Dream Theater's New Track out June 29, 11AM EST

How did the recent lineup change affect the songwriting responsibilities?

We didn’t write the music with [new drummer] Mike Mangini. We decided to go in and just write it amongst ourselves without a drummer [to] get more in touch with the intimates of the compositional process that every guitarist, keyboard player and bassist does when they’re sitting around in a bedroom or hotel room or studio. Just writing and pulling out the best music that you can, exploring different areas. We decided to do it that way, which was great — a really great environment for being creative.

So, did you end up writing things that were really hard for him to play?

It’s funny that you say that, because I programmed all the drums with a program, which was a lot of fun. I came up with some wicked stuff. When we finished, I sent it, asking “Is this something that you can actually play? I don’t know, I’m not a drummer, is this a physically possible thing?” But then he came in a couple of months later, and here he was, a human being doing this stuff. I was blown away. It’s fun doing that kind of thing because you can just come up with stuff that’s beyond your wildest imagination, drum-wise, and then make it happen in real life.

I think it's easy to say, that the new drummer did a good enoguh job and Myung did great too. There are some nice passages that show this youth-like enthusiasm they used to have... And I like it how this isn't too heavy.

But the problem is, well, this song could be a lot better... but for the last, dunno 10 years all the singing... There's no melody. The song completely changes when the singing starts. It goes dull and boring, all the riffs are gone, just plain chords and the melody's like --- -- -- ---- --- ---  ------ no high notes, no low notes, just bleh. this band used to be interesting :(

Decent song..most of the bad and good points mentioned already I agree with. Mix I suspect will get corrected for the album release.