Excellent Dream Theater interview

Good interview indeed.
Really cool how loyal they were to the new hire considering what he had given up to join.

I do wonder though if Portnoy would have been accepted had DT not even begun the search for his replacement? It sounds like it may have been a possibility.

Some interesting analogies about his participation with Avenged Sevenfold.
Was it the idea of playing with a popular "younger" band?
Is that the "excitement" which has been missing in his life?

I don't know exact ages, but it seems for most outside projects, Portnoy plays with guys either his age or older.

Kind of an interesting and different way of analyzing the Avenged decision.
 
Wow great interview

I am really REALLY looking forward to the new album

I have always been a huge DT fan but have not been blown away by a disc of theirs in many many years.... hoping that changes with this one and that the new band dynamic results in some interesting stuff.

(if we finally get a new Myung song after all these years, I will squeal like a little girl lol)
 
Great interview. I don't buy the whole asking for a 5 year break though. That being said I'm looking forward to hearing new music from them.
 
Great interview. It makes me think back to one of the interviews with Portnoy months ago where he said what scared him is the possibility of him never being back in DT again. Considering what Mangini gave up and how much he loves the band and music itself, he may have his nightmare realized.
 
There was a report on the Dream Theater forum that Rudess confirmed: Myung wrote lyrics on the new album.

Nice. The good thing about the band now that I'm looking forward to is that it seems like things are distributed more evenly now, whereas the last couple of albums (even though I liked them) were mostly Portnoy and Petrucci doing all the writing. If this Mangini thing does go well, I'm more curious what the album after next will be like in terms of his output.
 
As long as Petrucci remains a key composer in Dream Theater and the band doesn't allow the label to monkey with the songwriting, everything will be fine. Just listen to Petrucci's solo album, Suspended Animation or LTE. I can't say the same for Myung or Jordan, but we will see. And yes, I know Jordan was part of LTE and I am fine with his playing it that band and DT in general ... not so much on his solo albums. I just wish he'd lose the circus keyboard sounds on the DT albums.

Look on the bright side, no more songs about ADHD or AA.

Likewise, Portney will do just fine. He always wanted to be busy and now he has full control over his schedule. Already he has several projects cooking, not to mention working with Neil Morse and probably Transatlantic again.
 
I just wish he'd lose the circus keyboard sounds on the DT albums.

Although Rudess is fantastic, sounds like I'm not the only one who preferred the Kevin Moore era as far as keyboard sounds.

I have to say, DT did a cool thing there standing by the new guy rather than immediately allowing MP back in. I'm thinking Mangini is going to be extra-motivated now. Looking forward to some new stuff from them.