Mangini Dreams Big

Mike Mangini is back with Dream Theater and having a blast

When Mike Mangini took over the demanding drum duties of Dream Theater in 2011 it was A Dramatic Turn Of Events. Founding member Mike Portnoy had left the band, and Mangini was found as a suitable replacement on the challenging drum job. Two years on, Rhythm talks to Mike while on an Italian clinic tour, fresh from laying down his parts for Dream Theater’s upcoming, self-titled new album.

“A lot has changed since the recording of the last one,” says Mike. “I’ve been able to get comfortable on and off stage with the guys and my instincts on the drums have accelerated. Most of the time really I felt like a little kid trying to get to my instrument. I just wanted to play. It was so much fun and that describes this new record. It was five people who were all on time every day, we all had our coffee and smiles, we just couldn’t wait to get going. It was great. If you’ve seen the video promo that we put on the Dream Theater Face book page, just look at everyone’s faces. No matter who is speaking, look at their faces and you tell me whether they are ready to bust out laughing and smiling or not. I was just laughing, hitting stuff.”

Asked to describe the sound of the new material, Mike replies. “Truthfully, having spent the last two years going over all of the Dream Theater records. I can tell you that this one simply sounds like Dream Theater unleashed.”

Mike’s experiences on tour with the band led him to make some changes to his Zildjian set-up. “I went to thicker crash cymbals,” he says. “When we play in the winter in hockey arenas the thin cymbals break, and I don’t break cymbals. I had the same set of cymbals in my studio for over five years. I broke a few on the last tour so I thought maybe I’ll try thicker ones next time. Once I started practising for the record I thought some thicker ones would be great anyway, to sound a little more like Alex Van Halen.”

Engineer Rich Chycki convinced Mike to tune his snare down. “It sounds like a bomb going off. It’s unbelievably powerful,” says Mike. “I had to hit it differently. I didn’t do any rim shots this time and I spent probably 15 years learning how to do a proper rim shot consistently for 30 hits in a row. All of a sudden. with this drum they said, ‘Don’t do that!’ I did what Rich suggested and once I heard it, I knew why he suggested it because it blew everyone’s minds apart. It’s difficult to play because it’s just a little more mushy feeling but it really is explosive.”

Dream Theater the album will be out on 24 September.

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Mike is hungry to get on the road with the band, telling us it will be “2014 – as soon as possible. I don’t know exactly when. I focus on the drumming and relating to people and trying to get better at my drums and composing”.