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Mike Portnoy is a drummer in the progressive metal band Dream Theater.

Mike Portnoy was born on April 20, 1967 and raised in Long Beach, New York, where his interest in music started at an early age.

Although Portnoy taught himself how to play the drums, he did take music theory classes in high school. During that time he began playing in local bands Intruder, Rising Power and Inner Sanctum, the latter of which released their own album. He left the band after being awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston.

An avid collector of many things, Portnoy has a vast array of Dream Theater memorabilia including bootlegs, posters, clippings and everything else under the sun with the band's name on it. He is also responsible for capturing everything the band does on video tape and DAT (see YtseJam Records). His huge video collection includes favorite films such as 2001 - A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Jacob's Ladder and The Wall along with episodes of The Simpsons and memorable boxing matches.

Portnoy says his biggest influences are Rush drummer Neil Peart and Frank Zappa. Other favorites include drummers Terry Bozzio, Vinnie Colaiuta, Simon Philips, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr and Bill Bruford and bands such as The Beatles, Queen, Yes, Rush, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Jellyfish, Iron Maiden, U2 and Jane's Addiction. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was also a fan of rap music, but his interest has since waned.

Portnoy has won 19 awards from Modern Drummer magazine, including "Best recorded performance" (5 times) and "Best Progressive Rock Drummer" (10 times in a row), and has been added to their Rock Drummer Hall of Fame.

He has also been the catalyst for founding several other progressive rock groups: TransAtlantic, Liquid Tension Experiment, and O.S.I..

Mike and his wife Marlene live in Rockland, New York with their daughter Melody Ruthandrea, son Max John, dog Bongo and cats E.T. and Cypress.

Equipment

Mike Portnoy's current drum set is known as the "Siamese Monster", which was built by Tama for the recording of the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence album and tour. It is so called because it is basically an amalgamation of two individial kits, thus being a 'siamese' kit. It even comes with two stools (which he often puts to good use by having special guest drummers perform duets with him at Dream Theater concerts).

Throughout his career he has used several other kits, all of which were built by Tama except for the Awake-era kit, which was a Mapex. To date, he has used the following drum sets:

• When Dream and Day Unite/Images & Words Kit - This Tama kit was bought originally by MP himself through working three jobs. It was used until the end of the Images and Words tour when MP got signed by Sabian and Mapex. Also this was the kit he used when he was with the band Intruder. Noticably being upgraded since that era.
• Awake kit - This kit was used on the world tour supporting the album Awake. It had two kick drums, one snare, six toms, two small timbales, and four octobans.
• The Purple Monster - This was a Tama Starclassic kit which marked Portnoy's signing with Tama in the late '90s after repeated problems with Mapex. Used for the recording of Scenes For A Memory and the North and South American tours, it is so named because of its striking colour. There also exists a Green Monster (for use in Europe) and a Red Monster (for Japan). It is similar to the "Awake" kit but features many more cymbals and two more octobans with a slightly different layout. This kit featured a snare drum with a foot-operated snare strainer mechanism which allowed for different snare drum sounds without having to use his hands to adjust it.
• Liquid Tension Experiment kit - A comparatively modest kit used in his supergroup project Liquid Tension Experiment. This kit was unique in that it used a pair of small timbales where the two smallest toms would normally be. It was otherwise a normal "seven piece" rock kit with three toms (five if you count the timbales), and a single kick drum with a double pedal.
• TransAtlantic kit - The kit used to record and tour behind the first TransAtlantic album was the same as the Liquid Tension Experiment kit, but with five regular toms. When recording and touring behind the second TransAtlantic album, Portnoy added his new Melody Master snare drums for the first time and some different cymbals including a set of custom made 15" hi-hats.
• The Siamese Monster - This is a predominantly black kit with purple Majesty symbols around each individual drum. There are three identical versions of this kit for use in different continents, as with the Colored Monsters. It was built for the recording of Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence and is still his main set.
• Yellow Matter Custard kit - A specially designed set for use in Mike's Beatles tribute band, Yellow Matter Custard. It is modelled on Ringo Starr's kit, and is quite simple compared with his Dream Theater kits.
• Hammer Of The Gods kit - A John Bonham-replica kit that was used in Mike's Led Zeppelin tribute band. It has a transparent amber finish, and is always played while wearing the obligatory bowler hat.

Tama has marketed two different sized Mike Portnoy signature snare drums, known as "Melody Masters" (named after Melody, his daughter), since the late 1990s. The smaller of the two has a 12x5" steel shell and the larger has a 14x5.5" maple shell. Both snare models have a unique three way snare strainer mechanism.

Sabian has marketed three different sized signature cymbal stacks, known as "Max Stax" (named after his son, Max). They consist of a hand hammered china kang-style cymbal on top of a splash (or crash) cymbal. Their sizes are 8/8", 10/10" and 12/14". Sabian also marketed 7, 9, and 11" "Max Splash" cymbals which have the same namesake.

Portnoy has endorsed Promark sticks since the early 1990s. His signature stick is the TX420N. It is made of hickory with a white nylon tip and has purple print to match the Purple Monster's motif.

Quotes

"My father was a rock n' roll disc jockey, so I was always surrounded by music constantly. I had this huge record collection when I was real young and loved the Beatles and then later on Kiss. It was inevitable that I'd become a musician."

External link

• MikePortnoy.com
• Mike's Forum

• 1967 births
• Drummers