Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy recently spoke with The Prog Report about their upcoming album, sharing insights into why the process is taking longer than usual.
Portnoy explained:
“Dream Theater still operates old school, with the whole band in the studio together. Nobody is working separately from home. We do it all collectively, coming in one at a time to work and record. So, yeah, it’s a longer process than I’ve been used to for quite some time. But it’s great… it’s the way I always made records with Dream Theater. I just hadn’t done it that way in so long, but it is good. The process is really detailed this way.”
He further elaborated on the recording process:
“All these other bands and projects, everyone kind of just does their own thing on their own time at their own place. But this approach gives a real unified band vibe. Even a couple of weeks ago, James [LaBrie, Dream Theater singer] flew back from Japan, and we spent time collaborating on vocal melodies so lyrics could be written to those melodies. This is kind of the way the process is in Dream Theater. It’s nice to be a part of each one of these steps, like the old days. It’s been a while since I made a record this way.”
Portnoy also mentioned that he wouldn’t divulge too many details about the album. This new record will be their first since he rejoined the band last October.
The Sound of the New Album
While not many details have been shared publicly, it’s clear that Dream Theater is aiming to recapture the sound of their earlier albums. In another interview, guitarist John Petrucci discussed their approach:
“I wanna nerd out for a second. So, in striving to get there, and with Mike Portnoy rejoining the band, we decided we’d kind of look back a little bit. So we contacted our longtime friend and engineer Doug Oberkircher, who recorded Dream Theater classic albums such as ‘Images And Words’, ‘Scenes From A Memory’, ‘Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence’, ‘Train Of Thought.’”
Petrucci continued:
“And it turns out that Doug still had the original Neve preamps that he used to record the guitars on those records. And so we contacted Doug and we acquired the preamps, and, man, we got all the gank, all the aggression, but it still sounds really warm, smooth top end, expressive, layered. It’s like a T-Rex made out of chocolate cake lit on fire [Laughs]. Anyway, it came out great. So I can’t wait for all of you to hear that.”
You can watch the interview below.
