Originally published in The Metal Voice · December 2017
Jordan Rudess interview (excerpts)
InterviewJordan Rudess7 min read
When asked about his induction into the Hall of Heavy Metal History in 2018
It’s very exciting, awesome, how flattering. You go about you life you do your thing, you do your best and now and then somebody wants to give you a little bit of an honor for something. It’s all really nice. Especially in the music business where it’s very much about the community and all the different people you know and make music with. So I am very honored by that it’s cool.
How classical music influenced him when he entered Julliard at the age of 9
Musical prodigies are an interesting point, especially these days. Maybe in the position that I’m in, that every time somebody does something really cool as a young prodigy they send it to me. ‘Jordan, look at this 9 year old writing opera! Look at this person that plays the piano blindfolded!’ I think it’s all great, but I went to school with the kids who were 9 years old and writing operas. [Laughs] You know, an amazing pianist at the age of 8 and 10 and it was all around me. And what I realized – first of all it’s wonderful. Second of all, a lot of these people will play the piano incredibly well at 9 years old and when they get to be 15, 17, 19, they’ll be like everybody else, perhaps. Because they developed early, they just matured early. Maybe they’re like coming from Japan or Korea where they’re extremely focused and they usually learn these instruments really, really young and develop an incredible skill at a very early age. But aside from that – I’m not saying it’s not cool to see somebody really young who plays really well, I’m kind of pointing out some realities about that. But the thing that was interesting about me and that environment is – yes, you’re surrounded by amazingly talented people and you’re kind of like just another one of the crowd. However, the one thing that I enjoyed and that was fun for me, that made me kind of stand out a little bit is that I have always been an improviser. I didn’t just play classical music, I played a lot of stuff. And I would turn the other students on to what I was doing, so we’d sneak into the practice room down the hall and I’d play some boogie-woogie or I’d do an improvisation on some theme we were studying on the theory class. That kind of musical talent was something that everybody, even so many of the students, were really interested in and would really get a kick out of. It was always something in Juilliard when I went there that we’d almost have to be a little bit hidden because it was so strict. It’s not like when Mozart was a kid and classical musicians were improvising and Mozart would do an improvisation and people would be blown away and he would play one of his pieces. But there would be a section where he could improvise. It’s a very different scene in the classical world to get the very, very tight. So personally as a musician I was interested in all these other things, it was always a little bit of a challenge to keep that going.
Regarding his favorite DT album
I really loved doing ‘The Astonishing.’ I know it was an album that was very challenging for some of the fans. Some of the fans really loved it, some of them didn’t kind of relate to it. But for me, as a composer, personally, I just really thought that it was something that we sunk our hearts and minds into and I just feel like it was something that is really close to me. Our biggest production. I think that musically there’s so much in it. I think what probably would polarize people the most is the nature... it’s hard for me to say this, but I think the nature of the story, the kind of story that was a little bit difficult for some people to deal with. Kind of that ‘Game of Thrones’-ish, ‘Lord of the Rings,’ whatever... I think it was a little bit light for our more metal fans. But anyway, that album is still pretty fresh on my mind. I have to say, really all the albums we do – I’m not even just saying this – we put everything we have into them, nothing is done on the surface with Dream Theater. We follow them through the end until everything is just the way we wanted it. So they’re all our children and I can’t totally that I like one necessarily more than the other. Some things I remember from the albums that stayed with me maybe a little bit more. Like my first album [with the band], ‘Scenes From a Memory,’ that was an important one. But things like the second CD, ‘Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence’ where we were experimenting a bit more. Certain things are I guess a little bit more closer to me.
When ask how his role changed in Dream Theater when drummer Mike Portnoy left the band
Mike is so talented in so many different things, he had his finger on a lot of the pulses of what was making the band work even though there is so much capability in the band between all the guys. Still losing Mike everyone had to rise to the occasion if you will. From a strictly music situation I was already writing a lot of the music of course John Petrucci was writing so much of the music that was not the biggest challenge at all. The bigger challenge was understanding how we were going to operate this machine and deal with the fact that Mike was such a big presence that the fans certainly needed to be really conscious of that so we could keep our business intact. Mike in so many ways was a lovable character that when he left it was like the foundation of the earth was changing. I remember sitting on my steps at my studio and not understand this change. But it all worked out we kind of came into our own and I walk on stage every night and I have an incredible relationship, especially musically with drummer Mike Mangini, we bond in a way that’s really fun and really cool and I feel like Dream Theater is in a really strong position.
When asked about the future plans for Dream Theater, possible new album
We have been on the road for almost two years and now we are going to take a break and go to the studio and make a new album around May and see what happens.
Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess - who’s been a member of the fold since 1999 - remembered being invited to join the band way back in ‘94 after original keyboardist Kevin Moore left the band. He told Jimmy Kay about how he initially turned the guys down because at the same time he also got an offer to join Dixie Dregs (transcribed by UG):
I was exposed to the band by a friend of mine, a guitar player who was doing interviews with different bands at the time. He told me about this band of great players. These guys were like virtuosos, they were amazing, playing progressive music and metal. And he brought the stuff over to my house to listen to. I heard some of it and I thought, ‘Wow, these guys are really, really good.’ I heard the progressive elements, I heard metal and virtuosity, and I thought, ‘This is really cool.’ Well, through a couple of different connections - my name started to spread around. The other thing that connected me with Dream Theater was that they were all voted the best new talent in their respective instruments in the magazines. And I was in that particular year when they were opening it up and looking who was the best new talent. They were hearing my name from different people and so they ended up giving me a call to audition for the group. Actually, as the story goes, at first I didn’t accept the offer. I agreed to do one show. Now James [LaBrie] is telling the story on stage every night basically because we’re revisiting history. I agreed to do one show called the Foundations Forum and after I did that show in ‘94 or something - I did that and I said ‘No.’ I ended up joining Dixie Dregs [who offered me to join the band around the same time DT did] and then I played with Portnoy and Petrucci in side-project Liquid Tension Experiment. And after a couple of albums doing that and getting along really well with the guys, musically and personally, they asked me again and I said ‘Okay, now I’ll join.’ That was almost 20 years ago.