INTERVIEW: JORDAN RUDESS on ‘Wired For Madness’, Dream Theater & Liquid Tension Experiment

Metal Wani’s Carl O’Rourke recently sat down with keyboard wizard and Dream Theater legend Jordan Rudess to talk about his new solo album ‘Wired For Madness’, what’s Dream Theater are up to and the likelihood of a Liquid Tension Experiment reunion! And, of course, much more.

On returning to a full sonic sound, with synthesizers and electronics boldly upfront, Jordan said,

“It’s been a while since I’ve done an all-out studio rock, electronic extravaganza, and I really wanted to do that. Synthesizers, exploring sounds, it’s one of the new ways of expressing sound with technology, it’s a passion of mine. I’m always interested, always ready to find outlets to do that and of course, the ultimate outlet is in creating a big solo work like this. But for many reasons, it wasn’t the right time to do it before. For scheduling reasons, for the fact that I hooked up with Mascot Records which is really great, it kind of enabled me and inspired me to do this big project. So yeah, I dove in a said ‘okay, this is it, I’m making it happen’, and I managed to compose all this music and produce all this stuff and find all the guests that I wanted to include on the album and great ‘Wired For Madness’. “

Asked if finding harmony cross-pollinating several styles in one piece is a challenge, 

“That’s a great question. I’ve always been someone who naturally always kind of takes in all these styles and is able to, even without thinking about it so much, have them come out and be my own kind of blend. That’s just one of the things that comes pretty easily to me. I’ve always been more attracted to understanding a style and bringing it in to my musical mind and allowing it to converge with the other things that are floating around my my brain and creating something new. I’ve been better at that, or more interested in that I should say, than just copying. Like a lot of people spend there time going ‘Oh, I’m gonna learn all of Keith Emerson’s trilogy album and learn how to play it.’ I’m more interested in, let me understand what makes the tick. What kind of harmonies is he using? What’s the rhythmic sensibility? How’s the counterpoint work and what really makes this style what it is? So I have to, to a certain, extent, analyze the things that interest me, just purely from a love of what I’m listening to and say ‘what is it about this that’s capturing me? What are the key elements to the style?’. So I’ll do that and bring it in. Then when I go to compose, it’s all there. I’m not academically thinking ‘okay now I’m gonna try do a King Crimson thing. And now I’m gonna try to create a jazz thing.’ It’s not really about that at all. It’s just kind of happens, which is the way that my music kind of happens. It kind of flows out of me.”

On whether his well versed musical mind has demystified music for him,

“The reason I do music, primarily for almost a self-healing kind of concept. Not to get too spiritual, but the reality is, music for me has been very healing. And I’m interested in, not only how I can communicate, but also bring a kind of resonance, a kind of peace, if you will, even if something’s really rocking, into my own life. So, very often people will find me in front of my piano just kind of vibing out. I might put the camera on to share it with other people, but to create something that just feels, that just feels good and resonates for everybody. So that’s the main concern. After that, it’s about taking people on a musical journey and entertainment and all that kind of stuff. But the reason I do this is because of the way I can make me feel and make other people feel as well.”

Curious as to whether or not his concept songs could lead to a book, Jordan confirmed, 

“A friend of mine, Peter O’ Rullian who handled writing a book around The Astonishing concept, which was the last Dream Theater album, has been very inspired by this concept that I wrote this title track to. And he is writing a book with this concept in mind. So it’ll be done very soon and we’ll point people to that to check out.”

Sharing his thoughts on the likelihood of a Liquid Tension Experiment reunion, Jordan generously offered,

“I recently had a little musical experience with my old friend Mike Portnoy and we were talking about it. I hadn’t played with him in like, nine years I think. So it was kind of fun getting together and banging out one of the old pieces. I’ve always gotten along with Mike, really. I mean there was definitely that period of time when it was a little bit rough for everybody just ‘cause it was, you know, what was going on. But we were talking about that, it’d be something really fun to do. I would love that. It’s a matter of scheduling. Everybody’s really busy. I mean Mike himself has, how many bands? I’ve lost count of things he’s balancing. And we’re so busy, and I’m so busy in our world. I mean there are so many things we want to do. But to get the point, I think that it’s gonna happen, but we don’t have it in the schedule yet. We just need to figure when the best time to do this really would be and then make it happen.”

Watch The Full Interview Below: