DRUM! Magazine – Issue 14-8, Pg. 66

Mike Portnoy once said jokingly that he is the walking definition of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Bandmate and close friend, guitarist John Petrucci isn’t laughing. “I don’t think that’s a joke,” Petrucci smiles. “We call him the ‘archivist.’ He is totally obsessed with organizing and compiling data. The place that comes in handy and what he really obsesses about are two different arenas. One is the live shows and creating the sets. Mike is so well organized and is so well versed about all the albums and where we’ve played, what and how many times we’ve been through a particular city. He has it all documented and worked out and I know he has sleepless nights about the set. His OCD really comes in handy, and thank god he does it, because it’s a big job.”

Portnoy’s meticulous organizational skills also come in handy when the band writes an album. “He’s totally obsessed with recording everything and organizing and compiling. He really stays on top [of everything] while we record – keeping everything organized and labeled. Even when it comes to writing the album, and we start talking about the order of songs, he goes through these formulas and things. When we’re writing music, there are so many different ways to interpret a piece of music as a drummer, and he’s really into approaching it from several different angles. A lot of times, within the course of a few bars he’ll be subdividing and changing the way that he drums. He’ll keep it creative and expressive as possible.”

Playing together for 20 years, Petrucci and Portnoy have developed chemistry that allows them to communicate almost invisibly. “When we play, it’s almost like we know what the other guy is thinking, and what he’s going to do next,” Petrucci says. “I think that of anybody else in the band, Mike and I are the most locked in and connected when we’re playing live. I think the flow of the show or a particular song is determined by that a lot of the times. If you can read somebody most of the time without looking at them, you can tell whether they’re on, having a good or a bad night, if they’re overexcited or tired. Whatever it is, you feel and help each other and you pull the whole thing along. Nobody really notices because it’s on a whole different level.”