Drummer Mike Portnoy, who recently left Dream Theater - the band he founded over 25 years ago, has started a brand new project. Mike has teamed up with guitarist Steve Morse (Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs), multi-instrumentalist Neal Morse (Transatlantic, Spock's Beard), bassist Dave LaRue (Dixie Dregs) and vocalist Casey McPherson (Alpha Rev, Endochine) for an as-yet-unnamed band."We're all excited about the project, but it is a bit of a mystery as to what will come. The vision is to do something a little more song-oriented and not quite so riffy, as one might expect. But still, of course, having the musical elements that people like Mike Portnoy, Steve Morse, Dave LaRou, and myself can provide."
Mike and his new project members have mapped out about 10 days in the studio for their first recording session. Continues Neal:
"We'll see what happens and see how much we can get done, if we can't get the basics down enough for an album then we'll have to continue on later. Everyone's schedules are a bit in flux and their very busy people so I don't know how long it will take us to actually finish and release the record."
NAMM appearances
In related news: Mike Portnoy will make various NAMM Show appearances. The first one will be at the Samson booth on Friday, January 14th, 3:30pm, along with Geezer Butler, Vinny Appice, and Frank Bello among others.
Mike will also be sitting in and jamming at the Samson/Zoom party on Friday evening 8-10:30 pm.
Mike will be at the Pro-Mark booth with Dave Lombardo, Jason Bittner and Billy Ward on Saturday, January 15th, 1pm.
One hour later, at 2 pm, Mike will be at the Samson booth with Charlie Benante, Shawn Drover, Steve Smith, and Kiko Loureiro.
Last but not least, Mike will be at the Tama booth at 3 pm that same day with Simon Phillips and Kenny Aronoff.
The NAMM Show, one of the largest music product trade shows in the world, takes annually place in Anaheim, California. This year from january 13-16 as usual at the Anaheim convention center.
