Sons of Apollo’s Derek Sherinian says touring with Ron Thal last year brought more ‘cohesive vibe’ to ‘MMXX’
Formed in 2017, Sons of Apollo have been hailed as a progressive metal supergroup of beyond talented musicians, composed of drummer Mike Portnoy, bassist Billy Sheehan, keyboardist Derek Sherinian, vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, and guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal. In an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), Sherinian shared some insight into the creative writing process for their latest album 'MMXX', released January 17, and Sherinian's vision for the future with the band.
Sherinian shares details on the band's creative process for 'MMXX', saying, "The way it works is, I'm constantly writing and I'm always putting ideas down. I started writing this album right after we finished the first album and Ron's always writing as well. And so throughout the year, we saved up all our ideas and then we got together with Mike in January for a week, and then we arranged all the ideas and made the structure of the album. And then we had the luxury all year to do our overdubs and finish up all the writing of the lyrics and everything else."
Expressing how the group have drawn closer since 'Psychotic Symphony', he adds on their writing process, "I think after doing almost a hundred shows together last year and doing a new record it definitely brought us closer together soundwise and it gave us a more cohesive vibe. And knowing how Ron Thal plays now... the first time I met him was the first day of recording 'Psychotic Symphony'. I really didn't know much about his playing. Now that I know how bada** he is, it really helps me in the imagination in the writing".
Sherinian elaborates further on the writing process and remembering the complex structures of songs 'King Of Delusion' and 'Fall To Ascend', saying, "'King Of Delusion' is mostly mine and 'Fall to Ascend' is mostly Ron's - one of the ideas that Ron brought in. Again, we each come in with our hard drive full of ideas, and we lay it all out, and they're not complete songs but then there's room for all of us to arrange and put our own signature in there. And the teamwork between Mike, Ron and I on the compositions, that's the best chemistry, and so we're gonna keep it at that for the music".
Sons of Apollo have united as a supergroup of musicians, and it isn't a surprise that they have a large following of musicians, apart from fans. Sherinian comments, "I think that there are a lot of musicians, but I think that there are a lot of people in progressive rock and progressive metal that really just vibrate with that style and they're not necessarily musicians. Just like there's a lot of people into 'Star Trek' or 'Star Wars'. They're not astronauts but they love it. I think that we have more musician fans than a lot of bands. I may be wrong, but I would say that if you had to look at the pie, maybe 10-20% are musicians at the most and the rest are just fans."
Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart passed away recently, and in light of the phenomenal 16-minute track on 'MMXX', Sherinian expressed Sons of Apollo's love for the band and Peart. When asked if they were Rush fans, he says, "Mike Portney is especially, but all of us in the band love Rush, and what a loss. Neil Peart was just so amazing. To me, one of the greatest qualities of a musician is to be easily identifiable, and Neil Peart, you know it's him when he plays. What a great legacy of music and he's inspired so many drummers and so many of my drummer friends have been inspired by Neil Peart. It was a big loss."
You can read more on Neil Peart here.
Being a member of the hugely-successful musical institution that is Dream Theater from 1994-1999, Sherinian has seen massive success. With passion and forwardness, he gives his thoughts on what characteristics hold Sons of Apollo apart from Dream Theater, saying, "Attitude and fire".