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John and Jordan sat down for an interview with Music Radar's Joe Bosso. Check out the beginning below and read the full interview here
Inside a cozy lounge area at Long Island's Cove City Studios, Dream Theater's John Petrucci fixes himself a cup of coffee and then sits down on a soft leather couch. "I think the new album looks good for September," he says. "We don't have an official date yet, and we're kind of playing around with titles. But I'd definitely say September is the month we're shooting for."
The master guitarist heaves a contented sigh. Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, he exudes the sangfroid cool of a guy who's just weathered a fierce storm and has emerged unscathed. Which, in a way, is the truth: Last September, drummer and founding member Mike Portnoy threw the group for a loop when he up and quit, intent on drumming for heavy metallers Avenged Sevenfold and expressing a desire for an extended hiatus from Dream Theater, leaving the prog-rock titans, in Petrucci's words, "more than a little stunned."
It was a difficult time, to say the least, but with the recent announcement of Portnoy's replacement, Mike Mangini, who has played with Steve Vai, Extreme, Annihilator, and has, until just recently, served as a faculty member at Boston's prestigious Berklee College Of Music, things are looking up in the world of Dream Theater.
"I hear an interview is about to happen," says Jordan Rudess, who grabs a bottle of water and sits down beside Petrucci. The keyboard whiz, similarly dressed but sporting an Apple baseball cap, has been finishing his parts on the much-anticipated new record. He doesn't have long: in June, the band will convene in NYC to rehearse for four days before hitting the European summer circuit, which includes a headline slot at the High Voltage Festival on Sunday 24 July. "We're definitely looking forward to playing live this summer," says Rudess. "And we're really excited to show everybody what Mike Mangini is bringing to the band."
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Mike Mangini recently did and interview with Modern Dummer's Mike Haid. See the beginning below and read the full interview at Modern Drummer's Website.
The announcement that Modern Drummer Hall of Famer Mike Portnoy had left his longstanding position as the reigning king of prog-metal drumming with Dream Theater sent shockwaves through the drumming community. Who could replace such an iconic figure in such a legendary band? Could this be the end of Dream Theater, the group that single-handedly created the prog-metal phenomenon thats still thriving today?
The remaining members of Dream Theater chose to up the ante, and auditions were arranged for a whos who of elite international drumming superstars. The list included Virgil Donati, Thomas Lang, Marco Minnemann, Derek Roddy, Aquiles Priester, Peter Wildoer, and Mike Mangini. As the world watched the intense auditions via the Internet, the seven world-class players competed in an attempt to win the coveted drum throne. When the smoke cleared, Mangini emerged as the bands pick. The drummers amazing journey is one of personal struggle, commitment, heartbreak, dedication, frustration, and, finally, victory. Here, we speak to Mike about that journey, as just the first part of our coverage of his Dream Theater experience. There will be much more to come in the pages of Modern Drummer.
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Welcome Mike Mangini!
Well, it's been a very exciting day for all of us in Dream Theater and we are happy to finally share the news that Mike Mangini is our new drummer! He is not only a beast of a player but an incredible person as well who truly and fully understands and values everything that we strive to be as a band. Thank you for being so patient and incredibly supportive to us throughout the years and especially over the last several months. Thank you for your faith in us and your immediate and practically across-the-board acceptance of Mike Mangini as our new drummer. Thank you for the positive words about the documentary and all of your passion and dedication. The movie is our gift and our invitation into something that would traditionally be very private and I appreciate everyone's sensitivity towards that. There's a lot of work to be done, so back to the studio. JM finished tracking bass today and Jordan is recording as I type. Things are real busy around here. Can't wait for everyone to hear the new music and to begin playing live with Mike!
God Bless,
John
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Watch the 3rd and FINAL Episode of "The Spirit Carries on", and see how Dream Theater picked MIKE MANGINI as their new drummer!
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Metal Insider caught up with "The Spirit Carries On" director Mike Leonard. You can read the into below and check out the full interview here.
Chances are that by now youve been caught up with everything going on with Dream Theater. This past week, the band debuted The Spirit Carries On, which chronicles the audition process behind the bands search for drummer Mike Portnoys replacement. While we certainly felt teased and annoyed by the trailer debut last week, wed be lying if we said we havent been following the web series. Hell, like most of you, we want to find out who the new drummer is, and its been pretty cool to get an inside look into the audition process.
So as we wait patiently for tomorrows third and final episode of The Spirit Carries On, we decided to catch up with the people behind the making of the documentary. Director Mike Leonard and Over The Edge Productions were brought in by Roadrunner Records director of video production Rick Ernst to document Dream Theaters search for a new drummer. Leonard and crew went in not knowing what the outcome was going to be, but in the end came out with what we now have been glued to for the past week.
Leonard took the time to talk with us about how the project came to be, initial worries about the fans response, and what could be the future outcome of The Spirit Carries On.
