Michael Stephen
"Mike" Portnoy (born April 20, 1967) is an American drummer primarily
known as the former drummer, backing vocalist, and a co-founder of the
progressive metal band Dream Theater. Known for his drumming prowess and
technical skill, Portnoy has won 26 awards from the Modern Drummer magazine. He co-produced six Dream Theater albums with
guitarist John Petrucci, starting from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
through Black Clouds and Silver Linings. From A Change of Seasons onwards,
Portnoy had been writing a significant amount of Dream Theater's lyrics. 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).
Besides his work with Dream
Theater, Portnoy is known for his many side projects and tribute bands. He is a
founding member of Liquid Tension Experiment, an instrumental progressive rock
band featuring fellow DT members John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess along with
bass legend Tony Levin. He is also a founding member of Transatlantic, a
progressive rock "super-group" featuring Spock's Beard
keyboardist/vocalist Neal Morse, Flower Kings guitarist Roine Stolt and
Marillon bassist Pete Trewavas. Portnoy has also recorded and/or
toured/performed live with Neal Morse, OSI, Hail!, Stone Sour, Fates Warning,
Overkill, G3 and played on Avenged Sevenfold's album " Nightmare" in
place of their drummer, The Rev, who had recently died. Over the years, Portnoy
has also created tribute bands to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rush, and The Who,
which has allowed him to perform the music of his four favorite drummers.
On September 2010, Portnoy
announced that he had left Dream Theater after 25 years. He was replaced by Mike
Mangini. Since his departure, Portnoy has started two new projects. One is with
Symphony X singer Russell Allen and guitarist Mike Orlando, a straight rock/metal
band called Adrenaline Mob. He has also started a progressive pop oriented band
with Steve Morse, Neal Morse, Dave LaRue, and Casey McPherson called Flying
Colors.
Dream Theater history
Portnoy was born April 20,
1967 into a Jewish family and raised on Long Island in Long Beach, New York.
According to a post made by Jordan Rudess on his forum, Portnoy is ethnically
Jewish but does not practice. His father worked as a DJ at a local radio station,
helping Portnoy gain an appreciation for music at an early age particularly, as
Portnoy has pointed out, because he had access to his father's collection of
LPs. He developed a preference for bands including Rush, Queen, Led Zeppelin,
The Who, Iron Maiden, and The Beatles, among many others. Portnoy claims to be
self-taught as a drummer, though he did take music theory classes in high
school. During that period he began playing in local bands, two of which
(Rising Power and Inner Sanctum) recorded and released independent albums. He
left Inner Sanctum (his last high school band) after being awarded a
scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. There, he met
John Petrucci and John Myung. They formed a band, initially taking the name
"Majesty" before changing their name to Dream Theater. They left
Berklee soon after.
Influences
In the April 2001 edition of
Modern Drummer & Portnoy's website, he names Neil Peart, Buddy Rich, Frank
Zappa, Vinnie Paul, Carl Palmer, Bill Bruford, Terry Bozzio, Nicko McBrain,
Billy Cobham, Alan White, Nick Mason, Stewart Copeland, Phil Collins, Chester
Thompson, Simon Phillips, Nick D'Virgilio, Andy Sturmer, Dave Lombardo, Jon
Fishman, Vinnie Colaiuta, Ringo Starr, Peter Criss, John Bonham, Keith Moon and
Lars Ulrich as influences.
Awards and recognition
Modern Drummer
Mike Portnoy won the following
Modern Drummer magazine Reader's Poll awards:
Best Up & Coming Talent (1994)
Best Progressive Rock Drummer (1995–2006)
Best Recorded Performance (1995 for Awake,
1996 for A Change of Seasons, 1998 for Falling Into Infinity, 2000 for
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, 2002 for Six Degrees of Inner
Turbulence, 2007 for Score) and 2011 for Nightmare (Avenged Sevenfold).[5]
Best Clinician (2000, 2002)
Best Educational Video/DVD (2000, 2002)
Hall of Fame Inductee (2004)
He has co-founded several
progressive rock groups and projects, including Transatlantic and Liquid
Tension Experiment.
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 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 released bootlegs of his
tribute bands Hammer of the Gods (a Led Zeppelin tribute), Yellow Matter
Custard (The Beatles), Cygnus and the Sea Monsters (Rush), and Amazing Journey
(The Who).
On September 18, 2006 within
his website's forum Portnoy cagily stated that he had finally met one of his
drummer heroes from youth from the band 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...", 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. Portnoy had previously written the liner notes for the
Japanese pressing of Rush's 2002 release Vapor Trails, but publicly denounced
Peart in 2000 after Peart called the people involved in the Rush tribute
"bar bands" .
In the October 2009 issue of
Rhythm Magazine, Portnoy was listed as #5 in their list of the Top 50 Drummers
of All Time.
He was featured on Fuse TV's
Talking Metal where he joined with Bobby Ellsworth and the show's hosts in
covering Motörhead's "Overkill."
In June 14, 2010, Mike Portnoy
won the Metal Hammer Golden God Award for Best Drummer.
As voted on by 6,500 drummers
worldwide, Portnoy won the Drummies Award for Best Progressive Rock drummer in
2010, while Joey Jordison of Slipknot/Rob Zombie/Murderdolls won the award for
Best Metal drummer.
At the Revolver Golden God
Awards in April 20, he won the "Best Drummer Award" for his work with
Avenged Sevenfold.
In June 7, 2011, Portnoy
posted on his Facebook that he had won DRUM! Magazine's "Drummer of the
Year Award" and the "Metal Drummer Award".
Drum kits and percussive equipment
When Dream and Day
Unite/Images & Words Kit - This Tama Imperialstar kit (the previous model
of the Imperialstar, unlike the 2007 Imperialstar, which is an entry level
kit)and Zildjian cymbals which was bought originally by Portnoy himself through
working three jobs. It was used until the end of the Images and Words tour when
Portnoy was signed by Sabian and Mapex.
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 acrylic, giving them a
slightly different, more "natural" tone.
The Purple/Green/Red Monsters - These were
Tama Starclassic kits which marked Portnoy's signing with Tama in the late '90s
after his endorsement deal with Mapex fell through (they took the kit he was
using off the market, meaning that he was endorsing a product the public could
not buy.) Used for the recording of Falling Into Infinity" and "Scenes
from a Memory and the North, South American, and Asian tours for said albums,
they are so named because of their striking color/white/color fade finishes.
Each version of the kit was kept in a different part of the world to avoid
overseas shipping costs; the "Green Monster" was used for European
tours and the "Red Monster" was used 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 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 uses this kit in his 1999 Instructional DVD "Liquid Drum
Theater".
Liquid Tension Experiment kit - A
comparatively modest kit used in his supergroup project Liquid Tension
Experiment. The bass drum and toms of this kit (not the snare, timbales, and
cymbals) were the first Portnoy ever purchased used according to an interview
where he gave a tour of his basement and this kit showed up. 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 bass drum with a
double kick 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
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 reproduced in Tama drums' new line of
acrylic shells named Starclassic Mirage in the "Black Ice" finish.
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. Much
like the Colored Monsters, there were 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 as well as the Train of Thought album and tour.
The OSI kit - Portnoy used the small (right)
side of his Red 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.
Yellow Matter Custard kit - A specially
designed set for use in Portnoy'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. Its in the sizes: 12"x8", 14"x14" &
20"x14". The cymbals are an 14" AA HiHat, an AA Crash on the
left and a HH Crash/Ride on the right.
Hammer Of The Gods kit - A John Bonham-replica
kit that was used in Portnoy'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 previous kit 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 of
Octavarium began, Portnoy 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 Portnoy
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. The shells would be
Starclassic Mirage acrylic shells instead of the Starclassic Maple he has
always used. He used this kit in his DVD In Constant Motion.
The Mirage Monster- Revealed at Gods Of Metal
2007, this 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." 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. This kit has been scaled down to a relatively
small double-bass kit for several shows taking place in smaller venues.
Black & Silver Monster- Similar to the
Mirage Monster, this kit is made up of two different kits, this time with the
new Bubinga wood drums with a black and silver finish. This kit was used for
the Black Clouds & Silver Linings tour. To record the album he used two
diiferent sets of Tama drums - his main set was Starclassic Bubinga Elite and
the second, smaller one was Starclassic Performer.
Several of Portnoy's drum kits
make use of Roland electronic drum pads. Portnoy uses these 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 Portnoy
counts off the song "Under A Glass Moon" on the pad. Portnoy explains
the use of these pads in the commentary track of the "Drum Cam Only"
version of the Live At Budokan DVD, as well as the "Mike's Stage
Tour" featurette on the Chaos in Motion 2007–2008 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.[18] 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 that can be played much more like a drum than
a cymbal, used much more in traditional drum fills than most quickly decaying cymbal
tones. Their sizes are 8/8", 10/10" and 12/14". Sabian has
marketed odd-sized 7, 9, and 11" "Max Splash" cymbals which have
a fast decay and can be used in fills and drum patterns that have the same
namesake.
Portnoy has endorsed Promark
sticks since the early 1990s. His signature stick is the TX420N. It is .531
inches in diameter, 16 1/8 in length, and has a 747 taper and nylon tip. The
color of the ink and the design of the logo has changed several times. When
Mike was in Dream Theater, it had purple ink and had the Dream Theater logo on
it. When he toured with Avenged Sevenfold, the Pro-Mark logo was replaced with
the Deathbat and used regular black ink. The "420" in the model
number, which is 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 -
at times he would incorporate the act of tossing his drumstick in the air to
change to the other end.
Other instruments played
Portnoy played John Myung's
bass when Dream Theater performed as the fictitious band Nightmare Cinema.
Before live performances of "Trial of Tears", he would sometimes
switch instruments with John Petrucci and play a fragment of
"Eruption" by Van Halen. In Nightmare Cinema he got the
"alternate stage name" Max Del Fuvio. He was seen playing Pink
Floyd's Sheep, on a sunburst 4-string Music Man Stingray belonging to Myung on
The making of Systematic Chaos. He plays bass guitar during a jam by Liquid
Trio Experiment 2.
Avenged Sevenfold, departure from Dream Theater and future
In spring 2010, Portnoy filled
in for Avenged Sevenfold's former drummer, Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan,
who died during production of the band's latest album Nightmare.
On May 5, 2010, Portnoy
released a statement on his status with Avenged Sevenfold on their official
website: "Although I wish I could stay on board with A7X in a more
permanent capacity, the reality is that I am committed to Dream Theater as my
main priority and I will need to resume work with DT to start a new album at
some point in 2011.....However, I will be able to join my brothers in Avenged
Sevenfold for at least the duration of their touring throughout 2010.....You
can look at me like the band's 'rebound drummer' to buy them some time until
they are comfortable and ready to make a commitment to somebody new for
full-time relationship in their future!"
On Wednesday, September 8,
2010, Mike Portnoy announced he would be leaving Dream Theater. In his official
statement, he said he had "come to the conclusion that the [Dream Theater]
machine was starting to burn me out", and that he had urged the band to
take a break from its relentless recording, publishing and touring cycle. However,
when the band decided it would rather continue without him, he departed, and
Dream Theater later chose Mike Mangini to take his place after auditioning
seven world-class drummers. When Avenged Sevenfold later decided to also sever
ties with Portnoy, he announced that he had asked to return to Dream Theater,
but had been turned down by their lawyer since the band (as later revealed) had
already brought Mangini on board.
Portnoy later announced that
he had started two new musical projects: Adrenaline Mob, with Russell Allen,
Mike Orlando, Rich Ward and Paul DiLeo; and Flying Colors, with Neal Morse,
Steve Morse, Dave LaRue and Casey McPherson. Adrenaline Mob released its debut
EP in August 2011[26]. Responding to questions on Twitter, Portnoy stated that
the "Flying Colors" debut album is scheduled to be released in 2012,
and that a full release album for Adrenaline Mob is also slated for release in
2012.
On June 10, 2011, Portnoy
announced on his website that he would be playing a show in New York City on
June 24, 2011 with Adrenaline Mob.
On August 5, 2011, one of
Adrenaline Mob's new songs, "Hit the Wall," debuted on the Q104.3
radio station following a live interview with Portnoy about the band, as well
as his hopes for the future and his feelings towards Dream Theater.
On September 14, 2011, it was
announced that Portnoy would fill in on drums for Stone Sour's show at Rock In
Rio for drummer Roy Mayorga, who had been expecting the birth of his first
child on the same day as the show.
Portnoy and guitarist John
Sykes had begun working on a new band in July 2011, together with bassist Billy
Sheehan. However, in January 2012, the project quietly dissolved, and Portnoy
announced that he and Sheehan had selected guitarist Richie Kotzen to replace
Sykes.
Personal life
Portnoy and his wife Marlene
(née Apuzzo) live in Upper Saucon Township in the Lehigh Valley region of
Pennsylvania with their children, Melody Ruthandrea and Max John. Marlene used
to be a guitarist in the all-female band Meanstreak, and two of the other members,
guitarist Rena Sands and bassist Lisa Martens, are married to Dream Theater
guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung, respectively.
Near the end of every year
since 2001, Portnoy shares on his blog a personal choice on the top ten music
recordings, films and TV shows released along the year.
Instructional DVD releases
Portnoy has released several
instructional drumming videos/DVDs. These include:
"Progressive Drum Concepts"
(Rittor Music 1995 1 VHS/DVD)
"Liquid Drum Theater" (Hudson
Music 2000 2 DVDs)
"In Constant Motion" (Hudson
Music 2007, 3 DVDs)
Portnoy's self filmed
performances
Portnoy has self-released
"drum-cam" DVDs of the last several Dream Theater and side project
recording sessions through his own "MP4" production company. These
are "in-studio" recordings typically consisting of Full Band,
Isolated Drums tracks, and an Audio Commentary.
"Asian Clinic Tour" (MP4
Productions 2001, 1 DVD) (out of print)
"Ten Degrees of Turbulent
Drumming" (MP4 Productions 2002, 1 DVD)
"Drums Across Forever" (MP4
Productions 2002, 1 DVD)
"Drums of Thought" (MP4
Productions 2004, 1 DVD)
"Live at Budokan" (MP4 Production
2005, 1 DVD)
"Mike Portnoy - Drumavarium" (MP4
Productions 2005, 1 DVD)
"sysDRUMatic chaos" (MP4
Productions 2007, 1 DVD)
"SCORE" (MP4 Productions 2008, 1
DVD)
"Black Clouds & Silver
Drumming" (MP4 Productions 2009, 1 DVD)
"Whirlwind Drumming" (MP4
Productions 2010, 1 DVD)
"Testimony 2:Live Drum Cam" (MP4
Productions 2012, 1 DVD)
"Drumertá" (MP4 Productions 2012,
1 DVD)
"Drumming Colors" (MP4
Productions 2012, 1 DVD)
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