MIKE MANGINI (Dream Theater) Talks Musical Prejudice in Drumtalk Interview

I’ve seen Dream Theater play on 3 separate occasions. Once, when I saw them play in Boston, then-drummer Mike Portnoy brought out a friend of his for his drum solo spotlight. The two of them dueled on the Siamese Monster’s two-throne monstrosity, and when it was over, Portnoy introduced him as Mike Mangini. It was a name I’d heard before, and I knew that I’d be hearing it again after seeing what a monster he was.

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Of course, we all know how this story goes – Portnoy leaves the band, and after a grueling audition process, Mangini becomes his replacement (I totally called it, by the way). Now 6 years and 4 albums later, he’s very at home in his job. In this interview with Drumtalk TV, he discusses his musical journey from a very young age feeling called to play the drums, his decision to focus on drums over his other passion, hockey, and most importantly – the musical prejudice he sees holding back musicians of all genres.

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As Editor-in-Chief of Gear Gods, I've been feeding your sick instrument fetishism and trying unsuccessfully to hide my own since 2013. I studied music on both coasts (Berklee and SSU) and now I'm just trying to put my degree to some use. That's a music degree, not an English one. I'm sure you noticed.

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  • Because genre-bashing is the sort of projection a lot of these assholes need to heal from years of being bullied/abused. Now the bullied have become the bullies, and everything is hunky-dory.

    This is, of course, not how people heal from psychological damage, but our subculture glorifies doing stupid shit that hurts you in the long run just because it’s fun in the short term. So don’t tell anyone.

    Also, this isn’t meant to be taken seriously.

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