Dream Theater: Milf And Blooming

While they invested the studios in February to record their thirteenth album, successor to the eponymous album released two years ago, Dream Theater takes advantage of the summer to come to Europe, including a date in the magnificent setting of the Théâtre Antique from Arles, accompanied, neither more nor less, than excellent Myrath, and their oriental progressive metal, and Anathema that we no longer present. An exceptional package, in an exceptional place, to be seen in a few days, Monday July 20, for a date which, let us remember, comes within the framework of the group’s thirtieth anniversary tour. In the meantime, we took the opportunity to briefly speak with keyboardist Jordan Rudess on the phone, in order to take stock of the state of mind of the group today, after two albums, as he himself declares, to re-evaluate and reconnect with the essence of Dream Theater.

The musician explains his feelings: “I have the impression that some albums towards the end of the Portnoy-era were starting to be a little forced in the style. I know that myself, as a composer, didn’t feel that the music we were writing was really natural, as it does nowadays. I think when we joined Roadrunner Records, initially some people thought maybe we should try to be heavier, there was like a call to change our sound, whereas in the last few years we’ve been like: ‘You know what? We sound like who we are, we make the music we make, and that will stay true to Dream Theater.’ So that makes more sense. [...] I think what has happened in the last few years is that we have taken a stand by remaining natural and honest with ourselves, allowing our music to be made without forcing other influences to enter it. This is more how we see it and this is how we feel. When we talk about coming back to what we call ‘the real Dream Theater’, it means: let’s be ourselves and let the music come out on its own, being the human beings and musicians that we really are.” And indeed, the fine team of Dream Theater, for the past five years, has never ceased to proclaim their happiness with the current situation and group dynamics. Since then the combo seems to have engaged “its cruising mode”, rigorously harnessing, at an almost metronomic rate, to deliver an album every two years, systematically punctuated by live DVDs. “I like this!” he exclaims about the pace. “I find that great. We love to make music. If we were just sitting around at home, we would get bored. And then we enjoy working together. And then, outside of that, it’s our business. Maybe one day we can take a few years off, but right now we’re a bunch at work and we love what we do, and that’s how we run our business.”

Despite everything, with such a sustained pace, and to worry so much about sounding like Dream Theater, while at one time the group was known to push themselves to take very marked and different and even unpredictable directions, wasn’t he afraid that Dream Theater would end up becoming too predictable? “It’s not something that really worries me,” he bluntly replies. But then, how do they still manage to find new challenges today, after thirty years of music, those who are considered the flower of metal musicians, capable of anything with surprising ease? “This is what we do: we play music, we study music, we are all totally dedicated to it,” he explains. “We never get tired of it, we love it and we’re always trying to learn new things, trying to stay on top of our game. If you see us before or even after a concert, you will see us practicing on our instruments. This is kind of how we do it!” He goes on to stress the importance of learning new things as a musician, of having new musical experiences that can then eventually flow into the works. He speaks to us in particular about a particular experience to which the group had given itself at the very first stages of the conception of the album which, in 2002, became Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence, even though this experience will not have had a direct influence and overriding on the final direction of the album: “I had a friend who was a teacher of ethnic music and a very, very talented friend. Years ago, I invited him to spend some time with us to show us some of his interesting techniques and skills, just to open up to other things. It was actually really cool. We all enjoyed it. And we got some ideas out of it. It always helps to do this stuff. It was a great thing for us to do at the time. It’s a good thing for anyone to do as a musician to constantly learn new things.” He also takes his example from the latest album, where one of the challenges that the group, renowned for its over-the-top songs, had imposed on itself was to try to write shorter and more concise songs: “It was one of our goals with the last album to make songs shorter, and that’s what we did and I think we did well. Writing shorter songs is a different challenge, if you will. It’s not hard to do, it’s just not necessarily something that we strive for every time. As, for my part, I am a musician with a classical training and usually I think about music in broader terms, to develop ideas, to see how the parts fit together, how the patterns evolve over time... You know, writing songs can be super fun!” And it’s clear that in the end, they couldn’t help but end the album on an epic twenty-plus minute track with the massive “Illumination Theory”...

Which naturally leads us to ask him for news of the next album, which is apparently well advanced. But Dream Theater having always taken pleasure in maintaining the mystery around his albums, Jordan Rudess finally offers us few elements to put in our mouths: “There's not much to say because nothing is really public except the fact that it's coming out in early 2016, John Petrucci is producing it like the previous albums and we've been working very hard in the studio over a very valuable process. So far, so good! We are proud of what we are creating and look forward to sharing more information as we near the end.”

Finally, we mention his recent meeting with his former sidekick Mike Portnoy at the Haken concert on April 30 in New York. He explains, “He got behind the drums with them and I went on stage for a little solo with my iPad, but we weren’t on stage together, actually. We went on stage at different times. I came to see Haken and Mike’s son was the opening act with his band Next To None, so we were both in the venue and they invited us at different times to come up and play with them.” So how was the backstage meeting? “Good! We are friends!” he said, not speaking more, but confirming a friendly meeting that had already taken place at the NAMM show in January, in California. After five years since the somewhat painful departure from Portnoy, water does seem to have flowed under the bridge. So, any chance to see Portnoy behind the drums again with Dream Theater to celebrate thirty years of progressive metal? Fans can always keep their fingers crossed...

Interview conducted by telephone on July 9, 2015 by Philippe Sliwa.