New Jordan interview

[wolven74]

I'm not really sure how to take this. He's interviewing himself, yes, but those questions are legit questions (most of them) The answers are possibly what he would like to say but can't or won't due to his open personality. Maybe this is more of a FAQ video, so he can stop answering the same questions over and over.

There are a lot of answers that I can't take seriously that I at. Can you describe your gear? "I use a keyboard" is not an answer he has ever, nor ever will give. "Did you come here to ask me a PORTNOY question??"

[KevShmev]

I get that many interviewers like to ask questions they already know answers to, for the sake of people hearing/watching the interview who may not know said info, but if you are the interviewee, you have to get tired of answer those same old questions a million times.  It reminds me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZfUgVSfKdQ

That was a clear demonstration of how stupid it can sound to ask a question with an obvious answer, one that almost everyone knows the answer to already.

[noxon]

Sure, but there's a fine line between being funny and being douchey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6viUMICL31E

[Laich21DT]

Apparently the video has been removed, lame.

[lyfeternl]

Sure, but there's a fine line between being funny and being douchey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6viUMICL31E

But these questions were just plain awful... And interviewer needed to lay off the caffeine prior to meeting them as well.

[Kotowboy]

So apparently JR has had a change of heart


Maybe he thought it wasn't the best idea whilst they're on a promotional leg of a new album.

[Shadow2222]

Apparently the video has been removed, lame.

There you go everyone 

I do agree that it was relatively in bad taste, but I can certainly understand the sentiment.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Damn, no I really wanna see it!

[Viking of the Sagas]

Damn, I arrived too late.

[Zydar]

Not me, I arrived early May.

[?]

...and carried a gift from your home?

[Viking of the Sagas]

And then then night shed some tears because it wanted to tell Zydar that he was afraid.

Oh and that he'd never outgrow pain and sorrow.

Night's such a prick...

[TL]

Yeah, it was probably a good idea to remove it.

I get the joke, and the premise itself was funny, but the execution was a bit awkward to watch. While some questions can get a bit repetitive on a press circuit, and while it may get tiring/frustrating to give the same answers over and over, unless the questions get really stupid (such as that Larry King/Jerry Seinfeld clip Kev posted), it's part of the job.

He probably didn't intend any sort of malice; it was probably just a joke, but you still have to think about how these sorts of things will be perceived by people. It could easily make potential interviewers, especially for smaller outlets, a bit apprehensive about scheduling an interview.

[Kotowboy]

Damn I wish i'd have downloaded it and used it to blackmail JR

[Miyazaki74]

Jordan was just having some fun and I highly doubt it was meant to be mean spirited towards interviewers. Having said that, I found the clip to be more goofy than funny.

[theseoafs]

I get the joke, and the premise itself was funny, but the execution was a bit awkward to watch.

Agreed.  The idea was funnier than the video ended up being, mostly because Jordan's just too darn nice to pull the persona off.  Lewis Black would have been able to play a pissed-off interviewee, but Jordan Rudess is no Lewis Black.

Having said that, while I don't think anyone should have been offended by the video, I understand why somebody (e.g. Noxon) would have been offended.  So it's probably for the best that it was taken down.

[Dekost]

I didn't say it applies to us directly because of the recent interview (or us directly at all), but seeing as we've frequently been in that chair I think it's very harsh, and I was just relating my own personal reactions to seeing this. I didn't mean to imply that it was just -us-, i meant it more as -a- person who's been there...

Yes, it's about questions "every interviewer asks", but you can't expect every interviewer to know everything about how LMR came to be, or how they approached writing songs compared to say DT, and you can't expect every person who views or listens to an interview to know that either. Most of our listeners for instance will have their very first exposure to LMR through our podcast, so why wouldn't it be relevant to ask that question in our podcast instead of referring to some other guys interview on a seperate place on the web? It's

If you don't like doing interviews, don't schedule them in the first place.

I agree that not every interviewer needs to know everything and anything about the person that they are interviewing, but God some of them just come so unprepared that it's annoying just to watch the interview. I'm not talking about you (I usually like your podcasts) but I'm talking in general. If any interviewer did a little research on the web before meeting the guy and watched/read other interviews, maybe some of the questions that they always get wouldn't be asked. Like for instance, how many times have they been asked about the DT writing process? Jeez, it's 14 years they write music the same way! I would get pissed myself after hearing that question so many times.
Anyway, I don't think you should take it personally, I think it's just a joke after all.

[aprilethereal]

It was taken down?

[Lucidity]

Missed it... Any way to find it now?

[RMGadelha]

And that's what I get for going to sleep 6:00 o clock in a non christmas morning after a boring night of Battlefield 3 (lolz) and a nice morning of some DT exploding in my headphones, and then to wake up at 17:00. Missed it too.

[BlobVanDam]

Glad "someone" noticed that it wasn't particularly funny besides me.

Yes, the rest of us just didn't "notice" that it wasn't funny. We must have missed that part. 


I hope JR didn't take it down from any butthurt. It was funny, even if just as a demonstration of JR's inability to come across as legitimately mean.

[Kotowboy]

Maybe he took it down because it wasn't funny.

[BlobVanDam]

Maybe he took it down because it wasn't funny.

If everything on the internet that you didn't think was funny got taken down, there would be nothing left.

[Kotowboy]

If everything the current members of Dream Theater did that I didn't enjoy got erased - they'd still be most of it left.

I get that we're supposed to be civil about current & previous members but we also don't have to say everything they do is brilliant.

I wonder how many people would have found that video as hilarious if it was some unknown guy and not one of the members of our favourite band.

[Mosh]

People are getting way too worked up about this. He was obviously being sarcastic, I doubt he really gets annoyed with questions like that, if it bothered him he wouldn't do interviews. Yes, it might be different if it was some unknown guy, but it's Jordan, we know what his personality is like. If you don't find it funny, that's your problem.

[Madman Shepherd]

Sooooo....since I'm a little late to the game here.  Can someone summarize what was in that video since it was taken down before I could see it?

[Lucidity]

Sooooo....since I'm a little late to the game here.  Can someone summarize what was in that video since it was taken down before I could see it?

Seconded.

[BlobVanDam]

Sooooo....since I'm a little late to the game here.  Can someone summarize what was in that video since it was taken down before I could see it?

It was a mock interview of JR answering some questions (which were prerecorded by himself with an altered voice), and he was responding to the questions with jokingly dismissive, and arrogant replies like "Are you serious? Who is this guy? I've been asked that a million times."

[theseoafs]

Basically it was a joke "interview" by Jordan.  He sat in front of his computer screen and played recordings of an "interviewer" asking questions.  I can't remember most of them off the top of my head, but they included "how did LMR get started?" and "what's your favorite song off the new album?" and "will there be an LTE reunion?" and "who does the setlists now that Portnoy's gone?"

The joke is that these questions have been asked many times in interviews before, and that Jordan was sick of answering them, so Jordan jokingly responded to the "interview" questions angrily, calling the "interviewer" mean names and deriding him for not doing any research and not bothering to come up with original questions. 

EDIT:  ninja'd, but keeping the comment here for examples of some of the questions that were asked.

[nobloodyname]

Hmm... sounds uncharacteristically brattish to me for Jordan.

[theseoafs]

Nah, it was clearly a gag.  The things that he said in the video didn't approach anything he's ever said in any real-life interview.  All the press that he's doing probably frustrated him though, which gave him the idea for this video. 

[noxon]

Here's another reason why I reacted as I did. The fanbase (or rather, a portion of it) has a very serious way of attaching to any and all opinions of the band members, amplifying it in a bad way. I've had that felt directly on my body.

Back when BCSL was released, I did my review for the album many weeks before the release. It was a generally positive review, albeit I pointed out a few things I didn't personally like about the album. I wrote it in norwegian, and hastily translated it into english, which caused a few of my colloquialisms and idioms to fall flat, but you still understood the general jist of the review. It was posted here, and people here generally were appreciative and positive. Then someone posted it on a bandmember forum, and the bandmember responded saying it was bascially the most disgusting review he'd ever read and that I should just stop listening to DT. And people latched on to that big time. I got so many emails yelling at me for writing a review...

[RMGadelha]

Yeah, I've found that whole confusion through google some days ago. It seemed settled after another post by him (hopefully). I found it quite interesting that the major bashing and critics towards your review only came after your review got reviewed by him.

[wolven74]

Here's another reason why I reacted as I did. The fanbase (or rather, a portion of it) has a very serious way of attaching to any and all opinions of the band members, amplifying it in a bad way. I've had that felt directly on my body.

Back when BCSL was released, I did my review for the album many weeks before the release. It was a generally positive review, albeit I pointed out a few things I didn't personally like about the album. I wrote it in norwegian, and hastily translated it into english, which caused a few of my colloquialisms and idioms to fall flat, but you still understood the general jist of the review. It was posted here, and people here generally were appreciative and positive. Then someone posted it on a bandmember forum, and the bandmember responded saying it was bascially the most disgusting review he'd ever read and that I should just stop listening to DT. And people latched on to that big time. I got so many emails yelling at me for writing a review...

Its completely understandable that you haven't posted your review of Dream Theater yet. Kinda harsh for a band member to tell you you shouldn't listen to DT though.... wow.

[noxon]

Its completely understandable that you haven't posted your review of Dream Theater yet. Kinda harsh for a band member to tell you you shouldn't listen to DT though.... wow.

Oh, believe me it has nothing to do with that. The only reason I haven't posted my review yet is because I was asked not to. I've been ready to post it for weeks.