Again in 200-9, within the very 2nd factor of Professionalg Mag, Editor Jerry Ewing sat down with Mike Portny to speak about the state of the prog country and Dream Thetser’s 10th studio album Black Clouds & Silver Linings, the closing DT album Portnoy featured on till the band’s upcoming subsequent free up in 2024!
“That’s what the phrase modern is all about, for those who have a look at the style it covers excessive steel from the likes of Mastodon and Opeth the entire approach to Radiohead, Porcupine Tree and Oceansize. The time period modern in a nutshell is in regards to the vary and variety. Presently I believe modern tune is at its absolute best productiveness degree because the early 70s.”
Mike Portnoy reclines on a West London lodge settee and nods, as though agreeing together with his personal commentary. Prog definitely is of the same opinion with him. It’s one of the vital major causes we exist. As are Dream Theater, the only band who’ve flown the modern flag on a mainstream degree for the previous 20-odd years whilst the style apparently woke up from an enforced hibernation and has slowly however for sure evolved, like a gorgeous butterfly slowly rising from its chrysalis. A scenario for which, whilst no longer singularly accountable, Portnoy and his fellow bandmates can a minimum of take a big slice of credit score for.
“I guess there have been numerous cynics who noticed this mag and mentioned ‘How the hell are they gonna do that?’,” he continues, warming to his theme and hoisting aloft a duplicate of factor certainly one of Prog, which he admits to having spent all the flight over from The us digesting. “However they don’t realise that it’s no longer with regards to Genesis, it’s about the whole lot.
“Ten years in the past folks had been terrified of the time period modern. When OK Laptop got here out Radiohead avoided the outline. Even Porcupine Tree a couple of years in the past had been fearful of it. I don’t suppose bands are fearful of it anymore, they’re embracing it. It’s flattering. It’s no longer essentially a method of tune, however quite a frame of mind. Of going in opposition to the grain and doing what the hell you wish to have. Mastodon’s Crack The Skye is an ideal instance. A band can pop out and do an album of 10-minute songs and it’s now not avoided and criticised however applauded.”
Fortuitous timing for all involved then it could appear. No longer least Dream Theater, who’re at the verge of liberating their 10th studio album, the vastly spectacular Black Clouds & Silver Linings. Six (sure, simply six) tracks of Dream Theater at their maximum exploratory and expansive.
“After we shaped in 1985 there was once no prog,” Portnoy continues. “Perhaps Marillion. There was once a prog scene in England however no longer in The us. Actually the one prog that we had been happening was once the stuff from the 70s – Sure, Genesis, Floyd, and Rush. So we had been nonetheless within the void. It didn’t topic that it were killed off via punk, or the models, we simply dug the tune.
“And likewise on the similar time we had been into steel. We dug Sabbath and Priest and Maiden and at that time Metallica was once coming round. However by the point Dream Theater broke, round about ’92, there was once not anything there. It was once all grunge; Nirvana, Jane’s Habit, Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam. It was once all about no longer taking part in and prog was once most certainly as retro because it was once within the overdue 70s when punk killed it for the primary time. We caught out like a sore thumb.”
Hindsight may, possibly, counsel that it was once this actual fact that helped outline Dream Theater in a marketplace that in point of fact simplest introduced up bands like Watchtower and Fates Caution as competition. That and the coming within the Dream Theater global of then-Kerrang! and present Prog author Derek Oliver, the person who would signal Dream Theater to Atco following their unique care for Mechanic/MCA, for whom they recorded 1989’s When Dream And Day Unite. Satirically the similar Oliver could be instrumental within the band signing to Roadrunner Data in 2007.
“When Dream And Day Unite was once an overly underground album and we most certainly would have stayed along Watchtower and Fates Caution had it stayed that means,” Portnoy considers. “However Derek Oliver was once writing for Kerrang! and he preferred that album. He left Kerrang! to come back to The us to become involved within the tune trade, and he signed us for Pictures And Phrases. I believe any individual taking a possibility on us and the style as an entire in 1992 took numerous balls. It’s something for us to be taking part in this tune however some other for a document corporate man to signal it and put it on a significant label.
“However as soon as Pictures And Phrases broke it unexpectedly spread out an entire new global and an entire new era. In any case there was once a modern steel band within the mainstream. And 15 years later, perhaps there are some bands we’ve spawned, however we definitely opened the door for some bands to realize mainstream acceptance.”
It’s attention-grabbing to listen to Portnoy speak about prog as a frame of mind. This was once, for a few years, an ordinary means of describing prog’s meant antithesis, punk rock, that now bulky, elderly beast which didn’t kill of what it professed to hate (however as everyone knows secretly cherished). He has some extent. Lately prog does appear to be a frame of mind. An element which was once indisputably helped via the truth that, right through its fallow years, many bands, stared at blankly via non-understanding eyes from the labels to whom they had been signed, created their very own cottage trade to permit their careers to proceed. And the way DIY punk is that?
Whilst this method, pioneered via the likes of IQ and Pendragon (to call however two) is lately carried onwards via labels like Marillion’s Racket set-up, with the failure of the key label conglomerates to know virtually the rest past what Simon Cowell tells them to, smaller labels have frequently grown in stature who perceive precisely what to do with modern tune.
“InsideOut are one of the vital perfect modern labels who’ve allowed the scene to expand and develop,” states Portnoy. “Maximum of my favorite bands are at the label. Spock’s Beard, The Flower Kings, Ache Of Salvation, Oceansize, Beardfish. All down the road I believe Inside of Out and Thomas Waber had been integral to the improvement of the prog scene. And since I’ve all the time been keen on those bands I’ve all the time long gone out of my approach to take those bands out on excursion. As a result of InsideOut give those band’s excursion reinforce to head out at the street and reinforce Dream Theater.”
After which, in fact, there may be Dream Theater’s personal label, Roadrunner Data, a label Portnoy credit with the renewed sense of vigour that may be heard in every single place 2007’s Systematic Chaos and Black Clouds & Silver Linings.
“They have got us and Opeth and Porcupine Tree. They’re some other label who in point of fact cares about their artists and offers them house. With each our albums that we’ve recorded for them, they didn’t pay attention a notice of tune till we gave it to them. And that’s how it must be. Then they get at the back of it and provides it the promoting and the publicity that it must exist and flourish.”
All of which has led to an album that Portnoy described to the clicking as “a Dream Theater album with A Exchange Of Seasons, Octavarium, Studying To Are living, Pull Me Below and The Glass Jail on”. A daring commentary? Perhaps, till you’ve heard the band reduce free at the set of epic prog steel that makes up Black Clouds & Silver Linings.
“We all the time attempt to opt for it, all the time attempt to have that relentless experience. The following rollercoaster,” he smiles.
Obviously the band are relishing the sense of freedom afforded them via Roadrunner. Regardless of 4 of the six tracks clocking in at smartly over 12 mins (nearer The Rely Of Tuscany is pushing just about 20 mins), the band are able to restraint but nonetheless handing over in a fashion that may have DT enthusiasts frothing on the prospect of the brand new album.
“It’s simple as a result of we’re left on my own,” he smiles. “Me and John [Petrucci, guitarist] produced this document and I’ll name the entire pictures in the case of advertising and marketing and once we move at the street and once we put it out. That freedom is implausible and it’s the one means a real prog band can serve as. We’ve had this freedom for in regards to the closing 10 years.
“It’s been smartly documented and any person who is aware of our profession will know there was once a length within the overdue 90s the place we had been at a standstill. The trade mainly had us in handcuffs and it mainly broke up the band. The one means we had been ready to get our freedom and independence again was once to get a divorce. We needed to say to the label ‘We’re packing it in until you get out of our hair and stroll away’ and fortunately the label we had been with realised they’d be shedding a hell of some huge cash.
“We had been a band for whom they only put albums out and made cash with no need to place the rest into it. That was once the length the place we regained our independence and needed to end up ourselves. After we made …Scenes From A Reminiscence [1999] we had so much to end up. We needed to end up to the enthusiasts, to get them again after the industrial method and we needed to end up to the label that shall we produce our personal tune. And that album was once a good fortune on each degree. Significantly, commercially, the enthusiasts cherished it. So thank God that album succeeded and that opened the door for the entire different albums we’ve been ready to make ‘on our personal’.”
There’s no doubting that Dream Theater do sound like a rejuvenated band.
“We’ve come complete circle,” he laughs. “It’s been twenty years and right here we’re operating Derek Oliver once more. It’s loopy, however it’s how it must be.”
Every other sense of closure at the new document is the of completion, within the three-part The Shattered Fort, of Portnoy’s Twelve-step Suite, the musical adventure relating to him tackling his alcoholism, that started with The Glass Jail on 2002’s Six Levels Of Interior Turbulence.
“In any case completed,” he smiles, feigning exhaustion. “The entire procedure in itself has been very healing which is why I sought after to write down about those 12 steps that experience modified my existence. After I began it with The Glass Jail which was once steps one, two and 3 I believed it was once an bold mission. I’d by no means heard of any person write an idea piece that may unfold over 5 albums and 5 interconnecting however other songs. A singular and impressive thought however on the time I didn’t realise the outlet I might dig myself into. So it’s been like a homework project placing over my head each album. And now I’m glad to be executed with it.
“However it’s been a groovy factor to do and get out of our device and I think this closing bankruptcy is a smart finale. After we wrote it we seemed again on the previous 4 and taken again issues and riffs and melodies. And that’s true prog, that’s how idea albums are written, bringing again issues and ideas. However this was once a case of crawling from album to album – seven years, 5 albums, ha ha. However it’s great to be executed with it after all. And it’ll be a laugh to play are living.
And let it no longer be mentioned that Dream Theater do not need a laugh within the are living area, regularly destroying the oft-held conference that every one prog bands are po-faced musos (this in fact, regardless of DT’s dextrous skills).
“Without a doubt,” he nods. “Whilst you see us are living I believe we’re extra in song with Metallica than Rush. It’s all in regards to the power and interplay and the target audience feeling the facility. We’re no longer Iron Maiden up there however it’s a extra steel surroundings. Alternatively, I from time to time ponder whether we’re from time to time too steel for the prog purists and too prog for the metalheads. Every so often it hurts us, however in spite of everything, if there are individuals who love the whole lot then there’s one thing they are able to to find.
“My tastes run from ABBA to Slayer. I do know there are folks on this planet who like numerous issues. Dream Theater has toured with Sure and so they’ve toured with Megadeth and we will have compatibility into each worlds. If you happen to simplest like something, prog or steel, then perhaps Dream Theater is also too excessive for you, however for those who like every types of issues, then there’ll be one thing so that you can get into in Dream Theater.”
Certainly, given the expansive umbrella this is prog at the moment, a pre-requisite for being keen on modern tune?
“I had folks speaking on my message board about the most efficient albums of this decade,” Portnoy notes. “And it was once astonishing the extent and the standard of the albums that experience pop out. Bands like Porcupine Tree, The Mars Volta, Opeth, Muse, Mastodon… And somebody mentioned it was once just like the golden age of prog in every single place once more.”
Which is, I believe, the place we got here in. Best earlier than the PR has a possibility to carry the interview to a halt, Portnoy raises his hand, virtually like a schoolboy asking to be excused for a bathroom wreck.
“You’ve were given to let me speak about Modern Country,” he insists.
And we’re off once more. Maximum Dream Theater enthusiasts will pay attention to Modern Country, the Portnoy-inspired traveling competition that is helping push modern bands in each The us and Europe. In 2008 Dream Theater took a invoice consisting of Opeth, Between The Buried And Me and three round The us. This yr they entertain Zappa Performs Zappa, Beardfish and Ache Of Salvation. They then mission over to Europe, taking in some competition appearances (together with Obtain) and entertain Ecu audiences with a invoice that includes Opeth, Bigelf and Unexpect.
“A few of these bands, like The Flower Kings, they excursion Europe, however it’s not possible for them to excursion The us,” he explains. “Ache Of Salvation have by no means executed a right kind US excursion. Neither have Beardfish. That’s one of the vital major causes I invited them on america model. And Bigelf can’t recover from to the United Kingdom.
“And it’s vital for me to proportion our target audience with those bands, but in addition to proportion those bands with our target audience. I got here up with Modern Country to permit us to have a competition that provides publicity to nice bands to a super target audience.”
He in point of fact will have to be like a child in a sweet retailer.
“Utterly. I’ve a listing of about 30 bands that I really like and I wish to lend a hand and proportion and stand at the aspect of the level and watch. It’s nice.
As we shake fingers and say good-bye, one ultimate idea happens. Does Mike Portnoy ever forestall operating?
“No,” he laughs. “By no means. I haven’t discovered the ‘off’ transfer but. It’s a just right factor for the enthusiasts. Perhaps no longer the sort of just right factor for my circle of relatives, however just right for the enthusiasts.”
