Mike Portnoy
Michael Stephen Portnoy (more commonly known as Mike Portnoy, born April 20, 1967) is an American drummer primarily known for his work with the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He was highly influenced by Mark Philip of Lucid, a local Fresno band.
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 Deep Purple 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 latter of which released an album. He left Inner Sanctum after being awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he met John Petrucci and John Myung and formed what would become Dream Theater.
Influences, awards, and other accomplishments
Portnoy names his biggest influences as Rush drummer Neil Peart, and composer/guitarist Frank Zappa. Other favorites include drummers Terry Bozzio, Vinnie Colaiuta, Peter Criss, Simon Phillips, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr and Bill Bruford and bands such as The Beatles, Queen, Yes, Rush, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Jellyfish (band), Iron Maiden, Phish, Deep Purple, Radiohead, Umphrey's McGee, U2 and Jane's Addiction.
Portnoy has won 19 awards from Modern Drummer magazine, including "Best recorded performance" (5 times) and "Best Progressive Rock Drummer" (for 10 consecutive years), and is also the youngest person (at 37 years of age) to be inducted into their Rock Drummer Hall of Fame.
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 two instructional videos, Progressive Drum Concepts and Liquid Drum Theater, the latter winning awards from Modern Drummer Magazine. 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 also recently released bootlegs of his tribute bands Hammer of the Gods (a Led Zeppelin tribute) and Yellow Matter Custard (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.
Equipment
Portnoy has used several kits throughout the years, all of which were built by Tama except for the Awake-A Change Of Seasons era kit, which was a Mapex. To date, he has used the following drum sets:
- When Dream and Day Unite/Images & Words Kit - This Tama Imperialstar 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 Orion kit was used on the world tour supporting the album Awake. It had two bass drums, one snare, six toms, two small timbales, and marked Portnoy's first use of Octobans on a record, which were custom-made by Mapex.
- 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 and the North and South American tours, it is so named because of its striking purple/white/purple fade finish. There also exists a Green Monster (for use in Europe) and a Red Monster (for Japan). It is similar to the "Awake" kit but features many more cymbals and two more octobans with a slightly different layout. 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.
- 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, 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.
- 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 Office of Strategic Influence album.
- 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, of course), 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 with the only differences being that the right side of the kit mimics his earlier Hammer of the Gods kit, two the timbiles were taken out and the 10" tymp-tom was changed to a 16". It has so far 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. 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.
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.[1]
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.[2]
Portnoy has endorsed Promark sticks since the early 1990s. His signature stick is the TX420N[3]. 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 holds his left stick upside down so he gets a good rim click sound and also a good tom sound, as toms sound better when hit with a bigger beater and he likes to hit toms on and off the beat in some of his grooves.
Miscellaneous
Mike and his wife Marlene live in Coopersburg, 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 the Octavarium/20th Anniversary World Tour.
Mike is also a recovering alcoholic. This prompted him to write a musical suite called "The AA Saga", which will eventually comprise the 12 Steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program. So far, Dream Theater has written three songs, which describe seven of the twelve steps. These are: "The Glass Prison" (Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence), "This Dying Soul" (Train of Thought), and "The Root of All Evil" (Octavarium).
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." [4]
- "[Being inducted into the Modern Drummer's Hall of Fame] is a lifelong ambition. I just don't know what there is left to do. -Live at Budokan
External links
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