MIKE PORTNOY Rules Out Using A.I. During DREAM THEATER Songwriting Process: 'I Don't Think It Will Ever Come Into The Band'

In a new interview with Thailand's Overdrive Live, DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy was asked if he and his bandmates used artificial intelligence (A.I.) at all as a way of coming up with ideas for their latest album, "Parasomnia", which came out in February 2025 via InsideOut Music. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, no, no. It's all completely organic, and that's very important to us. [DREAM THEATER keyboardist] Jordan Rudess is very into the technology and A.I. experimentation, but on a personal level, it hasn't come into the band. I don't think it will ever come into the band. I think we're all so serious enough as it is about our own instruments and our own writing and composition that that's something that's sacred to just being us and has to be fully organic."

Asked if he has ever gotten "lost" while performing DREAM THEATER music, such as when playing a complex 7/8 time signature, Portnoy said: "Well, 7/8's easy. 19/16 and 21/16, that's when it starts to get a little more complicated. But, yeah, sometimes we get lost. It happens. We're human beings, and I like the fact that we're human beings. I'm not afraid to make a mistake. I think it shows that it's not on tracks or it's not playing to a click. For me, it's very important to not play to a click. That was something that I needed to establish when I came back to the band. 'Cause I never used to do it, and I still don't want to do it. The years that I was away, I know DREAM THEATER did. So one of the important things for me was to have the human element. I would rather make a mistake and be real than be perfect and boring and a machine. So it was important for me for us to be real. And every once in a while, somebody makes a mistake, and that's okay. I think that's what makes music real."

Regarding how he gets back on track after getting lost in a song while performing live, Mike said: "For me, I think it's easier without a click track. In fact, I heard the [other] guys [in DREAM THEATER] talk about it, because they would say when they were playing with a click track with [now-former DREAM THEATER drummer] Mike Mangini, if there was ever a mistake, it was hard because you were tied to the [track]. You couldn't fluctuate; you couldn't make it work. So I personally think it's easier without any programmed things, because you're human and they adapt. At the end of the day, I'm the conductor — the drummer's the conductor in the band — and I'm the one that's setting the tempos and hitting the cues and playing the retards at the end of the songs. Everybody's following me and watching me, including our lightman and our laser person and our video people, they're all tied in with what I'm doing. I have an electronic pad behind the kit that I cue everybody. Only we can hear it in our ears. So I'll cue everybody. And if ever anything falls off the track, me as the drummer and the conductor, I have to get everybody's attention with the cowbell and bring us back together. It doesn't happen that often, but it's a good little trick to have."

Portnoy recently confirmed that DREAM THEATER's April 22, 2026 concert at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile will be professionally recorded and filmed for an upcoming Blu-ray.

Last November, DREAM THEATER released "Quarantième: Live À Paris" via the band's longtime label partner Inside Out Music/Sony Music. "Quarantième: Live À Paris" documented DREAM THEATER's November 23, 2024 concert at Adidas Arena in Paris, France during the band's 40th-anniversary headlining tour of Europe, and it featured the lineup of James LaBrie (vocals),John Petrucci (guitar),John Myung (bass),Jordan Rudess (keyboards) and Mike Portnoy (drums). The effort contained a setlist that spanned the band's entire career with classics like "Metropolis Pt. 1", "Panic Attack", "Octavarium" and "Pull Me Under" represented among other fan favorites.

DREAM THEATER played its first concert with Portnoy in 14 years on October 20, 2024 at the O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom. The drummer, who co-founded DREAM THEATER, played on 10 of the band's albums over a 20-year period, from 1989's "When Dream And Day Unite" through 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", before exiting the group in 2010. Portnoy returned to DREAM THEATER in October 2023 after being replaced by Mike Mangini, who played with DREAM THEATER across five studio albums and accompanying world tours.

DREAM THEATER kicked off its summer/fall 2025 "An Evening With Dream Theater" tour on September 5, 2025 at Santander Performing Arts Center in Reading, Pennsylvania. The concert saw LaBrie, Petrucci, Myung (bass),Rudess and Portnoy perform their latest, 16th studio album, "Parasomnia", in its entirety, as well as the entire seven-movement masterpiece "A Change Of Seasons", for the first time since Portnoy's return to the band in October 2023, in addition to other classics and fan favorites from DREAM THEATER's catalog. The 30-city U.S. trek ran through October 25, 2025, when it wrapped in Long Island, New York.

"Parasomnia" was produced by Petrucci, engineered by James "Jimmy T" Meslin, and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returned once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art.

"Parasomnia" is an eight-song, 71-minute set which was recorded at DREAM THEATER's DTHQ studio on Long Island, New York. It is the follow-up to 2021's "A View From The Top Of The World", which debuted at in the top 10 of Billboard's Top Hard Rock Albums, Top Rock Albums and Independent Albums charts. Six songs on "Parasomnia" are over seven minutes and the closing epic "The Shadow Man Incident" clocks in at nearly 20 minutes.

Portnoy, Petrucci and Myung started DREAM THEATER as MAJESTY in 1985, after meeting at the Berklee College Of Music in Boston. LaBrie came on board in 1991, while Rudess joined in 1999.

Prior to Portnoy's return to DREAM THEATER, the drummer and Petrucci worked together on the latter's 2020 solo album, "Terminal Velocity", and toured together. Portnoy and Petrucci also joined Rudess and bassist Tony Levin for a third studio album as LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT in 2021.