Mike Portnoy recently opened up about what it’s like to perform Dream Theater songs he wasn’t originally involved in recording. He discussed the experience in an interview with ProMark Drumsticks.
During his absence from the band, Dream Theater released several albums featuring drummer Mike Mangini. Now that Portnoy is back in the lineup, he talked about how he’s handling this material that’s new to him. “It’s been fun playing the songs that I didn’t record with Dream Theater,” Portnoy said. “They obviously made a lot of albums with Mike Mangini while I was gone. Luckily, the guys in the band gave me full freedom to kind of approach ’em how I’d like.”
He went on to say that, although he mainly sticks to what Mangini originally played, he sometimes changes things when he feels another idea might work better.
“I’m pretty faithful to his parts, for the most part, but there are moments here and there that it’s, like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I would’ve played that,’” he explained. “So playing those songs has been a lot of fun, to be honest, ’cause it’s something very fresh for me.”
To appreciate the scale of what Portnoy is taking on, it helps to remember how active Dream Theater was while Mangini was in the band. Mangini held the drum seat from late 2010 until 2021, a period in which Dream Theater released five studio albums that now form a major slice of their catalog, as noted by Blabbermouth.
The first of these, A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011), introduced Mangini as the band’s new drummer and is often considered one of the standout releases of that era. It was followed by their self-titled twelfth album in 2013, which was the first time Mangini was involved in the songwriting alongside the rest of the group.
That record entered the Billboard 200 at number seven and included instrumental passages that showcased his technical abilities behind the kit. Over the next eight years, Mangini continued shaping Dream Theater’s sound on The Astonishing (2016), Distance Over Time (2019), and A View from the Top of the World (2021). The last of these became especially noteworthy when “The Alien” earned Dream Theater their first Grammy Award, firmly underscoring Mangini’s influence on the band’s legacy.
Portnoy officially rejoined Dream Theater in October 2023, returning after a 13-year break. That meant he had to learn material spanning five full albums while also engaging with Mangini’s unique feel and stylistic choices.
With Portnoy back, the band went on to release their sixteenth studio record, “Parasomnia,” in February 2025, signaling a fresh era for Dream Theater. Portnoy’s commitment to respecting Mangini’s contributions while still expressing his own musical identity reflects a high level of professionalism and mutual respect within the band as they move through this important period of change.
