Dream Theater: Mike Portnoy Explains Systematic Chaos

Written by Morley Seaver

Monday, 09 April 2007

“I don’t know if we’ve ever had one song that could really sum up what Dream Theater is about because there are so many sides to the band,” states drummer Mike Portnoy. “I guess the big epic songs are always the ones that tend to show all of the different sides. So I guess if I could only play one person one song, if they had 25 minutes to spare, I’d play both parts of In The Presence Of Enemies from the new record because that’s really going to show the full spectrum. Usually the shorter songs, something like just Forsaken or Constant Motion isn’t going to really give the big picture. It’ll just give you a little taste of one side of what the band is.”

The band is enjoying a burst of energy courtesy of a new contract with Roadrunner Records which has just released their record Systematic Chaos. “Well, our contract finally ended with Atlantic. You know we had been signed to them for 14 years and they picked up every option for each album. So there was no getting away. As hard as we tried! (laughs) We had them for the duration of that contract and once it ended we had different options out there. But I think the whole corporate, major label corporate thing left a sour taste in our mouth. It served us well on one level. It surely got us a lot of exposure but on another level we were always a small fish in a big pond. And yes we’re kinda the big fish in our own little progressive empire, yeah. But in the mainstream world, you know, I don’t think the label ever did crap for us with marketing and promotions. So when it came time to look for a new label we were definitely scared off to any of the Warners or Sonys in that whole kind of approach.

“Roadrunner has really proven themselves as an amazing label that has major label status and promotion and marketability but at the same time a real independent spirit. And if you look at what they’ve done with bands like Opeth and Slipknot or Stone Sour to Nickelback to Machine Head, you know. It was obvious from their roster that they really cherish the bands for what they do and just did their best to market and promote those bands for what they do. And that seemed like the perfect place for us.”

Portnoy says that the new record breaks tradition in that it is does not have a central theme. “It’s seven completely independent songs with independent ideas and independent musical themes. You know, Octavarium, Six Degrees… and Scenes from A Memory, they all had big grand themes and concepts, but with Systematic Chaos it was nice to just, you know, have individual tracks to work with.”

They also continued their systematic approach to writing the record, something that the band has always found successful. “Well we wrote and recorded in the studio,” related Portnoy. “So basically we would write a song, record it and then move onto the next. So the very first thing we wrote was In The Presence Of Enemies, which was written as a giant 25 minute song. It wasn’t until much, much later that we decided to split it up. But it was actually the first thing that was written was this big giant 25 minute epic. Prophets of War was the second one, and then Constant Motions came, then Ministry of Lost Souls, all down the line, you know. It’s one song at a time, that’s how we work on the albums. We make sure one song is done before we move onto the next idea.”

One stand out track on the record is Repentance, something that Portnoy says fits into a separate big picture. “It kinda reminds me of Pink Floyd meets kinda mellow Opeth,” he says. “Repentance is actually the fourth song in a series of songs that had been written through the last couple albums: The Glass Prison, This Dying Soul, The Root Of All Evil. Those were the three that preceded this track but they all tied together to one giant big piece that I had been writing. But Repentance was purposefully mellow because Glass Prison, Dying Soul and Root of All Evil are all so heavy and energetic that one day when we piece it all together as one giant puzzle I knew we needed a breather somewhere in there. So that was the idea of writing the style of music that we did with Repentance. And then the lyrics are very, very sorrowful and remorseful and sad you know, it just adds to that whole mood. And then I also had the idea of the different spoken word things and stuff so that also gives it that bit of the Dark Side Of The Moon sound as well.”

As fans of the band are well aware, Portnoy is in a constant state of motion, working with the band and his many other endeavors. This interview caught him on the afternoon of a show day for G3 where he is playing with John Petrucci. “For me it has nothing to do with anything other than a creative drive that I just don’t know how to turn off,” he admits. “I mean, John does. John goes home with his family and he stops. He doesn’t answer a phone call or email for a month a time. But I can’t do that. For me I have to constantly be doing stuff. That’s what the song Constant Motion is about; that’s a look into my brain. It just doesn’t stop. And some people are born with it. Some people try to formulate it but you know you can’t. You can’t formulate it. You can’t create it. You can’t pretend to have it. You either have it or you don’t. And to me, it’s just a constant need to be creative. My mind doesn’t stop. When I lay in bed I’m thinking of the next 20 for the band, you know. It’s just the way it is. It’s a blessing. But it’s absolutely a curse as well. It makes me positively crazy and it makes my family crazy, because they don’t get to spend nearly enough time with me. It’s something I struggle with every day of my life but, you know, it’s great for the fans, that’s for damn sure. (laughs) It’s something that’s just there and I can’t control it.”