Jordan Rudess interview (excerpt)

Hello Jordan! How are you? Currently on tour for “The Astonishing” with Dream Theater, how is playing this unique show in South America with the energetic audience?

I’m doing well thank you! We are currently in Mexico for the last three shows. Its been exciting playing the Astonishing here. The audience is very passionate and expressive... Great to see people singing along with all the songs and having a great time!

Talking about fans’ expectations, let’s move to Dream Theater. “The Astonishing” is quite the departure for the band, and I feel like it’s probably the most characteristic of your influence and writing. It’s also the first album where the credits are solely yours and John’s. Is this something that should have been done a long time ago, since you were and are the main writers?

Well credit wise it feels fair and that has been a long time coming.

What is funny though is people really don’t know who writes what parts. They may think they know but they don’t. Sometimes I’ll write the heaviest parts and sometimes John will right the sweet mellow parts!! We are a good team!

Listening to your side projects (LTE, LMR) as well as your solo albums, I hear such a wide range of sounds and styles, which I think is not evident on the Dream Theater side of things. Have you ever felt confined in the so called “trademark” sound of the band, and have you tried to challenge it at any point?

As you pointed The Astonishing was a big musical work for us that brought a lot more of my abilities.. I guess based on that anything is possible.

The “Astonishing” tour certainly speaks a lot about your confidence in the music, since it’s the whole thing performed with no other songs. Before the tour started, did you have any doubts about this decision?

It took a lot of balls to do this. We were passionate about what we created and wanted to take the risk. It’s all worked out very well!

Is the success of the tour an indication that the band can take bigger risks and still keep the connection with the fanbase?

Our fanbase is amazing. They have an enormous appetite for music of all shapes and sizes. They also are very vocal and sometimes quite divided. At least they really care and are into it!!

Τhe album ranges from minimalistic piano parts to more complex keyboards playing along with the orchestra. What do you consider the biggest challenge in creating a soundtrack-like album?

Being able to fully support the story and all the moods with music... We wanted the music to help drive the story line...

Could you tell us one song from “The Astonishing”, and one from the whole catalogue, that you enjoy performing the most in a live environment?

These days I have been enjoying “Ravenskill”. It’s a song mostly between Voice and piano and its very subtle and mysterious... I can’t think of a favorite from the catalogue at the moment.

After such a grand work, where do you see Dream Theater going next? Have you had any ideas or discussions about the next album? Will you write as a band again, or will you keep writing with John like you did the last time?

Who knows where we will go next!! We are still busy with the Astonishing!!Yes we have spoken about it and have some ideas... Stay tuned for all the answers!

Progressive rock and metal seem to be in a renaissance recently, with lots of great music coming from both old and new bands. Is there any new artist or band that you would recommend? Something that caught your attention in doing things differently?

I like the new Haken album and the new Frost album...

There was an announcement recently from Mike Portnoy, and he plans to perform the “12-step suite” in its entirety for the first time, for the celebration of his 50th birthday. I know you are good friends with Mike, so could we expect a guest appearance from you for this event?

I will not be there...

Also, while working with Tony did you think of working with Liquid Tension Experiment again? Would there be a chance of doing something new with LTE?

Who knows what the future holds... At the moment there is no plan for that...

Lastly, I was hoping that you could tell us if there are any plans or discussions to come back to Greece, since the last time was in 2011, before even “A Dramatic Turn Of Events” was out. I know it’s a matter of promoters making a reasonable offer, so has there been any offer so far? Your fans are eager to hear so many songs from the last three albums live!

It would be nice to get back there one day!! I think it just has been difficult for promoters to make it happen in the current climate there...