Sons of Apollo (feat. Portnoy & Sherinian)

[Anguyen92]

I guess the only question for me is, "You worked with guys like Axl Rose, Mike Portnoy, Scott Weiland, Scott Stapp, etc.  Those guys that can have quite the, let's say, personality.  How do you keep yourself so level-headed and be fan-friendly when working with those guys with the big personalities?"

[Lethean]

No problem dude!

By the way, I spoke with Derek twice. We did a first attempt in the morning, but the call was awful and he didn't sound that engaged. He texted me in the afternoon and suggested to do it again. I only started doing this recently, and you can hear how nervous I was when talking to him. So surreal!!!!

I wanna know what he said during that first call....

[RodrigoAltaf]

He just sounded not engaged and motivated...on our second attempt he said he had hardly woken up when we talked, and was a bit grumpy. At one point I asked him about the tour dates and his response was not as exciting as I expected. It's all good though, he got better as we moved on, but when he listened to it he said "let's try again". Like I said, the whole experience was quite surreal... I was on the way home, stopped to buy groceries, checked my phone and there was Derek saying "hey, call me when ready". Very cool!

[pcs90]

His attitude in this interview is much better than how it was a few months ago. Nice interview as well.

[RodrigoAltaf]

I guess the only question for me is, "You worked with guys like Axl Rose, Mike Portnoy, Scott Weiland, Scott Stapp, etc.  Those guys that can have quite the, let's say, personality.  How do you keep yourself so level-headed and be fan-friendly when working with those guys with the big personalities?"

Good question! Thanks!

[Adami]

What are his career goals?

I mean, he went from playing HUGE crowds with GNR to tiny clubs with SOA and seems just as content with one as the other. So I'm curious where he hopes to go and how he hopes SOA will help him with that unless he wants to be the Rudy Sarzo of guitar.

[max_security]

I'd like to know what's it been like so far on the road , common interests and such on the downtimes ? Maybe him and Billy are Buffalo Bills fans or something , or he and Soto go out and drink Nano-Brews ? Or maybe non of those , everyone is there at showtime and then see you on the next one ?

[TAC]

I'd like to know what's it been like so far on the road , common interests and such on the downtimes ? Maybe him and Billy are Buffalo Bills fans or something , or he and Soto go out and drink Nano-Brews ? Or maybe non of those , everyone is there at showtime and then see you on the next one ?

Rock juice?

[RodrigoAltaf]

We spoke for 46 minutes, and even without me asking he answered all the questions posted here. He's such a cool cat! I asked him to talk about two songs where he contributed the most - Signs of the Time and Lost in Oblivion, and he said "you know what? Let's do a track-by-track of the whole album". We addressed his solo career and his band with John Moyer, Art of Anarchy. I think it will be published tomorrow, and I'll post it here.

[MirrorMask]

Sounds very cool! 

[Stadler]

I guess the only question for me is, "You worked with guys like Axl Rose, Mike Portnoy, Scott Weiland, Scott Stapp, etc.  Those guys that can have quite the, let's say, personality.  How do you keep yourself so level-headed and be fan-friendly when working with those guys with the big personalities?"

Do you really put Mike in the same category as Axl, Weiland, and Stapp?  They all have nonsense, but I don't know that the "nonsense" is the same.   One, it hasn't affected the music with Mike like it has with the others, and there is a substance issue with the others (at least Weiland and Stapp) that hasn't been present with Mike (and even if you say it has, it hasn't for the better part of two decades).

I don't argue that Mike has a social media problem, but that's not at all the same thing as the other three. 

[RodrigoAltaf]

Stadler, he did touch on the issue slightly, even without me asking. The ONE request he made before the interview was that I didn't ask anything about Guns n Roses, which I think was fair. He's done so much more!

[Samsara]

Do you really put Mike in the same category as Axl, Weiland, and Stapp?  They all have nonsense, but I don't know that the "nonsense" is the same.   One, it hasn't affected the music with Mike like it has with the others, and there is a substance issue with the others (at least Weiland and Stapp) that hasn't been present with Mike (and even if you say it has, it hasn't for the better part of two decades).

I don't argue that Mike has a social media problem, but that's not at all the same thing as the other three.

Agreed. Mike doesn't seem to be anything like those three you mentioned at all. I think it's strictly him not knowing when to self-edit. His personality comes across is someone who gets excited and passionate, and while I can certainly relate (as I am sure many of us can), it sometimes doesn't translate to his online posting.

[gmillerdrake]

Agreed. Mike doesn't seem to be anything like those three you mentioned at all. I think it's strictly him not knowing when to self-edit. His personality comes across is someone who gets excited and passionate, and while I can certainly relate (as I am sure many of us can), it sometimes doesn't translate to his online posting.

It's not just the self edit but MP's personality does not translate well to simple text. If you watch an interview with him and see/hear his comments you 'get' the context and understand where he's coming from. FB and Twitter posts with simple text are a different story.....he comes off as a conceited dick in a lot of them.

I'm not excusing or forgiving some of his more famous past social media exchanges, but....my point is as you mentioned....he needs to take a breath before hitting post as his communications are lost in translation a lot.

[The Walrus]

Well I don't think Axl's personality has affected the music other than him being a perfectionist, it's not like he has a drug problem. I'd say he and Mike are similar in the ego department though, but one is a recluse, the other is not.

[MirrorMask]

I can't see Mike Portnoy starting a concert three hours late however. Hell, one of his biggest misteps online was because he wanted to start a concert at all costs on time even if he was sick.

[Stadler]

Stadler, he did touch on the issue slightly, even without me asking. The ONE request he made before the interview was that I didn't ask anything about Guns n Roses, which I think was fair. He's done so much more!

Why do you think he asked that?   Like you said, he's done much more or he just didn't want that awkward pause when asked something he knew he couldn't answer?

Also, did he say anything about his health?

[RodrigoAltaf]

With the GNR stuff, I think he's tired of the same questions and of people fishing for the ugly details of Axl and stuff.

We didn't talk about his health. I had a question about that, but felt it was already too long.

[DT2003]

I definitely don’t consider Mike like those other three. I think Mike cares too much and doesn’t know how to ignore comments and that’s what gets him in trouble sometimes. I don’t think he’s a bad person though and I don’t think that his ego is as bad as some people think, I think he’s just very passionate about the music he makes.

[ganpondorodf]

So passionate he insists on spending a whole week writing an album!

[SwedishGoose]

So passionate he insists on spending a whole week writing an album!

Spot on.......!

[RodrigoAltaf]

The album was recorded in a week and a half, but they had been throwing ideas at each other before that. Bumblefoot spoke about that in the interview, and said that "it's a good first album where we brought all our influences from the past into the writing, and for the second album we'll have the benefit of playing together a whole tour and feeding off from each other". I'm paraphrasing of course, but you'll hear that in the interview. No need to forcefully say good things about the album, but I find that this relentless criticism on MP is just unnecessary.

[svend_inge]

The album was recorded in a week and a half, but they had been throwing ideas at each other before that. Bumblefoot spoke about that in the interview, and said that "it's a good first album where we brought all our influences from the past into the writing, and for the second album we'll have the benefit of playing together a whole tour and feeding off from each other". I'm paraphrasing of course, but you'll hear that in the interview. No need to forcefully say good things about the album, but I find that this relentless criticism on MP is just unnecessary.

Spot On ...

[Grappler]

So I gave the record a break for a few months and am just coming back to it.  I loved it when it came out and I still feel the same - it sounds killer and it has some great playing and great songs.  What Rodrigo just said above is true - it will be interesting to see what they do on a second album after having spent more time together playing shows and gelling as a band. 

[KevShmev]

The album was recorded in a week and a half, but they had been throwing ideas at each other before that. Bumblefoot spoke about that in the interview, and said that "it's a good first album where we brought all our influences from the past into the writing, and for the second album we'll have the benefit of playing together a whole tour and feeding off from each other". I'm paraphrasing of course, but you'll hear that in the interview. No need to forcefully say good things about the album, but I find that this relentless criticism on MP is just unnecessary.

I think the issue there is that Portnoy always throws the "we wrote this album in a week!"-type comments out like it's a badge of honor, like "We are so awesome that we only needed a week to write and record this album that will blow your minds!!"  I get it, he is promoting a new album, and no one loves promoting themselves more than Mike Portnoy, but it's just kinda funny at this point how proud he always seems to be of rushed work.

[pcs90]

I think the issue there is that Portnoy always throws the "we wrote this album in a week!"-type comments out like it's a badge of honor, like "We are so awesome that we only needed a week to write and record this album that will blow your minds!!"  I get it, he is promoting a new album, and no one loves promoting themselves more than Mike Portnoy, but it's just kinda funny at this point how proud he always seems to be of rushed work.

Yep, exactly this.

[MirrorMask]

I think Portnoy, and to a lesser degree Petrucci and Rudess, were spoiled by LTE's success. They saw that they COULD write amazing music in a short period of time, and they thought that was what would ALWAYS happen, regardless of the players involved or the kind of music meant to be written.

I feel there are some DT albums that contain not the best 77 minutes of music written, but the first 77 minutes of music written.

[bill1971]

I think Portnoy, and to a lesser degree Petrucci and Rudess, were spoiled by LTE's success. They saw that they COULD write amazing music in a short period of time, and they thought that was what would ALWAYS happen, regardless of the players involved or the kind of music meant to be written.

I feel there are some DT albums that contain not the best 77 minutes of music written, but the first 77 minutes of music written.

Sometimes you can get lucky like Rush and New World Man. Initially called project 3:57.  https://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3328

Neil Peart (from Stories From Signals, Signals Tourbook): "Writing it in one day and recording it the next! We wanted to capture a spontaneous, relaxed feel for this one, not even spending much time getting the sounds together. Thus, it could stand in contrast to the rest of the album, being much more raw and "live" in its affect. Two days is very close to a record for us to write and record a song." >>

Rush is not a singles band, as fans tend to buy the albums. "New World Man" is by far their highest-charting single, and their only Canadian #1. In America, it was the the only Rush song to crack the Top 40.

The working title for this song was "Project 3:57" because they were writing it in order to fill the three minutes and 57 seconds of record space left after the album's first seven songs were done.

[Samsara]

I never knew that! Thanks for sharing Bill!

[bosk1]

Interesting.  For me, the process takes as long as the process takes.  Depending on the artist, taking more time might or might not yield a "better" result.  To the artist, the material feels done and not "rushed."  You either like the result or you don't.  But I've never seen the point in complaining about it.  To me, it's silly to demand that an artist "should" have done X, Y, or Z and to knock them because they didn't meet your own expectations.

[Adami]

Interesting.  For me, the process takes as long as the process takes.  Depending on the artist, taking more time might or might not yield a "better" result.  To the artist, the material feels done and not "rushed."  You either like the result or you don't.  But I've never seen the point in complaining about it.  To me, it's silly to demand that an artist "should" have done X, Y, or Z and to knock them because they didn't meet your own expectations.

It's a good thing you're not Stadler, cause I totally agree.

I've written whole albums (musically) in a week, and they turned out amazing. I've taken over a year to write other albums, and they turned out just as good.

If I tried to write those year long albums in a week, they'd have turned out like crap. If I stretched out the writing process for the week long albums, they be missing that something special that came with a sense of urgency.

[Stadler]

The "time to write" thing doesn't bother me at all; some of the best albums I own were done in a relative blink of an eye.

What bugs me more is the "genre" type-casting.  "This is my prog project", "this is my metal project", "this is my gangsta rap project".  I think when Mike - and his bandmates - try to shoehorn into a genre, they run into trouble.  The best music, in my estimation, is that music that is without boundary.   Steve Howe playing jazz and country over Chris Squire's rock and Rick Wakeman's classical.   Robert Fripp's whatever the fuck it is playing over Bruford's jazz and Wetton's rock.   Sabbath was awesome when they were incorporating Ward's jazz and Ozzy/Geezer's Beatles over Iommi's blues.  They suffered, in my view, when Iommi was captaining the ship and he felt he had to live up to the "Riffmaster General" title.   

[ytserush]

I think Portnoy, and to a lesser degree Petrucci and Rudess, were spoiled by LTE's success. They saw that they COULD write amazing music in a short period of time, and they thought that was what would ALWAYS happen, regardless of the players involved or the kind of music meant to be written.

I feel there are some DT albums that contain not the best 77 minutes of music written, but the first 77 minutes of music written.

Sometimes you can get lucky like Rush and New World Man. Initially called project 3:57.  https://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3328

Neil Peart (from Stories From Signals, Signals Tourbook): "Writing it in one day and recording it the next! We wanted to capture a spontaneous, relaxed feel for this one, not even spending much time getting the sounds together. Thus, it could stand in contrast to the rest of the album, being much more raw and "live" in its affect. Two days is very close to a record for us to write and record a song." >>

Rush is not a singles band, as fans tend to buy the albums. "New World Man" is by far their highest-charting single, and their only Canadian #1. In America, it was the the only Rush song to crack the Top 40.

The working title for this song was "Project 3:57" because they were writing it in order to fill the three minutes and 57 seconds of record space left after the album's first seven songs were done.

I've always thought they succeeded at "Project 3:57" because they managed to do it in 3:42 (Depending on which CD you have.)

[Kwyjibo]

I've got no problem with records being made fast and quick, but only if the result doesn't feel rushed. In the case of Psychotic Symphony I feel that it could have been improved if it was given more time to flesh things out. Write decent lyrics and more interesting and varying vocal lines, recognize that Coming Home and Alive have the same chorus, try to write better transitions between the different parts in God Of The Sun and Opus Maximus and so on.

So the "time to write" doesn't generally bother me, but in this case (and a few others) it does, but that's just me. And maybe the record would have been the same if they had spent half a year writing songs every day, but we will never know.

I hope that for the second one (if there is one), they will do things better.

[Cyclopssss]

The first two Transatlantic albums are examples that it can be done right, but after those, this became somewhat of a formula. And it more often doesn't work out.