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Drummer
elite, Mike Portnoy has been very busy despite having a 'break' from
his usual Dream Theater duties. He has been involved with a few side
projects such as The Liquid Tension Experiment and TransAtlantic.
He also guest appeared on John Arch's (Fates Warning) first solo recordings
in over fifteen years and most recently, joined former Dream Theater
band mate, Kevin Moore along with Jim Matheos (Fates Warning), Sean
Malone (Cynic; Gordian Knot) and Steve Wilson (Porcupine Tree) to
form the progressive metal super-group, O.S.I..
Says Portnoy, "basically, Jim Matheos and myself have been talking
about doing something for many, many years. We've been friends for
many years now and we both have a mutual admiration for each of our
bands, Dream Theater and Fates Warning, and we've all become close.
So basically we both decoded that we had to either shit or get off
the pot and do something."
What they did was create progressive metal with an industrial edge.
By using keyboard samples and sound bites they took their style of
traditional metal into a new musical direction. "From a musical standpoint
O.S.I. is about taking the term 'Progressive,' which will inevitably
applied to this project, but taking that into completely different
places," Portnoy agreed. "In this case its going to more spacey.Kind
of techno, industrial, space metal. It's like mixing Nine Inch Nails,
Pink Floyd and Peter Gabriel together in a blender. There are a lot
of soundscapes and things like that. Its very different from the usual
term 'progressive' which is all about playing and musicianship. We're
more about soundscapes and artistry. It's a very different place for
progressive music to be taken. For me this is something completely
different from anything else I've done, so it's cool in that respect
to me."
Portnoy is a world renowned drummer who is famous for his incredible
oversized drum kits and fast-as-lighting double bass work. But, it's
his genius level of technique and the complex patterns he plays is
what placed him into a higher ranking above the rest. His long list
of awards include- eighteen Modern Drummer Magazine Reader's Poll
Awards including: Best Progressive Rock Drummer (eight-years in a
row.) Best Clinician (twice), Best Educational Video/DVD for Liquid
Drum Theater and Best Recorded Performance of the Year (five times)
for Dream Theater's "Awake," "A Change Of Seasons," "Falling Into
Infinity," "Scenes From A Memory" and "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence."
Portnoy, born on April 20, 1967, was raised in Long Beach, Long Island.
He is a self-taught drummer, who was in and out of local bands throughout
high school. He was awarded a music scholarship to Berklee Music College
in Boston. At Breklee he met guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John
Myung and his life would change forever. The three would soon form
a band called Majesty, which after copyright problems would change
to Dream Theater, named after a now demolished California cinema.
Dream Theater's brand of traditional/progressive metal went on to
become very successful and now nearly eighteen years later the band
is still going strong and are only getting better. "I don't take anything
for granted," says the stickman. "It's definitely a tough time for
bands in general, but especially a band like ours, who survived this
long. Dream Theater's been together for eighteen years now and for
us to still be thriving, not just existing, is big. I mean we're still
growing within this little world we're in. This last summer we headlined
Jones Beach and that was such a huge accomplishment for a band like
ours to be doing that kind of stuff with no MTV play, no radio play,
no mainstream press. It's definitely an accomplishment that we won't
take for granted and that's why we keep doing it. Man, we have the
greatest fan base out of any band out there. Our success is attributed
to the fans not to us. We just do what we do and what happens. It's
out of our hands and luckily we have this fan base that has continued
to allow us to do what we do throughout all the climates and trends
that seem to just come and go around us year after year."
Aside from Dream Theater Portnoy has always enjoyed moonlighting with
side projects and he is very happy with his work with O.S.I. and so
are the fans. O.S.I's debut release, "Office Of Strategic Influence"
on InsideOut Music America, has already hit the #1 spot on CD Universe's
Top Seller's list and is expected to be a huge success. But sales
numbers and chart positions don't necessarily tweak Portnoy's main
interest and are certainly not his main priority. "I don't put expectations
on anything I do really, I just do what I do," says the Long Island
native. "Like I said, after I do it it's out of my hands. I'm like
that even with Dream Theater record sales. I don't expect anything
or even care, I don't even look at the sales, you know. That stuff
to me is nice for the record company, but for me it's more about the
music and the creative process."
For now, O.S.I. will remain a studio project as there have been no
plans to tour or even perform any shows for that matter. Portnoy's
'break' from Dream Theater is coming to a close as he readies himself
to get back with the legendary band. "I'm gonna get back to Dream
Theater in a couple of weeks and that will be my focus for the coming
year," he says. "Making a new record and then hitting the road after
that happens. I've had a little time off and have done some various
projects here and there, but my focus is back on Dream Theater and
we'll what happens."
For more on Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater, O.S.I. or any of his projects
log to: http://www.mikeportnoy.com
; http://www.dreamtheater.com
; http://www.osiband.com
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1998-2003 Sinbad Productions / BallBusterHardMusic.com
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