Drum legend Mike Portnoy spoke with Robert Cavuoto for MyGlobalMind.com about the upcoming sophomore album from Sons Of Apollo, entitled MMXX (pronounced: 20/20), out on January 17 via InsideOutMusic/Sony.

Portnoy also spoke about influencing the next generation of drummers, and his relationship with former Dream Theater bandmate, guitarist John Petrucci.

Asked if he has any plans to ever work with Petrucci again, Portnoy replies: "We would both love it. Like you said, we are a great team of 25 years as we were co-captains of Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment. I would also go out with him on the G3 Tours. I look back at the relationship we had, and it was very special from a drummer/guitarist relationship. You can see that with Lars & James of Metallica, Dimebag & Vinnie of Pantera, and Eddie & Alex Van Halen. I think John and I had that type of partnership. We are both at our best and strongest when we work together, and I miss that relationship. He and I have a great personal relationship now and get together with our families. It would be a shame not to make music in some capacity in the future. I hope we can."

Does he think it would sound like Dream Theater, or would they take a different musical approach? "If you listen to the first 10 Dream Theater albums, that’s what it would sound like," says Portnoy. "I think the Dream Theater and Liquid Tension was a nice combination of our styles as well as the other members of those bands. I think John and I both have very distinctive styles. We have written 100s of songs, so I think it would be pretty obvious what it would sound like."

Read the full interview at MyGlobalMind.com.

As mentioned, Sons Of Apollo - also featuring former Dream Theater member Derek Sherinian, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses), Billy Sheehan (The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, David Lee Roth) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Journey, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force) - will release MMXX on January 17.

Produced by The Del Fuvio Brothers (Portnoy and Sherinian), MMXX will be released as a standard CD package, Limited Edition 2 CD package (which includes instrumental mixes and a cappella excerpts), 2 LP + CD package, and on all digital formats. Pre-order here. Digital pre-orders come with instant downloads of “Goodbye Divinity” and "Fall To Ascend".

“Stylistically, we have followed the same path as the debut,” outlines drummer Mike Portnoy. “But we feel that it has come out stronger, simply because we know one another better. Psychotic Symphony was the first time the five of us had worked together, so there was bound to be an air of experimentation happening. Now, we can draw on having the experience not only of recording that album, but also of touring together a lot. And now there is clearly a lot more obvious chemistry going on.”

“We did 83 shows on the last tour,” adds keyboardist Derek Sherinian. “And it was so worthwhile, because we came out of it with a stronger bond, and that is certainly reflected in what we wrote.”

The writing process began at the start of the year, as Portnoy, Sherinian and guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal got together. “The three of us were at my home studio in Pennsylvania,” explains Portnoy. “And it took about three weeks to get all the music written. That was a very smooth process. The last time, it certainly must have felt a little weird for Bumblefoot to be writing with Derek and me, because we were strangers to him. Now, we know one another better and that helped things push along.”

“Because we all have our home studios, it meant everyone could record there as and when they had opportunity,” continues Sherinian. “We all had the luxury of being able to take our time to get all the parts done, which was a huge help in the way the album's come out. I suppose in all, it took about eight months to record everything.”

The lyrics were written by Soto, who also came up with the melody lines with input from Sherinian. “While Jeff was left to come up with the words on his own, as the melody lines are part of the music, it made sense for me to be involved with that part,” says the keyboard player.

There are eight tracks on MMXX, with variations in length totalling 60 minutes. “The final song is 'New World Today, which is 16 minutes long,” says Portnoy. “This one has elements similar to 'Opus Maximus' and 'Labyrinth' on the previous album. It has some insane, brilliant instrumental moments, which I am sure the fans will love.”

“We wanted to do something epic here, as we did with 'Opus Maximus' last time around,” adds Sherinian. “You have to remember that Mike and I come from Dream Theater, where we never bothered about how long a song was. So, for us doing a 16 minute track is not a problem.”

The album title was inspired by a simple chronological fact. “This will be released in mid-January 2020,” says Portnoy. “That means it will be one of the first releases in what is a new decade. So I came up with the idea of calling it '2020,’ except having it written in the Latin form of 'MMXX'.” And the album’s artwork has been created by Thomas Ewerhard (who was responsible for the cover design of Psychotic Symphony), which inevitably reflects the title. As Portnoy explains, “For the first record, we had a mythological feel. This time around though, there's a much more futuristic style to what we've got. It has a very 21st century appeal. And the band crest is more polished, cleaned up and a lot more modern than last time, when it had an old fashioned look.”

“Each member of this band has their own signature sound on their instrument,” adds Sherinian. “And when you put all of this together what you get is a wonderful five-headed beast. It makes this a sonically special band, which is definitely what comes across on MMXX. You can hear odd time signatures and amazingly crazy performances here. Overall, we've been satisfyingly more adventurous this time than we were before, and I know people are sure to love what we've done.”

MMXX tracklisting:

"Goodbye Divinity"
"Wither To Black"
"Asphyxiation"
"Desolate July"
"King Of Delusion"
"Fall To Ascend"
"Resurrection Day"
"New World Today"

"Fall To Ascend" video:

"Goodbye Divinity" video:

Teaser:

(Photo - Robert Cavuoto)