Peter Wildoer - Audition in the Dreamland

On Thursday, September 9, I read Mike Portnoy's Facebook post that he stopped in Dream Theater. My wife said straight away and without much thought, "Well then, will James LaBrie, the singer, ask you if you want to play with Dream Theater?"

I myself thought that there might be a microscopic chance even if it sounded unlikely. Three days later, on September 11 and before a gig with Darkane in France, I received an email from James asking if I was craving to play with them. Shocking that it actually happened like my wife said!

Now you may be wondering just why I got this email! Then we have to pull back the clock until one evening in early 2010, when I got a call from a certain Matt Guillory, keyboardist in James LaBrie’s solo band. He worked on songs for James' new solo record and wondered if I was interested in playing the drums. Well, that sounds like a fucking job, I thought, and I agreed. Normally I move in the slightly harder parts of the metal swing, as a permanent member of Darkane and previously with Pestilence, Old Man's Child, etc. What many people do not know, however, is that I have played many other genres as well. This time, I would go after Mike Mangini, a highly respected drummer, teacher and DVD instructor, who had played on James' first three solo discs. In other words, it was anything but a "blueberry" I replaced, but rather an example! The record "Static Impulse" was recorded in March 2010 and released later that year. My participation there has really opened doors for me.

James was thus well acquainted with my drum playing, which caused him to contact me again (I also sing screams and growl on the record and have in some ways sung duet with Mr. LaBrie, which is a bit crazy in itself). I also knew that the other members of the Dream Theater liked "Static Impulse" very much. Both John Petrucci (guitarist) and Mike Portnoy had emailed me that they liked the record and my drum playing. It was really cool, but I was still completely shocked by James's mail and the fact that Dream Theater discussed me as a replacement for Mike in the band.

Strategy and Plan

A week later, I received an email from their manager with the details about the audition and was told that it would take place a month later. Two days later I was told which three songs would be played and a download link. The songs were 'The spirit carries on', 'A nightmare to remember' and 'The dance of eternity'. I had heard a couple of them before and realized immediately that the next month would consist of practicing, practicing and a little more practicing. Those who are familiar with them understand that the songs require a lot of jobs to crash and learn.

'The spirit carries on' is a 6/8 ballad and not technically difficult, but I understood that they wanted to check emotion, timing and musicality, which is obviously and perhaps one of the most important parts. The other two songs are of a completely different character and much more to get into: 'A nightmare to remember' is 16 minutes and consists of several different parts, tempos and beat types. 'The dance of eternity' in 6 minutes and 13 seconds consists of constant rhythm changes, rhythms and new parts in succession. That is, as far from a normal song structure as you can get. In fact, I myself laughed most after the first listening and the thought of how I would find time to first pick out what Mr Portnoy plays, learn it and know everything by heart. It would require constant listening to all the waking and free time. Time that did not exist because I usually have something else to do, not least as a full-time drum and math teacher at Mega Musik high school in Helsingborg!

Some kind of strategy and plan for how I would go about it was necessary. First and foremost with the three songs in my iPod to be able to listen to and from work and all spontaneous occasions. I also knew that Mike Portnoy released the latest Dream Theater records on his own company with separate tracks for all instruments. In this way, I created a version of 'A nightmare to remember' with no drums to play. I also found a version of 'The dance of eternity' without drums online. I see great advantages in playing songs without the original drums when you have to "control the boat" yourself. Of course, it is good to initially play to the original version to hear that you are picking out correctly. Today, Youtube is also a fantastic tool. There I found a clip when Portnoy plays the whole 'The dance of eternity' in a studio. In another clip, he goes through the end of the same song that basically changes the beat every beat. I recognized the clips and have the DVD from which the clips were taken, "Mike Portnoy – Liquid Drum Theater". There are also live versions on all the songs which was a great help. To follow and get a grip on the songs, I realized that a written analysis, with rhythms and some notes, of each song was needed. John Petrucci has released all Dream Theater albums as notebooks where all the song structures existed which saved me a lot of work. In addition, I gained an insight into how the band interpreted the different rhythms, which is different from how I see and hear it. I also added the three songs in Cubase and the computer to be able to "loop" specific parts and listen bit by bit. It turned out that Dream Theater obviously never recorded for clicks. The tempo goes up and down everything most often. It took me at least a whole day to get this right but it was definitely worth it. Now it was just to start practicing from beat one!

Exercise and Mystery Making

Together with Mickael “Walle” Wahlgren, a Ph.D. student, fantastic drummer and very good friend, I laid out a schedule that consisted of 15 minutes of warm-up and one hour of technical practice for both hands and feet. Also speed and endurance were practiced up and above all in the feet. The remaining time went to pick and work with the songs. Given that I had four weeks, it should take a maximum of one week per song. The last week would be spent playing all three songs until they were in muscle memory. It was equally good to take the bull by the horns and start with the technically most difficult song, 'The dance of eternity'. As I sat there picking out the first four beats of the song, listening over and over, and slowly began to learn what was happening, the end goal felt like being able to play almost 30 minutes of music from a really progressive metal school – almost overwhelming! Slowly but surely, I worked my way through the song and after two weekends and a week's practice in the evenings after work, I "got" it. Then came the long opus 'A nightmare to remember', a harder song with more double bass drums that fit my game quite well. Not so technically difficult, but definitely a mastodon song to sink your teeth in!

The last song, 'The spirit carries on', with mostly straight 6/8 drum playing and significantly "tastier" drum playing is completely different! Here I had to work very hard with timing and placement of the bass drum to get it really tight and swinging.

The last week I played the songs over and over again to really wear them out. The mere thought of playing the songs with Dream Theater a week later made me sick. The thing is, by then I also knew which others would play and the order. A list of names that made me laugh and sit down when I saw it. Here were some of my absolute greatest role models. Drummers who belong to the absolute world elite and can push the limit of what can be done on a drum set in terms of technology, speed and coordination.

Here's what the list looked like:

October 18th: Mike Mangini: 2pm, Derek Roddy: 6pm

October 19th: Thomas Lang: 10am, Virgil Donati: 6pm

October 20th: Marco Minneman: 10am, Aquiles Priester: 2pm, Peter Wildoer: 6pm

I was very familiar with all the drummers except Aquiles Priester. When I looked him up on YouTube, it turned out that he is a metal monster of the highest class. Of course! So it was little old me from Glumslöv in Skåne and six world-famous wizards on drums, all of whom, with the exception of Aquiles, played at the famous Modern Drummer Festival.

So I was a real "underdog" on the card. Now, of course, I was not let down by it but wrote out the list and hung on the wall. To think I was on the same list as them, fantastic! It all got even cooler because the audition would take place at the classic S.I.R. (Studio Instrument Rentals) in New York. To say least, I had butterflies in my stomach and had an extremely hard time thinking about anything other than just playing the test all the time.

It was all made worse by the fact that I absolutely could not tell anyone. To take time off from work for a week, therefore, a good apology was required. It wasn't the hardest thing, but after the audition, I went to about 140 music classes in high school who didn’t hear. Many of them are Dream Theater fans, who know that I played on James' latest record, who have repeatedly asked me if I have been offered to take over for Portnoy. I have firmly denied this! Then let's not talk about everyone on Facebook who wrote to me. Realize that I really just wanted to shout it out to everyone! I was cracking!

Another thing to consider is Mike Portnoy's status, a living drum legend with devoted fans who has inspired tens of thousands of young drummers to start playing drums! Although the chance that I would get the gig with Dream Theater was microscopic, it was always in the back of my mind that it would be a very, very big task to fill the void after Portnoy. He is a great personality and a real entertainer, and the fans will place great demands on the successor!

The Audition

Sunday, October 17, it was off to New York. A trip you don't do every day, so my wife and I stayed all week and took the opportunity to tour at the same time. I brought with me a practice pad and pedals to keep the technique up for the three days until my audition. A few weeks earlier, I had contacted Virgil Donati, one of my absolute greatest role models, and asked if we could meet somehow. On Tuesday he called and wondered if I wanted to come down to his room to have a little talk. How little it wasn't! We spent almost two hours together before his audition. I got a chance to ask him about lots of things I wanted to know. Incredibly inspiring!

I was in seventh heaven and that alone made the trip and all the work feel worth it.

When I woke up on D-Day, on October 20, the nervousness knew no bounds. My audition was not until six o'clock in the evening and despite attempts at other pursuits, I had difficulty focusing. Two hours before, I warmed up and played through all the songs in the hotel room.

We took a taxi to S.I.R. and were met by manager Frank and his wife Marjorie. Two very nice people I had had regular contact with before and they welcomed us warmly. On the way in, I met Aquiles Priester. We chatted a little about how crazy all this was and discovered that we are probably quite the same and we have been in contact ever since. Once inside the gigantic "rehearsal room" I greeted everyone in the band, the film team of about eight people, all the technicians and some representatives of the various brands the Dream Theater guys are sponsored with. All in all, there were about 20 people in the room and it felt like everyone looked at me. The welcome was very warm, everyone was very nice and it was pretty fun. The guys in the band said that they too were nervous and that it was a whole new situation because they played with Mike for 25 years. I was last out and they were pretty worn out after having already gone through everything with six other drummers before me, had a meeting after every rehearsal and also other meetings with eg. the record company regarding everything around Mike’s quitting.

They wondered if I wanted something to eat from the awesome buffet. I am really a big eater and usually jokingly say that my favorite food is “Eat what you can buffet” but it was impossible to think of food at that moment. Instead, I started rebuilding the drum set and adapting it to me. There was a drum technician on hand to help me. The whole time someone was filming what I was doing and I was chatting with the guys in the band during the time. Something that caused the nervousness to release as well. When the drum set was in order, all in-ear systems would be set and sound levels set in the recording system. Everything would be filmed and recorded professionally. John Petrucci started playing something, I hooked up and we jammed in for ten minutes.

After that there was some easy talk and a little adjustment to our monitors, and then another jam. Lovely! Here I sat and jammed with Dream Theater! The guys were in a great mood and we were joking a lot and it was wonderful that the atmosphere was so moody. Most nervousness was gone. I asked if they wanted to play the three songs in some special order and Petrucci said they wanted to run 'A nightmare to remember' first followed by 'The dance of eternity' and lastly 'The spirit carries on'. It felt fantastic to get started with a fat intro, and to get to play with live musicians after all the practice for background files. We drove the song straight through and it felt very good. Petrucci confirmed the feeling and said that he liked the "pull" in my game and that my feet were fantastic. You can understand that I was happy! Frank, the manager, asked if I wanted some more water and placed some bottles next to me while whispering "You fucking nailed it Peter".

'The dance of eternity' also sat. We sank very well despite never having played together before or the fact that the song is not easy to play with anyone even if you have been working hard! A little general cheer and applause broke out in the room. The guys in the band came up and did the "high five" with me. I was totally euphoric at this point!

Last was 'The spirit carries on' and now it was about getting down in turns after two very intense songs followed by unrestrained happiness. After the piano and song intro, it felt good to just get some regular drum comps without any sick beat.

This song also went completely according to plan and in the end even Marjorie, the manager's wife, danced which was quite fun. Jordan Rudess (keyboard) said that "we could have been on stage today and been running these songs and been very satisfied". A good rating! I was simply very happy and satisfied.

Now Petrucci said they would do a test and try some new things on me. Don't get nervous, he continued, explaining that it was pretty hard stuff. Jordan first presented his idea. It was something like a 7/8 beat followed by 3/4, 5/8 and finally 7/16. Every other round it was the 5/16 final beat instead. At the same time, he was singing something rhythmically and tonally completely crazy, at least in my ears right then.

At times I felt completely at ease but after a while I got a grip on it after all and we drove around and tested some ideas. Petrucci also had an idea, somewhat simpler but still difficult with odd beat types and other fun. We jammed quite a lot at the same time as Petrucci was soloing a bit. Finally, an interview was filmed with the band, the manager and me where we talked through the audition itself. They asked questions about more personal things and felt the pulse. I was told that they were very happy with my efforts and we really had fun actually. When my wife and I went back to the hotel, it was with incredible relief that everything was actually over. I had already told the band that no matter who they choose, I felt like an incredibly lucky lottery winner to be a part of all this, to get to play with my idols! What more could I ask for!

Conclusion

A month after the rehearsal, I was told that I had not been given the seat in the Dream Theater. It didn't come as a surprise. I know how good the other drummers are. Besides, I live on another continent and had to stick out a lot. Something I probably didn't do among these drum giants. I still feel like a winner and am happy and honored to be on the same list. I still have contact with the other drummers.

In summary, I just want to say, never lose your dream and do not give up. Who knows what is hiding around the corner?

In my case, 2010 was an unexpected but fantastic year. I would like to thank Teddy Möller (F.K.Ü. & Loch Vosotk) who advised Matt Guillory about me for playing on James LaBrie’s record. Without his tips, none of this would have happened.

Stay Metal!

Peter Wildoer