Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to, Sons of Apollo, Metal Allegiance and former Dream Theater Drummer Mike Portnoy at The NAMM Show 2018 on January 26 2018 at the TASCAM booth
Portnoy talked about the formation of the Metal Allegiance, Sons of Apollo shows and his 18-year-old son Max Portnoy following his dad’s footsteps as a drummer.
When asked for some background on the Metal Allegiance for the fans who are unfamiliar
“It started many years ago as a bunch of friends, me and the guys from Testament, Megadeth, Pantera and Anthrax, we are all buddies for so many years. We are all still Metal fans we still love Kiss, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, so we started doing these shows where we started jamming for fun, playing covers and after a few years, a few of us the core four, David Ellefson, myself, from Testament and Mark Menghi who is the mastermind behind it. The four of us decided let’s make an album of original music we did that with the first album a couple of years ago, great experience and now we have a second album coming out at the beginning of the summer. The Album is done and it will be out June 1018.”
When asked if Sons of Apollo is a real band in the traditional sense
I think Sons of Apollo will be very similar to the Winery Dogs. Winery Dogs went on the road for years playing hundreds of shows really building up the fan base as a band. Sons of Apollo will have the same work ethic. Everything I do there is a fine line between a project and a band, it’s just a title. To me everything I do is a band; it is just a question of how much we can work together. We are committed to it in Sons of Apollo and we are going to spend all of 2018 on the road together.”
When asked why he has decided to go back to the Prog Style with Sons of Apollo after leaving Dream Theater
“I never abandoned it, it is always going to be a part of me, and it is just after leaving Dream Theater I wanted to try different styles, different sounds. Metal Allegiance is Thrash and Winery Dogs is more Classic rock. That style of music that Dream Theater does is always going to be a part of me. It was Derek Sherinian that was nudging at me let us do it. Then, we did it. Once we started writing it went beyond the Dream Theater world, now it is sort of a hard rock, Metal progressive thing and Jeff Scott Soto brings a whole lot of soulful anchor to the whole thing.”
When asked if he would ever consider doing a Sons of Apollo, Dream theater special night
“It is not out of the question, it might be weird for me to be opening for the band that I formed and built for 25 years. However, I never say never. “
SONS OF APOLLO's debut album, "Psychotic Symphony", was released October 20 by InsideOut Music.
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