Recommended Aussie Tunes:Psycroptic | The new single "A Fragile Existence" | Listen

Interviews : “Coming to one of our shows, it will just be a lot of fun metal.” – An Interview with Mike Portnoy (Metal Allegiance)

By on November 22, 2015

metal-allegiance-tom-couture

Mike Portnoy – Metal Allegiance

The supergroup that is Metal Allegiance can be witnessed on stage during Soundwave early next year. I phoned up Mike Portnoy to have a chat about the lineup of Metal Allegiance, possible special guests and the importance of being an entertaining live drummer.

Metal Allegiance is a pretty unique project, where metal musicians can pretty much come and go as they want, it’s not really a band in the traditional sense. I imagine that it might be a bit difficult for some people to fully grasp what this is all about, and what Metal Allegiance will bring to the table when it comes to the live shows.

“Well, the whole thing with Metal Allegiance. It’s just a bunch of friends jamming and having fun. It’s a brother- and sisterhood of metal. When we started out a couple years ago we weren’t doing originals yet. It was Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motörhead. You know, it was just a bunch of us just having fun. Years later we decided to write our own material. But it’s still just a bunch of guys coming together and having fun. Coming to one of our shows, it will just be a lot of fun metal. We want to have as much fun on stage as the people are on the other side of the stage!”

I was naturally curious about what kind of setlist Mike Portnoy have in mind for the upcoming Australian concerts, will there be any covers at all?

“Well, we started out as an all cover band, so inevitably there will always covers as part of a Metal Allegiance show. But we hope to start doing more and more of our own tunes. But there will always be covers.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMGkSIXHCb0&w=560&h=315]

When I scanned Mike’s upcoming touring schedule, I spotted a minor gap surrounding Soundwave, does this mean that he will perform more than once at each leg of the festival?

“Yeah, sure! I’m currently in six bands, so obviously I’m doing different things with different people. I know for a fact that I won’t be performing there with Winery Dogs, I wish we were, but unfortunately it won’t happen. I’m always up for playing with whoever needs a hand.”

Continuing on the subject of Soundwave, I mentioned the press release I received prior to the interview. It mentioned a slightly cryptic “more special guests”.

“The lineup for Metal Allegiance change from show to show, because it depends on who’s available. Charlie Benante played instead of me in Japan for example. So when we get to Soundwave we’ll be performing without David Ellefson, but we’ll have Phil Demmel of Machine Head, Troy Sanders of Mastodon. So you know, the lineup is always different. And even then, when you have the announced lineup, the possibility of special guests always changes depending on the festival.”

Mike Portnoy is one of the most accomplished drummers in the world of metal, obviously mostly famous for his great career with Dream Theater, but also filling in for a plethora of other bands when they’ve needed a drummer, and he’s currently working with six different bands. I was curious about what kind of career goals a guy like him would have left on his checklist.

“I am very, very grateful for the career I have had. And I’ve won every drum award, I’ve been on the cover of every magazine I’ve wanted to be on, I’ve played so many of my heroes, it’s really been a dream career as far as accomplishments go. But of course there are more people I want to work with. One of these days I’d still like to do something with Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth. And then there are of course venues around the world. And hey, Soundwave is one that I’ve been waiting to do. Mikael is a good friend of mine, I took Opeth on a couple of Dream Theater tours when I was still in the band. He came up and sang on a couple of songs. We have been friends for a long time, we haven’t done a collaboration yet so it’s something I want to down the road.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2FTms30iIs&w=560&h=315]

To me, watching Mike Portnoy live has always been magical. Not only is he an extremely talented drummer, he is also very entertaining to watch, I asked him if he feels that it’s important to be an entertaining drummer while playing for an audience.

“For me, absolutely! It’s always been a priority for me. I’ve always strived to be more of an entertainer onstage, than a technician. People might have this vision of me being a technician since I was with Dream Theater for 20 odd years. But to be honest with you, I could care less about that shit. I am so much more interested in the personality on stage. People like Keith Moon or even Lars Ulrich, to me, are way more entertaining and engaging than the technicians that can play super fast or super technical. It’s boring, I have no interest in that whatsoever. I’m all about the personality and entertainment, and connecting with the audience.”

Secure your Soundwave Festival tickets from www.soundwavefestival.com.

SATURDAY 23 JANUARY 2016, BRISBANE

SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 2016, SYDNEY

TUESDAY 26 JANUARY 2016, MELBOURNE – AUSTRALIA DAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY

soundwave 2016 aus

About

Martin is an aspiring music photographer/videographer. He is originally from the southern parts of Sweden and now he's living in Sydney, Australia. Thanks to his older sister, he got into Rammstein at the age of 9, and since then he's been into all types of metal/rock. He loves to combine photography and music, but also filming concerts and produce live material. Follow him on Twitter and check out his website.