DTF Interview v. We Need Connections!

[Ħ]

Hey everyone.

So, The Ytse Times has expressed interest in interviewing one of DT's members specifically for this forum.

We are going to be conducting this interview via email.  This way, it allows for an easier recording process, and also gives DT the opportunity to answer each question with care.  Robwebster has agreed to be our representative.

Now we only need two things.
1.  Who has connections with the band to arrange this?
2.  What should the questions be?

The entire purpose of us conducting our own interview is that many of the recent interviews have basically covered the same content.  JLB is asked about the Static Impulse tour, JP is asked about his upcoming solo album, both of them are asked about their excitement for the new drummer, yadda yadda yadda.  However, this is a chance to delve even deeper with more specific questions, such as, "What songs did you use for the audition?" or "Will the recorded auditions be released?", or even "What the **** is Under the Glass Moon about?!" These types of specific questions are rarely asked in mainstream interviews with the band, but this is a good opportunity to get some answers.

So, what I propose is that each DTFer can nominate a question.  If you like a question someone has already nominated, go ahead and quote that question.  Of course, I doubt DT will have the time to answer every single question, so the questions that recieve the most interest will be asked.

And if you know how to contact the band, please speak up!

[John94]

Could get a Vokle session going with Jordan. If not other band members/all members. I'd like to see it especially as Jordans Vokle sessions have been so fun!

[robwebster]

I've organised a few interviews in my time. Contacting the label's always a good place to start.

Think an email interview would probably be the most reliable format. I don't particularly enjoy reading email interviews, as it lacks that ring of truth - you can't ask follow-up questions, it's always very rigid - but the band members are at leisure to respond in their own time, so you're more likely to get a positive response. Plus, you can tell them they're at liberty to answer as many or as few of the questions as they like. I say that as I imagine that a lot of the questions for John Myung, should such an interview go ahead, would be about why he's so quiet, and why he doesn't contribute more, and I could imagine that being perceived as confrontational. (Probably means carefully screening the questions is necessary, too.)

Plus, it saves time on transcription. My issue with audio interviews (I say as a radio practitioner! But specifically online ones, this doesn't apply as much to radio) is that you kind of have to stop everything you're doing to listen to them. Lots of people listen to music while they're on their computer - I am right now, in fact - and so it's a bit of an inconvenience if you have to turn off that album you're really getting into to find out what John Petrucci had to say about the next album.

[Ħ]

^ Yeah, it sounds like emails the best.  I prefer to hear their initial reactions and really their personalized voices, but email is gonna do away with the recording problem (not to mention we don't risk being starstruck).  Do you want to write it, rob, once we get some questions?

[robwebster]

^ Yeah, it sounds like emails the best.  I prefer to hear their initial reactions and really their personalized voices, but email is gonna do away with the recording problem (not to mention we don't risk being starstruck).  Do you want to write it, rob, once we get some questions?

It'd be a pleasure.

Also, thought... might be interesting to write an interview where we don't ask about the MP split?

I mean, if it comes up and people want to know about it, then sure. It seems a bit of an obvious question, though, and I think we've heard all we're going to hear for a little while.

[Ħ]

All right!

Now all we need is some suggestions for questions.

*tap tap tap*

[robwebster]

I'd quite like to ask him about the meanings of a lot of the lyrics. Could try and choose the five most perplexing songs, lyrically, and ask him what each one's about? In as much detail as he can remember / wants to go into.

This is probably a stupid one, but working titles would be interesting too. It's such an inane bit of trivia but I really like working titles. Ask where they come from, a few of his favourites? Along those kinda lines. Probably delving too far into fanwank, though.

Still. I'm currently thinking along the lines of fan minutiae. Would be nice to have the ultimate John Petrucci interview. All the big things as well as the small things.

[blackngold29]

Might be best to wait until after the new drummer is announced? Then it would be some real news. I love the idea of the more in-depth questions that no regular reporter would ask.


The first question I thought of (and I didn't get the whole way through the DT Norway interview so maybe it's discussed there) is: When the band is not touring or in studio, what's a 'Day in the Life of JP' like?

[robwebster]

Might be best to wait until after the new drummer is announced? Then it would be some real news. I love the idea of the more in-depth questions that no regular reporter would ask.


The first question I thought of (and I didn't get the whole way through the DT Norway interview so maybe it's discussed there) is: When the band is not touring or in studio, what's a 'Day in the Life of JP' like?

Well, there's definitely no hurry. Though, the announcement must surely be any week now. Completely possible that the interview might not happen till after the event anyway.

There are two things about waiting until after the announcement of the drummer, though...

First off, the "new drummer" stuff will absolutely dominate the interview. It's the question of the century, it's the DT news of the year, it'd actually look ignorant not to ask about it.

Secondly, as soon as the drummer's announced, there will be a lot more people queueing up to interview him. Like, tonnes of them. More to interview the drummer, I'm sure, but the band-leader'll be a fairly hefty figure. Which would not only make our lives harder, but make our interview a drop of water in an ocean - and probably a fairly dull drop in comparison to "Hey! Neil Peart is in your band, how about that!"

I think for an interview of this ilk, it's probably best to get him during the downtime. I think the lull between press releases is perfect to ask him the list-making, album-ranking, internet-debating fan questions. Solidifies its position as "not just another interview" - which I figure is what we're going for? Think the lack of "real news" allows us free reign to ask all the weird, fanwanky questions we like.

[blackngold29]

Might be best to wait until after the new drummer is announced? Then it would be some real news. I love the idea of the more in-depth questions that no regular reporter would ask.


The first question I thought of (and I didn't get the whole way through the DT Norway interview so maybe it's discussed there) is: When the band is not touring or in studio, what's a 'Day in the Life of JP' like?

Well, there's definitely no hurry. Though, the announcement must surely be any week now. Completely possible that the interview might not happen till after the event anyway.

There are two things about waiting until after the announcement of the drummer, though...

First off, the "new drummer" stuff will absolutely dominate the interview. It's the question of the century, it's the DT news of the year, it'd actually look ignorant not to ask about it.

Secondly, as soon as the drummer's announced, there will be a lot more people queueing up to interview him. Like, tonnes of them. More to interview the drummer, I'm sure, but the band-leader'll be a fairly hefty figure. Which would not only make our lives harder, but make our interview a drop of water in an ocean - and probably a fairly dull drop in comparison to "Hey! Neil Peart is in your band, how about that!"

I think for an interview of this ilk, it's probably best to get him during the downtime. I think the lull between press releases is perfect to ask him the list-making, album-ranking, internet-debating fan questions. Solidifies its position as "not just another interview" - which I figure is what we're going for?

Yeah, good points. Perhaps DT Announces New Drummer Exclusively on The Ytse Times is a little too much to hope for.

[hefdaddy42]

Hell, no.  That's exactly what we should shoot for.

[robwebster]

Definitely! Aim high. I just think they might be two different articles is all.

[Samsara]

Although I'd doubt he'd mind, make sure to get permission from bosk, seeing as how he is the admin of the board...if you are doing it using the DTF name. You might already have, but figured I'd throw that out there.

The label is a funny thing. They will request site statistics (so you will need bosk to pull them) in order to gauge whether or not letting DT talk to you is worth their time for promotion.

Case-in-point, I tried to interview MP prior to the Maiden tour, and went through Roadrunner. With all other labels, I've never had an issue, and I've interviewed plenty of artists from big name bands. Roadrunner denied my request, saying that my site -- www.breakdownroom.net -- despite a large amount of traffic (less than DTF, but not glaringly so, so the numbers are similar), was not worthy enough to interview any member of Dream Theater.

Instead, they said I had to interview a few of their "lower" bands (who I had no interest in) and then "one day" build up enough of a rapport with them that may THEN allow an interview.

F**k that.

That is ridiculous. I can understand a label doing its homework and have absolutely no issue with providing references (most of the artists I have interviewed are happy to be references). But to sit there and basically demand that I interview a bunch of their lower artists in order to eventually build a rapport with Roadrunner so that one day I can interview bigger artists, is stupid.

I'm an actual journalist, not some (forgive me folks) fan with a keyboard that wants to talk to their favorite band, and that was...degrading, to say the least.

So, unless you contact the band member(s) personally, or through non-label connections, you probably won't be able to successfully get an interview scheduled through Roadrunner. It's also a poor time, since the drummer announcement isn't here yet, and they don't have anything new to promote.

Just FYI as you try to set this up.

Frankly, I'd go through people that know the band members personally and ask for a favor. Because you ain't gettin' anywhere with Roadrunner.

[robwebster]

Jesus, really? That's nightmarish.

I, myself, have only ever contacted Snapper and InsideOut, both of whom were more than happy to oblige. Several times, one of them. Didn't request any stats or figures. Just gave carte blanche.

I think an email to Roadrunner would have to be laser targetted, in that case. Absolutely, see if we can associate The Ytse Times with DTF (and definitely, ask bosk), and on top of that probably push the fact that DTF is the largest dedicated Dream Theater community since Mike Portnoy left the band. We're the top of the food chain as far as Dream Theater fora go. The Big Cheese. And push the fact that it's going to be fairly unique as far as interviews go - more of an in-depth profile, than a generic interview. The kind of thing which we couldn't substitute another band for.

This'll need to be a very delicately worded campaign. Think the interview may need to be published simultaneously on here.

Maybe contacting management directly would be a wiser decision, at first. Speculatively, of course.

[Ħ]

This'll need to be a very delicately worded campaign.

...Looks like you've now got two jobs on your hands. 

[Samsara]

Yep, Roadrunner was terrible. In 12, almost 13 years of being a professional journalist covering music, politics, sports, business, etc., I have never been more disrespected.

Music alone, I have worked with a dozen labels, big and small, to interview artists and it has never been a problem.

The person I contacted was one of their staff to handle press inquiries. When I replied back asking for them to reconsider, whoever the top woman in that department was (I forget her name), shot back a nasty e-mail, telling me to stop trying to circumvent the system by asking them to reconsider their denial of my request. 

Unbelievable.

So while RR has a lot of artists I enjoy, from this point forward, I am doing what I don't like doing...going right around RR and going to the artist, or the artist's management team. The hell with RR's media relations team. Not worth the headache.

[Chino]

Will we get to hear SDV now that Mike is gone?

[yeshaberto]

I is excited

[John94]

That came across my mind too Chino. Along with Anna Lee.

I certainly would hope so. Then again, I hoped for a grand show at MSG for the 25th anniversary with KevMo stage reunion and the only performance of SDV.

[Samsara]

Agreed on the questions about SDV and Anna Lee. I love both those tunes and would love to see them played live (in the case of Anna Lee - played again).

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Have Dream Theater ever thought about doing an album that leaned heavily towards progressive rock the same way Train of Thought leaned heavily toward metal?

[blackngold29]

I would say we come up with the questions first and then try to figure out how to get the interview later. I don't think the questions we come up with will change over time much. I don't have any traffic stats for YtseTimes yet (either because it's so new or I'm missing something, hoping to figure that out tonight).

Hell, no.  That's exactly what we should shoot for.

That's proabably true! I never would've thought it would go from launch to "hey, let's interview a member" in five days. The support from you guys has been awesome.

[Samsara]

I would say we come up with the questions first and then try to figure out how to get the interview later. I don't think the questions we come up with will change over time much. I don't have any traffic stats for YtseTimes yet (either because it's so new or I'm missing something, hoping to figure that out tonight).

You should have, depending on your host provider, a control panel to the back end of the website, which has all sorts of tools for administrating the website. I know DTF, and my sites have this, and have a statistics program where we can pull tons of data out for these purposes. The main thing you will need for this is the amount of unique visitors on a monthly basis.

[blackngold29]

I would say we come up with the questions first and then try to figure out how to get the interview later. I don't think the questions we come up with will change over time much. I don't have any traffic stats for YtseTimes yet (either because it's so new or I'm missing something, hoping to figure that out tonight).

You should have, depending on your host provider, a control panel to the back end of the website, which has all sorts of tools for administrating the website. I know DTF, and my sites have this, and have a statistics program where we can pull tons of data out for these purposes. The main thing you will need for this is the amount of unique visitors on a monthly basis.

Yeah I know, I bought the stats and stuff, but it says that new sites might take a few days. I'll take a look when I get home. As far as Twitter traffic, it's going up everyday. Coming from from UK, Netherlands, Sweeden. Oh and we've got a girl fan on Facebook finally!

[nikostheater]

A girl fan?Great!Now the target is the second female fan.. 

I think that maybe we should try to approach DT's management or maybe to attemt a workaround..i mean,Rich is member here,right?Maybe he can help us with that when all is ready question-wise and stuff..

[noxon]

Just wanted to say; don't even bother with e-mail interviews. you're not going to get the long, thought out answers you're looking for, you ARE going to get them on voice because you will be able to clarify what you mean a lot more.

Also, don't worry about being star struck. The band is very used to it. I doubt you're gonna be worse "star struck" than I was bumbling in english back when I did my first english interview with a band member way back when. Of course, you're gonna get a more natural interview if you can talk with them as people, but they're so used to being interviewed by now that they basically interview themselves. You merely have to stutter a word and they'll talk about the topic at length

[jsem]

Have Dream Theater ever thought about doing an album that leaned heavily towards progressive rock the same way Train of Thought leaned heavily toward metal?

I hope.

[Progmetty]

1.  Who has connections with the band to arrange this?

Blob maybe.

[nikostheater]

Just wanted to say; don't even bother with e-mail interviews. you're not going to get the long, thought out answers you're looking for, you ARE going to get them on voice because you will be able to clarify what you mean a lot more.

Also, don't worry about being star struck. The band is very used to it. I doubt you're gonna be worse "star struck" than I was bumbling in english back when I did my first english interview with a band member way back when. Of course, you're gonna get a more natural interview if you can talk with them as people, but they're so used to being interviewed by now that they basically interview themselves. You merely have to stutter a word and they'll talk about the topic at length

A voice or a video interview would be superb,i don't know how easy it is though.
Maybe Jordan is the member that it's easier to approach and do something like that,he is very active lately.And James of course.
I don't know how easy it is to approach the Johns..

[robwebster]

Just wanted to say; don't even bother with e-mail interviews. you're not going to get the long, thought out answers you're looking for, you ARE going to get them on voice because you will be able to clarify what you mean a lot more.

Also, don't worry about being star struck. The band is very used to it. I doubt you're gonna be worse "star struck" than I was bumbling in english back when I did my first english interview with a band member way back when. Of course, you're gonna get a more natural interview if you can talk with them as people, but they're so used to being interviewed by now that they basically interview themselves. You merely have to stutter a word and they'll talk about the topic at length

I do agree that an audio interview would potentially garner more detailed answers - like I said, real time is a brilliant tool inasmuch as you can ask as many follow-up questions as you like - but it's nothing that can't be worked around. Follow-up emails, etc. Besides which, an audio interview would be a lot trickier to organise, with such a fledgling site. And it's more of an ask. BUT. I do think the net gain would be worth it. Giving them the option would probably be the best idea, at this stage. Pitch an audio interview, but also say that if it's too much of a problem then even an email interview would be absolutely hunky-dory.

Noxon, you've arranged audio interviews before, correct? With the band? How did that process begin? Won't blame you if you'd rather not publicise it (just PM blackngold, p'raps), but are there any salient contacts you could pass on to us?

[noxon]

We've done video and audio interviews with the band. Almost never e-mail. Mainly because they usually don't like doing e-mail interviews. Secondly because e-mail interviews tend to be short one-line answers.

As for how we go about scheduling interviews? We ask, depending on the situation. Local concerts we usually do by record label assistance, as they usually are given the "rights" to plan the interviews on those days. Otherwise we just ask the bandmember ourselves. But we have the advantage of having a 10 year long relationship with the band at this point.

Your best bet would be to ally yourself with someone who's already got a relationship with someone in the band.

[Ħ]

Based on what noxon is saying, we should try our hardest to do an audio interview.

As for who knows the band....Blob.  But he's gone.  STEVETHEATER has connections, right?  Umm...I think I remember reading admin saying he called up Mike Portnoy when the phony-MP thread was posted.

Or we could all simultaneously tweet their accounts.  I know CJS reads a lot of his tweets.

[Weymolith]

Sorry, while I do have direct contact to Mike, JP, Jordan, Management, and a label rep or two, I cannot help you arrange an interview. Aside from Mike, my contact is only used for the work I do for the band.

[blackngold29]

So far we've got:

What’s a day like when you aren’t on tour or in the studio?

Any chance that songs like Space Dye Vest or Anna Lee will get played live?

Will set lists still be done the way MP did them (based on city)?

Have Dream Theater ever thought about doing an album that leaned heavily towards progressive rock the same way Train of Thought leaned heavily toward metal?

I'm thinking something along the lines of Is there a goal you're working towards or taking it one album at a time?


Also, I got the Ytse Times stats working and it should be up tomorrow; we had at least 90 visitors today based on twitter and fb clicks. 17 new twitter followers today (including MP himself ) but still only one girl on fb .

[Ħ]

That's awesome news!  I think that if the news site keeps growing, and that it even has MP interested, perhaps RR will hear our cries.