An Exclusive Look into The Band’s Search for a New Drummer

[ariich]

One thing that strikes me, particularly after seeing the second part, is that the facebook post from that Minnemann "musician/band" page was quite obviously not him. It claimed that he had not been asked for permission about the documentary, but he gave interviews to a camera about how the day went, and even recorded himself in his own studio/rehearsal space, so there's just no way it could possibly be him.

Which is good to know.

[YtseBitsySpider]

well in Lang's defense the guy is a Jazz drummer isn't he?
All they do is "interpret things" differently every time they play them

[Jamesman42]

Sure, ariich.

Sure.

[emtee]

Going even further, communication is key here. Had it been me, before my audition started, I would have asked
the guys in the band, do you want me to play these songs as they were written, or would you prefer that I
stick very close but improvise a little. That puts the onis on the band. If you're a 'world class' drummer and are
properly preparred, you should be able to do both depending on what the band answers. So far they didn't
show anybody asking these kinds of questions up front. They may have but maybe they just didn't have time
to put that kind of footage on these vids. After the introductory handshakes and hugs, that would have been
my first question.

[ariich]

Sure, ariich.

Sure.

Well, either it's not him, or he's an imbecile.

[Jamesman42]

Sure, ariich.

Sure.

Well, either it's not him, or he's an imbecile.

Sure.

[Demolition]

Conspiracy theory I want to start.  What if after the auditions  JLB, JR, and JM wanted Minneman, but JP made the executive decision to go with Magini?

Does anyone remember the guy a while ago telling us Dream Theater wanted to choose Marco, but they had to go with Mangini instead because Marco didn't want to give up on some plans he had with other bands in January and February? Watching the documentary, that seems very likely to me.

Long time lurker, first time poster.

One part of the equation that isnt really shown in the video's is the actual interview process.  Getting to really know these guys, what they are about,their thought process. I am sure that just as important as the actual drumming.  How do they interact with the other band members? Are they willing or able to commit to DT's scheduling and way of doing things?  How do they best work within the band as far as writing/contributing to the music?  Do they see themselves staying in the band for the rest of their career or do they have other future endevours which may get in the way of their long term commitment?   If the drumming ability is close, the interviews will be the deciding factor.

[Dream Team]

Conspiracy theory I want to start.  What if after the auditions  JLB, JR, and JM wanted Minneman, but JP made the executive decision to go with Magini?

Does anyone remember the guy a while ago telling us Dream Theater wanted to choose Marco, but they had to go with Mangini instead because Marco didn't want to give up on some plans he had with other bands in January and February? Watching the documentary, that seems very likely to me.

Long time lurker, first time poster.

One part of the equation that isnt really shown in the video's is the actual interview process.  Getting to really know these guys, what they are about,their thought process. I am sure that just as important as the actual drumming.  How do they interact with the other band members? Are they willing or able to commit to DT's scheduling and way of doing things?  How do they best work within the band as far as writing/contributing to the music?  Do they see themselves staying in the band for the rest of their career or do they have other future endevours which may get in the way of their long term commitment?   If the drumming ability is close, the interviews will be the deciding factor.

Dang straight.

Also, I was thinking this morning how sad it was that drummers of this caliber have to be looking for full-time work . . . speaks volumes about the music scene today. In the 70s these guys would all be employed with big-name bands.

[Cygnus7874]

The more i see the videos the more i think LaBrie has the best understanding for drummers abilities.
 

Wasn't James a drummer?

Edit: Sorry, already noted

[Cygnus7874]

On another music forum I go to, a member (hes a member here too but he doesn't post much) who is a drummer posted this, I was quite amazed by this.

Mangini holds world speed records (or at least did a few years ago). He can play faster with one hand than most people can with two. On that video, there's a spot in the beginning of The Dance Of Eternity - a fast triplet riff that Portnoy needed two hands to play. Mangini did it one handed without even looking.

Didn't Marco do the same thing with one hand?

[Perpetual Change]

I'm really not sure why anyone would be upset that DT wasn't too thrilled about a couple of the drummers "interpreting" the songs.

Two reasons.  One more valid than the other:

 - While we can't say what's best for DT, it's very hard to argue that it's healthy musically to be down on a drummer for not playing the songs exactly the same.  However, Rudess loved Minnemann who played with the material a bit and specifically commented on how he liked Mangini's flair, so it's not a dislike toward all improvisation/interpretation.

 - A lot of people don't like how MP started his drum parts later in his DT career, and want the new drummer to be an active catalyst for change in DT's sound.  They project what they want from the band (subjective opinion) into what they think the band should do (also subjective, but confused for objective fact).  So when they see Thomas Lang or Virgil Donati or whoever do something they like, that somehow gets turned into what DT should have to do in order to be a good band in some sort of cosmic sense.

I said this awhile ago, but it got ignored, so I'll say it again:

We shouldn't expect the guys to be completely honest about why certain people didn't fit. The guys aren't gonna come out and say, "well, his personality sucked," or "well, he tried to do a lot of fancy things and it fell flat" or "he wanted to change our songs in a horrible way." If there's a nice way they can put things, that's what they're going to do. Sooo when Jordan says "the songs have to be played a certain way," I don't think it necessarily means he hates people making the songs their own. I think he's saying "Lang took some big chances, and too many didn't pay off. That doesn't mean he's bad, but other auditionees didn't make the mistakes he did."

[abydos]

On another music forum I go to, a member (hes a member here too but he doesn't post much) who is a drummer posted this, I was quite amazed by this.

Mangini holds world speed records (or at least did a few years ago). He can play faster with one hand than most people can with two. On that video, there's a spot in the beginning of The Dance Of Eternity - a fast triplet riff that Portnoy needed two hands to play. Mangini did it one handed without even looking.

Didn't Marco do the same thing with one hand?

If he did - they didn't show it (or i really wasn't watching...). I remember seeing that yesterday and watched the second episode 2-3 times just to see that moment but never found it. Then I tried the Mangini video and got it right away - a small thing, but very awesome to watch.

[Jirpo]

Mangini holds world speed records (or at least did a few years ago). He can play faster with one hand than most people can with two. On that video, there's a spot in the beginning of The Dance Of Eternity - a fast triplet riff that Portnoy needed two hands to play. Mangini did it one handed without even looking.

Derek Roddy did actually do that too.

Woah, thats awesome!

And can anyone answer this?

I'm just interested, does anyone know the order of drummers technically (skill-wise). I know they are all incredible and can play the parts comfortably, but I'm just interested.

[antigoon]

I really don't know if there's a way to quantify that, especially at this level.

[Nihil-Morari]

Well that's just a matter of taste.

To me it's prolly like this:

Virgil Donati
Marco Minnemann
Mike Mangini
Thomas Lang
Peter Wildoer
Derek Roddy
Aquiles Priester

[Dream Team]

Mangini holds world speed records (or at least did a few years ago). He can play faster with one hand than most people can with two. On that video, there's a spot in the beginning of The Dance Of Eternity - a fast triplet riff that Portnoy needed two hands to play. Mangini did it one handed without even looking.

Derek Roddy did actually do that too.

Woah, thats awesome!

And can anyone answer this?

I'm just interested, does anyone know the order of drummers technically (skill-wise). I know they are all incredible and can play the parts comfortably, but I'm just interested.

That last question is very subjective, there is no way to definitively answer it.

[Cygnus7874]

Well that's just a matter of taste.

To me it's prolly like this:

Virgil Donati
Marco Minnemann
Mike Mangini
Thomas Lang
Peter Wildoer
Derek Roddy
Aquiles Priester

Mine would be
Virgil Donati
Marco Minnemann
Thomas Lang
Peter Wildoer
Mike Mangini
Derek Roddy
Aquiles Priester

[King Postwhore]

How can anybody rate Peter Wildoer or Aquiles Priester is you haven't seen them play with DT yet?  I understand you can rate them with what you've seen them with other bands but maybe we should just rate who we've seen so far.

[The Presence of Frenemies]

Well that's just a matter of taste.

To me it's prolly like this:

Virgil Donati
Marco Minnemann
Mike Mangini
Thomas Lang
Peter Wildoer
Derek Roddy
Aquiles Priester

Mine would be
Virgil Donati
Marco Minnemann
Thomas Lang
Peter Wildoer
Mike Mangini
Derek Roddy
Aquiles Priester

Let me take a stab at this  .

Donati's probably the most technically versatile of all of them, Mangini has the speed records, and Lang is phenomenal as well, so those are probably the top 3, followed shortly by Roddy, who's a speed monster himself. Marco would probably come next, then Wildoer, then Priester.

But there really isn't much of a gap overall, since they're all so unbelievable. I mean, from a pure speed perspective, imagine if these guys could all top out doing rolls at somewhere between 220 and 250 BPM (just random numbers I made up for this example). There might be a definite hierarchy (like one guy might be able to do 250, but another just 220) but you wouldn't really know it unless you paid very close attention to the exact speeds, and it's not like that would get displayed very often anyway--it's not like many bands throw in a ton of drum solos, and outside of extreme metal genres, there aren't even ridiculously fast rolls all that often. Plus, even if you did hear one guy do 250 and another just 220, it doesn't mean the second guy couldn't do 250.

That's what bugs me about all the hate for Priester, actually. It's as if people assume he can't play certain things just because he hasn't played them in his career. That's like concluding JLB doesn't have above-average vocal range based on his last few albums, or something. Really, except for the extreme metal drummers (Marco, Wildoer, and Roddy), these guys don't push themselves to their limits that often. Mangini I guess did for the world records though. But they're all plenty technical.

I'd go on, but I feel like I'm rambling, so I'll stop .

[erciccio]

Have a look at D-Rod forum.
He is just answering all of our questions.

It's going to be MM.

And the name is not Marco

Anyway, the "double MMs deal" (with Marco in a new Liquid Tension Experimenten) would be fantastic.

Final comment: after seeing the videos, any comment such as "He is too good for DT" sounds simply ridicolous.
All the guys had to take it VERY seriously to do a good job.
And some of them had clearly some issues...
(ok, Virgil is great, no doubt...but the beginning of TDOE... )

[atmyne]

I'm not sure if it means anything due to lack of updates or whatever, but Minnemanns schedule, from his official site, stops at 23rd April. He didn't get up to much during March, and was in boston on the 8th, and New York on the 11th (just wondering if it is him, when would have he recorded the drum parts?).
Man I really feel like I'm doing myself a disservice investing all of my hope into Marco being the new drummer haha. Mangini would be great but... gah! Oh well. It's been fun.

[Nihil-Morari]

How can anybody rate Peter Wildoer or Aquiles Priester is you haven't seen them play with DT yet?  I understand you can rate them with what you've seen them with other bands but maybe we should just rate who we've seen so far.

Yeah, I don't understand this either. How can anybody say it's a 40% chance Peter Wildoer gets the spot, even before you've seen him perform with DT?

[Dream_Theater01]

All of the drummers have been incredible!  I'm very anxious to see who the new drummer is.

With that said, I have a feeling it's Mangini.

[Super Dude]

Wow, I can't believe how many new members we've been having lately.

[JPX]

The MM vs. MM debate is intense.  I have sort of dropped the my preconceived belief that Mangini is the one, just so it adds suspense.  It seems interesting how the band is kind of split on these two.  LaBrie seems to be really impressed with Minnemann, Petrucci seems to still be keen on Mangini, and it is too hard to tell with Rudess/Myung.

I would be inclined to believe that even after all these years, JP and JM have an edge in decisions because they are original members.
At this point both JP and JM seem to be more in the Mangini camp and JR and JLB are in the Marco camp. So if it came down to the wire then they could tip it one way.

[RuRoRul]

My understanding was the ratings above were just what people thought the order of each drummer's technical prowess was, not how well they performed with DT. How good they think they are in general might change after seeing them with DT tomorrow but they can still rate them overall based on what they know of them outside of the auditions.

[Super Dude]

I'm kinda hoping for Mangini at this point.

[JPX]

That's what bugs me about all the hate for Priester, actually. It's as if people assume he can't play certain things just because he hasn't played them in his career.

People don't like Priester because he has no dynamics. I'm sure he could clone Portnoy and play the songs like the CD's but I think most fans want DT to change direction slightly and Priester doesn't give you that.

[Tick]

This thread moves so fast, no one will ever read this post!

[Raoul Sanchez]

That's what bugs me about all the hate for Priester, actually. It's as if people assume he can't play certain things just because he hasn't played them in his career. That's like concluding JLB doesn't have above-average vocal range based on his last few albums, or something. Really, except for the extreme metal drummers (Marco, Wildoer, and Roddy), these guys don't push themselves to their limits that often. Mangini I guess did for the world records though. But they're all plenty technical.

It's not Priester's ability to play the material that people are doubting, it's more that his playing has very little character or personality compared to the rest of the players who auditioned.

[iamtheeviltwin]

Conspiracy theory I want to start.  What if after the auditions  JLB, JR, and JM wanted Minneman, but JP made the executive decision to go with Magini?

Does anyone remember the guy a while ago telling us Dream Theater wanted to choose Marco, but they had to go with Mangini instead because Marco didn't want to give up on some plans he had with other bands in January and February? Watching the documentary, that seems very likely to me.

Long time lurker, first time poster.

One part of the equation that isnt really shown in the video's is the actual interview process.  Getting to really know these guys, what they are about,their thought process. I am sure that just as important as the actual drumming.  How do they interact with the other band members? Are they willing or able to commit to DT's scheduling and way of doing things?  How do they best work within the band as far as writing/contributing to the music?  Do they see themselves staying in the band for the rest of their career or do they have other future endevours which may get in the way of their long term commitment?   If the drumming ability is close, the interviews will be the deciding factor.

If you read some of Roddy's comments over on the Drummer World forums he makes it pretty clear that he was never a serious candidate to replace MP for reasons that had more to do with scheduling, time commitment, and touring rather than ability.  I think that this aspect of the interviews is one where it would become clear that certain candidates would not "make the cut" and for reasons of ramping up the tension in the documentary have been left on the cutting room floor.

So yeah, there are many other factors going into this decision and drumming ability is just a portion of it.  Honestly we as fans probably put far too much stock into the percieved abilities of the drummers than the band members.  For them it is obviously about the "feel" and the commitment of the drummer.

[Dream_Theater01]

This thread moves so fast, no one will ever read this post!

I read your post!

 

[ReaperKK]

Really enjoying the videos so far.

Before seeing the documentary I wasn't a big fan of Mangini, none of his videos really impressed me. Seeing him on the documentary though really did impress me, he fit it, I like his personality and I could definitely see him being in the band.

I always wanted Lang to be the drummer and his renditions of the songs were my favorite. He sounded great and he chops were all there but it didn't seem like he hit it off with the guys which is a shame because he is truly a monster.

Can't wait to see the other two, and it's very awesome to have Peter posting here, I eagerly await reading the diary about the whole process.

[King Postwhore]

Really enjoying the videos so far.

Before seeing the documentary I wasn't a big fan of Mangini, none of his videos really impressed me. Seeing him on the documentary though really did impress me, he fit it, I like his personality and I could definitely see him being in the band.

I always wanted Lang to be the drummer and his renditions of the songs were my favorite. He sounded great and he chops were all there but it didn't seem like he hit it off with the guys which is a shame because he is truly a monster.

Can't wait to see the other two, and it's very awesome to have Peter posting here, I eagerly await reading the diary about the whole process.

I saw so many people say that they didn't like Mangini but I saw him join and play with Extreme live and the guy seemed to gel and put his own mark on their music so I was on the other side of the fence.  I knew how flexible he was.  i just didn't know the other drummers as much because I never saw them live.

[userx]

1. well, I'm not sure if it's been posted before but even if this documentary was a bit over the top it certainly brought attention to DT on the one hand (the number of new posters shows that) and on the other hand, I believe there are lots of people like me who have never up until now heard about any of the 7 drummers, and now know their full names and their work and some of us will check their work in future. this episode thing was in my opinion beneficial for all the parties in the process.

2. I'm disapionted that I am posting on a band's forum because I cannot be really called a fan but I am interested how the new album wil sound because frankly, to me, BCSL was a huge disappointment. in fact, there are a few flashes on every album but the direction the band is taking on the last few albums is in my opinion too much towards metal but with long songs. and compared to the likes of LTL where the song is long because it has a lot of cool parts in it, ANTR is long because they wanted to make it long and force not so cool parts in it. not every riff or melody you can think of is worthy of a song! each part of the song has to have its strength on its own so that you can be continuously amazed while listening.

anyway I'm interested to see how the new drummer will (or as a matter of fact already did) influence the dt's direction. I had a feeling that minnemann and lang were the most creative but we'll see