Jordan Rudess interview

YtseBR: Do you think about growing your hair back again?

Jordan Rudess: It’s an interesting question. Most of the growing is done on this (stroking his goatee) these days because honestly I probably could grow my hair back, but at my tender age, I don’t think it would grow back the way I want it to. So I prefer to keep a nice clean look up top.

YBR: What gear did you use on the new album? Some sounds are very similar to the Kurzweil era...

JR: I used a lot of gear for the new album. I used any and every software that I had. I certainly have some favorite things like Spectrosonic’s Omnisphere or Camel Audio, Alchemy or the Native Instruments stuff. But I also had a nice array of keyboards. I had of course my Korg keyboards, I had a Kurzweil keyboard, I had a Nord keyboard, I had a Yamaha keyboard, I had a couple of Roland keyboards, a lot of things. But one of the things that is interesting is that through the years I’ve developed so many sounds with Dream Theater. First, well, actually stemming from Liquid Tension, with my Kurzweil gear. And then, of course, moving on to my Korg gear, that some of the things that I developed, I then ported over to the Korg library. So I have this immense library of sounds from early on in my career that I think people can notice. Sounds like the snarling pig or the type of lead tones that I use, although they might not be exactly the same, they’re pretty close.

YBR: Do you have full autonomy to choose the keyboard sounds in Dream Theater?

JR: Well, certainly with Dream Theater, in the Mike Portnoy days, some things would be a discussion. The guys trust and know that I’m the one who knows how to program the synthesizer, so they’ll certainly hear me out and sometimes love what I create. Other times they might have something in mind where John Petrucci might say, “I’m picturing something like a really heavy orchestra hit here.” I’ll go, “Oh, that’s not exactly what I had in mind, but I’ll try it.” So there is definitely discussion with the guys about what sounds get used, but very often I’m left to my own accord because it’s my department and they know that I’ll come up with some good stuff, so I’ll make suggestions and put them forth. My role in Dream Theater is not as the producer, so if I want to do something, I’ll go down my path and present it and play it. If somebody has an objection, they’ll voice it. If not, then cool.

YBR: With whom would you form another band? What style would it be?

JR: When would I form another band? It depends on my mood. Some days I feel like playing Indian style music and other days I feel like playing hotel lounge piano music. So it’s a difficult question. I’m a big fan of the great guitar players like Steve Vai. I think he’s amazing. Of course, people who are not alive anymore like Jimi Hendrix. That would be a fun cooperation, I’m sure. We could resurrect him from the past. I’ve actually been really lucky and I’ve played with so many of the good musicians that I really love these days – amazing drummers... I probably have to go back in time and work with people who are not even on the planet at this very moment.

YBR: Any chances of a K3?

JR: Well, people ask me about the K3 thing all the time, and it’s an interesting idea, and I guess one day I’ll do it. I’d like to do it with players that are of different stylistic backgrounds than me, like maybe doing it with Chick Corea would be good, somebody who’s not exactly doing what I do. I think it would make a really interesting program and offer something really cool, and I’ve spoken with some people about these ideas, and hopefully at some point in the near future we can do that.

YBR: Any plans for a solo tour?

JR: I have no plan on doing it right now, although on September 19th and 20th, coming up soon, I’m going to be in New York City at the Iridium doing a solo concert and playing some of my music. But again, it’s a solo concert. The next really big project that I’m going to get into solo-wise is doing a new album. I need to create some new music and get my Explorations classical piece recorded properly.

YBR: How do you feel after 13 years in Dream Theater?

JR: Well, it’s a great time for Dream Theater. After 13 years, I have to say that I’m probably enjoying walking on stage more than ever. The vibe in the band is very strong and very unified, very high. It’s exciting because I like the idea that I’m in a group that’s not subject to the change of fashion, like the tide changing. It’s a group of real musicians who seriously care about their music and about both their studio performance and their live performance. And it’s a great blessing in my life to have this.

YBR: What’s your favorite A Dramatic Tour Of Events moment so far?

JR: I guess what’s fresh on my mind is we just did a concert DVD in Argentina and it was really, really cool. I’m mostly remembering recent things and one of the coolest shows was actually the other day in Costa Rica where we’d never played before, and the audience was so into it and so energized that it was really, really just an amazing feeling. But even here in Brazil, they’re very vocal about the way they enjoy the music. And if I do a solo, like just last night when we were in Rio, we were playing, and all of a sudden the whole audience starts screaming, “Rudess! Rudess! Rudess!” It’s really nice. It’s fun. It’s hard to take it too seriously or let it get to my head. But when you’re putting out that much energy on the stage and trying to project, things like that are really, really cool. So I would say of the recent memories, we have Rio, we have the DVD recording over two nights in Buenos Aires in Argentina, and the crowd in Costa Rica was really memorable.

YBR: How is your practice routine these days?

JR: Well, I still take practicing very seriously, although it’s not as regimented as when I was a kid at Juilliard. I’m not literally going in and spending three to five hours every day working on classical music. I’d say a couple of things about it. One is that over the years I’ve learned to take whatever time I do have to practice and I know how to practice so that I can make the most out of it. And that’s really, really important to know what you need to accomplish. If you’re trying to learn a passage or a piece, you need to know how to get into it and really get the most done in a shorter amount of time. Or even if you’re going to spend a lot of time, you need to know how to practice. So that skill of knowing what to practice, how to practice is really super important. I try to practice as much as I can. Some days I miss it. Today, for example, I was traveling, came to Brasilia and didn’t see a keyboard at all. But tomorrow before the show, I’ll practice, I’ll warm up, I’ll do some exercises and everything will be cool.

YBR: Don’t you always have a keyboard in your room?

JR: No, I don’t have a keyboard every day in my room. I always have a keyboard in my dressing room. I have a little Casio Privia keyboard that I can travel around with in the A-rig and the B-rig. So I always have that so I can go back and play some blues or try some ostinato practice like what I posted yesterday or entertain the guys with a little bar room piano music.

YBR: Did you study any Brazilian composer like Villa-Lobos during your Juilliard days? What are your impressions about Brazilian music in general?

JR: Well, the first piece that my teacher assigned me when I was at Juilliard was called ‘The Cat And The Mouse’ by Villa-Lobos. I don’t know if you guys know that piece, but I played that and had a lot of fun with it. My teacher was very excited about assigning me that piece because I had a lot of temperament and I would play fast and crazy and like a wild man, especially when I was young and had less control than I do now. So that was my first experience with a Brazilian composer. And honestly, I haven’t had that much experience with Brazilian music, but just maybe a little bit more than some rock musicians, because I worked in the past with an artist called Paul Winter in the Paul Winter Consort. Within his group, he would have a lot of different stylistic influences. And one of the influences that he liked the most was a Brazilian music influence. So he’d have percussionists come through and guitar players. So I would learn as I played those songs and learn from them so I got a little bit of that flavor.

YBR: How was the DVD experience? Why not Brazil?

JR: The DVD experience was intense. It was a very full experience, both in the planning stage to make sure we had all of our ideas together, everything we wanted to do, getting the right film crews together, and all the different aspects of what goes into making a concert DVD. But beyond that, when we were there that day, as a performer, it’s a lot to go on stage and have a lot of activities going on around you that you’re not used to. Like there were cameras and these big machines that would go up and down that you’d see out of the corner of your eye or they’d come right down in front of you and you’re trying to concentrate so it was definitely something where you needed to stay very focused. At the same time, we were very excited, and it’s a concert DVD. And yeah, there’s a lot of pressure, for sure. But I think that that’s part of the lesson in our lives, is being able to maintain control of our instruments while there’s a lot of things going on. If we couldn’t do that, we wouldn’t have this type of career. So the DVD was a great experience and it worked out very well. Why not Brazil? Well, I mean, honestly, Dream Theater plays all over the world, so there’s a lot of parameters. It doesn’t have anything to do with the people of Brazil and the audience. The audience here is wonderful. What it has to do with more is that our agent books a tour a certain way. We have a lot of gear to mind. He happened to book us for two nights in Luna Park in Buenos Aires, where we know that they have the facility to do this. And we knew we were going to be there for the time that we needed to capture what we needed to capture. Having the two nights in a row made a big difference. And that venue and that scheduling was available to us. So that’s why.

YBR: Have you guys written any new material for the next Dream Theater album?

JR: We’ve had some really, really great jams on stage for soundchecks. We don’t jam a lot, but when we have gotten inspired at soundcheck, we always run a little recording. So we’re gonna go home with a collection of cool riffs and stuff that we can look at for the next recording. Our nature, as far as writing music, is that we all like to be in that headspace. We like to be very focused. We know we put aside a certain amount of time where we’re gonna go to the studio and all we’re going to do is write. John Petrucci and I are like that a lot. It’s not like we’re writing little bits in our hotel rooms. It’s not so much us, although I have to say he’s been working on his G3 music and writing in his hotel room, which is very commendable. But in general, I’m not one who really writes in the hotel room. I like to set out, I know I’m going to do a project these two weeks, I’m going to be writing music. I like to have a full-size keyboard, a piano, because that’s the way that I think, with two hands. It’s not like I can sit with a little Nano keyboard and necessarily write music. It’s not how I work. So that said, yes, we have some ideas from the soundchecks, and we’re excited to be working with our new drummer Mike Mangini, because the kind of things that we can do together are really, really fresh and different, and we have a lot of fun in the rhythmic domain especially, and I’m looking forward to being able to change some things up on the next album and have something really great.

YBR: What has changed composing-wise with Mike Portnoy’s departure?

JR: Well, in the new album, the biggest change was that when we wrote the music, there was no drummer around, and we also didn’t have Mike’s opinion on things. So it was an interesting situation, because we knew that all eyes were gonna be upon us for this latest album, and we knew that it had to be really good. We also knew that the main writers of the group still were the same. So we felt okay about that and we just proceeded to do what we do. What was cool about it and different is there was a lot of focus, there was a lot of quiet time. I could spend time with my notation, with my pencil, with my paper, write music the old fashioned way, which is one of the ways that I really like to write music. And there were so little interruptions, everybody was just left to their space. If I wanted to do that with my music, with my notation, I could just do that. Everybody else would go into headphones happily and be very, very quiet. When it was time to come back, I’d say, “Hey, let’s try this.” We’d go back. So it was a very easy place to flow along with. There was not a lot of noise. There was not a lot of interruption in the compositional flow.

YBR: What has changed behind the scenes with Mike Mangini joining the band?

JR: We have some great practice sessions back in the dressing rooms, especially when Mangini and I are next to each other. He’ll say something like, “Okay, with your right hand, I want you to play 13. And I’m going to play four with my left, and then I’m going to do quintuplets with my right. Okay, go!” And so we’ll do like wacky things, and a couple of them we filmed over the last year. They were really fun.

YBR: Do you guys hang out outside the music environment?

JR: Yeah, we’ve actually had some really nice times hanging out together. Mike Mangini is very funny. He loves to party. He loves to eat good food and drink nice wine. He’s a blast to go out with, and we’ve had some wonderful times, band dinners in different countries, and it’s always really fun. A lot of times, like when he orders food and then somebody asks me what I want, I’ll just say, “I want what he has,” because he always picks the best things. He tells great stories, so he keeps us laughing on the bus. I never heard so many good stories in my life as when we’re traveling around. When we were in Europe and we were taking the bus every night, we’d sit down, we’d open a bottle of wine, we would laugh, and he would go break into his funny, funny stories. It’s been a really, really great year for us between things like creating the album that we did and getting a Grammy nomination and having this personality come into the band. We’ve had a lot of fun, just a lot of enjoyment together on many levels. We have a lot of laughs. And on stage, also walking on stage is great. I was saying recently how the South American tour has been actually a little bit tough, but only tough because of the traveling, getting from one place to another, the walking on stage and playing has been awesome.

YBR: How many iPads and iPhones do you have?

JR: I have 303 iPads and 44 iPhones with 62 iPod Touches, 73 Android devices, 120 Sony tablets, a Google... wait, I can’t count that. Anyway, in reality now, [laughs] I do have a lot of iPads, but sometimes when I get iPads, a new one I’ll give them to my kids and my wife, so everybody has iPads. But I have an iPad for my A-rig with Dream Theater. I have an iPad for my B-rig with Dream Theater. I have an iPad of my own. I have an older one at home for testing. I have probably one of each of the last four or five models of iPhones because I use them for testing with Wisdom Music. But generally I only travel with my latest device. But I also have a Kindle Fire and a Nook and a Sony tablet. And what else do I have? I don’t know. A bunch because I’m in the business. So I need to test things and I try to get different devices that I need. Although I don’t necessarily use them all the time, I do have them.

YBR: After visiting many different countries and cultures, is there any food you did not adapt well?

JR: That’s a very good question. Have I ever had to run off the stage to the bathroom screaming? I was worried about it last night. We had a very rough day traveling to Rio. It was hard because we had played the day before, and then we had flown the next day and played a concert. And I was so upset that I think I had a Burger King, which I don’t really eat a lot of meat, and I had a milkshake, which I don’t drink milk because it doesn’t agree with me. But I ordered both. And my stomach was so upset that right before the show, I was running to the bathroom and I said to my tech, “You know what? You better have your eyes on where the nearest bathroom is because I might have to run off the stage.” But everything worked out fine. Thank you for caring. In general, no, I’m pretty good with that. When I’m on tour, on the road, I have a gig. I eat lightly. You learn to pace it out. You learn how you’re feeling. If you’re nervous at all, it’s uncomfortable to eat anyway. So I get a little, I wouldn’t say I’m like nervous before a show, but generally my nervous system is a little bit more hyped up. So I eat kind of lightly. And then after the show, I eat like a pig.

YBR: Message for the Brazilian fans.

JR: Well, we’ve had five shows, four so far, but one more to go. And I have to say that every show here has been magnificent. It’s been really, really great. It’s also been just great to be here. The fans in Brazil are some of the very best Dream Theater fans in the whole wide world. So it makes me happy that we came. It makes me really joyous that we’re sharing our music with all of you guys and gals. And I look forward to seeing you next time. And as usual, I will see you on the road.