John Petrucci thinks it’s great to reunite with Mike Portnoy.
In a recent conversation with Prog, the guitarist said they’ve been working on the new Dream Theater album since February and it’s going well. He also mentioned enjoying reconnecting with Portnoy:
“But you know, with him just coming back into the band, it has been great. It’s like we haven’t missed a beat and it really feels like we’re 18 again. The flow was really, really smooth. There’s definitely an undeniable, creative chemistry there. You meet certain people in your life and you connect on an artistic level, and it just flows. We have been working in our own studio and our space has expanded. We have just built a new live room and control room, which is just beautiful.”
Dream Theater Is Happy To Welcome Portnoy Back
Portnoy reunited with Dream Theater in October 2023. The band soon started working on a new album. Another Dream Theater member, Jordan Rudess also thinks having Portnoy back in the band was important. In a chat with Serbia’s Highwaystar Magazine earlier this month, the keyboardist said:
“Well, it was so great to have him back. In many ways, it feels like we never lost a beat. Because he was one of the ones who started this band, and he loves it so much, the welcoming process was really immediate and we’re all so happy to kind of re-establish what we had. I mean, it feels like getting the core band together again.”
Mike Has Strong Musical Ideas
Reuniting with Mike also changed the band’s creative process. Rudess recently told 89FM A Rádio Rock:
“Well, it’s definitely changed because he’s a very strong musical personality and a strong personality in general. And so he has a lot of thoughts about things.”
The rocker also said they were doing fine before the drummer returned, but things have improved since he came back:
“He’s a very conceptual thinker, and I think that as fine as we were just doing our own thing when he was gone, having him back, it’s just like, wow, this is so great to have your mind and your spirit involved in it. It really does change things. So I think when people hear the new album that we’re working on, they’ll kind of see that and they’ll feel that. I definitely think it’s reconnecting with some of the spirit of the magic that we produced in the years that he was in the band.”
Dream Theater has an upcoming tour. The band’s 40th Anniversary Tour in Europe will visit 23 cities, starting in Zagreb, Croatia, on October 20 and ending on November 24. They have finished writing their new album, but the release date is not yet known.