If you fall into any of the above categories, please hit the stop button on your CD player after Track # 8.
MP ON LTE
There are many different levels at which this project came about (and also probably many different perspectives depending on who you were to ask...). To try and describe its inception would probably be best broken down into three categories: conceptual, personal, and musical. However it happened, I'm eternally grateful that it did because it was a tremendously challenging and wonderfully magical experience for me to have shared.
The CONCEPT
Well I guess it began towards the end of 1996 when I received a call from Pete Morticetli and Mike Varneywho wanted to put together a couple of "Super Groups" (for lack of a better term!). One turned into the Black Light Syndrome project with Terry Bozzio and they asked me if I'd like to help construct the other.
I happened to have some time available white waiting to begin the next Dream Theater album so I responded, "Thanks, but I have a whole season's worth of Simpsons and X- Files to catch up on while I have this available time" and hung up the phone immediately.
The next day while giving my dog Bongo a bath, the doorbell rings. Much to my surprise, Matt Groening and Chris Carter are at my doorstep fully eguipped with a 75" TV Screen and a device much like the one used in 'A Clockwork Orange' which strapped me in and pinned my eyelids wide open...
A week later, I called Pete and Mike back and let them know that I was ready to rock!!
The BAND
So ... They asked me to compile a "Wish List" of all the musicians V ve always wanted to work with. With Frank Zappa and John Lennon no longer being options, I came up with some other names.
On bass I had two choices. The first was Tony Levin, whose work with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson (amongst dozens of others), has always amazed me. I figured he had the talent and innovation to pull a crazy Idea like this off. The other choice was Billy Sheehan, who I had the great pleasure of playing with on Magna Carta's "Working Man" CD and would always jump at the opportunity to work with again. My keyboard list also consisted of two people (both of which I had played with in the past during Dream Theater's keyboard auditions in 1994). First was Jordan Rudess who recently played with the Dregs and whose current project with Rod Morgenstein had opened for Dream Theater on several occasions. In my opinion, Jordan is a complete virtuoso and is one of the most talented players to ever have touched the instrument. My other choice was Jens Johansson who I had become friendly with and whose work with Yngwie Malmsteen and most recently, the ' Heavy Machinery' CD with Allan Holdsworth totally blew me away.
Well, the calls were put in and a few days later I got the results. In the bass department, Tony had already been swiped up for Terry Bozzio's BLS project, but Billy was into it and was available. Cool! In keyboard land, Jordan was tied up doing his album with Rod, but Jens was interested and had some time available. Awesome!
We penciled in a possible available window of opportunity with Billy and Jens and then began the search for a guitar player... My guitar list was pretty extensive. (Everybody from Steve Morse to Dimebag Darrell to Trevor Rabin.) Many calls were made, but nothing seemed to work out. Everybody was either unavailable or just not interested. (Damn Guitarists!)
Our available window of opportunity eventually came and went, we all went back to our "normal day jobs", and considered the project as having been a nice idea but not meant to be...
Jump ahead to spring of 1997... The phone rings... It's Pete and Mike again. They want to know if I have any available time and if I want to try once again to put this project together.
Well, most importantly, I had just finished catching up on all of my boxing video tapes, so I figured I was probably available. Suddenly, I remembered that my first child was due any day and then I was also supposed to begin recording the new Dream Theater album right after that. I realized that there could possibly be a window of opportunity after the DT album is done, but before it is released and the tour begins.
Pete and Mike got back on the horn to the other players only to find out that now it was Tony and Jordan that had available time during the proposed period... but there still was the guitar dilemma. (Damn Guitarists!)
After several calls to my original "Wish List", we still were coming up empty handed. We needed somebody who was talented, diverse, spontaneous, a team player and most importantly ...available! Well, it took my wife, Marlene, to point out to me one night over dinner that the answer was right in front of me the whole time! The perfect guitar player with all of those qualities is the same guy that has resided to the leftside of my drum kit now for twelve years... John Petrucci!
Now to be honest, the thought obviously crossed my mind the first time around but my instincts (Ego) told me to try and keep this project completely separate from DT and ait to myself. But realistically, John always was the perfect guy for a project like this. He and I did a clinic tour together in Europe the previous year at which we would have long, improvisa-tional jams with local bass players plus I knew we already had a writing and playing chemistry that could truly enhance the project. So I made the call. John was already planning on doing something with Pete and Mike anyway, so this project just seemed to be the right opportunity and the right timing. So, he said, "Sure". (Have I told you that I love guitarists?)
The MUSIC
OK... we had a band, we had the window of availability, but there was still one MINOR detail still missing... What the hell were we going to play? We knew there was only a period of about one week that all of our schedules permitted. So how on earth would we write (MUCH LESS RECORD!) a full length album ???
Well, kids, let me give you a play-by-play of one of the craziest, most stressful, and, yet, simultaneously beautiful, magical and most creative weeks of my life!
It actually began with a one-off rehearsal that took place at my house on August 30th, 1997 (tragically, the same day Princess Diana got into her fatal car accident). Anyway, the ] four of us assembled in my basement and spent five or six hours chatting, drinking coffee, eating pizza and jamming. Luckily, Jordan came prepared with a lot of riffs for us to start with and by the end of the day we found ourselves with many bits and pieces of possible songs. Most of these bits and pieces became the foundations for "Paradigm Shift", "Kindred Sprits" and "Universal Mind".
Three weeks later, we reconvened in a cozy little studio/home in upstate New York to begin the "Experiment". Here's a day by day account of the madness:
SAT. SEPT. 20th, 1997
John, Jordan and myself (along with Paul Orofmo and Kosaku) spend the day loading in, setting up and getting sounds.(Tony had a personal engagement for the weekend and would be joining us on Monday.) The three of us begin writing and arranging the majority of "Paradigm Shift"!
SUN. SEPT. 21st, 1997
The three of us finish up writing "Paradigm" and then spend the evening recording most of the basic tracks.
MON. SEPT. 22nd, 1997
Tony joins us and we spend the day and evening writing, arranging and recording the basic tracks for "Freedom Of Speech". We then end the day's session with what would become "Three Minute Warning". (A half hour jam of ãîî% completely improvised insanity.) Not a single note or beat was discussed before hand. The result was so cool that we decided to include the jam in its entirety at the end of the CD completely live without a single edit or over-dub. (Clams ' n' all!!). The only problem was that we had gone on for so long, that the mulitrack tape ran out! Luckily, I was running a live-to- 2 track DAT (as I always do) which is where the last minute or so of this CD is actually taken from. You' II notice the drop out and change of sounds at around 2/:i2 of the track (or 5:13 of ID #13). I think this jam really defines all four of us as musicians and captures the magic of this project's spontaneity.
TUES. SEPT. 23rd, 1997
As Dream T heater's "Falling Into Infinity" was hitting the record shops around the world, John and I continued hard at work with Jordan and Tony, oblivious to the world outside the doors ofMUlbrook Studios.
We start the day's session off by jamming on a great bass line that Tony has stumbled upon. This ended up becoming "Osmosis". (To Illustrate how crazy the sessions were, the photos of the band were snapped while we were actually laying down the basic tracks for this piece!) We then spent the rest of the day's session writing, arranging and recording "Kindred Spirits".
WED. SEPT. 24th, 1997
This ends up being the final day of full band recording. The session starts out with two quick little pieces. The first is a duet featuring Tony and myself called "Chris & Kevin's Excellent Adventure". We run through a couple dozen different takes of totally spontaneous jams and then end up doing some "Vocal" overdubs on top of one of them. (So much for a completely instrumental album!). Tony and I continue to jam and then Jordan joins in on a cool little groove which
ended up being "The Stretch". John then I joins the three of us and we spend the rest of
the day writing, arranging and recording the ' last of the full band compositions, "Universal Mind".
THURS. SEPT. 25th, 1997
With the drums now finished, this was the
last official day of the band sessions. Tony
does his bass tracks on "Paradigm", as welt as any other parts that need embellishments and John and Jordan record their duet, "State Of Grace", and it's a wrap!! In the coming
Viweeks, John and Jordan laid down various guitar and keyboard overdubs when they had some available time... and the rest is history (or at least someday might be!).
That, my friends, is the recipe for making a record in less than a week! It was a week of magic, madness, stress, creativity, confusion, great playing, great music and great espresso
(thanks, Tony!). It couldn' t have happened any other way.
and I would do it again in a second !
At least, that's my side of the story ...
- Mike Portnoy, New York, December 1997
Mike Portnoy would like to thank:
Pete MorticelH and Mike Varney for helping to finally bring my dream project to life; Kevin Shirley for being such a bud and making this album sound as good as it deserved to; Zoe and Pat Thrall and all at Avatar Studios; Paul Orofino and Kosaku Nakamura for making the magic week go so smoothly; joe Hibbs and all at Tama Drums; Steve Oksenuk and at! at Sabian Cymbals; Pat Brown and all at Pro Mark Sticks; Latin Percussion; Remo Heads and DW Pedals; John, Jordan and Tony for sharing all of this great music; John, John, Derek, and James for sharing all of the other great music; all of my friends and family, and most importantly my loving wife, Martene; my beautiful daugh'ter, Melody and my "other kids": Bongo, ?. T. and Stinkey.
John Petrucci would like to dedicate this record to:
Rena, Reny and Samantha who complete the circle of my life which is ñ
to my music. Also a very special thank you to Mark Snyder for his inno\,„..~ ,.¦... _.,., ,_,._. ,.
Beresford and Mesa Boogie Amplification; Rob Nishida and Ibanez Guitars; Larry Di Marzio, Steve Blucher and Di
Marzio Pickups; Craig Jackson and all at Lexicon; Jimmy Dunlop, and Greg Romano and D' Addario Strings; Ron
Bienstock for making it all happen and Kevin Shirley for his talent and warmheartedness as always.
Jordan Rudess would like to thank:
The three most important women of my life-My wife Danielle, and my two daughters Ariana and Kayla who provide me the creative inspiration in my life. Pete Morticelti and Mike Varney for having the vision to keep great music alive! Rod Morgenstein-the best musical partner on the planet in the Rudess/Morgenstein Project, Michelle Morgenstein, My mother Rita and brothers Jon and Wes, The Dregs, Dream Theater, Kosaku Nakamura my incredible assistant. Chris Martirano and all at Kurzweil for making my amazing instruments. John Guth for his support and of Mark of the Unicorn, Chuck Alcon at Microboards.Alesis, Craig Jack'~ Shem Cohen, Joseph Lyons, Jupiter, Rob Shore, Frank Solomon, Mark Dan Fisher. Jordan plays Kurzweil instruments exclusively. Visit Jordan's web site at http://www.mediusvision,comfjordan contact: jordan@bway.net
Tony Levin may be contacted at
http://www.papabear.com/tlev.htm
Extra Special Thanks from MAGNA CARTA to:
Kevin "Caveman" Shirley for the mighty mix; Zoe Thrall and all at Avatar in NYC for the incredible facility; Matthew Freeman for making it easy; Leon Zervos at Absolute for the masterful mastering; Mike, John, Jordan and Tony for being total professionals.
© 1998 MAGNA CARTA
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