Where do I even start? The first instrument I learned to play – and still the one I do best at – is the drums. By the time I’m writing this article, I’m 33 years old and I started to take drum lessons 27 years ago. Crazy. During childhood, my dad’s record collection (Pink Floyd, Genesis, Alan Parsons, Jane, Uriah Heep…) resonated the most in me. Rock music in general, besides classical music, was what I grew up with at home. While being a teenager, of course I drifted from there to more contemporary, louder and heavier rock sounds as well with bands ranging from Blink 182 to Motörhead and Rage Against the Machine to Lamb of God. I enjoyed playing drums along with my favorite records the most, so I learned quite a few songs during those years and I also developed my playing.

I had found a friend those days who was my age and started playing drums around the same time as me. He even went to study music and become a professional drummer later on. Through him, I got some more input from different styles of drumming, like Funk, but also independent drummers who would do studio sessions or be featured at drum festivals. He introduced me to a lot to what I like to call ‘music made for musicians by musicians’. And although he didn’t really listen to Dream Theater, he knew Mike Portnoy from those drum festivals, I got to stumble upon him through my friend.

It was a long evening in 2008 I spent at my computer, digging through some of the studio videos from the sessions for Dream Theater’s 2007 album ‘Systematic Chaos’ and I was immediately hooked. Somehow also the way Mike presented this material to the world gave Dream Theater a very special touch, like they were doing magic together and I, as a viewer of that video, had the privilege to take a look behind the scenes. At first I was sceptic about how he had such a big drum kit, because I used to think that a good drummer didn’t need a big kit by that time. But I soon understood how important that big kit was to Dream Theater, because it underlines the artistic aspiration of their music.

So I learned to play all songs from Systematic Chaos as good as I could on my average sized drum kit and with my average skills. I bought Mikes DVD ‘In Constant Motion’ where he would explain so many things about his music and his own influences, show his record collection and all that. I really started to idolize him, because so much of what he was talking about, the way he was talking about it, how many thoughts he was putting on his art and all the connections to his influences and the concepts he would come up with simply impressed me so much. It wasn’t just for his drumming but it was for the big idea he seemed to always put the focus on as well as for his visionary aura that he became my idol.

And here I am – 17 years later – with a huge drumkit, making my own prog music, following my own vision of ‘the big idea’. Mike is back with Dream Theater, doing magic again. I just recently saw them play in Hamburg on their 40th anniversary tour and it was my first DT concert with him back at the drums which made me so happy!

Thank you, Mike Portnoy, for the constant motivation and inspiration I feel through your work!