Derek Sherinian - Planet X (1999)
Magna Carta

Derek Sherinian's first solo album. This album is not to be mixed up as the FIRST Planet X album.

Derek Sherinian - Keyboards
Virgil Donati - Drums
Brett Garsed - Guitar
Tony Franklin - Bass

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-so 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.