Sons of Apollo - Derek Sherinian Interview

Agree with most except I do think Jordan fit on Scenes From a Memory....but a lot of those core melodies were written while Sherinian was still there so Jordan could keep those and shred where needed. Six Degrees was borderline awful in my opinion other than Glass Prison and a couple small parts of the title track.

And does Soto really not have the range anymore or is he staying in that range because of the style? I think it fits the sound.

 

I gave the album another listen last night, and after reading through more interviews, I think he stayed in that range to fit the sound. I haven't heard much of his other recent stuff though, and on one song, his voice is a bit weak in the softer upper register, but the album as a whole is really bottom-heavy.

 

He has a solo album coming out either this week or next, I am curious as to how he will sound there.

Although, the guy isn't exactly young (52) wouldn't be surprising to have lost some range at this point. But whether he has or not, I do believe it was intentional on the SOA album

 

I would have liked to have heard Soto singing with Journey. Surely, there must be videos on YouTube or something...

 

He sounded great with Journey but his tone was more "heady" and thin. I think he's going for that gutsy belt sound with this band and you can only take that sound so high.

 

Well, he may have been pissed but he channeled in in a good way by surrounding himself with better musicians than him and killed it with his Planet X project.

I'd have seen that live in a heartbeat.

 

At no point did I think Derek was the right guy for Dream Theater. I didn't start to really appreciate his work (except for "Anna Lee") until after Rudess joined and Derek hit his stride with Planet X.

The live band at that time (for me anyway) was a disaster but as we would find out later it was more than just Derek.

 

I think you're talking about pushing the envelope in some way. Admittedly, that gets more difficult to do when you get older and they also have a fan base out there that has an expectation of what the band should sound like. Also, financially, there is an income level that has been sustained over the years and it's probably not wise to tinker too much with the formula.

I generally don't agree with that, but I realize it exists and understand why you would want to stick with what works. Especially in these interesting times.

 

How do you top April 1, 2006? What do you do for an encore?

I think he burnt out after that gig. It became a burden to keep feeding the machine. I can't really blame him for it.

 

I'm pretty sure no other band member took offense about that either. Portnoy is the only one who has gone on record about it.

 

Completely disagree with all of that.

The music suffered because of the "fun." I'm not sure they played Metropolis the right way when he was in the band and they didn't even attempt it on the 1994-95 tours.

I'd argue that both Vapor Trails and Snakes and Arrows were progressive. Vapor Trails sounds nothing like the band did before or after.

I never though Derek fit in from the beginning and even less so when he started remaking his stage area.
The band that had claimed "it's all about the music" started to care less about it. (at least live.)

Kevin seemed to fit in at least live at that time I wasn't exactly looking for potential friction. Jordan also seems to fit in rather well even if I think he's not being utilized correctly.

 

IMO, those shows of that era had a spontaneity to them that made you feel like you *had* to go, or who knows what you might miss out on. A U2 cover. A metal medley. ACOS in its entirety, or broken up throughout a show. Soon after, it became predictable and now it has been pretty rote for over a decade. Yes, they have way more music they can fill a set with, but even on the Awake tour, they could have played front-to-back album tracks, but didn't. There was nearly always something surprising.

 

I was hoping for a lot more from Sheehan, but I'm content enough to listen to the Winery Dogs, his solo projects or his work with Niacin

 

Well, that's certainly mostly the era where they did that sort of thing. The Ronnie Scotts gig, the Holidays shows, but it's also the era where the label was messing with them and they had most of their down time. I may have been a morale booster for them as much as us.

 

I saw them with Derek in 1994 shortly after he joined the band, at a show in NYC. They encored with Metropolis. It may have been 20+ years ago, but I don't recall a single complaint.

 

Hammerstein Ballroom right? I was at that show.

I even have the bootleg (can't remember the last time I listened to it) but I have to be honest I don't remember them encoring with that but it obviously happened.

I guess I know what I'm listening to later tonight.

 

I'd love to revisit that memory, aurally...

 

I guess. But also, "pushing the envelope" doesn't necessarily mean, for a prog band, writing stuff that's even longer, more complex, heavier, more ridiculous, etc. Like, I look at a band like Yes, who went from Time and a Word to CTTE to Relayer to Drama to 90125 to Talk. And certainly parts of the fan base were gained and lost (and regained) over the years, but for a good 25 years, you could get a new Yes album and not really know what it was going to sound like before dropping the needle.

Like, for a few years before Portnoy left, I quietly thought DT should explore the kind of stuff they did on Falling To Infinity more, but on their own terms, without label interference. Portnoy's a huge Beatles nut, and certainly the whole band are fans of Peter Gabriel, U2, Queen, 80's/90's Rush, etc. Like, in other words, what if the band had done something more influenced by Power Windows than 2112? Sure, some fans would've bitched, but who cares? It may have been great, it may have sucked, but it probably would've been more intriguing than Systematic Chaos.

I think part of the reason I love Steven Wilson's To The Bone is that it annoyed a bunch of prog snobs, but it's still 100% a Wilson record, just with some different influences coming to the forefront. No one needs a fanbase that expects the same thing every time. Well, except maybe AC/DC.

 

Amen!

I actually liked Octovarium for that reason....they tried to do something a little different, with mixed results.

And agree 100% on To the Bone

 

Enjoy. Apparently this was digitally upgraded



Derek was still a hired hand at this point so it appears they didn't mess with the arrangement of Metropolis too much like they would on subsequent tours.

Not as bad as I'd remembered it (It was the only Dream Theater gig I went to in 1994.) but it's definitely not a standout gig for me. (maybe that's why I forgot about Metropolis as it's always been a fave of mine.)

 

I mostly agree with this, although I don't think the Yes example is relevant since their change in sound over the years probably had more to do with the lineup constantly rotating than anything else (they have never done 3 studio albums in a row with the same lineup).

I definitely wish DT would have been a little more adventurous over the years in regards to style and trying different things. I remember Portnoy saying about Liquid Dreams from LTE2 that it was a song DT could never do and I always thought. "Why the hell not? It is your band!! You can do whatever you want!"

Steven Wilson is a whole other beast. He does what he wants to do, with no regard for what the fans want. That is the way it should be.

 

Absolutely. Not exactly hoping for long songs here, just a different aesthetic.

Systematic Chaos is my least favorite Dream Theater album. There's a few I like. Prophets of War, Repentance, Constant Motion.... but I don't know what they were thinking with the rest of it.

Wasn't too thrilled about Petrucci pulling lyrics from that Manga comic either but that's just me I guess.

More or less indifferent about Steve Wilson.

Like No Man....Storm Corrosion...was never really into Porcupine Tree other than Fear Of A Blank Planet. Don't think I've heard a note of his solo stuff, but I can't be sure of that.

 

Systematic Chaos was easily the worst DT album for me up until the Astonishing. I never really warmed to Train Of Thought as a whole, because it felt like the same song 6 times, but I liked the songs out of context just fine (except for "Dying Soul"...that riff was lame the first time, and then they kept recycling it on 4 more albums)

His last 3 solo records are worth checking out. I was a huge PT fan, but Wilson's first two solo albums left me kinda cold. But he hit it out of the park with Raven and Hand Cannot Erase.

 

True, just using that as an example. It all qualifies as "Yes music," y'know? I'm actually surprised DT's member changes haven't impacted their sound as much.

 

Oh man, does that bring back some memories. That has to be a separate audio feed from the camera, and it actually sounds pretty good for the most part. I just wish he had camera the camera pulled back and got the whole stage. Thanks for sharing this. The notable thing about it is how good James sounds most of the time (I only listened to 2-3 songs so far). This must have been before he blew his voice out, which I think was later that tour?

This also led me to search on the Irving Plaza show that I saw on the FII tour, and it is up there. Man, I'm gonna have to burn some data this month.

I have the official boot of one of the Birch Hill shows I went to, and man, hearing that stuff brings back memories (I know, I said it twice). Thanks for sharing this video. Makes me really want to see an SoA show now, to relive that feeling.