyway. On the other hand, the part of me that is a big fan and a big collector loves finding those rare MP3s and live recordings. That’s why so much of what I do for Dream Theater is for the fans, in terms of the official bootlegs and fan club CDs to changing the set list every night. So much of that I do for the fans because I know what it is like to be a fan because I am a fan. I collected every Rush bootleg, every KISS bootleg, Pink Floyd or Beatles bootleg; I did all of that when I was younger. So I can appreciate where our fans are coming from. I’m always looking out to keep them satisfied in that regard."

So what is in the future for Dream Theater? Currently the band plans to return to Europe soon after their shows in Asia. And if past tours can be relied upon as a template, I suspect they will also add a second leg to their North American tour. When I asked if there would be a DVD, Portnoy simply replied, "Yes, I think it would be nice. I think it’s time again."

As I was thanking Mike Portnoy for allowing this interview during his time off I thought of one final question, albeit slightly from left field. I asked if he wasn’t playing progressive music, what style would he be playing?

"I have so many loves. I mean I love old school progressive music and that’s why I put together TransAtlantic. I love the really heavy stuff so what we’ve done with ‘Train of Thought’ is satisfying to me in that respect. I love really eclectic, strange avant-garde music like Frank Zappa or Mr Bungle. I love simplistic pop music. That’s why I put together my Beatles tribute band. I have so many different styles that I love and luckily I’ve been able to tap into a lot of them through Dream Theater." Portnoy said, "And the stuff I haven’t been able to tap into I’ve been able to touch through other projects to satisfy that urge."

Eclectic tastes indeed. I wonder what twists and turns the next Dream Theater album will take!

Check out www.dreamtheater.net