Jordan: "Sometimes I’ll write the heaviest parts"

[nikatapi]

So i recently did an interview with Jordan (via email hence the short responses), and he had some interesting things to say, and among those was this part:

"What is funny though is people really don't know who writes what parts. They may think they know but they don't. Sometimes I'll write the heaviest parts and sometimes John will right the sweet mellow parts!! We are a good team!"
You can read the rest of the interview here: https://noisefull.com/interviews/jordan-rudess

So being a member of the forums for quite a while now, i've seen a lot of people thinking that Jordan doesn't like or contribute to the heavy side of DT, and seeing this answer from him has somehow changed my perception of the songwriting process in the band.
What do you think?

[Orbert]

I've generally assumed that the heavier stuff comes from JP whereas the more "melodic" stuff comes from JR.  Not that heavy stuff can't be melodic, but you know what I mean.  When I think of heavy in terms of guitar, it's crunchy power chords, driving riffs, that kind of thing, which we get a lot from with Dream Theater.  When I think of heavy in terms of keyboards, I think Hammond with heavy percussion stops and screaming synths, and we really don't get a lot of that from DT, not these days.  That was more of Derek's forte IMO.

So I guess that means we shouldn't assume that JP just writes the "guitar-based" parts and JR writes the "keyboard-based" stuff.  I mean, JR could think of a guitar riff that he thinks would be great, and JP could come up with something he thinks would sound great on piano or other keys.  Also, JR does play guitar.  I don't know if JP plays keys, but they're both very talented musicians, so it wouldn't be a huge stretch to think that they both come up with music of all kinds, and they work it all into DT.

All that said, I still figure JP mostly "thinks" in terms of guitar and JR in terms of keys, and their collaborations meet in the middle somewhere, they work with it, and eventually what we get is a blend of many things from the both of them.

[bl5150]

I found it interesting where he said "it was a long time coming" as if he had fought for sole credits for him and JP to be more the norm on prior albums.

[Orbert]

Yeah, that was an interesting comment, too.

[SebastianPratesi]

Congratulations on your interview! Just finished reading it.

Too bad they haven't been to Greece lately. I got to know Athens (and one other island) in January 2014. My grandma was born there, so I was really keen. Such a nice place - and weather! (it was Winter, but we wore t-shirts most of the time). I love the food - I would visit again just for a little more soublakia and salads

[TAC]

Great job with the interview!

The 12 Step Suite question was outstanding. Thanks for asking it.

[pcs90]

Excellent interview! Lots of good info.