DREAM THEATER Keyboardist Says Writing With Drummer MIKE MANGINI Has Been 'Great'

 

Progressive metal giants DREAM THEATER are in the studio recording the follow-up to their Grammy-nominated album "A Dramatic Turn Of Events". Speaking to Artisan News, the band's keyboardist, Jordan Rudess, said: "Things are really kind of intense in DREAM THEATER land. We've made our way through our album process to a good point now. We're still finishing up and doing some stuff. I'm actually doing some
keyboard tracking. It's intense; it's definitely a strong process. And
I'm out here just working away."

Asked whether having drummer Mike Mangini involved in the songwriting process this time around has made a difference in the new CD's overall sound, Rudess said: "It really has. This is the first album where Mike Mangini has been there and really part of the writing process. He's such a
sweet guy and he has so much energy, and it's just great to have that
energy involved when we're writing the music, 'cause he'll come up with
stuff that's really cool. We'll be composing along our merry way and
stop to maybe look at the next part, and he offers this other
perspective which we never had in the same way that we have it with him, which is that he has a super math brain — a rhythmic math brain; he's
really an expert in that field, more so than myself or [guitarist] John Petrucci or anybody in the band — so he can say, 'Guys, if you play 10 measures
at 7, and if you play triplets five times, and you do this and that,
it's all gonna equal out in 21 measures. Go ahead and try it.' And at
first, we're , like, 'What?' But he kind of sees that; he sees that
map."

In a recent interview with Roadrunner Records, Petrucci stated about the making of DREAM THEATER's new CD: "First of all, it's been going great with [drummer Mike Mangini, who joined the group in 2010], and as much as we've been a band
together for about 15 years, we haven't really experienced that process
together. We've been in the studio for a few weeks now, and he's been
amazing. Chemistry is great, the writing process and the whole vibe is
great, and his role is to let his personality shine as a drummer,
creatively and to have his input and his musical personality really come through. And I gotta tell you, it's happening. When people hear the
drumming on this album, they're gonna be pretty freaked out. On the last album, he did a great job, but he wasn't there for the writing process
and he was interpreting drum parts that I had programmed. Even though he used his creativity, of course, to change them up and do his thing, I
feel like now he's just Mike Mangini unleashed. It's all him. It's all his creativity, all his decisions and ideas and man, the guy's an animal."

"Live At Luna Park", DREAM THEATER's live concert captured on 2DVD, Blu-ray, Digital Video, 2DVD/3CD,
Blu-ray/3CD, and a deluxe edition (2DVD/Blu-ray/3CD), will drop in May
via Eagle Rock Entertainment.

"Live At Luna Park" was filmed over two nights in South America — home to one of DREAM THEATER's most ardent fanbases. The DVD was filmed August 19 and August 20, 2012
at Estadio Luna Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina after a 15-month world
tour, hitting 35 countries.