Mike Portnoy

"I think my playing is split between 'progressive rock' drumming and 'heavy metal' drumming," says Mike Portnoy of the band Dream Theater. "I fall somewhere between Neil Peart of Rush and Lars Ulrich of Metallica," the New York drummer continues. "In Dream Theater, we take progressive rock influences and bring them into the metal environment of the nineties."

The band remains prolific, even after a solid decade of recording and touring, and has produced such popular albums as Images and Words and Falling into Infinity, plus a recent album and home video documenting their live show.

Portnoy and LP go way back. "I think I discovered Latin Percussion when I first discovered that tambourines and shakers existed," he smiles. "My high school marching band and concert band stocked all Latin Percussion gear. My first LP instrument was probably a tambourine or a cowbell."

Mike emphasizes: "I'm a drummer, not a percussionist. My interest in percussion is more of an embellishment to drumset playing. I never listened to much Latin music, except Santana, but I've seen drummers who also play percussion that blow me away. I'm a novice at hand percussion and I'm in complete awe of the things these people do." Mike has a few tricks himself, to be revealed on an upcoming instructional video from Hudson Music.

Portnoy subjects LP instruments, including mounted bells, blocks, tambourines, and a percussion table, to considerable trauma: "My application of the products is a lot more demanding than many of the Latin artists, because I'm using them in rock, playing 200 hundred shows a year, and they're getting bashed and sweated on. After this last tour, everything was fine; I didn't need to replace anything."

October, 1999 marks the release of a new Dream Theater album, as yet unnamed, and Mike is laboring on a side project that includes Neil Morris from Spocks Beard. "It's very retro - very Beatles, Yes, and Pink Floyd. There's no metal elements whatsoever, which for me was nice. I got to do my best Ringo impersonation."

Speaking of another side project, although Liquid Tension Experiment 2 is on the shelves, don't hold your breath for a third pairing of Mike with Peter Gabriel bassist Tony Levin. After all, as Mike notes, three-quarters of the Liquid Tension Experiment has now joined Dream Theater.