When you work that way, with musicians working in different formats, it helped to have my longtime engineer John Guth there to help with synchronization issues and analyzing formats, MIDI [multi-instrument digital interface] protocols… with uploading on FTP sites, uploading files and connecting over the Internet on Skype, it’s just amazing how records can be made now.
Let’s talk about your influences a bit. Anyone who is familiar with your work can pick out a lot of them – Yes, Gentle Giant, ELP – and in that sense you really are a product of your influences, and yet, there’s some greater connectivity there. What continues to impress me about your playing – is your ability to meld technical performance with melodicism and emotive quality. It reminded me of [the tagline from the movie] Metropolis: “There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.”
You know, it’s funny. I grew up playing and studying classical music. I always had a good ear and natural sense about improvisation and that improved when my mom would bring home popular and Broadway song sheet music with guitar chords. My interest in harmonies helped me improvise and eventually led me to having an interest in progressive [rock]. I spent time focusing on harmonies, [Tony] Banks’ triads, [Keith] Emerson’s suspended chords… but my approach would never be to learn an exact Xerox copy of a particular piece. Even though I love “Tarkus,” I never learned that or rehearsed that song in an effort to copy it.
I had a much bigger desire to go in and actually make my own music out of those chords by trying to locate every suspended chord and inversion and cycling my hands through all the different positions. That’s something I recommend for all young musicians. If you listen to “Tarkus” and you like it, it’s made up of fourths and suspended chords – try to make up your own piece with it. Explore the natural instinct for putting ideas together. For some people, there is a challenge to be original; for me, when I sit down and write something, that’s just not a problem. Making a soup of all things in my head is a good thing (laughs).
How much influence has your tenure with Dream Theater had on your solo work and how you’ve chosen to undertake it?
Certainly there has been a lot of influence. It’s hard for there not to be when you happen to be in a band with some of the best musicians on the planet! And John [Petrucci] and Mike [Portnoy] have been big musical forces outside of the group with Liquid Tension Experiment as well. All five of us working together in Dream Theater has had a great influence on me – I’ve learned a lot from interacting with these guys – and the way I think about developing sounds and tones to support the other instruments. Being in this band has helped me in developing library of sounds focusing on timbral qualities. We also play a lot of old metal stuff together, which has been great in broadening my rock education (laughs). There’s a lot of stuff to learn when you’re hanging out with talented professionals. You use every bit of that knowledge in your recipe… put it all into the soup.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
This is really, really long Peter. But it is also very, very good stuff. I really enjoyed reading all about the different people Rudess has played with (especially Steven Wilson as I'm a huge P. Tree fan), and about his influences (loved learning about his favorite Genesis songs by Tony Banks).
You might wanna consider breaking this into two, or three parts next time as not everybody is the progressive music fan I am, and might not have the where-with-all to stick it with it.
But personally I loved this as I expect most other Dream Theater/progressive rock fans will as well. Great stuff.
-Glen
2 - Peter
Thanks for the compliment, Glen. Rudess is a great interview... and I had thought about breaking the piece in half, but couldn't seem to find a place I felt comfortable doing so. In the end, a monthly magazine-length feature piece comes along once in a great while for me. I had to leave it intact. Anyway, thanks for checking it out; I appreciate the feedback.
3 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Yeah!! Excellent Interview!!
It's about time the man (Mr. Rudess) gets some credit here on BC. He definitely adds dimension to D.T. unfortunately their new album was disappointing(to me).
As for the Progressive Nation Tour, if it was to get huge, I would rather see some more underground prog bands instead of including SOAD or Coheed... They have such a great line-up right now and I wouldn't want to cheapen it any just to make it huge. Maybe add a couple more bands like Aghora,Cynic & Spock's Beard. Adding SP to have another giant that can sell tickets & because they are wicked good.