Road Report – Derek Sherinian With Dream Theater

When last we spoke to keyboardist Derek Sherinian, he was circling the globe with Alice Cooper (see April 1990 issue). Since that report, he’s guested on Cooper's latest, The Last Temptation, he’s toured and recorded with Kiss, and now he’s landed one of rock’s hottest synth seats: Dream Theater.

To bring you up to date, longtime Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore parted amicably with the band in early ’94 to pursue solo endeavors. Jordan Rudess sat in temporarily, but it was Sherinian who filled the bill for the band’s 1994/95 Awake world tour. Although he’s a hired gun for the time being, Sherinian hopes it will evolve into a permanent position.

The Audition. “I had one week to learn four songs: ‘Pull Me Under,’ ‘Take the Time,’ ‘Caught in a Web, and I forget the other one. I wasn’t very familiar with the band before the audition, but once I heard their music, I knew I had to have this gig.” Sherinian flew to New York and nailed the audition on rented gear. “The best advice I can give to anyone going through this is to go in, put out a friendly vibe, and keep your mouth shut. Let the playing do the talking.” Apparently the keyboardist’s personality and chops clicked with the band’s. “We all went to Berklee,” he says, “and we have some mutual friends, so it was a really good vibe.” Incredibly, the tour started just two weeks later. “I had to learn two hours’ worth of material in two weeks – and this is intense shit! Every minute I was awake I was shedding these tunes, and I played the set tape as I was falling asleep so I would get the stuff subliminally.” To make matters even more stressful, drummer Mike Portnoy caught pneumonia, leaving the band only three full rehearsals before going out.

Gear. Compared to the monster rigs of yesterday’s prog rock champions, Sherinian’s setup is a piece of streamlined beauty. Onstage he uses an Oberheim Eclipse, a Korg 01/W, and a Roland JD-800. The rest is neatly tucked into a rack behind him (see photo). “I use the Eclipse exclusively for my piano, and a MIDI-fied Korg CX3 layered with an Oberheim OB-3 for my organ sound.” Both are routed through a Dynacord DLS223 Leslie simulator.

Patchwork. “Kevin Moore was very helpful. He sent over a JD-800 RAM card that he used on a lot of the stuff, which was very cool of him. For the rest, I just tried to match the sounds as closely as possible.” Onstage, Sherinian uses one JD-800 bank per song. “I do all of the patch changes by hand. Each time I go up and play the set, it’s a routine. You know, it’s the same thing as an ice skater who works out a routine, except mine consists of playing passages, patch changes, and whatever else I need to do. After you do it for a few shows, you lock into a groove.”

Reflections. “One of the things that’s really great about this gig is that the guys are giving me a lot of room to cut. I get a two-minute solo spot, there’s a section in ‘Take the Time’ where I do a jazz piano thing, and there are solos left and right. There’s a lot of stuff where the keyboard is doubling the guitar in unison – sixteenth-notes at 220 on the metronome. It’s pretty sick. There are a lot of complex melodies and harmonies going on, but it’s still very, very heavy. If you look out in the crowd, you'll see the kids moshing and headbanging like they would at a Metallica show. There’s something for almost everyone. This is probably the coolest rock keyboard gig in the world right now.”

—Greg Rule

Photo caption

Sherinian at soundcheck. The Oberheim Eclipse, one of his three onstage controllers, eclipses a Roland JD-800 and a Korg 01/W. Not pictured is a Fisher Price one-octave keyboard Velcroed to the top of his Apex stand. “It’s the centerpiece of my rig,” he chuckles. His rack, from top to bottom: Oberheim OB-3 Drawbar Expander, OB-Mx, pair of Matrix-1000s, and Echoplex Digital Pro, Furman PL8 power module, Kurzweil K2000R, Digital Music MX-8, Mackie CR-1604, Alesis Quadraverb, and Dynacord DLS223. Peeking out from the left is a Korg CX3.