Derek's comments:
I remember being on tour with Dream Theater in 1999,
and Peter Mortricelli from Magna Carta Records approaching
me and asking me if I wanted to do a solo CD. At first I thought
that he was joking, because it is an ongoing joke in bands
that when someone proposes an unpopular musical suggestion,
the response is, "That's great-save it for your solo
album!"
Mike Varney (who is CO- owner of Magna Carta with
Peter Morticelli) suggested that I check out this new up-and-coming
drummer Virgil Donati. I went down to Virgil's rehearsal space
in North Hollywood, and was immediately impressed with his
technical prowess. We wrote "Apocalypse 1470 B.C."
of the Atlantis trilogy on our first day of writing/jamming.
Two months later, we had a whole CD written and were ready
to record.
I recently did a session with fretless bassist Tony
Franklin, and called him to play bass. Virgil brought in his
fellow aussie Brett Garsed to play guitar.
Mike Varney also gave me the suggestion to buy my
own ADAT studio so I could overdub in the luxury of my home,
and have something to show for my recording budget-the birth
of the Leopard Room!!
After we cut the drums on 2" tape, we transferred
the drums to ADAT domain, and completed the remaining overdubs
at the Leopard Room.
It was my first day of keyboard overdubs that I got
the conference call from Dream Theater telling me that I was
fired. No one likes to get fired, but I knew that I was hardly
the weak link in that musical chain.
BOOM!! I am now a solo artist.
Virgil and I ended up forming a band called Planet
X based off of the sound we created on that CD. |
