During a recent conversation with the Dream Theater Fan Club, guitarist John Petrucci talked about reuniting with drummer Mike Portnoy on the upcoming solo album Terminal Velocity.
As previously reported, Terminal Velocity is due this fall and it marks Petrucci‘s second solo record and the follow-up to 2005’s Suspended Animation. Dave LaRue — who performed on Suspended Animation will also play bass on the album.
Petrucci now said: “Mike is playing drums on this, which is really awesome. Obviously, Dave LaRue played on my first solo album, Suspended Animation, and also I toured with him many times with G3, as in the past Mike Portnoy, we toured together with G3 as well…
“In fact, from the very first G3 back in 2001 or so — but, yeah, having Mike play drums on this was cool. It was a great experience,” he added.
When asked how did all come about, John responded: “We’ve been talking a bunch and he had sort of planted the seed in my ear. I was telling him about it, and he was like, ‘Well if you need somebody, I’m available.’ And it was in my head; I’m, like, ‘I’m gonna take you up on that.’
“I had written all the songs and we programmed the drums, and I played bass, and our engineer played bass, so we had these completed songs. And Mike came in, learned everything, of course, added his touches and taste — did a tremendous, spectacular job.
“It was a lot of fun to kind of reunite musically and do that together; it took about six days to do,” he continued. “Again, he did a great job — the drums sound awesome.
“Dave recorded his stuff remotely, redid all the bass, and it’s mixed by Andy Sneap — it’s my first time working with Andy, and he did a tremendous job mixing it. He’s actually currently in JUDAS PRIEST playing guitar after Glenn [Tipton] couldn’t do it anymore.
“And he is an unbelievable mixer with an incredible resume,” Petrucci added. “He did mix [2018’s] Firepower, the latest JUDAS PRIEST, and a whole bunch of other stuff — KILLSWITCH [ENGAGE] and ARCH ENEMY and MACHINE HEAD, and it goes on. He’s amazing. So, the album sounds great.”
Mike Portnoy left DREAM THEATER in 2010 and has since been replaced with Mike Mangini.
