Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I can't possibly overstate how much influence Rush had on me as a young teenager. I would say from about 1981 to 1987, they were my gods.
I think if there's any one band that every member of Sons of Apollo has been influenced by, I think Van Halen is the common ground for all five of us.
I understand that Adrenaline Mob is not going to be every Dream Theater fan's cup of tea. I totally get that; I understand that. It's different world.
In Adrenaline Mob, I'm not the leader, but I'm on the board of directors, and that's OK. I'm not stressing out over every detail. I'm sharing the load.
After I left Dream Theater, and I was doing Avenged Sevenfold, Twisted Sister... all these other things, I made a lot of new fans in a lot of new areas.
I have so much gratitude that I get to do this for a living and that I actually have fans who come to the shows and buy the records and support me online.
In Adrenaline Mob there are five guys that are all absolutely insanely energetic performers each of their own right. It's like a five-ring circus on stage!
I'm a music fan first and foremost. I can find the beauty in Jellyfish and U2 just as much as Opeth and Lamb of God, just as much as I can with Rush and Yes.
I don't consider myself a great drummer. I consider myself just a music fan that's a very, very passionate artist, and the drums just happen to be my instrument.
When I first came out with the Winery Dogs, I had a Bonham set-up. That was such a departure from the huge kits that I had become known for. It was really enjoyable.
I've known Russell Allen for over a decade now, and I've always thought he was a very underrated singer. He has one of the best voices in the business I've ever heard.
I see the headlines on Blabbermouth, and the fans are saying, 'Why is he always talking about Dream Theater?' I'm not talking about Dream Theater! I get asked about it.
There's been a lot of crossing paths with the Yes camp over the years for me. The first one was when Dream Theater and Yes toured together in 2004, which was a lot of fun.
It's been an incredible experience, playing with Twisted Sister, Stone Sour, Avenged Sevenfold, jamming with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, and the list goes on and on and on.
I don't care about technique. I have kind of been pigeonholed as a technical drummer since I was in Dream Theater for all those years, but it's actually very far from the truth.
After I wrote 'The Best Of Times' for my dad and after I completed the '12 Steps Suite' with Dream Theater, I very much felt like I had said everything I wanted to say lyrically.
I love the Dream Theater guys dearly and have a long history, friendship, and bond that runs incredibly deep with them - it's just that I think we are in serious need of a little break.
There's the drums, the music, the melodies, the lyrics, the production, the artwork: there are so many elements to making an album, and the drumming is just a very small fraction of what I focus on.
I guess I did make my name out of my drumming, and I have the big drum sets, and I'm doing all these crazy, odd-time signatures, so, yeah, I guess drumming was very important to what made me popular.
A lot of bands, they'll try to jump on the bandwagon or the fad or the fashion, and they'll skyrocket, have this quick overnight fame. But as soon as that fad or fashion changes, they'll go out with it.
I really do care what people think, and I revolved my whole career and all the twenty five years with Dream Theater... I ran that band and made decisions based on caring what the fans thought and wanted.
I live a very open life. I value my relationship with the fans, and I utilize Twitter and Facebook and my web site, so my day-to-day activities are an open book for me to share with the fans, for better or for worse.
I absolutely am not the 'de facto front man' in The Mob - that title surely goes to Russell Allen, who is one of the best front men in the business. I am just happy to be part of the band and not necessarily leading it.
Any time I say anything about Dream Theater... Honestly, I'd rather not talk about it. Because no matter what I say, it will be twisted and... So I kind of have made myself promise that I won't talk about Dream Theater anymore.
People always say to me, 'Well, how can a marriage last when you're away as much as you are?' And I always say, 'Well, absence makes the heart grow fonder.' That time apart from each other has actually strengthened our relationship.
With Dream Theater live, I may have been a bit of a focal point because I absolutely live for the energy on stage, and having interaction with the audience is absolutely crucial to me - regardless of how some others have described it!
The reality is, when I'm sitting in a hotel room at 3 in the morning, and I see something on the Internet that interests me in the form of a band I want to hear, I like the ability to just go online to iTunes and download it immediately.
We kind of established in Sons of Apollo right from the get go that it would be a very collaborative process musically, but after that, I was going to take the reins and control everything else beyond that the way I did with Dream Theater.
I am looking forward to working with the great staff of Loud & Proud Records, some of whom I worked very closely with during their time at Roadrunner and my time with Dream Theater. I look forward to continuing that relationship with The Winery Dogs!
I am - you know, I'm getting to do everything I've ever wanted to do, anything my imagination can think up. I'm getting to play with some of my favorite musicians in the world, ranging from Russell Allen to Billy Sheehan to Paul Gilbert to Steve Morse.
Change is inevitable with the evolution of technology. In the '70s, we had records. In the '80s, we had CDs, and now we are living in the digital age. You can say it's sad or unfortunate, but the reality is you've got to roll with the times and the technology.
I'd rather be entertained and go to a show and watch a drummer and have somebody that makes me actually smile. So I don't judge drummers based on their technical ability; I judge them based on the overall package and what they bring to the music they're part of.
With the Neal Morse Band, we're doing progressive music with a harder edge; it's a little more in Dream Theater territory for me. Flying Colors is a little more poppy, it's more Radiohead, Muse, and Coldplay territory, so I approach that drumming in a different way.
When you're making this kind of music, you don't need a producer. If you're making pop albums or trying to write hit singles, then yeah, but if you're writing 20-minute prog epics, as long as you know how to make it sound good, and you have a good mixer, that's all you need.
It's all about the music, and I work as hard as I do strictly because of the music. It's not a money thing; it's not a career thing. It's simply to do with me being a music fan with a broad taste, wanting to do different styles and wanting to work with lots of different people.
When sequencing an album, you kind of have to look at it like you're making a movie with different acts, and you have ebb and flow, peaks and valleys. You want it to feel like a journey or a good movie or book where you can actually feel very satisfied at the ride at the end of it.
Flying Colors is more alternative pop with a prog edge. Think the Beatles meets U2 meets Muse and Foo Fighters. It is the opposite of Adrenaline Mob, which has more classic metal influences like Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Pantera, or Disturbed. They are completely different ends of spectrum.
One of the biggest misconceptions was, after I left Dream Theater, I went off and did, like, five different bands and side projects. Everyone was like, 'We thought you wanted a break.' And it was like, well, I didn't want a break from making music; I just needed a break from the Dream Theater camp.
I remember waking up Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, to my wife telling me to put on the TV because I wasn't going to be going into N.Y.C. as planned. Dream Theater was working in N.Y.C. at the time mixing our album 'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence,' and I would've been driving in that afternoon for our session.
To me, the most important tool is not a physical or a technical one. It's more of a cerebral one. It's your brain. It's about having an interest in experimenting musically, perhaps touching on several different genres of music. No doubt, the most important tool is the mind. It's the willingness to experiment freely.
I don't like when I see bands that are just a memory of what they used to be, and there's a few out there that I've seen recently that are still touring... I'm not gonna name them, but some of the members can barely play their parts, and then they have a lot of other members that weren't even originally in the band.
I've been asked to write a book several times; I've had several publishers come to me and offer me book deals. Especially right after I left Dream Theater and Avenged Sevenfold, there was a lot of drama going on in my life, so the book companies came at me thirsty for blood and gossip. And I turned down all the deals.