Jordan was voted “Best Keyboardist of All Time” by Music Radar Magazine.
At nine, he entered the Juilliard School of Music Pre-College Division for classical piano training and later became interested in synthesizers and progressive rock music. He turned away from classical piano and tried his hand as a solo progressive rock keyboardist.
In 1994 Jordan was voted “Best New Talent” in the Keyboard Magazine readers’ poll after the release of his Listen solo album. Two of the bands that took notice of Rudess were The Dixie Dregs and Dream Theater, both of whom invited him to join. Rudess chose the Dregs, primarily as being a part-time.
During his time with the Dregs, Rudess formed a “power duo” with drummer Rod Morgenstein. The genesis of this pairing occurred when a power outage caused all of the Dregs’ instruments to fail except Rudess’, so he and Morgenstein improvised with each other until power was restored and the concert could continue. The chemistry between the two was strong so they decided to perform together on a regular basis released a studio and a live record. RMP and did a short U.S. tour in November, 2013.
Rudess has been the full-time keyboardist with Dream Theater, since the recording of 1999. Rudess has toured around the world and Dream Theater toured Australia in 2017 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of “Images & Words" which was a fantastic tour. We look forward to seeing Jordan Rudess in Australia for his solo tour.
Twinmusix got to speak to Jordan Rudess and here is what he had to say.
TM- How are you?
JR - I am great, I am busy doing a lot of things and I am looking forward to starting my tour. I am looking forward to coming out your way.
TM- We can't wait for you to get to Australia, What are you looking forward to most in Australia?
JR - I have been to Australia a bunch of times and I really like it, I really enjoy the vibe there and to walk around and hang out. Occasionally we make it so we get an extra day there. I also have a lot of friends there believe it or not. I have been there a bunch of times because some of the technology people I work with are in Australia, some of the visual people that my band has worked with are also there.
TM - What can we expect from your Australian tour?
JR - I am bringing my solo tour to Australia, it is a very inside look of my musical journey from when I got started. The idea of it is I take people from a early routes to starting at the Juilliard school of music which was was a very strict and renowned classical music school all the way to the present day which involves Dream Theatre and my solo work. It is not only musical I also talk people through the journey i use, the piano to do it so majority of the show is on acoustic piano but in the middle of the show I feature an instrument that I co-created with some Partners called geoshred.
TM - You also have Wizdom insturments?
JR - We have made Cutting Edge musical instruments mostly what they have done so far is for IOS devices. We use Cutting Edge devices and provide a great Musical Experience.
Check it out here
TM - I was watching a video of it the other day and thought it was pretty cool.
JR - what is interesting about geoshred is where it is most popular is in India. They use it to do a lot of the Carnatic Indian musicians are using it because they get really great control of pitch and they can do all this type of stuff in their music and do it well.
TM - You worked with Steven Wilson how has this affected your music writing Style?
JR - Steven Wilson is a wonderful artist, I think he's coming to Australia pretty soon. Steven and I are very close I have known him since the days that he was opening up for Dream Theatre with his band Porcupine Tree. After I meet him we became friends, he invited me to play on some of his music and I invited him to play on some of my albums. He sung on one of my albums called the road home besides us being friends and collaborating together I also love his music hes inspirational to me.
TM - You are playing a bunch of hits such as David Bowie John Lennon and Pink Floyd on your tour how have you been influenced by these artists over time ?
JR - When i was a classical musician as a young person and then started to reach my teenage years people started to turn me on to the progressive rock music, it started to feel my head and I was captivated by it, that was awesome it made me shift my gears and lead me to wanting to do that the first type of music that made me want to move out of classical. That influenced me so much that it made me make some changes in my life, and that was progressive rock pieces from bands like Genesis, Pink Floyd and that type of stuff so ill throw in that.
The David Bowie one is interesting because worked with David Bowie on the Heathen album and did keyboards for him in the studio so i feel a personal connection there, as well as loving a lot of his music my show is based around the music that's influenced to me so much. Those musicians you have mentioned a really important to my path.
TM - You have been known to do it a lot of impromptu stuff so we can expect any if that?
JR - Absolutely, one of the things I would love to do is before I get going on anything that is a set program. I like to
Feel out the audience and relax into the Vibe and see where everyone at. I like to understand what the room is like and to do that I think will work when I walk out. What I will do is make up music on the spot not only to settle in but to feel what is going on in the room and to respond musically. I always find that that really sets things up, I am one who always loves to make up music right there at the moment it gives me a nice chance to do that for an audience.
TM - What's your favorite memory of working with John Petrucci?
JR - Well John Petrucci is the guitarist in my group Dream Theatre, there is a lot of great things we do together but we really great writing partners. My favourite thing is when I meet him in the studio and working on unison fast line that we play together. We play in unison together, it always gets kind of funny because we will take turns in writing different parts of the riff and we start speeding up as we get excited and end up laughing cuz we are writing something that is really crazy that interaction is a favourite part of what we do.
TM - (laughs) That's cool, it sounds like you have fun writing together.
TM - You have been voted best keyboardist of all time how does that feel?
JR - There's alot of responsibility there I have gotta keep practicing i don't want to let anybody down.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your song's what band would it be what song and in your style or theirs?
JR - A band like Yes even though that aren't as current as they use to be and they would do a song off my first solo album called Listen and the song i would choose would be Across the Sky Alot of people don't know my first solo album called Listen.
TM - If you could collaborate with any artist who would it be and why?
JR - It would be really be fun to go back in time and collaborate with Jimi Hendrix be really cool it will be fun to trade leads with him.
TM - That would be awesome! I love Jimmy Hendrix! Jimmy Morrison from The Doors is one of my favorite.
TM - You have a Conservatory so can you tell us about that and have you started your live streaming service yet?
JR - My Conservatory is my educational
outlet, I get asked all the time to do private lessons but with my touring schedule I don't have time to do private lessons so i started the Jordan Rudess online conservatory which is https://www.jroc.us/ which has a hole bunch material on there for people at all different levels.
TM - That is cool, i love how you give advice to your fans and you help them out, I think that is sweet.
TM - Anything else you want to announce to your fans?
JR - Im looking forward to coming out there and doing multiple shows in Australia.
TM - Thank you for this interview, we really appreciate it and we can't wait to see you in Australia.
Tour Information - Jordan Rudess Info
Tickets Link Here - https://davidroywilliams.com/tours/jordanrudess/
