I'm very like passionate.
really enjoy what I do.
I'm so invested in all of it.
It is, I wake up in the morning and I'm doing stuff.
Hello and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles, podcast for keyboard players.
I'm your host David Holloway and I'm thrilled as always to be here with you.
Once again joining me for part two of the Jordan Riddes interview is Mr.
Paul Bindig.
How are you sir?
I'm going really well.
Great to be here and excited for part two of this interview.
I don't think the parks changed since we recorded part one.
That's amazing.
You've dedicated you've been keeping well overnight and all that sort of stuff
Yeah, look, what I did, I slept here overnight in my swag and I got up and I made sure I was here at the exact same time, 24 hours later, so the angle of the sun wouldn't change
since the last introduction.
That's the dedication we bring to you out there.
I hope you appreciate it.
So yeah, look, this is obviously part two of Jordan's interview.
If you didn't get a swathe of amazing um insights from part one, then I don't know what's wrong with you, but there's as much to come in part two.
So yeah, look, very much looking forward to bringing it to you.
I'll shut up and we'll talk to you at the end of the show.
I'm glad you mentioned your guitar playing because I want to ask you about another, well I think somewhat famous uh thing.
We ask all of our guests on this show to share with us a train wreck, something that may have gone wrong for them in a live situation and how they handled it.
And we're aware of one, again I think reasonably famous story where you were using a roll on Phantom with liquid tension experiment and I believe it wasn't working for you on the
day.
and you ended up picking up a guitar I think and jamming with the band for the rest of the set.
Are you able to give us some background on that?
Have I got that story right?
You got it pretty well.
So I was really inspired, interested to try this new at the time Roland Phantom and Roland was really cool.
And they loaned me one for this tour I was doing.
I, you know, I love the technology obviously, and I really wanted to play this keyboard, even though it was kind of like still being developed.
But I thought it was far enough along that, okay, you know, let's just use it.
So got it all programmed up and I was enjoying it, using it.
got to the show, one of the shows that we were doing in Chicago, and I started to, you know, I was playing the concert, everything was going well.
And all of a sudden I hear this really out of tune stuff going on, and I'm thinking, what's going on?
Jumpertrucci's not looking where his hand is, and he's playing up a fret.
And then I'm thinking, that is so bizarre.
And I thought, what's going on?
I lifted up my hand for a minute, and what I heard was in the right key.
I put my hand down again.
and I'm hearing it again, but I'm looking at my hand, I'm playing the right notes.
Like who the hell is playing in half steps?
I lifted up my hands.
Okay, now it's fine.
I realized that the keyboard, every time I hit a note, it was playing two notes.
Like it would play, I'd hit a C and it was playing C and C sharp together.
It was the most crazy upsetting thing you've ever heard in your life.
So I was like, my God, okay.
guys keep jamming, do your thing over there.
And I went in the back alley of the, it was like a small theater or something like that.
And I went in the back, I literally called up Japan.
I was on the phone with Japan for like 20 minutes trying to ask them what to do, like describing what was going on with this keyboard.
And we, you know, we tried basically everything.
I reloaded, I turned it on and off, I did all this stuff.
And finally there was nothing, there was nothing going on.
uh So.
I just said, well, let me go back in there, you know, get onto the field again.
And all I could do is I walked up to John Petrucci, who at the time he had his head down, literally, he's playing the guitar.
He's doing something wild.
And I was like, I tapped him.
I went, Hey, hey, give me your, give me your guitar.
And at the time I hardly even played the guitar.
mean, I, you know, it's just really over the last four years or so that I've been more like practicing, but I could noodle on it, you know?
So I give me a guitar.
So he's like,
I had to get him out of his trance.
He's like, okay.
So I took his guitar and he went over and he started to play the bass.
Well, I think Tony Levin was playing the Chapman stick.
So everybody had an instrument and I'm jamming and playing around and just having like, it's a fairly good time to what I'm doing.
And that's what that story was all about.
So, I mean, it's a little embarrassing when I think about it now because I'm sure my guitar playing wasn't very good.
It would have been a rare treat, I think, for the audience who were there.
Jordan, do you have any other potential train wreck stories or unusual things that happened to you where you had to think quite quickly to get out of a situation where there
was a technical issue or something unexpected happened while you've been performing?
Yeah, of course, over the course of my career, there's been a number of things.
Well, one infamous story is, know how my keyboard stand not only goes kind of around like 360, it also tilts and stuff like that.
Well, there was a show in Mexico City, a big show with the National Auditorium for like, I think it's like 10,000, 11,000 people there.
And before the show actually happened, we were in the dressing rooms, there was a small earthquake.
And I remember
And I was thinking, because Mexico, for some reason, earthquakes were on my mind that day.
And when it happened, I was like, oh shit, this is like, oh my God, it's happening.
And I was rattled, right?
And then I walked next door where Mike Mangini was practicing, and he's sitting there on his drum pad going like this.
I'm like, Mike, did you feel that?
He's like, what, what, what?
Like, because he was going like this, so he didn't feel anything.
But there was an earthquake.
It wasn't big enough that they canceled the show, but it was enough to rattle.
my nerves and some people's nerves went on stage and I remember screwing up the first song because I was so distracted.
But I just like forgot to repeat something and was lost for a minute.
all this, you know, earthquakes in Mexico City, all this stuff.
About 20 minutes into the show, I went to play a lead, right?
And for the lead, I like to kind of entertain and I put you guys in the audience and I put the keyboard like this and I'm jamming out.
doing my thing and then I went to hit the button that sends the thing back.
No luck.
I hit it again.
Nothing.
couldn't.
The thing was fully tilted all the way down.
I called my tech to come out, comes out with a big wrench.
You know, he's trying to do stuff, but he couldn't get the thing to go back.
John Petrucci and James LeBree came over.
You know, John's got all the muscles they're trying to...
But while he's kind of playing, he's also trying to lift the keyboard back.
ended up that I played the entire show tilted over like this on this keyboard in an absolute slant.
And it was funny.
wasn't it wasn't funny at the time.
It was a real challenge because I knew I could play the lead that I planned to tilt it and do that.
But I didn't know about maybe like the piano parts or like a lot of the other stuff.
I didn't know if I could play it in that position.
So every time a part came up, was going, oh my God, can I play this in that position?
Can I do this?
And I got through the show and I thought I played it pretty well.
But when I got off the stage, my back was literally, I was almost like stuck feeling in this leaning, then the tech was like, trying to like put me back together again, straight.
That was, yeah, pretty memorable mess up.
Absolutely.
That's a great example.
Thanks, Jordan.
I thought we might get philosophical for a couple of questions, Jordan, before I go on to our handful of listener questions and um we try and give you your life back.
Assuming you live to roughly be 120, what does the next 20, 30, 40 years of your career look like?
What are you still wanting to achieve and what floats your boat and what would you love to do over the coming decades?
Well, um I think as I get older, I become even more creative and just something about my life is just kind of like, like I just see myself leaning into and being more interested
in just creative expression.
And it doesn't necessarily have to be music.
A lot of my creativity these days is also visual experiments and visual fun and
working with all that kind of tech as well and putting them all together and I'm just this is that's just my happy place you know and I'm just creating something I love to sit at
the piano get home from whatever even if it's a rehearsal or a busy day and I'll put my phone down you know on the camera and just make do a live stream you know I'm this guy
just want to play and I might as well share it with everybody and just share a vibe you know a little personal tuning and
maybe tune some other people up while I'm at it.
So, I mean, I think that that's the main, that kind of spirit is the main thing that I love to do.
And I think I'll do that for as long as I can.
Anything like that, you know, at some point, who knows?
mean, right, you know, to this day, knock on wood somewhere, my hands have been great.
And I think I cussed pretty much because of how I learned to play and everything.
And, um
and be relaxed and just kind of like take care of myself.
But I think I'll always find some way to be creative.
I think also that I will always be interested in the latest tools.
Like I can see myself still being very forward motion about wanting to experience, to enjoy, to use all the coolest tech.
like whatever's coming, you know, my way, whether it's waving my hands in the air on things like airwaves or, you know, putting on some kind of a thing on my brain and just
like thinking about the music and sending those messages out to some kind of receptor or, you know, like all of that stuff.
I love all that stuff.
I think it's great.
I mean, obviously, you know, Dream Theater is running very strong still.
I don't know how many years, you know, this will continue, but I'm kind of like in it for the...
the ride because I've invested a lot of time in it and you know and we have very powerful operation going on here.
I don't see that it needs to stop anytime soon.
um That's kind of like the way I see my life, you know.
No, amazing answer.
And going to the other side of the spectrum, for someone entering the industry today, and it's obviously a much different industry to when you entered it, what advice would you
give to any aspiring musician wanting to make a career in music?
I think that musicians need to be very flexible.
You get into this because you love music, you love sound, something or things about it.
But I think the one thing that might be really helpful for people to understand getting into it is that you don't know where it's gonna end up.
You don't know what's gonna click.
And from every aspect of it, like first of all, it's possible to enjoy a lot of different creative aspects of it.
You don't have to get locked into one.
thing, you know, especially because from a real world kind of even economic point of view, you don't know what's going to work out and you got to support yourself.
And if you want to be doing music best to be flexible and even like an established musician, it's really great to be able to do more than just the one thing.
Cause for so many reasons, you know, you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket, especially like a music career.
mean, yes.
People who love playing music, should work out a way to play music.
Absolutely, I did that my whole life and that's great.
But I think one of the things that I've done very successfully to have the kind of life that I have is that I've been very open, very interested, I've been very flexible.
I play with Dream Theater, I do my solo albums.
I'm a visiting artist at MIT.
I develop apps.
And people look at me and go, how the hell do you do all that?
I'm like, the only reason I do that is because I'm very like passionate.
I really enjoy what I do.
I'm so invested in all of it.
It is, I wake up in the morning and I'm doing stuff.
just, this is what I do.
This is what I love.
And I've got to give my wife credit for a lot of things too.
And I'm not just saying that, it's really true.
mean, my wife, Danielle is a producer.
And she manages to kind of keep our lives on track and handle a lot of the like real world things that need to be handled.
Cause I'm pretty much like a creative space cadet, you know, like, so I tell musicians, I tell young musicians, the best thing that you can do is marry a producer.
Yes.
I love it.
Right.
The last philosophical question and it may not have an answer given your outlook on life, but do you have a biggest musical regret?
Um, that's an interesting question.
Biggest musical regret.
And I'm not some, yeah, you're right.
I'm not somebody who thinks like that.
You know, I mean, yeah, I, just, feel like, I feel like there's something to be learned from everything that happens.
And, know, sometimes you get a little, little twinge.
Well, it would have been nice to be able to practice classical music more.
Like maybe he shouldn't have left, but Juilliard or whatever.
you know what?
Again, I don't think like that.
And I think, well, wow.
I went through years of not having any money and playing in a bar, hotel, and that's what led me to here.
I, you know, it's all good.
And I don't know, we never know what step, what single moment in life is going to lead you to the next place.
So I just, you know, I just don't think like that.
Great.
Well put.
uh We'll move on to our listener and viewer questions.
Jordan, I've got sort of five or six of them and there's two that come from uh Jim in the US as well.
um He was talking about about a week after KeyFest 2018, where I think he had the pleasure of meeting you.
I was in my kitchen making dinner for my wife and myself and I'm cutting up some bell peppers and it dawned on me.
I wonder if Jordan ever uses a knife in the kitchen.
That's a good question.
am very, I am very like hesitant with things like that.
I went to visit my friend today.
um Jack Hotop, who was well known for his days before we were kind of, we were a bunch of us were going, went over there to visit him and he has an attack cat that he loves very
much.
The cat is a little bonkers and um the cat literally I discovered pretty quickly.
was not happy that there were guests in the house.
So I literally kept my hands very high up in the air the whole time because anytime I saw the cat I was like, okay, my hands are not going near there.
So I have this kind of, I'm kind of like a cautious person in a way as well, but I guess because of all the years spent with the focus on my hands like that, I definitely have a
uh sixth sense for like where to
put my hands when.
So when it comes to cutting something, like I'll help my wife and she's the cook, but I'll say, oh, can I help?
Oh, can you cut that?
I'll be like, yeah, but I do it slowly and I'm thinking and just kind of like looking down and there's no technique of that at all.
It's just me like saying, okay, well, I better be very careful here.
it.
So no chainmail gloves in the kitchen, that's good.
um Jim's other question was, he was curious with some of the incredibly complex musical pieces you do both in solo and dream theatre, and he's mentioned Dance of the Eternity as
one example.
Is that something you tend to come up with as far as some jamming and work into a full piece, or you tend to go into the studio with that somewhat formed?
Well, the way that Dream Theater works together is we like to kind of put things together when we are in the room together.
But I like some of the really progressive things that we like.
If I think about the newest album, that's what's freshest on my mind.
There's sections where it goes into full on like proggy.
A lot of it's heavy, you know, it's slamming with the guitar, whatever.
But then there's sections that all of a sudden the keyboards are going off and it sounds like gentle giant or it sounds like this or that.
And it kind of, guess in some ways, maybe it's certain parts, maybe a little bit obvious that it's coming from my brain.
And some of those things I'll write like in the morning before they get there.
And I'll say, and I'll run it by them.
And if they look at me like cross-eyed, you know, I'll be like, okay, well, obviously that one didn't fly because that one's too bizarre for too much gentle giant influence or
whatever.
But sometimes, you know, like,
Mike Portnoy will say, I like that.
That's really cool.
We gotta do that.
So even though it's weird, know, a lot of these things are a lot of those very proggy things, even though they become a part of Dream Theater are also a little bit like, you
know, different than what their upbringing is.
And I think that's also in the bigger picture why they, you know, have me around because I can kind of like, you know, I'm not the one who's like the keeper of the brand, you know,
I'm like pushing it.
here and there offering things that I literally will get a look like from a protruder, certainly in my young, like what the fuck is that?
Like, what are you doing?
What style is that?
You know, I'm like, I don't know.
It's just it's one of the things that I do, Yeah.
So like save that for your own your own music.
But but but yeah, I'll try.
I'll come up with stuff and I'll write, you know, I'll jot it down.
I'll write it down and like present it.
There are that
there's definitely those bits, you know, and then there's stuff that happens like right in the room, like, you know, right there as well.
And John Petrucci, you know, is an incredible composer.
He'll come in, he'll come in with some, you know, ideas and stuff that he shows, you know, eight measures, 16 measures, whatever.
And then a lot of times like those met those things, I guess, coming from like a guitar there, he might be playing a line and I go, oh, that's a cool line.
And I could put this bass thing against it or put these chords, you know, he's
welcoming to what can I do with that, you know?
So that's kind of how things happen.
A lot of things happen when we're together, just vibing in the room.
And a lot of things happen, I realize, for me, the guy, you know, the be this workflow is a lot going on.
And I'm just kind of hanging out.
My brain is always thinking like, like the riff, like I always got some riff on my head and one note triggers all ideas.
So I have to be kind of very patient.
And then when maybe they'll take a breath, I'll go, okay, well, how about this?
And I'll just
rattle off whatever's at the moment, know, really quick.
Yeah, that's cool.
Okay, then we do that.
It's very interesting.
The whole thing is very interesting.
That's a great insight into the compositional and recording process.
Jordan.
uh From Tammy in Canada, who I'll give a special mention to because she's one of our program sponsors and our Patreon.
So thank you Tammy.
She would like to know if you had a time machine and you could pick any musical moment in history to go to.
So maybe recording with a seminal band.
or perhaps one more lesson with one of your favourite teachers, some of whom you mentioned.
What would be something, if you could go anywhere at any time and do it musically, what would that be?
Um, you know, everybody always asks me like who live or dead, who would you want to like play music?
there anybody that you'd want to play music with?
And I always, one of the thoughts that always comes into my head is that I think like Jimi Hendrix is one of the coolest musicians ever.
Like, you know, I mean, certainly the art of playing the guitar has come a long way since his day.
And there are people who can play, you know, shred like in ways that he could never touch, but
he just reeked of coolness.
And I like to kind of like try to embody some of that, like when I'm doing leads and doing certain things, and it would be great to go back in time and to enter, like to do some
jamming with Jimmy, you know, like that would be, that would be really cool.
Awesome, thank you.
Yeah, I think we'd all give our right arm to be able to spend some time with Jimmy, what an amazing musician he was.
Last viewer listener question we have is from our friend Walter in Guatemala and he's got two very simple questions for you.
One is would you ever go fully software based?
And the second question is has your Kronos 3 arrived yet?
I like those questions.
um When I'm working in the studio, like on my own stuff, like Permission to Fly, it is mostly software based, what I'm doing, like all the tracks I'm doing.
I just feel like I have this immense palette of sounds with all the different software.
And of course, as we know, the software is just, it's incredible.
Like what's out there, it's mind blowing.
And sadly,
A lot of the keyboards that I have sitting around my room don't really get used anymore.
There's things that I can't really have trouble would have trouble letting go of.
But when I'm working on my music, my own stuff, it is really a lot of software.
But when it comes to like playing leads and stuff like that, I still will go to my Kronos because there's something about the whole ribbon and the joystick and the interaction and
everything.
I haven't been able to really get out of software, you know, to this point.
And the second question was, I'm sorry.
Kronos 3 yeah with your Kronos 3's around
Yes, yes, I just literally got one a few days ago and I've been programming it and getting it kind of ready for this next chapter.
And I love the fact that it starts up very fast.
They really improved that.
That's really good, good stuff.
Excellent.
We're on to our last two questions.
Jordan, it's the infamous Desert Island Discs question.
So if you had to take five albums to an island, what would they be?
Okay, uh Electric Ladyland was number one.
uh Close to the Edge by Yes.
Freehand, Genesis.
Trick of the Tail.
What did I say?
Freehand, General Giant.
I think I the wrong thing.
Yeah.
Trick of the Tail, Genesis.
And maybe Tarkus, Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
Great, picks.
And our last question Jordan is what we call the quick fire 10.
So it's 10 short and sharp answers to some simple statements.
the first one is due to some serious crime, you're sentenced to six months in a tribute band.
What tribute are you choosing?
On a tribute band.
Oh my God.
Yes.
Let's do let's do it.
Yes tribute except keep me amused.
uh Excellent.
What's your most important 3 gig ritual Jordan?
just having some quiet, like a half an hour of quiet time before, you know, walking to the stage.
I think you've already mentioned this, but to some extent, but if you hadn't been a musician, what do you think your career choice would have been?
Yeah, it would have been something creative like doing some kind of graphic design or visuals or yeah, definitely.
What's the favourite tour you've ever done throughout your career?
Well, I mean, that's kind of like asking me what my favorite place to go is.
I was talking to the guys today.
Yeah, there's so many great places in the world to go, obviously.
I love going in Japan.
I just think it's so great.
The people are so nice and it's so different.
And I like Japanese food and it's kind of like, you know, so those Asian tours are always pretty special to me.
And you've covered our next one about the favourite city as well, so thank you.
If you had to pick one gig that particularly stands out in your memory, I know that's hard as well, but is there a gig that if you had to cite one that you go, yeah, that was a
pinnacle for me?
um Well, it's funny because I remember hometown gigs a lot.
I guess they just have this kind of energy behind them that are just so extreme.
And then some gigs I remember because they were both exciting and maybe something weird happened.
And I guess I can end this with telling you guys a weird kind of funny story with a big gig.
So you know the Dream Theater Live at Budokan show?
Yep.
Yeah.
So that was a huge gig for us.
Remember being told before we went out there, okay guys, you're gonna walk on stage, there's gonna be like 20 moving cameras all over you and everybody's here, blah, blah,
blah.
Big, excitement.
Totally remember being back there and just like, wow, this is gonna be intense.
I walk on stage and I looked down, I was playing Kurzweil keyboards at the time.
The first song we're playing, we open the set with As I Am.
And I literally walk to the stage, I look down at my keyboard, As I Am is not loaded into that keyboard.
I'm like, what?
And so my first reaction was, oh shit, have to load the rest of the whole set, the wrong set is loaded into this keyboard.
So obviously I've got to get the right set loaded into this keyboard, but the cameras are on.
They're all looking.
Well, thank God that As I Am is a very heavy song and the keyboards are missing.
Well, okay, it's probably the best choice of songs to not have the keywords be heard.
But the problem of course is, and I didn't even really think about it from this angle.
The problem is that if I'm not playing,
then that's like a disaster.
If I'm looking like this, some kind of a problem, I can't change that.
So my instincts were good.
kept, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
So I'm like, and the next song, think, I don't remember exactly what it was, but I the next song I started, I'm like, oh my God, I gotta, I'm gonna load this, I'm gonna pray,
like this thing has gotta load before the next song starts.
So I ended up doing it, like, you know, I was really playing, loading in the song, and then the next song comes around and it had loaded, and I was like, okay.
The rest of the night was a whole lot easier, but that was, whew, that was tough.
really tough, yeah.
These things.
These things that make great stories years later, right?
Yeah, it's ah so true.
There are nightmares when they happen, but they're wonderful stories afterwards.
Right,
Jordan, there's this song that you used to love, but now you've played it to death.
That's a good question.
Like I'm not somebody who I don't have that issue.
A lot of people are like a lot of musicians.
I don't want to play this song ever again.
I can't take it.
If I play it one more time, it's going to make me crazy.
I don't have that.
It be something in my genes or something that I don't have.
I really don't have that.
I don't mind playing a song like each night.
I kind of because to me, a song is like it's like an emotion.
It's like an energy.
It's a feeling.
So let's say we're playing
you know, spirit carries on every night.
Like that's fine with me or play even like we play Pull Me Under, which is not a song I wrote, but it's fun.
And I enjoy the emotion of that song.
And I don't get to, I never kind of feel like, ugh, I've to play that song again.
So maybe it's cause maybe it's cause the material that I am playing every night is stuff that's really pretty good.
If I was playing crap, well then yeah, I think that I think that I would be able to say, well this song is a horrible song.
But with Dream Theater, everything has some level of interest.
um So that, I think, helps me to not get bored with playing songs.
Absolutely.
uh Favorite music documentary or movie, Jordan?
I just saw a great one the other day, oh the Led Zeppelin.
The new Led Zeppelin.
it's great, It's really, really good.
And I learned a lot about Led Zeppelin that I just did not know.
So I can recommend that.
It was enjoyable.
I'm so down with it.
I'm even keener to watch it now that I've heard you recommend it.
So thank you for that.
Can you name one thing you would like to see invented that would make your life as a keyboard player easier?
You know, good question, because I feel like the keyword world, even though something like my Kronos is fantastic for the kind of gigs that like that Kronos for the Dream Theater
gig is perfect.
mean, it's just great.
However.
I will say that I think that the keyboard world is unfortunately kind of like we suffer from.
um
It's just being a small kind of industry, the kind of intro, there's not that many people who are like from my point of view that are real keyboard players.
It's a lot of people out there who maybe play chords and stuff.
They're making, they're using a keyboard to play a little, do some scoring thing, or they're playing a little part in a band.
But as far as being a keyword player, really needing cool controllers and doing splits and layers and something that's like a powerhouse instrument with
real sound control and lots of them.
You know, like I really want that.
And some people I know really, really want that.
But there's not, don't think there's like enough people out there who are really going to buy that and really want it to push this industry to a point where it starts to become
something more like, let's say the lighting industry, you know, where you walk, I walk up to my lighting guys board and I was like, wow, that's a beautiful board.
looks incredible.
Or even a Soundman's incredible board.
The keyboard's like, where are my motorized faders on my keyboard?
Where is an incredible touchscreen?
Where are all the things that would make, where's all the visual information?
Where are my splits of my 600 sounds a night?
Where are my splits and layers?
I knew I put that sound somewhere over there, but why can't I?
And what was the velocity zoning?
There's a lot of things that would be fantastic.
And again, like what Korg
gifted me with the Kronos and the world with that Kronos is great.
I mean, there's so many things that it can do now that like being able to play huge combinations and switch sounds and not have the effects or the sounds and be interrupted
and just everything smooth.
So we're really thankful for those, they're not such small favors, those are big things.
But again, the industry is, the keyboard industry as a whole and what we're offered, I think falls short of what a lot of other industries are.
m
able to produce and especially now that I'm kind of like playing with technology so much and like I I see what's going on with the AI and with the with the language models and you
know I want to be able to go up to my keyboard and say okay you know I'll talk to it and say I want a split I want piano and strings you from c4 down to c2 I want a brass sound
with choir I want give me a realistic choir and you know
And return go.
Exactly.
Oh, that's nice.
You know, lower the lower the choir sound.
Try it.
Try a different choir.
Why not?
I mean, you we we're all using like chat GPT to like say, OK, make an image of, know, like the other day.
I want a picture of me hanging out with Beethoven.
Creating image, uh you know, have me sitting down next image.
good, that's better.
OK, great.
mean, it's there.
The technology is there.
You can use your voice to create, you know.
Images and sound so it's it's something that is technically there for the making, but when we'll see it, you know that's another.
That's another really big question.
It is a great response, thank you.
And the last one in the quick fire 10 Jordan is your favourite non-musical activity or hobby?
What keeps you sane outside of music?
Um, yeah, like I've been trying to be like, connect with my physical body like a little bit more.
And I really like to like to what keeps me sane is walking really.
Like I'm somebody who I don't know how other people do it if they don't get out.
Like that, that blows my mind.
I just don't, I really don't know how people tour and don't leave the hotel.
then, you know, my friends, some of them don't.
But for me, get to a place and I'm like, put my bags down, I'm going out the door, I gotta get some air, I gotta get some sunlight, see the light of day.
so that, I love that, it keeps me sane and it's important to me.
No, exactly.
Now Jordan, if I'm not pushing the friendship too far, I did have one question I realised I missed and that was on the current tour and as you said you're going out throughout
Europe during the rest of the year.
What essentially is your rig that you're currently using?
What's changed since last tour?
Obviously all of our listeners and viewers love knowing about rigs, just if you're happy to go through to the extent that you can.
Sure.
So uh my rig has always been a little bit different than most progressive rock keyboard players, where other people using multiple keyboards have meant for many years, always
chosen to find this most powerful keyboard I could and really learn how to use it and get the most out of it.
That's kind of been my style.
And one of the reasons I've done that is because I kind of found, I thought that years ago that it's cool, it looks cool.
m
when somebody has a lot of different keyboards and you I like owning a lot of keyboard certainly but I don't really love the idea of lifting my hands off of a keyboard before
the musical phrase is done just for the show.
I would rather just musically in this the way I feel be focused on the eighty eight notes in front of me and I can play my parts and therefore I took I've taken that approach to
being able to.
You how like really kind of let's call them intelligent program changes and to know how to use my cool synthesizers and sample what I need and get all the sounds that I want.
like that.
And then for the for the show business part, I've got like a really, really cool custom stand that's you know, it's very entertaining.
And now I've got a really cool synesthesia display that wraps around my keyboard as well and responds to my MIDI information and I can program that.
And it's become, you know, as far as entertainment, I think it's maybe equally as cool as if I had, you know, eight keyboards or whatever.
Um, so my Kronos and that system around it is the main like event.
Uh, but I also have behind me, I brought back my lap steel after almost like 20 years.
We've been playing Octavarium on the tour, which, you know, I learned how to play the lap steel because of that song.
And I learned how to play it again after forgetting how to play it for this.
You know for this tour.
So that's pretty cool and I also kind of like brought out the newest continuum.
The continuum made by the bold Hocken uh is just a fantastic instrument and I'm kind of rocking that as well.
So behind me I have the continuum and the lap steel and then in addition to my rig in front of me, I'm also playing Geo Shred on my iPad.
Geo Shred is my own company's musical instrument.
uh
It's based on physical modeling for those people who don't know.
And it has some just wonderful sounds and control on the glass surface that are unique.
And then I've also been rocking the Roland uh Axe Edge, the keytar as well.
So I'm thinking that's kind of it.
Yeah, actually on my iPad note is that, OK, so I'm playing GeoShred.
um which many people have heard me talking about because it's my app.
But I also brought back uh using an app that was really, really cool and still cool, but some years ago called Bebop.
This is great sounding application that has like a little robot on the screen and as you play it, this looks really quirky and cool and has great sound.
And so that's pretty fun.
That's amazing.
No, thank you for that.
And look, we can't thank you enough for the time you've given us tonight, Jordan.
It's been an absolute honor and a privilege and we're excited to see what does come over the next 30, 40, 50 years when you do live to be 120.
And also look forward to seeing you down under, as you said, hopefully at some stage next year or whenever.
So again, cannot thank you enough.
Well, maybe with the new technology that's coming out, I could live to be 120 because you know, there's one school of thought which they're saying that the human beings will become
more like robots as we add artificial organs and implants in our brain and the robots will become more like human beings.
So there might be some weird crossover that is a little bit unexpected for some.
So I'll see you guys when we're we'll do another interview when I'm 120.
How about that?
Paul, I'm not saying anything new here.
It's always hard to digest what we experience when we interview some of these amazing guests and it's certainly no different with Jordan.
Quite a bit of ground covered.
Yeah, what a fun interview that was for us and we hope it was for Jordan too.
All I will say is I'd always suspect that he was a really interesting character and I think that was borne out by some of his insights.
He's got some interesting and unconventional approaches to the way he looks at his music from a theoretical but also a technical perspective.
And what Yann I love most about that interview, and again I'm not shocked by this, but I loved how he's just such a positive
open-minded guy.
he's just got this real, he just exudes positivity and something that listeners and viewers won't have been able to pick up because this sort of happens in before we press
record and after we turn it off.
But just he's just a nice, nice person and you know really kind and generous to us which was a really nice thing.
So what a really nice humble man and I just really enjoyed that David.
That was just one of my absolute favourites.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And look, if ever in the year, say 2035 or 2045, there's going to be a cyborg human hybrid keyboard player, it's going to be that guy.
So he called it out at the end of the show and I think he's right.
So no, thanks to Jordan for his time.
He certainly went above and beyond and we hugely appreciate it.
We also appreciate all of you out there for listening and watching.
It does mean a huge amount.
And also a big shout out to our gold and silver supporters.
So the lovely Tammy Katcher from Tammy's Musical Studio.
you so much, Tammy.
um Dewey Evans from the Sunnyland of Wales.
Thank you, sir.
The magical Mike from Midnight Mastering.
There's four Ms.
Magical Mike, Midnight Mastering.
uh I can't thank him enough as well.
If you need good work done, he's the man.
And last but definitely not least, Dave Bryce and the team from the musicplayer.com forums.
Can't thank them enough as always.
So again, thank you to you all out there.
Thank you, sir.
I'll let you go and play on the playground equipment, Paul, and we'll be back in a few weeks.