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Mike Portnoy

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Mike Portnoy

Michael Stephen "Mike" Portnoy (born April 20, 1967) is an American drummer primarily known for his {left nut} work with the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Known for his advanced drum skills, Portnoy has won 23 awards from the Modern Drummer magazine. He has co-produced the last five Dream Theater albums with John Petrucci, starting from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. From A Change of Seasons onwards, Portnoy has been writing a substantial amount of Dream Theater's lyrics, filling the void left by Kevin Moore, who left the band after the release of Awake. He is the second youngest person (after Neil Peart) to be inducted into the Modern Drummer's Hall of Fame (at 37 years of age).

Pre-Dream Theater history

Mike Portnoy was born and raised in Long Beach, New York, on Long Island. His father worked as a DJ at a local radio station, helping Portnoy gain an appreciation for music at an early age through bands like Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Yes and The Beatles. Although Portnoy taught himself how to play the drums he did take music theory classes in high school, and during that period he began playing in local bands Intruder, Rising Power and Inner Sanctum, the last two of which released an album. He left Inner Sanctum after being awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston. There he met John Petrucci and John Myung with whom he formed the band (originally called Majesty) that would become Dream Theater.

Influences, awards, and other accomplishments

Portnoy names his biggest influences as DAVID DUNCAN- probably the best drummer in the world, he goes to Northwood School, grade 10BA Rush drummer Neil Peart, composer/guitarist Frank Zappa, and the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps. Other favorites include drummers Terry Bozzio, Vinnie Colaiuta, Peter Criss, Simon Phillips, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Phil Collins, Bill Bruford, and bands such as The Beatles, Queen, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Tool, Muse, Metallica, Megadeth, Jellyfish, Iron Maiden, KISS, Phish, Deep Purple, Rush, Radiohead, Umphrey's McGee, U2 and Jane's Addiction.

Portnoy has won 23 awards from Modern Drummer magazine, including "Best Up & Coming Talent" (one time), "Best Clinician" (two times), "Best Educational Video/DVD" (two times), "Best recorded performance" (6 times) and "Best Progressive Rock Drummer" (for 12 consecutive years), and is also the youngest person (at 37 years of age) to be inducted into their Rock Drummer Hall of Fame since Neil Peart was inducted in 1983 (at 31 years of age).

He has also been the catalyst for founding several other progressive rock groups and projects: Transatlantic, Liquid Tension Experiment, and O.S.I. (with former Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore), touring as well with Mexican drummer "Chucho" Dávila giving free clinic sessions to local Music Stores in Texas in 2005.

He has released three instructional videos, "Progressive Drum Concepts", "Liquid Drum Theater", which has won awards from Modern Drummer Magazine, and his latest "In Constant Motion". He has also released many "Official Bootlegs" on his website, including footage of the studio sessions for the Dream Theater albums Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Train of Thought, Octavarium and the Transatlantic release Bridge Across Forever. He has also recently released bootlegs of his tribute bands Hammer of the Gods (a Led Zeppelin tribute) and Yellow Matter Custard (The Beatles), with more expected from his other tribute projects Cygnus and his Sea Monsters (Rush) and Mike Portnoy's Amazing Journey (The Who).

He also played with New Jersey thrash metal band Overkill for one show in 2004.

On September 18, 2006 within his website's Forum Portnoy cagily stated that he had finally met Rush drummer Neil Peart (one of the few heroes from his youth Portnoy had never met, owing to Peart's legendary privacy), that "Neil and I have finally met and we spent some time together this week and had a great time..." [1], and that a possible collaboration was underway/had been discussed with the teasing statement of "Patience everybody... all will soon be revealed!" It has now been revealed that this meeting was for an interview Portnoy did for his stint as guest editor of Rhythm Magazine.[2] Portnoy had previously written the liner notes for the Japanese pressing of Rush's 2002 release Vapor Trails [3], but also publicly denounced Peart in 2000 after Peart called the people involved in the Rush tribute "bar bands". [4] It was later determined that it was a misunderstanding, as Peart was actually referring to a Rush tribute record that Mike Portnoy had not been involved with.

In February, 2007, Mike Portnoy announced his new DVD "In Constant Motion" would be released on March 1st. The DVD has 3 discs and it's over 7 hours long. [5]

Equipment

Portnoy has used several kits throughout the years, all of which were built by Tama Seisakusho except for the Awake - A Change Of Seasons era kit, which was a Mapex. To date, he has used the following drum sets:

File:Portnoy.jpg
The Siamese Monster: One of Portnoy's many drum kits. These are early shots taken from a prototype kit, and therefore, are just a rough image.
  • When Dream and Day Unite/Images & Words Kit - This Tama Imperialstar (the previous model of the Imperialstar, unlike the 2007 Imperialstar, which is an entry level kit) kit was bought originally by MP himself through working three jobs. It was used until the end of the Images and Words tour when MP got signed by Sabian and Mapex. Also, this was the kit he used when he was with the band Intruder, although upgraded noticeably since then. It should be noted that Images and Words was recorded with an electronically triggered snare drum at producer David Prater's insistence.
  • Awake/A Change Of Seasons kit - This Mapex USA Maple kit was used on the world tour supporting the album Awake. It had two bass drums, one snare, six toms, two small timbales, a section of various percussion instruments, and four Octoban-sized drums in a 2x2 formation. This marked Portnoy's first use of Octobans on a record, which were custom-made by Mapex using maple as opposed to Tama's more traditional PVC, giving them a slightly different, more "natural" tone.
  • The Purple Monster - This was a Tama Starclassic kit which marked Portnoy's signing with Tama in the late '90s after his deal with Mapex fell through. Used for the recording of Scenes from a Memory, Falling Into Infinity and the North and South American tours, it is so named because of its striking purple/white/purple fade finish. There are two copies held in storage in different parts of the world to avoid shipping one extremely large kit around the world; the "Green Monster" in use for European tours and a "Red Monster" for Asian-market touring. It is similar to the "Awake" kit but features many more cymbals, the left-side octobans in a four-inline configuration (as opposed to his last kit which held them in a 2x2 pattern) and two more "low"-tuned octobans on the right side of the kit held overhead of the floor toms. This kit also featured a snare drum with a foot-operated snare strainer mechanism which allowed for different snare drum sounds without having to use his hands to adjust it. On the Purple Monster Portnoy used DW 5000 Pedals, instead of the Iron Cobra Pedals. He also uses this kit in his DVD Liquid Drum Theater.
  • Liquid Tension Experiment kit - A comparatively modest kit used in his supergroup project Liquid Tension Experiment. This kit was unique in that it used a pair of small timbales where the two smallest toms would normally be. It was otherwise a normal "seven piece" rock kit with three toms (five if you count the timbales), and a single kick drum with a double pedal. It marks the first time Portnoy uses a floor tom on either side of the kit for a recording (during footage from their Fan Club Show in 1998 featured on 5 Years in a LIVEtime, Portnoy's "Unplugged" kit contained a left-hand floor tom used heavily during that performance) with a 14" floor tom on the left and an 18" floor tom on the right. It is also the first time Portnoy used his MaxStax cymbal line in the studio. Portnoy notes in his Liquid Drum Theater instructional video that the reason behind the smaller kit is that when Liquid Tension Experiment went into the studio to record the first album, The Purple Monster kit was still being shipped back from some shows they had played immediately prior in Brazil.
  • Transatlantic kit - The kit used to record and tour behind the first Transatlantic album was the same as the Liquid Tension Experiment kit, but with five regular toms. When recording and touring behind the second Transatlantic album, Portnoy added his new Melody Master snare drums for the first time and some different cymbals including a set of custom made 15" hi-hats. The smaller Melody Master displaced the 14" floor tom, which was moved back to the right of the kit for the Transatlantic recordings. For the filming of Portnoy's 2007 "In Constant Motion" instructional DVD set, the Transatlantic kit was repoduced in Tama drums' new line of acrylic shells named Starclassic Mirage in the "Black Ice" finish. However, the original recording was done with more traditional Starclassic wood drums.
  • The Siamese Monster - This kit was an amalgamation of two individual kits. The left side of the kit is laid out similarly to the Liquid Tension Experiment kit, with a floor tom on his left side, a modified tymp-tom on his right side, and three rack toms. The right side is laid out as a normal five piece kit but with the two rack toms reversed, a gong bass drum in place of a floor tom (with modified floor tom legs), and the ride cymbal in front of the hi hats, which allows him to share some of the cymbals and toms between the two kits. It has two stools, and while is not capable of being played in its entirety by one person, Portnoy often invites other drummers to sit in on the unplayed half during shows. It is a predominantly black kit with Majesty symbols around each individual drum. There are three identical versions of this kit for use when touring different continents, the North American kit being the "featured" kit with purple markings as was the case with the Colored Monsters. It was built by Tama for the recording of the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence album and tour.
  • The OSI kit - Portnoy used the small (right) side of his Siamese Monster kit for the recording of the first Office of Strategic Influence album. For the second he downsized even more to a four-piece consisting of his signature snare, one timbale as a tom as previously used on his Liquid Tension Experiment kit, one floor tom, and a single 18" kick drum with a double pedal. However, he still insisted on using a large amount of cymbals including crashes, splashes, Max Stax and Max Splashes.
  • Yellow Matter Custard kit - A specially designed set for use in Mike's Beatles tribute band, Yellow Matter Custard. It is modelled on Ringo Starr's kit, and is quite simple compared with his Dream Theater kits.
  • Hammer Of The Gods kit - A John Bonham-replica kit that was used in Mike's Led Zeppelin tribute band. Custom-made acrylic shells were used (transparent amber), and the kit is always played while wearing the obligatory bowler hat.
  • The Albino Monster - The newest and current kit being used by Portnoy is similar to the Siamese Monster. Aesthetically, it is white with silver sparkle Majesty logos instead of the black/colored logos of the Siamese Monster. In layout it is almost exactly the same, the only differences being the right side of the kit mimics his earlier Hammer of the Gods kit; two of the timbales were removed, the 10" tymp-tom was changed to a 14", and the gong bass drum was replaced with a floor tom. He kept some of the cymbals from the right side of the Siamese Monster, including the 13" HHX Groove Hats, and the 19" Hand Hammered Fierce Crash, so there's more distance between the two sides in the Albino Monster, than there were in the Siamese Monster. So far it has been used for the Gigantour (a tour that Dream Theater participated in alongside Megadeth, Symphony X and several other bands) and throughout the Octavarium 2005-06 World Tour. The modification to the right side stemmed from sessions for Dream Theater's Octavarium album, where what began as an experiment became the inspiration behind most of Octavarium. When recording on Octavarium began, Mike brought along the Hammer of the Gods kit, resulting in the kit being used for part of the album: he ended up using it on five of the album's eight tracks. The kit utilizes larger "Rock" sizes, with a 14" rack tom, a 16" floor tom, an 18" floor tom, and a meaty 6.5" x 14" snare drum, much reminding of the drum sizes used by John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. Additionally, Portnoy only used a few crash cymbals, and used a splash and china sparingly. When touring began, Tama had the shells changed to traditional Starclassic Maple shells, because they didn't want Mike touring with a kit featuring shells that Tama didn't mass-produce for public acquisition. The touring kit includes two new limited-edition Mike Portnoy signature snare drums with the same matching finish used on the rest of the kit. On Tama's official website, Portnoy released details about changes to the kit for his upcoming tours, beginning with G3 in March. He says the left side will stay the same, but the right side will change. The sizes will change to more conventional sizes-22" kick etc. and will have three rack toms as opposed to the 'Bonham'-size, one rack tom kit of before. Also, the shells would be Starclassic Mirage acrylic shells instead of the Starclassic Maple he has always used. He also used this kit in his DVD In Constant Motion.
  • The Mirage Monster- Revealed at Gods Of Metal 2007, Mike's newest kit is made up of two kits once again, except built out of Tama's new Tama Starclassic Mirage acrylic drums in clear "Crystal Ice" finish. The left side is virtually identical to his previous kit, except made with clear acrylic shells. The new configuration of the right side of his kit has replaced the "Bonzo Kit" of "The Albino Monster" with a set-up more closely His new right side of the kit includes: a 22" kick and 3 rack toms (8", 10", and 12") "so it's going to be a little more of a conventional, small kit." (Click on "Interview" link button) The snares used are his Signature Melody Master snares. He uses 2 12x5" steel snares (one on the right side of the kit as a main snare and one on the left as a side snare) and uses one 14x5.5" maple shell snare. These snares are the same snares used in the last 2 kits (Albino Monster and Siamese Monster) and they are in the original black color. He will be using this kit on the Chaos In Motion 2007 World Tour to promote Dream Theater's latest album, Systematic Chaos.

Several of Portnoy's drum kits also make use of a Roland Rhythm Coach (an electronic drum pad with a metronome built in). Mike uses this as what he calls the "secret cowbell", to count off the songs in a way that only his fellow band members and the technicians can hear it. An example of this can be seen on the Score DVD, where it can be seen in the background that Mike counts off the song "Under A Glass Moon" on the pad. Mike explains the use of these pads in the commentary track of the "Drum Cam Only" version of the Live At Budokan DVD.

Tama has marketed two different sized Mike Portnoy signature snare drums, known as "Melody Masters" (named after Melody, his daughter), since the late 1990s. The smaller of the two has a 12x5" steel shell and the larger has a 14x5.5" maple shell. Both snare models have a unique three way snare strainer mechanism.[6]. Portnoy and Tama have custom-made versions in various colors to match the color schemes of the kit he was using at the time (i.e. The "Purple/Red/Green Monsters", "Siamese Monster" "Albino Monster", etc.). For 2006, in recognition of his 'Albino Monster' kit, he released only 250 of these snares worldwide in a white, gloss finish. The older colour (black) is not limited edition.

Sabian has marketed three different sized signature cymbal stacks, known as "Max Stax" (named after his son, Max). They consist of a hand hammered china kang-style cymbal on top of a splash (or crash) cymbal. Their sizes are 8/8", 10/10" and 12/14". Sabian also marketed 7, 9, and 11" "Max Splash" cymbals which have the same namesake.[7]

Portnoy has endorsed Promark sticks since the early 1990s. His signature stick is the TX420N[8]. It is made of hickory with a white nylon tip and has purple print to match the Purple Monster's motif. The "420" in the model number, which is also printed on the sticks, is a reference to his birthday (and not a marijuana reference, as has been suggested). He is known for gripping his left stick on the reverse side to attain a different sound on the snare drum. It should also be noted that he has a rather rare grip on his right stick, with it being held solely between the thumb and the index finger.

Miscellaneous

Mike and his wife Marlene (former member of the all-female metal band Meanstreak) live in Pennsylvania with their daughter Melody Ruthandrea, son Max John, dog Bongo and cat Cypress.

An avid collector of many things, Portnoy has a vast array of Dream Theater memorabilia including bootlegs, posters, clippings and everything else under the sun with the band's name on it. He is also responsible for capturing everything the band does on video tape and DAT (see YtseJam Records). His huge video collection includes favorite films such as 2001 - A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Jacob's Ladder and The Wall along with episodes of The Simpsons and memorable boxing matches. His love of A Clockwork Orange is so great that a section of the soundtrack was used as Dream Theater's intro tape on both the first several legs of 1997/98's "Touring Into Infinity" World Tour as well as the Octavarium/20th Anniversary World Tour of 2005/06. He is also seen with Dethklok T-shirt on one of the Systematic Chaos promo photos.

Mike is also a recovering alcoholic. This prompted him to write a musical suite which will eventually comprise the 12 Steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program. So far, Dream Theater has written four songs, which describe nine of the twelve steps. These are: "The Glass Prison" (Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence), "This Dying Soul" (Train of Thought), "The Root of All Evil" (Octavarium), and "Repentance" (Systematic Chaos). The song "The Mirror" (Awake), which was also written by Mike and discusses the same topic, is not officially a part of Mike's AA Saga. Though some fans wonder about how deep his alcoholism ran within him, fans highly respect his right to privacy and as a respected musician and stray from bringing the subject up around him (whether it be in person or via the internet). He explained in an XM radio interview on June 4, 2005 about his alcoholism, which the whole interview is put on his site to listen to. He stated regarding his drinking:

"Well I've had Dream Theater since basically my first week of college, so I was pretty much right out of high school when Dream Theater formed twenty years ago. But, uh, yeah, like I said before, Alcoholism is a progressive disease, so I-I always drank right out of high school, and you know it got worse and worse as time went on. It started out fun, but uh, like anyone else who is in the program knows, anyone else who is in recovery, it starts off fun, it starts off great, you have it in control, but then it starts to get out of control, then you know you lose control. You know, through all my years, for the bulk of my years, it was never a serious problem for Dream Theater, but you know, after playing, I would go home, and basically drink myself to bed. And, as time went on, and as the band got more successful, it definitely helps feed that progression. When I could look at my rider and basically have on Monday nights Jack Daniels, Wednesdays it's Johnny Walker, it would alternate every night on what was in the dressing room, or a few cases of beer. The other guys didn't really drink - they were pretty straight, so I was always hanging with the road crew or the opening band. And the more I had access to what I want, I took advantage and it fed that problem. It got to the point where I was playing sloppy, and I was drinking before the show and also I would be drinking by the tour bus and the fans seeing me, it's just--not nice."

Shortly after playing the set for the Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York DVD and CD, Mike fainted backstage. His statement on this incident from the FAQ on his personal website is as follows: "I collapsed and passed out due to over-exhaustion, dehydration, stress, too little food and nutrition, too many Red Bulls, etc. It took me several hours of throwing up, being wrapped in blankets and laying down before I was carried out of the venue hours after the show." The audio commentary on the DVD has more information on this.

According to a post made by Jordan Rudess on his forum, Mike is Jewish but does not practice the Religion.

Quotes

My father was a rock 'n' roll disc jockey, so I was always surrounded by music constantly. I had this huge record collection when I was real young and loved the Beatles and then later on Kiss. It was inevitable that I'd become a musician.

Being inducted into the Modern Drummer's Hall of Fame is a lifelong ambition. I just don't know what's left to do now.

Discography

With Dream Theater

With Liquid Tension Experiment

With Transatlantic

With Neal Morse

With OSI

With John Arch

Tribute Shows (CD and DVD)

  • One Night in New York City - Yellow Matter Custard (2003) (The Beatles)
  • Two Nights In North America - Hammer of the Gods (2006) (Led Zeppelin)
  • One Night in Chicago - Cygnus and the Sea Monsters (2006) (Rush)
  • One Night in New York City - Amazing Journey (2007) (The Who)

With Rising Power

  • 1984 - Power For The People

With Inner Sanctum

  • 1986 - 12 A.M.

DVD Releases: Mike Portnoy has released a few DVD's with Hudson Music. These include: In Constant Motion (2007) Liquid Drum Theater (2000)

References

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