Author Topic: New Jordan Rudess interview  (Read 7828 times)

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Offline RodrigoAltaf

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New Jordan Rudess interview
« on: October 25, 2018, 08:07:04 AM »
 Here's an interview I did with Jordan, for the Lotsofmuzik website:

https://lotsofmuzic.weebly.com/home/dream-theaters-jordan-rudess-in-our-new-album-well-go-back-to-the-roots-and-the-core-sound-of-the-band

By the looks of it, we're getting a KILLER new album!!!

Please like our page on Facebook and share this interview, guys. We appreciate your support. And those that share it and like our page can PM me, and I can send you the audio of the interview if you're interested.

Offline bosk1

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2018, 08:29:48 AM »
Love it!  Great job, Rodrigo.
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Online mikeyd23

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2018, 08:35:16 AM »
Great interview! Thanks for conducting it and posting.

Definitely a couple interesting statements in there about some tension to create as a group again. I'm really excited to hear this new album.

Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2018, 08:39:58 AM »
Thanks guys!!!

Offline Max Kuehnau

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2018, 08:47:55 AM »
what sticks out to me are the questions about the drum sound and the writing process
I'm happy to read his answers about these in particular. This will be a massive one I'm sure
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Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2018, 08:54:46 AM »
what sticks out to me are the questions about the drum sound and the writing process
I'm happy to read his answers about these in particular. This will be a massive one I'm sure

I was worried about finding a proper angle to ask him about it without being too blunt, but he was opened to it. What a cool guy to talk to...the interview could have gone for hours!

Offline Nekov

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2018, 08:56:35 AM »
Great interview man! I didn't know he was doing a solo tour. I think I'll go the show in Buenos Aires when he's down here.  :tup
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Offline Max Kuehnau

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2018, 08:57:55 AM »
Yeah, I met him 16 years ago after a concert on the 6D Tour, he was very friendly towards me (as he was towards you I can imagine). Nice when that happens.
"All my natural instincts are begging me to stop
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Offline Max Kuehnau

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2018, 08:58:36 AM »
Great interview man! I didn't know he was doing a solo tour. I think I'll go the show in Buenos Aires when he's down here.  :tup
enjoy then (in case you'll go see him)
"All my natural instincts are begging me to stop
But somehow I carry on, heading for the top
A physical absurdity, a tremendous mental game
Helping me understand exactly who I am"

Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2018, 09:09:14 AM »
Great interview man! I didn't know he was doing a solo tour. I think I'll go the show in Buenos Aires when he's down here.  :tup

Yeah, and by the looks of it, he wants to get closer to the fans this time.
 
 Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think he's ready to develop his solo career  bit more, while also focused on DT. Hmmmmm...

Offline goo-goo

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2018, 09:14:29 AM »
Great interview man! I didn't know he was doing a solo tour. I think I'll go the show in Buenos Aires when he's down here.  :tup

Yeah, and by the looks of it, he wants to get closer to the fans this time.
 
 Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think he's ready to develop his solo career  bit more, while also focused on DT. Hmmmmm...

I think he is trying to develop it because let's face it, he is not young anymore. So if can tour sporadically doing this piano thing and make money out of it, he can wind down on the DT touring machine and eventually step down. JP is currently 51 and JR is 62. That's an 11 yr gap and I'm ASSuming JP, MM, JM and JL might want to keep touring if JR decides to step down the touring a notch (or not tour at all).

Offline goo-goo

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2018, 09:15:01 AM »
Great read Rodrigo. Very interesting questions.  :metal

Online mikeyd23

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2018, 09:16:10 AM »
Great interview man! I didn't know he was doing a solo tour. I think I'll go the show in Buenos Aires when he's down here.  :tup

Yeah, and by the looks of it, he wants to get closer to the fans this time.
 
 Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think he's ready to develop his solo career  bit more, while also focused on DT. Hmmmmm...

I think he is trying to develop it because let's face it, he is not young anymore. So if can tour sporadically doing this piano thing and make money out of it, he can wind down on the DT touring machine and eventually step down. JP is currently 51 and JR is 62. That's an 11 yr gap and I'm ASSuming JP, MM, JM and JL might want to keep touring if JR decides to step down the touring a notch (or not tour at all).
^ Yeah, and also considering the back issues Jordan discusses in this interview, maybe that will happen sooner rather than later.

Or at the very least, Jordan can transition to sitting rather than standing during DT shows.

Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2018, 09:18:03 AM »
Great read Rodrigo. Very interesting questions.  :metal

Thanks, man! Your feedback really means a lot!

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2018, 09:29:57 AM »
While I understand his point, I think he oversimplifies it a bit by saying that "metal guys hated The Astonishing, proggy guys loved it". I consider myself attracted to DT more for the metal stuff than for the proggy stuff (even though I'm a sucker for melodic stuff as well), and I'm definitively way, way more a metalhead than a progster, and I think it's more a matter of people loving or not these kind of operatic, bombastic, overblown rock operas where the theatrics side of it is pumped up a lot. I happen to like it and I enjoyed a lot The Astonishing.
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Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #15 on: October 25, 2018, 09:33:09 AM »
While I understand his point, I think he oversimplifies it a bit by saying that "metal guys hated The Astonishing, proggy guys loved it". I consider myself attracted to DT more for the metal stuff than for the proggy stuff (even though I'm a sucker for melodic stuff as well), and I'm definitively way, way more a metalhead than a progster, and I think it's more a matter of people loving or not these kind of operatic, bombastic, overblown rock operas where the theatrics side of it is pumped up a lot. I happen to like it and I enjoyed a lot The Astonishing.

I get what you said, and agree to a certain extent, but didn't want to expand the subject and make the interview "Jordan's justification for the dislike of TA". And i was pressed for time, man...did it on a break from work. If you listen to the audio of the interview (which I haven't made available) you'll hear me telling Jordan that I had to sneak out to be able to call him!

Offline bosk1

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #16 on: October 25, 2018, 09:51:29 AM »
While I understand his point, I think he oversimplifies it a bit by saying that "metal guys hated The Astonishing, proggy guys loved it".

Well, sure.  But it's a short answer to a short question.  As Sebastian said, it's not like they had a 30 minute, back-and-forth conversation.  And it's not like Jordan gets to spend hours on end speaking with fans about their thoughts.  Most of the reaction he gets is either social media posts about how "TA sucks because too many ballads"/"TA sucks because sounds too Disney" or people in the meet and greet line saying that they love the album.  And, yes, now *I* am oversimplifying, but I think you probably get get the point.  Even for someone like me who has been exposed to tons of comments here since the album was released, the very mixed reception the album received is pretty complicated and varied.  Jordan has much less "data" than I have.  Can't really blame him for painting with such a broad brush.
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Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2018, 09:52:41 AM »
I almost cracked when he said "Disney-esque" in the interview, to be honest. Did they ever refer to the album that way before?

Offline rab7

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2018, 09:54:22 AM »
Petrucci has said that a lot of the ballads were Disney-inspired.

And it's not hard to see how. Just listen to The Answer, and immediately listen to I Can Go the Distance from Hercules.

There's probably better examples, but that's the first that came to mind.

Offline bosk1

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #19 on: October 25, 2018, 09:55:45 AM »
Yes.  And I have seen comments along those lines from fans.
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Offline Evermind

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #20 on: October 25, 2018, 09:56:57 AM »
I haven't read it yet, but I appreciate that you took time to transcribe it. A lot of interviews that are posted today are audio and video files, and I never have patience to listen to those. I love the plain old text format.
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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #21 on: October 25, 2018, 09:58:31 AM »
While I understand his point, I think he oversimplifies it a bit by saying that "metal guys hated The Astonishing, proggy guys loved it".

Well, sure.  But it's a short answer to a short question.  As Sebastian said, it's not like they had a 30 minute, back-and-forth conversation.  And it's not like Jordan gets to spend hours on end speaking with fans about their thoughts.  Most of the reaction he gets is either social media posts about how "TA sucks because too many ballads"/"TA sucks because sounds too Disney" or people in the meet and greet line saying that they love the album.  And, yes, now *I* am oversimplifying, but I think you probably get get the point.  Even for someone like me who has been exposed to tons of comments here since the album was released, the very mixed reception the album received is pretty complicated and varied.  Jordan has much less "data" than I have.  Can't really blame him for painting with such a broad brush.

Well, but mine was not at all a stab at Rodrigo, who conducted a great and well thought interview, nor at Jordan, who was classy and gracious in his replies as always. Nor I think Rodrigo needed to ask more or Jordan needed to go more into detail with his reply. I just pointed out that it's a bit too easy to classify a divisive album like The Astonishing as "metalheads hate it, progsters love it", that's all. But as you said, Jordan is not exposed, nor he could ever have the proper time for it, to the miriad of detailed comments about the album.
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Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #22 on: October 25, 2018, 10:00:15 AM »
I haven't read it yet, but I appreciate that you took time to transcribe it. A lot of interviews that are posted today are audio and video files, and I never have patience to listen to those. I love the plain old text format.

Oh man...it took me MANY hours to do it. There's another website I contribute to where they prefer audio, and it's much easier that way - I just record an intro and an outro separately, and that's it. Transcribing is a MASSIVE task. In this case especially because Jordan goes back and forth a few times and goes on tangents when he talks. Glad you prefer this format!

Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #23 on: October 25, 2018, 10:00:56 AM »
While I understand his point, I think he oversimplifies it a bit by saying that "metal guys hated The Astonishing, proggy guys loved it".

Well, sure.  But it's a short answer to a short question.  As Sebastian said, it's not like they had a 30 minute, back-and-forth conversation.  And it's not like Jordan gets to spend hours on end speaking with fans about their thoughts.  Most of the reaction he gets is either social media posts about how "TA sucks because too many ballads"/"TA sucks because sounds too Disney" or people in the meet and greet line saying that they love the album.  And, yes, now *I* am oversimplifying, but I think you probably get get the point.  Even for someone like me who has been exposed to tons of comments here since the album was released, the very mixed reception the album received is pretty complicated and varied.  Jordan has much less "data" than I have.  Can't really blame him for painting with such a broad brush.

Well, but mine was not at all a stab at Rodrigo, who conducted a great and well thought interview, nor at Jordan, who was classy and gracious in his replies as always. Nor I think Rodrigo needed to ask more or Jordan needed to go more into detail with his reply. I just pointed out that it's a bit too easy to classify a divisive album like The Astonishing as "metalheads hate it, progsters love it", that's all. But as you said, Jordan is not exposed, nor he could ever have the proper time for it, to the miriad of detailed comments about the album.

I definitely see your point, man! No worries at all.

Offline goo-goo

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #24 on: October 25, 2018, 10:02:19 AM »
I haven't read it yet, but I appreciate that you took time to transcribe it. A lot of interviews that are posted today are audio and video files, and I never have patience to listen to those. I love the plain old text format.

LOL. I thought I was the only one. +1 for text!

Offline bosk1

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #25 on: October 25, 2018, 10:18:58 AM »
While I understand his point, I think he oversimplifies it a bit by saying that "metal guys hated The Astonishing, proggy guys loved it".

Well, sure.  But it's a short answer to a short question.  As Sebastian said, it's not like they had a 30 minute, back-and-forth conversation.  And it's not like Jordan gets to spend hours on end speaking with fans about their thoughts.  Most of the reaction he gets is either social media posts about how "TA sucks because too many ballads"/"TA sucks because sounds too Disney" or people in the meet and greet line saying that they love the album.  And, yes, now *I* am oversimplifying, but I think you probably get get the point.  Even for someone like me who has been exposed to tons of comments here since the album was released, the very mixed reception the album received is pretty complicated and varied.  Jordan has much less "data" than I have.  Can't really blame him for painting with such a broad brush.

Well, but mine was not at all a stab at Rodrigo, who conducted a great and well thought interview, nor at Jordan, who was classy and gracious in his replies as always. Nor I think Rodrigo needed to ask more or Jordan needed to go more into detail with his reply. I just pointed out that it's a bit too easy to classify a divisive album like The Astonishing as "metalheads hate it, progsters love it", that's all. But as you said, Jordan is not exposed, nor he could ever have the proper time for it, to the miriad of detailed comments about the album.

Oh, I know.  I didn't take it as a stab at Rodrigo.  And my post wasn't meant to take a stab at you either.  I'm just trying to give a bit more perspective is all. 

And on the subject of transcribing the interview, I agree as well.  The effort is appreciated.
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Offline Bertielee

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #26 on: October 25, 2018, 10:23:08 AM »
Really really great interview, Rodrigo! :tup
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Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #27 on: October 25, 2018, 10:32:33 AM »
Really really great interview, Rodrigo! :tup

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Offline Eldomm

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #28 on: October 25, 2018, 10:51:08 AM »
A really great job, congratulations!!!

Offline MinistroRaven

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #29 on: October 25, 2018, 10:59:32 AM »
Rod send me the interview. I think I can upload it and we can have both versions in the article.

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #30 on: October 25, 2018, 11:04:18 AM »
I think that any time you have a song with a theatrical angle to it, such as some of the songs from The Astonishing, people's minds are going to go to Broadway musicals and/or Disney musicals, because that's what most people are familiar with.  I'd heard/read the comparisons before, but I didn't realize that JP had come right out and said that they were Disney-inspired.  Of course, that too could just be a way of saying that he was thinking "musical theater" when he wrote those songs, and to many folks, that means Disney.

Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #31 on: October 25, 2018, 11:08:41 AM »
A really great job, congratulations!!!

Thanks!!!

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #32 on: October 25, 2018, 11:12:48 AM »
Rodrigo, that was outstanding! Thanks a lot.

As a sidenote, Disney music is terrific.

Offline Peter Mc

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #33 on: October 25, 2018, 11:20:03 AM »
From memory, JP did come out and say he was a big Disney fan in the promotional interviews for the album. He’s never hid that influence he was very open about it.

Also adding my thanks to Rodrigo for a really good interview and for transcribing it for us. I’m another old fashioned guy who prefers to read stuff than watch videos!

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Re: New Jordan Rudess interview
« Reply #34 on: October 25, 2018, 11:23:42 AM »
Here's an interview I did with Jordan, for the Lotsofmuzik website:

https://lotsofmuzic.weebly.com/home/dream-theaters-jordan-rudess-in-our-new-album-well-go-back-to-the-roots-and-the-core-sound-of-the-band

By the looks of it, we're getting a KILLER new album!!!

Please like our page on Facebook and share this interview, guys. We appreciate your support. And those that share it and like our page can PM me, and I can send you the audio of the interview if you're interested.

Nicely done. Thanks for sharing. I like how you weaved the questions so that it reads very organically. One of my pet peeves (as a former reporter) is that too many people do Q&As and it really just dead-pan and jumps. You wrote it so that it flowed very well. Great work.
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