Jordan Rudess interview (excerpts)

Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess was asked by Rick Beato whether there's any music he enjoys listening to that might surprise people, to which he replied (transcribed by UG):

Since I like to listen to all different kinds of music, the fans would be surprised if they knew that I love to listen to Squarepusher, Apex Twin... Or when John [Petrucci] puts on some kind of a Django guitar thing, and I’m like, ‘That was awesome!’ I love moody stuff like Sigur Ros. That’s just my favorite music. I generally like to listen to things that are calmer, spacier, more mellow. Things like Tangerine Dream – I go back to ‘Phaedra’ album. I think fans have a fantasy that I’m listening to like Symphony X, or something like that. You know, Dream Theater fans are into metal, prog… People are always sending me their prog metal – I hate to say it because I’ll disappoint some people, but it’s the last thing that I want to listen to. I’d rather listen to Boards of Canada or Steven Wilson’s music rather than another prog metal thing.

Discussing the state of keyboards in the world of rock and metal these days, Jordan said:

The art of playing keyboards is a completely different thing [to the art of playing guitar]. John plays me stuff by players that are taking the guitar to places where we never thought it could go. Like Jason Richardson, who’s shredding like an absolute madman, like, ‘What the hell is going on there?!’ Pretty incredible... But you think about the art of the keyboard and where that’s gone – yes, there are incredible keyboard players, but it’s not the same evolution. If you can play ‘Hungarian Rhapsody‘ by Liszt, that pretty much guarantees you’re able to play whatever rock thing is in front of you. Because the keyboard itself is so developed from hundreds and hundreds of years. The guitar is a newer instrument, the electric guitar is just still kind of evolving. It’s fascinating for me to see ‘cause our worlds are so different. First of all, the guitar in rock space so is vibrant in a way that the keyboard is not. I love what I do, I wouldn’t change it for the world, but it’s a little frustrating to have to be so close to John and see the way that world works. I can’t help but feel like, ‘Wow, it would be so great if keyword world had that kind of energy about it.’ [The keyboards] are unsung. Unless I’m playing a piano or an organ, people don’t even know it’s keyboards; they think, ‘Oh, they brought orchestra musicians,’ or, ‘Maybe that’s an effect.’ They don’t know. The keyboard is completely devoid of ego.

Focusing on DT’s latest album “The Astonishing,” Jordan added:

A lot of the work on ‘The Astonishing’ – I prepared all these glorious orchestral colors, the album was sounding really, really great even before we gave it to the orchestrator. Because we wanted to hear it. We were like, ‘What are the French horns going to be like? I better write the part. What about the strings? OK I’ll do the strings. A boy choir? Yes, I have a boy choir sound.’ When the album came out, some of that was replaced, but some of it wasn’t. And for those things that weren’t, I’m not going, ‘Oh, oh, I made the boy choir sound!’