Jordan's benefit concert for Japan (plus some DT news)

[Jamesman42]

Oh my God. This record is going to KILL.

[Jamesman42]

Unless Myung wrote death metal songs...

[tri.ad]

Lastly, I asked him if he could give me any details on the new album, songtitles, anything.  He said one thing he could tell me is that Myung wrote lyrics for songs (I believe he said songs, plural -- as in multiple songs).

pick up Portnoy's other tasks, like rotating setlists

Words cannot grasp the awesomeness of this. The record and the upcoming tour seem to get more promising by every day.

Also, thanks a lot for the report, Mebert. It really must have been an amazing evening.

[chrisbDTM]

silver lining: JM
black cloud: they wrote without a drummer

[ReaPsTA]

MYUNG LYRICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where's the picture of the head shaking and exploding?  That's me right now.

Also, the show itself sounds really cool.

[Rafael Guerra]

Thanks for this great synopsis! I find it funny that we waited months without any news at all and now, within a week, everything seems to be happening at the same time!

[xeper]

Thanks for sharing! I'm psyched!

[nikatapi]

Thanks for all the cool info, i'm so excited for the next album

[Shadow2222]

Sounds like a cool show! Congrats on meeting him.

Bummer that they wrote without MM

[CrimsonSunrise]

Awesome report Mebert! Gracias! 

[millahh]

I don't think "we wrote it w/o MM" is as black and white as it sounds.  We know he wrote his own drum parts, and he could have very easily had a hand in arrangement/structure as well...i.e. "hey, what about shortening this section, repating that other section, and switching where they are?".  It's not really writing, but it's definitely a contribution to the finished product beyond just comign up with the percussion.  This seems very feasible here since we know that writing came before recording this time around, and there were even demos of at least one tune being sent back and forth.

[Mebert78]

I don't think "we wrote it w/o MM" is as black and white as it sounds.  We know he wrote his own drum parts, and he could have very easily had a hand in arrangement/structure as well...i.e. "hey, what about shortening this section, repating that other section, and switching where they are?".  It's not really writing, but it's definitely a contribution to the finished product beyond just comign up with the percussion.  This seems very feasible here since we know that writing came before recording this time around, and there were even demos of at least one tune being sent back and forth.

I agree with that totally.  

Also, glad you guys liked my synopsis.  One more thing that was kinda embarrasing for me.  The third or fourth song Jordan played was DT's "Hollow Years."  Before he started to play it, he told the audience it would be a DT song, but he didn't say what song.  So he starts it off with a 20-30 second improvisation and then starts to play the opening to "Hollow Years."  When I recognized it, I yelled out: "Wooooo! Yeah!"  Everyone looked at me and no one else yelled.  Like I said earlier the majority of the audience was community members that don't know DT songs, so no one understood why I yelled out 40 seconds into a song, lol.  I felt like an ass, lol.  

[JimmyJava]

I don't think "we wrote it w/o MM" is as black and white as it sounds.  We know he wrote his own drum parts, and he could have very easily had a hand in arrangement/structure as well...i.e. "hey, what about shortening this section, repating that other section, and switching where they are?".  It's not really writing, but it's definitely a contribution to the finished product beyond just comign up with the percussion.  This seems very feasible here since we know that writing came before recording this time around, and there were even demos of at least one tune being sent back and forth.

Very well put, agree 100%. Either way, I'm totally psyked about the upcoming album and also hearing the Myung lyrics!

[Aniland]

Made a Myung thread: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=22690.0

[KevShmev]

More Myung lyrics is a great thing.

I don't think Mangini being part of the writing process is a big deal at all.  They probably want to play with him a bit more and let them all get used to each other a lot more before he becomes a part of the writing process.  It is different from Sherinian, who had toured with the band and did the ACOS EP before the first full album together, and Rudess, who had done the LTE records, so he already had a chemistry with Petrucci and Portnoy.

[Frank]

Fantastic synopsis, Mebert - great meeting you as well! Sorry we didn't speak long. I was there with my girlfriend and my mom and she decided to whip out her phone for the last part of his jam with the taiko ensemble, so maybe I'll upload that to YouTube soon. Jordan seemed very down-to-earth during the concert. The Japanese section sang We Are the World in Japanese for a bit, and some of the students were fantastic as well.

Meeting Jordan Rudess was great. I just said typical fan stuff to him, but he seemed to enjoy it. But the guy who directed the Youth Choir tonight was my girlfriend's choir teacher was she was a kid (the director lived in a different area then) so she got a personalized introduction to Jordan Rudess - something like, "Jordan, I want you to meet this girl, she's one of my old babies" and Jordan responded very positively. She was so freaked out that she was meeting him, though, she probably tripped over her words! Afterwards we were walking around the school (decorated to the brim with Japanese materials like cranes and hiragana signs) and we saw Jordan's daughter, Kayla. We decided to get her autograph also, and she seemed very surprised! I certainly hope we didn't leave a negative impression!

There were definitely a lot of Dream Theater fans, particularly in the Japanese club there. I think we didn't see a lot of DT shirt wearing people because they were all wearing their "Nihongo Kurabu" (Japanese Club) shirts. I know one of them gave me a high five when I walked in with my Octavarium shirt.

[ZBomber]

I don't think "we wrote it w/o MM" is as black and white as it sounds.  We know he wrote his own drum parts, and he could have very easily had a hand in arrangement/structure as well...i.e. "hey, what about shortening this section, repating that other section, and switching where they are?".  It's not really writing, but it's definitely a contribution to the finished product beyond just comign up with the percussion.  This seems very feasible here since we know that writing came before recording this time around, and there were even demos of at least one tune being sent back and forth.

Sorry, I have a hard time keeping up with all of the DT news, but can you provide a link that says MM wrote his drum parts? I was under the assumption they were written before hand and he just recorded them. That's a relief to hear that he wrote them though!

[Nighthawkwill7]

Oh my God. This record is going to KILL.

Unless Myung wrote death metal songs...

I see what you did there. 

[millahh]

I don't think "we wrote it w/o MM" is as black and white as it sounds.  We know he wrote his own drum parts, and he could have very easily had a hand in arrangement/structure as well...i.e. "hey, what about shortening this section, repating that other section, and switching where they are?".  It's not really writing, but it's definitely a contribution to the finished product beyond just comign up with the percussion.  This seems very feasible here since we know that writing came before recording this time around, and there were even demos of at least one tune being sent back and forth.

Sorry, I have a hard time keeping up with all of the DT news, but can you provide a link that says MM wrote his drum parts? I was under the assumption they were written before hand and he just recorded them. That's a relief to hear that he wrote them though!

Check out the "New Drummer Interview" thread:

Mike continues talking about the preparation for recording the new album with Dream Theater

"John [Petrucci] sent me a demo. He didn't ask me to do anything, he just said, 'Check it out.' I grabbed it and thought, 'I'm going to get back to him quicker than he thinks I am, and I'm going to get back to him with more than he's expecting. I'm going to go the extra 17 miles.' So, I transcribed it, got into my studio and recorded it, tried stuff and just did a take. And it was okay. I listened to it and thought to let my wife here it, and she said, 'You're holding back.' She's not a musician, but she said, 'I know you. You're holding back.' And she was absolutely right. I said, 'You know what, I'm afraid of doing something wrong or doing too much.' Anyway, I did another take and I kind of let go. Again, because everything happened so naturally in the audition, that's what I needed to follow as a feeling: just be me. Not think too much about this, that and the other thing, and just go with what's coming out naturally. If it's not the right thing, he'll tell me."

[ZBomber]

Ah ok, I saw that actually. I just assumed when he said "transcribe" that they programed the drums or something and he had to write out the parts.

[ariich]

More Myung lyrics is a great thing.

I don't think Mangini being part of the writing process is a big deal at all.  They probably want to play with him a bit more and let them all get used to each other a lot more before he becomes a part of the writing process.  It is different from Sherinian, who had toured with the band and did the ACOS EP before the first full album together, and Rudess, who had done the LTE records, so he already had a chemistry with Petrucci and Portnoy.

Well said! As I said in another thread:

I would imagine it was an issue of (1) timing, (2) keeping the drummer's name under wraps for as long as possible, and (3) letting him settle in first. Hopefully DT 12 will see him contribute to the writing process, especially as the jamming and riffing was such an integral part of the audition process.

Sorry, I have a hard time keeping up with all of the DT news, but can you provide a link that says MM wrote his drum parts? I was under the assumption they were written before hand and he just recorded them. That's a relief to hear that he wrote them though!

Non-drummers don't really write drum parts unless they're pretty simple. Obviously the general rhythmic ideas will have been there, but he will have drummed in a way that seemed natural. His comments in the only interview we have from him so far seem to support that: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=22621.0

EDIT Never mind, ninja'd!

[ZBomber]

Non-drummers don't really write drum parts unless they're pretty simple.

I dunno about that!  My friend is a guitarist/keyboardist, and he writes the parts for all of the instruments in his songs. He can't actually play the drum parts, but he's written some awesome beats/rhythms. If he can do it, I'm sure JP/JR could come up with some great drums if they actually attempted to. Especially now a days when its so easy to do things like that with computer programs.

[ariich]

Non-drummers don't really write drum parts unless they're pretty simple.

I dunno about that!  My friend is a guitarist/keyboardist, and he writes the parts for all of the instruments in his songs. He can't actually play the drum parts, but he's written some awesome beats/rhythms. If he can do it, I'm sure JP/JR could come up with some great drums if they actually attempted to. Especially now a days when its so easy to do things like that with computer programs.

Yeah I do that for my music, but trust me, it's a lot of effort for anything vaguely complex. They knew they had MM so there would have been no need to do it that way! Like I said, basic rhythmic structure, definitely, maybe even with certain ideas here and there. But I can almost guarantee Mangini will have had plenty of room to do things the way he felt was right.

[JasonScandopolous]

Mebert, did Jordan say "mangini didnt write anything, JM/JP/myself did" or did he just say that mangini didn't?  I'm curious because that is perhaps a clue as to JLB contributions (or lack thereof) on the new album.

[Mebert78]

Hey, everyone.  If you're interested, here's an article I wrote for Samsara's The Breakdown Room, a rock music e-zine, about Jordan's benefit for Japan:

Link: https://breakdownroom.net/hopeforjapan2011.html


Dream Theater's Rudess Lends Helping Hand to Japan

Just one day after progressive metal giants Dream Theater announced Mike Mangini as its new drummer, the band's affable keyboardist Jordan Rudess was already proposing a replacement for him at the kit position: the Wesleyan University Taiko Drum Ensemble.

The lighthearted remark came near the end of a solo show he played on April 30, at Clarkstown South High School, in West Nyack, N.Y., in which the energetic ensemble joined Rudess on stage for an improvised finale. The gig was the conclusion to a whirlwind week for the keyboardist, as Dream Theater revealed its new drummer after more than seven months of speculation following the departure of founding member Mike Portnoy.

But despite the drummer joke, Rudess made it clear the evening was about one thing: Japan. The gig was a benefit for the people of Japan, in response to the devastation caused by the magnitude 8.9 earthquake that rumbled offshore of the nation's east coast on March 11. The quake set off a 30-foot-high tsunami that inundated many coastal communities.

"When I learned of the earthquake in Japan, I felt like I needed to express my feelings and the best way I know how to do that is to just sit at my piano," Rudess said, shortly after taking the auditorium stage.

The "Hope for Japan" benefit materialized when Clarkstown Japanese language teacher Akiko Uchiyama – who has Rudess' daughter Kayla in one of her classes – mentioned a recent charity concert in Manhattan to her students that prompted them to create a fundraiser of their own. The teens then tapped Rudess, knowing his passion for the country after he posted a piano improvisation on YouTube in March called "For Japan" that currently has approximately 110,000 views.

But Rudess didn't take the stage alone in his effort to benefit the earthquake-ravaged region. Taking turns joining him was a handful of young local musicians, including the Lower Hudson Valley Youth Chorus and Brothers Page, a Rockland, N.Y.-based duo consisting of siblings Josh and Zach.

The pair performed a spot-on rendition of Simon & Garfunkel's classic folk song "Sounds of Silence," with Rudess tastefully accompanying the singing brothers on keyboards.

"Jordan is one of the most gracious spirits out there in the music world and it is truly who he is on and off stage," said Zach. "It's a kind of spiritual consistency that is very rarely found."

Other songs played by Rudess included piano covers of Pink Floyd's "Hey, You," The Beatles' "Yesterday," and Dream Theater's "Hollow Years." He also demonstrated his self-created and award-winning iPad app MorphWiz with a version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The app won first place in the category of "Best Music Creation App" in the Billboard Music App Awards on Oct. 5, 2010, in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, the iPad's sound suddenly cut out just prior to the end of the song.

"Ah, I hit the 'Home' button!" Rudess said, triggering a roar of laughter from the crowd.

Tickets were $15 and VIP passes that included a meet and greet were $40, with all funds benefiting the Japan Society. Also for sale were Rudess' 2009 solo CD, origami cranes, and a Korg M3 88 keyboard – normally priced at $2,700, but auctioned off for a bid of $2,000.

The instrument was won by Dream Theater fan Franz Vezuli of Newburgh, N.Y., who is a piano instructor at the New York School of Music and keyboardist in a progressive metal band named Room 10.

"I was actually at my guitarist's house on Friday telling him how I wanted a second keyboard and I wanted a Korg this coming summer," Vezuli said. "So when Jordan announced during the intermission that he was auctioning off a Korg for Japan it was like fate."

In post-show chats with fans, Rudess fielded questions about Dream Theater's upcoming album and the announcement of Mike Mangini as the band's new drummer via an online documentary just the prior day. He revealed that bassist John Myung is "back to writing lyrics" and said he's slated to record keyboard parts this month at Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, N.Y.

- Michael R. Ebert

When not writing for The Breakdown Room, Michael R. Ebert is a reporter for Newsday, a daily newspaper on Long Island.

[jsem]

Great article!