MIKE MANGINI de la DREAM THEATER a lansat cel de-al doilea single, intitulat 'Not Drowning', de pe viitorul sau album solo

Bateristul Mike Mangini de la DREAM THEATER a lansat „Not Drowning”, al doilea single de pe viitorul sau album solo de debut, „Invisible Signs”, care urmeaza sa fie lansat acum in noiembrie. Printre artistii cu care a colaborat Mangini se numara si Tony Dickinson la bass, Ivan Keller la chitara, Gus G. (FIREWIND, OZZY OSBOURNE) la chitara principala si fosta chitarista EVANESCENCE Jen Majura la voce.

In ceea ce priveste inspiratia lirica pentru piesa „Not Drowning”, Mike a spus: "While listening to the chorus part of this song sometime in 2018, I heard word sounds in my mind and the word 'drowning' fit it pretty well. I didn't want to write about it literally though. I used a thesaurus and the internet to find related words and topics because my lyrics are never about personal events or stories. Searching terms related to 'drowning' eventually led me to the word 'confusion.' That made me think of the confusion surrounding the findings of Quantum Mechanics. I found instances of physicists and mathematicians saying that the test results seemed strange and 'wrong,' and that they could not reconcile it with their view of reality. Some said there are things about it we cannot know, or maybe are not supposed to know. It seemed to me that spending too much time immersing oneself in it can make a person crazy. Einstein died confounded by it spending countless hours trying to recocile it with the reality he knew. The myriad of unfounded conjectures outside the physics community conjured up a comedy skit in my mind. The lines 'Not Drowning' and 'I will breathe' each relate to the hope of clearing away what is blurring the reality of something in all kinds of situations. For a song lyric, I suspected that singing about physics wouldn't be as fun as the idea of jumping in a saltwater pool. I needed a descriptive location for it. 'Backyard' didn't work, so I used the word 'nation' because everyone lives in one. That word led me to 'radiation,' as that's what heats up a pool and has a cool sound to it when sung. Mainly, words come to me as sounds, then I search around and form something cohesive, but try not to sacrifice how the words sound. I thought this might be interesting to know about. At the end of the day, however, it's just a song for rocking out! And then there's the simultaneous 7/8 in Common Time and a wild solo section for the Musos!"

Intrebat intr-un interviu recent pentru „The Everyman Podcast” daca a scris toata muzica si versurile pentru „Invisible Signs”, inclusiv primul single lansat recent „Freak Of Nature”, Mangini a spus: "Initially. And the reason why there's confusion is journalists will grab old information that is true at the time, but then it changes. For example, initially, yeah, I wrote every note — of course I did, because I was working on it by myself. I mean, every note — the solos, all the words, horribly sung [laughs] vocal melodies. And it evolved over time. So, as it grew from totally all me and MIDI instruments to what you hear now, there was a stage where I had nurtured it and then turned it over to everyone else on the album. So that's the essence of it."

In ceea ce priveste modul in care Jen s-a implicat in proiect in calitate de solista, Mike a spus: "I met Jen quite a while ago, and eventually she asked me to do one of her one-minute [YouTube] spots, and we did a Stevie Wonder tune with her and Alex Skolnick, and it was super, 'cause she nailed — she played saxophone and guitar and all this stuff, but she's singing Stevie Wonder, like with that thing. Not everybody has that thing, and I noted it in my head. I'm, like, 'Gosh, she's got that thing.' And it's interesting, because later on, when I wrote a couple of songs no one has heard yet, except whoever's supposed to hear this before it comes out, 'Black Box' and 'Let Me Shine' are more of what… I mean, you can tell that's what the kids were gravitating towards. And so I tried to make those songs me. I tried to make it with the riff and that thing to it that is not common on the radio stations. But anyway, so she had that thing that allowed those particular two songs to now kind of connect to the rest of it. And the songs that are on the much — they're still heavy, but they don't have that 54 percent swing thing in them."

Cat despre restul muzicienilor care apar pe materialul „Invisible Signs”, Mangini a spus: "Gus took care of the solos. He didn't wanna do the rhythm stuff. He's not a seven-string player; he's a six-string player. That's the reason. So, Ivan was recommended to me by vocalist Dino Jelusick [WHITESNAKE, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA], who's just the sweetest guy in the world — great friend, someone I was bouncing ideas off of and stuff and helping me out. And he recommended Ivan. He actually recommended Tony Dickinson as well on bass. But Ivan came in and just took all my virtual parts, put them on the guitar. And actually, Dino captured Ivan's parts on Dino's laptop. So, they sent those to me. But Ivan had to interpret some things. He was, like, 'Hey, man, this is done on a keyboard. What are you doing?' I was, like, 'Yes, I know. Make it so it works for you. Make it so it works on that instrument. Go ahead.' And then Tony, of course, did the same thing on bass. And he was in touch with me saying, 'You know…' I'm, like, 'No, just tell me.' He says, 'Well, this particular run, this particular note, I wouldn't do that.' I'm, like, 'It's just a note. Just move the note. Change it. Sure.' Then I said, 'I made the basic parts that work for the song. If you want to embellish, go for it. Make it you, but stay within the thing. Otherwise, I'm gonna lose this.' So these guys were so amazing that they took what I did, they embellished, they fixed it, as it were, because it's a keyboard; they changed some things. But if you heard, if I release all the demos with just me, it's gonna sound…. you'll hear some notes here and there that are different, and that's what happened, or structures. But everything is basically the way it was in essence. And so Ivan took care of all the guitars and he did some fills here and there. Jen Majura did the lead-in solo, the introductory solo for a song called 'Deep Inside'."

Intr-un mesaj video lansat recent, Mangini a vorbit despre inspiratia lirica pentru „Freak Of Nature”. El a spus: "The lyric to 'Freak Of Nature' came about pretty interestingly. As I was researching things I'm interested in, like forces and laws of nature, and I came across a hurricane and 'force of nature' hit me, but it didn't sound very good to me. Then, all of a sudden, 'freak of nature' beamed in from somewhere. And the interesting thing is that that's inherent throughout the record; it just permeates the whole thing where there's meaning, but the sound was more important to me, because if it didn't sound right, I didn't think anyone would want to sing it, if that makes any sense. So, I was thinking about other freaks of nature, like musicians and athletes and things like that, and [American football player] Rob Gronkowski, who played for the [New England] Patriots, came to mind, as he was like an unstoppable force. And so those are just a couple of the things that weave their way into the song. But mainly, I was concerned about the sound, and luckily that phrase came into my mind, freak of nature, and I liked it. So I based all the lyrics off of that."

Cu o saptamana mai devreme, Mangini a lansat un mesaj video separat in care vorbea despre inspiratia muzicala pentru „Freak Of Nature”. El a spus: "One thing it isn't is a recreation of any band I've ever been in. I mean, why would I do that? I'm already working with, and have worked with, the best that do that. So it's not something I wanna do. Plus in Dream Theater, everyone's solo album sounds different than the final DREAM THEATER album. Anyway, one of the sources for me came from when I spent a dime ordering records from a company called Columbia House and, like, 912 LPs showed up. One of them was LED ZEPPELIN 'IV'. And when I put 'Black Dog' on, it did something to me. There was something about that riff. So over the years, I wrote some songs. And when it came time for this album, 'Freak Of Nature' was the first [song] written. And it's a riff. The thing is I had to learn how to write lyrics and melodies over the riff. But that's one of the sources, if you're interested."

Alte piese care urmeaza sa apara pe LP-ul solo al lui Mangini includ "Invisible Signs", "Habit To Change", "Not Drowning", "Saying Sorry", "So Alive", "Glamorous Shades", "It's Noise" si "Seek And Find".

Mangini s-a alaturat fromatiei DREAM THEATER la sfarsitul anului 2010 printr-o auditie larg mediatizata dupa plecarea lui Mike Portnoy, care a co-fondat DREAM THEATER in urma cu mai bine de 30 de ani. Mangini i-a invins pe alti sase dintre cei mai buni tobosari din lume Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer si Derek Roddy - un proces de trei zile care a fost filmat pentru un reality show in stil documentar numit "The Spirit Carries On".

Mangini si-a facut un nume in lumea hard rock-ului la mijlocul anilor 1990 cand a cantat cu EXTREME, inainte de a ajunge sa cante cu Steve Vai in 1996. Aproape un deceniu mai tarziu, Mangini a ocupat un post de pofesor cu norma intreaga la renumitul Berklee College of Music.

DREAM THEATER a castigat primul sau Grammy la categoria "Best Metal Performance" in cadrul ceremoniei de pre-transmisie la cea de-a 64-a editie anuala a premiilor Grammy, care a avut loc in aprilie 2022 la MGM Grand Garden Arena din Las Vegas. DREAM TEATRE a fost nominalizat pentru „The Alien”, o piesa de pe albumul lor din 2021 „A View From The Top Of The World”. Nominalizarile anterioare ale trupei DREAM THEATER la Grammy au fost pentru piesa „On The Backs Of Angels”, de pe albumul „A Dramatic Turn Of Events” din 2011 si single-ul „The Enemy Inside” de pe „Dream Theatre” din 2013.

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