DREAM THEATER's MIKE MANGINI Says He Had A 'Very Sacrificial' Role In Making Of Latest Album

Brazil's Wikimetal podcast recently conducted an interview with drummer Mike Mangini of progressive metal giants DREAM THEATER. You can now listen to the chat using the SoundCloud widget below.

Asked about his involvement in the songwriting process for 2013's "Dream Theater" album, Mangini said: "Well, you have to understand something about me. Before I'm a drummer, I think I'm an athlete, a person that plays sports on a team. So my whole experience was I just wanted to be a team member that they could count on, just somebody that, if you passed me the hockey puck, I had a good chance at scoring a goal, if you passed me the soccer ball, I had a good chance at making a good play. That's all I really, really wanted. And I think one of the most important things for me was support, was maybe being quiet so that some of the other guys could expand on an idea without being interrupted too much. For example, I know my melodies and I know my key signatures, but I play drums. And it's hard for me to feel comfortable picking up a guitar… I can't play guitar in front of John Petrucci. I write on keyboards, that's what I do, but I don't wanna be jumping on the keyboards in front of Jordan [Rudess], who's the greatest on the planet. I mean, that's why I'm happy with the band; I'm with the best guys. So my experience was very sacrificial. I had a lot of ideas melodically, but sometimes I just learned to keep my mouth shut. And it is what it is. Sometimes it works out way better that I keep quiet, and other times I think I have ideas that were valuable. So it is what it is. I just wanna be part of the team. That's it. That's all I can tell you. And I trust everybody, so I'm sure everything's fine."

Mangini also spoke about when it is okay for musicians to highlight their technical prowess within the context of perfoming live with a band. "As far as showing off a little bit, there's nothing bad about that," he said. "I mean, you're only alive once. You are only the person that you are once — one time. There isn't a shred of evidence that we ever live twice — never, ever, ever. Not a shred of evidence. This is only in people's crazy, twisted minds. Sorry. But the bottom line is you live once, and why not show what you have? I think the issue is to try to do it in a friendly way. And even with what I said about living once, I know it's very strong, how I said it, but that's my belief. But when I speak to somebody about that, I'm gonna be very friendly and very, very open, and I'm gonna listen and I'm gonna admit I don't know everything. And that's the truth; I don't know everything. But I believe what I believe, and I would like to be strong, so when I'm playing the drums, or when a musician has a lot to say, I love when people show it. But there's a time and a place. I think there's a boundary. You know, you can't show off when it means stepping on somebody. You can't play too much when it means making someone else sad or upset. For example, I'm a drummer, okay? I don't want the most attention on the stage. I want my frontman, James [LaBrie], to have the most attention. Do you understand? I want James… James is the frontman, James is the voice. I don't want ever, ever wanna do anything back there to take away from James' ability to show that he can go out there and make people happy, make them laugh, make them cry and all that. Now, if I'm a drummer that shows off too much, it looks stupid; it looks like I'm fighting my own bandmembers, and I don't want to, I don't care about that stuff. I just wanna play the drums. But when it comes time for me to play my best, I don't think of it as showing off, but if someone wants to call it that, they can. And if I'm playing too much, I don't mind if somebody tells me that I'm doing too much. So I think it's about the human heart, don't you?"