Former Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini has made the drum parts on his solo album so easy that a child could play it.
During a recent chat with Linearock, the drummer discussed his solo album and the trick that made his parts easier to play. Apparently, he wanted people to react a certain way. Mangini explained:
“I played a trick, and it worked. It worked on my solo album. What I did is I made the main drum parts so easy to listen to on a phone, like if you just hear them on a speaker on a phone, anybody could play that. A kid [could play it]. That’s what I wanted. You see, like a magnet, I wanted to pull people in, and if they chose to they could put headphones on and really listen and go, ‘Wow wow wow… Wait a minute. Why are those hi-hats changing? Why is that… Wait a minute. a) Why is that happening? b) How is that possible?’”
Mangini Focuses On His Solo Work
In October last year, Dream Theater reunited with their original drummer Mike Portnoy after 13 years. As a result, Mangini was out of the band. However, he wasn’t done with making music. After his departure, the rocker revealed his solo album would be coming out a month later.
During a chat with Chris Akin Presents…, the drummer was asked if he got mad when the band told him the original drummer was coming back. He said he got a heads-up about Portnoy’s return right away but didn’t have all the details, so he decided not to think about it.
In fact, he has been focusing on his solo work rather than thinking of going back:
“I’m actually doing like a lot of stuff for my [solo] album. I’ll do some drum playthroughs. Not to yap and yap and yap about it, but I have a lot on my cork board and my lists and things to do and things to accomplish and things to complete. There’s so much there I haven’t been able to do. But once it hit and it became real, it was real quick for me. I’m, like, ‘Okay, I get it.’”
You can watch the recent interview below.