Dream Theater's new drummer is MIKE MANGINI

There's A LOT!!! My audition went on for almost four hours with being welcomed, setting up drums, warming up, jamming, playing through the three songs, the "test", interviews and small talk. Also Petrucci ordered the best Pizza in NYC according to him that we all enjoyed while talking.

We've only seen very little parts of what went on like Derek already wrote. I do hope more will be revealed in the future!!!
unare of your playing till this and im VERY impressed we will be hearing a lot from you SOON

Pete I was unaware of your playing before DOH
but after this audition WOW I knew the original 4 Mike,Virgil,Thomas and Marco could pull it off but you WERE great as well.
Ill be watching for more from you and i know the bands were watching you as well
All the best
Tim
 
"Pete Wildoer you are a wonderful drummer. I think if there were any BIG winners from this whole thing it was you. Sure Mike got the gig, but he was already out there and capable of landing any number of things. Your ascension on the other hand comes off as something very cool. What a fantastic springboard. I can't imagine this not affecting you in a positive way. Geez you've got ridiculous skills and a whole lot of class. It's also great you're hanging around now and I hope you stick around past this little publicity surge.

As for Mangini, he decided he was going to get the gig, did the homework and got the gig...plain and simple. As for these bring your own style-not bring your own style discussions, I think its probably the wisest to do what's required to get the gig. Then once you have it and you get comfortable with the guys, then your own stuff gets in there.

I also remain amazed at how people are always going on and on about this his style fits/doesn't fit stuff. Are these people really telling me that most of the guys seen here can't play any way they want if they put their minds to it? Believe it or not, it's not just Vinnie C. There are hundreds of great drummers capable of this skillset. And Mike happens to be one of the best at it although I've remained perplexed about the kind of music that really moves him. To him I think DT is exactly where his heart is musically. But hey ...when you're a beast like that and can do so many things...more power to you.

I've seen some people already ragging on him for being overly happy about winning, But I just think that's what a superbly focused guy who sees life goals in terms of winning and losing does, whether it's DT, a Berklee appointment, WFD comps, or a game of cards. I think too many mistake that as some confused invasion of artistic principles when it's actually a whole lot more positive than that."

Well said Matt.

Thank you soo very much for your kind words, really makes me very happy!!! :) Coming in as the underdog I hope this will give positive reactions for me. I mean the other drummers are the very elite of modern more powerful drumming and to just be mentioned among them is more than I could ever ask for!!! I'm planning to hang around here and I've been reading a lot here before but haven't posted. ;-)

I have to agree that I'm a bit bored with the ongoing discussions of what drummer is capable of what. This drummer can't play this and that drummer don't have a clue about that... To me there are two kinds of music, the stuff that I like and the stuff I like less, same goes for drummers. I have to agree though that I like most drummers as I tend to try to hear their qualities and not their weak points, ha ha ha...

Here are a couple of videos that might show that I like playing different styles:

www.youtube.com/user/Wildoerfaren?feature=mhum#p/f/4/DcuivPThm84

www.youtube.com/user/Wildoerfaren?feature=mhum#p/f/2/7vli1QsK6mk

Huge congratulations to Mr. Mangini, he's more than well worth it!!! He's an amazing drummer and I think he's the perfect fit for DT. Agree, he had his mind set to get the gig and he did. Focused and well done! :)



I spent some time with Derek Roddy last year at the Drum Road Trip in Upstate New York. So I was super excited for him to see that he got called into audition...if for no other reason than it would be a great boon for his reputation and hopefully lead him to other great opportunities. I was rooting for him.

His post here bear out some of the philosophies we spoke about in NY...about the BUSINESS of drumming. Yes, Dream Theater is an amazing gig for a Prog/Metal player. But at what cost to the other aspects of ones life?

I agree with Derrek that a cult band like DT isn't necessarily going to be the most lucrative move for some players. Why would a guy like Lang, who charges $800 a head for his drum camp and does well with his dvd's (and is a nicely paid hired gun) want to join a band and where he now has to take on the debt involved in being a member?? It had better be BIG $$ to take on the 'band member' role rather that 'the hired gun' role.

I know lots of guys who go on tour, come home in debt and to a family who barely recognizes them. It happens...

No one wants to end up like Richie Hayward...in his 60's and sick with no medical insurance.

My point is...there were many more factors to consider for the 7 auditionees other than "when does the tour start'?

From the looks of it, the DT guys have a stable small to medium size business going for them. By contrast, when Metallica hired Rob Trujillo, they gave him A MILLION DOLLARS UP FRONT. Now we are talking!

I did enjoy the audition vids...and thought every drummer played to their strengths. All of them were phenomenal. I would have loved to hear what Virgil or Lang came up with at more length, or to hear a more extreme take that Derrek or Peter could add to DT.

I am an old school Prog fan ...ELP, YES, FLOYD...but after watching this whole process I can see why the critics back then HATED prog. So pretensions and overly dramatic!! So it is no surprise that the DT have a lot of those same qualities. But they seem like nice guys to me.

But Derrek did make me proud!!

t

First of all I have no clue what money the DT guys make. For me personally this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to live of just playing music. I've never made enough money just playing drums and have always been teaching. Don't get my wrong, I like teaching a lot, but if I was to choose between teaching math and drums five days a week and on the other hand be given the possibility of just playing with a fantastic band i would have no hard time choosing. On the other hand I know what it's like being away from my family when on tour and that is NOT FUN! But regardless...



This:

I don't think this is true for the guys in DT, or for most of the new school, prog metal, musicians.
If anything, they tend to classical music I'd say. Jordan Rudess was at Julliard at age 9.
DT clearly go for intriguing composition, not improvisation in the sense that jazz musicians
work on and explore.

That is one of the interesting dichotomies here. While the old school guys often wanted to be jazz musicians and certainly grew up listening to swing, the new school guys grew up listening to the old school guys.

I can only speak for myself on this but I agree this to be something that a lot drummers endlessly discuss. I would say that if a musician want to play a specific style she/he goes for that. Most likely they won't spend years learning something they don't like. I agree that the DT guys are way closer to classical musicians than jazz musicians. Personally I've spent a lot of time practicing a lot of different styles and systems to be able to form my own hopefully fairly unique style. THAT I find way more interesting if a musician has something that is personal no matter what style of music.



unare of your playing till this and im VERY impressed we will be hearing a lot from you SOON

Pete I was unaware of your playing before DOH
but after this audition WOW I knew the original 4 Mike,Virgil,Thomas and Marco could pull it off but you WERE great as well.
Ill be watching for more from you and i know the bands were watching you as well
All the best
Tim

Hey Tim!

Very cool that You post here!!! I've known about you for years on the other hand, ha ha ha... ;-) Thank you soo much for your nice words and I'm glad you enjoyed my playing. I think all of the drummers would pull it off but DT found what they were looking for in Mangini. Perhaps this video clip would make you proud even though my feet are nowhere close to yours:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=slBeEsIt8P4
 
Bernhard if you see this. I also sent you a mail asking the same question.

I wonder why Aquiles and myself are not presented as drummers auditioning for Dream Theater here:

www.drummerworld.com/Videos/mikemanginidream.html

Underneath the main video it says:
all auditions:

and then only five of the seven drummers videos are featured?

Since I'm a huge fan of Drummerworld it would sure be very cool for me on a personal level to be featured and I'm sure the same goes for Aquiles. Also saying "all auditions: " and then not show ALL auditions I see is not correct.

Cheers,
Peter Wildoer
 
Having seen the audition footage I have to say that Thomas Lang has gone up in my observations - especially after being dismissed out of hand by the gnome on keyboards for having 'interpreted' the music and that there was no place for that in DT. They take themselves so seriously, yet the music is a pubescent joke!
Well done to them all for letting the footage out, especially Roddy who failed 'Phase 3' (sheesh).
Having seen the epic pomposity of DT I feel a whole lot better about my own, erm, smaller pomposity. Who would want to be in that band?

Oh look, the "all prog and/or technical music is just pretentious wankery, and their members are equally pompous" argument. That hasn't been beaten to death or anything...

You should either keep comments like this to yourself or change your pompous opinion because just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is instantly self-indulgent. Keep it out of a thread like this especially...

My god, no matter where I go I hear this. It's sort of amusing and depressing simultaneously. I don't care how good of a musician you are, your opinion is NOT fact.
 
if there were emoticons on this forum, I'd insert the pop corn eating one here
 
DT posted a new official band photo today:

dtgroupphoto.jpg
 
or Deep Purple. Ian Paice is the only member who has been in every Mark line-up of the Deep Purple bands. He's their Fripp, well not really. But he is the stable force.
 
I thought Jon Lord had always been there too. Must've missed something.

Whatever DT are like banking shares to Crimson's speculative mining venture .... there's gold in them thar hills! (or at least that's what the psychic told me). But then again, KC were progressive rock and DT are prog rock - and there's a difference.
 
I thought Jon Lord had always been there too. Must've missed something.

Whatever DT are like banking shares to Crimson's speculative mining venture .... there's gold in them thar hills! (or at least that's what the psychic told me). But then again, KC were progressive rock and DT are prog rock - and there's a difference.

I don't know technically how that works; but Jon lord is gone, so I guess that makes another Mark. :)

Prog rock is for ppl who abbr ev'rythg.
 
Ya reckn?? I thought prog was more of a Gen X thing - the post Yes, KC, ELP crowd (who probably like those bands too).

Before playing, at times the DT guitarist would say "Let's rock!". Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford, Fred Frith or Chris Cutler would never say "let's rock" before playing. I would pay good money to see Bob Fripp say "Let's rock!" before starting a tune lol

At heart, DT are a rock'n'roll band, just a very, very complex one with some classical devices. Same with metal generally. It's different to the old stuff but it feels the same to me as it did 40 years ago - just a bunch of fun-loving, long-haired louts making a racket to the best of their ability :)

Nothing wrong with that of course (apologies, Jerry Seinfeld) ... in my teens some of my best friends were fun-loving, long-haired louts who made a racket to the best of their ability ...

Some of the old bands were explorers and took risks - sometimes for the worst, but they were more interested in trying things out and (hopefully) taking the fans with them. That's where Thomas L and Virgil D didn't fit ... they could have just played the parts but they tossed some different ideas out there to see if they'd take. Those guys weren't going to join a band that wanted straight performances for the fans.

Pretty amazing, really ... you'd imagine those maniacal arrangements would be enough to keep anyone challenged!
 
I met Mike Mangini and he proved himself to be a great guy. He made a young student of mine feel very special. It is very possible personality played a role in getting the gig.
 
Ya reckn?? I thought prog was more of a Gen X thing - the post Yes, KC, ELP crowd (who probably like those bands too).

Before playing, at times the DT guitarist would say "Let's rock!". Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford, Fred Frith or Chris Cutler would never say "let's rock" before playing. I would pay good money to see Bob Fripp say "Let's rock!" before starting a tune lol

At heart, DT are a rock'n'roll band, just a very, very complex one with some classical devices. Same with metal generally. It's different to the old stuff but it feels the same to me as it did 40 years ago - just a bunch of fun-loving, long-haired louts making a racket to the best of their ability :)

Nothing wrong with that of course (apologies, Jerry Seinfeld) ... in my teens some of my best friends were fun-loving, long-haired louts who made a racket to the best of their ability ...

Some of the old bands were explorers and took risks - sometimes for the worst, but they were more interested in trying things out and (hopefully) taking the fans with them. That's where Thomas L and Virgil D didn't fit ... they could have just played the parts but they tossed some different ideas out there to see if they'd take. Those guys weren't going to join a band that wanted straight performances for the fans.

Pretty amazing, really ... you'd imagine those maniacal arrangements would be enough to keep anyone challenged!

ELP had a movie that had live recordings of the first two albums. It was called "Rock n Roll Your Eyes." They always had a barrel house blues number on each album. Emerson was asked many times what kind of pianist he was. He would say some people ask if I'm a jazz pianist but I listen to Oscar Peterson and I don't come close. Some people ask if I'm a classical pianist, but at heart I'm a rock n roll pianist. Look at Roundabout, it's riff rock with some 'classical flourishes. Bill looks like he's having too much fun. In the end, it's gotta be fun.

Prog is often riff rock in 11. But prog was so many different things. You had Tangerine Dream or Egg. A big part of what we call classic prog was the classical influence. But much of that music at the time was progressive. If you look at the music of Zep or Purple, esp the earlier stuff, it's long form songs with classical flourishes. But a bigger part was the integration of genres. They could use instruments associated with other genres. Zep used a tabla on the first album. As much as you had classical rock, you had blues rock, folk rock, art rock or country rock, etc. That is progressive because genres are class, sexually and in America regionally defined. It brings people together who before hand had nothing in common. And then you had the emergence of a national style that everyone listened to, Kansas Boston, Styx.

In music there has been a general demise of classicism over the last 20 years, though I was reading that the Met Opera sold more tickets this season than any other. They have a Saturday broadcast of operas in movie theaters through out the States, at $25.00 a clip it brings in a lot of revenue. Many of the big stars are dead or retired, in orchestral music as well. There are always people to replace them. But populist figures like Bernstein, Pavorotti or Isaac Stern seem to be a thing of the past. So even classical music is more of a cult phenomena these days.

I would hope that would allow artists to take more risk and bring the fans along. I actually haven't been listening to DT because the newer heavier stuff is not interesting to me. But I started listening to Porcupine Tree with the heavier stuff. But then I go back and listen to someof it and it is really quite good. just takes me while to catch up, (uhh I think that's age.) I think in music you have to let go, and enjoy it for what it is, and if you can't let go, that ain't the music's fault. Prog requires a lot of that. It's not Jason Mraz.
 
I met Mike Mangini and he proved himself to be a great guy. He made a young student of mine feel very special. It is very possible personality played a role in getting the gig.

i'll bet it's downright likely that his personality weighed in. they came right out and said they were looking for someone to be part of their "family". personality would have to be a big factor in that decision. he does seem like a great guy and that must have been a big check in the plus column for him.
 
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