Paragon Music Magazine: Your fourth solo release is due out this fall. What are the first steps you take when planning on a solo album. Since you work with so many different musicians on your work, do you write the songs with a specific guitarist in mind or do you collaborate once you get together?

Derek: It’s interesting. Basically, there’s no real set formula. I just basically just write what I hear, and I have in mind who I want to play on it, so I kind of like try to write the material so it fits the players that are going to be playing on it. 

Paragon Music Magazine: You’ve had the chance to work with some amazing artists during your musical career, is there anyone particular that you’d say you had the most fun working with?

Derek: They’ve all been a lot of fun to work with. I could say the person that I learned the most from was Simon Phillips on drums just because he’s been a mentor to me over the last few years and I’ve been such a fan of him since I was a kid. There’s just so much to learn from him about music and recording and all of it. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Equally, who was the hardest to write or record with?

Derek: No, it’s cool because even though I’m a keyboardist, I’m also a producer as well, so when I get in the studio with these guys, I know what they’re all capable of and the music just fits them. And I try to write it so these guys can just walk in and play it and be themselves. 

Paragon Music Magazine: The KISS album Alive III, was your first major label release, which must have been exciting for you.

Derek: Not really, just because there are not a lot of keyboards on it, you know, if any, it’s just background stuff. Just playing with KISS was a very cool experience because KISS was big when I was a kid and there’s a lot to learn. 

Paragon Music Magazine: If you got an offer from KISS to play with them as an offstage keyboardist once again, and they offered you a ton of cash, but you would have to postpone your own work for a period unknown to you, would you take it or is being able to call the shots more important to you at this point?

Derek: Well, honestly, it would depend on how much cash! ::laughs::

Paragon Music Magazine: You’ve been playing piano since you were 5, that’s a long time for you to find role models and personal heroes, what pianists or keyboardists do you look up to?

Derek: Oh there’s so many, I mean the first one was Elton John because he was the first one that I really started digging when I was younger. There’s just too many to even mention. I mean, in all the different styles I just try to steal from everybody.

Paragon Music Magazine: Some people are able to pick up an instrument and just jam away and others rely heavily on their knowledge of scales, chords, modes and the two words musicians dread the most…”Music Theory.” In your opinion, how important is music theory when writing your own music?

Derek: It’s not important at all. What music theory is good for is if you’re communicating to another musician who understands music theory. You can articulate your ideas more succinctly if you’re speaking the same language. Knowing music theory helps open up different harmonic possibilities through the studies of the scales and modes and chords and all that stuff, so I think what I would say to young musicians: Don’t look at the music theory as being a piece of food that your parents are forcing you to eat that you don’t want, look at it more as like a gateway to more harmonic possibilities. Instead of making it a sterile, technical thing, make it more positive. I think that’s a better way to look at it. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Yeah, because a lot of people don’t like those words.

Derek: Yeah, they get hung up. It’s just words, you know? 

Paragon Music Magazine: The biography on your website says that before you joined Dream Theater you had never played anything as complicated as their music. Since that part of your life has now come and gone, surely you’ve learned a trick or two from those guys, how has that experience impacted your playing?

Derek: Oh, tremendously. Dream Theater was the first band where they encouraged me to play more, where usually in the past, keyboardists were always put down to like play chords under the guitar player or take a more secondary role, and Dream Theater challenged me to step up to the plate and fill that void. And so I was forced to develop a style, invent a style for myself that would do my job, and that was cool. So I wouldn’t have gone in that direction if I wasn’t in that band, so I’m very thankful for that. And also their work ethic and their professionalism and stuff, all of that, I carry that with me everyday. 

Paragon Music Magazine: After 4 years with Dream Theater they decided to basically give you the boot and hire someone else. Even though it’s proven to be a blessing regarding your solo work, initially it had to sting a little. How did you deal with that in the beginning?

Derek: Just like anyone, no one likes to get fired or canned, but there’s two ways to deal with it. You can either try to move on and make yourself stronger or you can be bitter and just not be productive and I decided I just wanted to keep moving forward. I was already in the middle of my first solo album when I got the call that I was out of the band so I didn’t even have a chance to sulk really, I’ve been going full force ever since then, you know, Planet X and solo records, I just haven’t stopped. It’s actually, in retrospect, I think it worked out. They got the guy they wanted in their band, I have now the freedom to go play with the best players in the world, and it’s all good. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Did that affect your self-esteem at all?

Derek: Not for a fucking second because I knew that the reason why I was out of that band had nothing to do with my ability. 

Paragon Music Magazine: So you had a really clear head about it.

Derek: Oh absolutely, it was personality conflicts and there was a lot of other business things that were problems but it all worked out in the end, you know? They got their guy, I get to do whatever, I’m still friends with the guys, you know, Mike Portnoy has been very helpful and supportive to my solo career. He wrote the liner notes for my new record that’s coming out this year, so it’s all good. No hard feelings. 

Paragon Music Magazine: What kind of exercises and warm-ups do you do?

Derek: You know, I don’t. All I can say is just keep your hands moving, and you know if you’re working out or not, it’s the same thing as if you’re working out and you’re breaking a sweat or you’re lifting weights, you know you’re doing good. It’s the same thing with practicing, you know if you’re working hard or not. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Any tips for those wanting to develop dexterity and speed?

Derek: Yeah, study classical. 

Paragon Music Magazine: When you are on tour or when you are preparing music for a new album, you are probably playing on a daily basis, but in your down time or on your laziest days, how often do you practice?

Derek: Never. I only play if I’m writing or recording or playing a gig. I very rarely will sit down and practice. I probably should, but I’m too lazy. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Is there a particular piece of music other than your own writings or songs that you needed to learn for other bands, that you never get sick of playing? Such as a classical piece or a song by a modern composer?

Derek: Well I love playing Bach, some of the Bach pieces I know. 

Paragon Music Magazine: When writing with a band you have to work together with each other’s influences and when you work with a bunch of guys whose influences are different than yours, you have to be willing to compromise. When writing your own music for yourself, you are allowed total freedom and can write whatever comes to you, where does most of your inspiration come from?

Derek: A lot of my inspiration, it’s funny, even though I listen to all styles of music, it all must be processed in the end result. I want it to have the fire and balls of the first Van Halen record, that attitude of just ferocity and aggressive attack on your instrument, that’s what I’m about. I think a lot of these Fusion and Prog bands sound like a bunch of pussies because they don’t have any balls when they play. Like, look, I have Zakk Wylde play on my record, that’s fucken heavy, that’s the real deal. Anything less than that in the distortion department, you’re watering it down. So that’s what I need to do. When I play drums, I use Simon Phillips, that’s the level it has to be. It’s like this: If you’re a gourmet cook, if you use all the best ingredients, you’re gonna have the best-tasting dish. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Most of the rock and metal world out there still sort of looks down upon keyboards in their music. Most people only care about how loud their guitars can scream and how deeply their singers can growl. Is it hard to get a gig as a keyboardist?

Derek: I gig with Billy Idol, but I don’t get to be Derek in that, you know? I don’t get to like do my solos and all that crazy stuff, but as far as getting a gig doing what I do, I don’t know that there is anything else to do, really. I mean, besides Dream Theater, what other bands have keyboardists that are featured players? So that’s why I’m left no choice, I had to start Planet X, I had to do my solo stuff, you know, you have to do what you have to do.

Paragon Music Magazine: A lot of people don’t like using keyboards because you don’t get the same tone and sensitivity that you do from an acoustic piano. What is your preference and what gear do you currently use, and why?

Derek: I like of all it, keyboard instruments, I like it all, they’re all different. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Have you tried any of those combo electric/acoustic pianos? Would you ever use something like that?

Derek: Yeah, I did, I almost bought one, but I just wanted a real piano that was just pure piano. It’s cool to be able to MIDI up strings to the piano or whatever else, you know, in the back. It’s all right. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Keyboards are not as flashy as guitars; guitars can have crazy body styles, wacky paint jobs, tons of customization options. Keyboards are more of a cut and dry instrument, as far as appearance is concerned. Have you ever wished that you could get a nice big keyboard with pointy edges and air brushed flames just to fit in with the rest of the guys on stage?

Derek: I never really thought about that. I just go up and wail, that’s what I do.

Paragon Music Magazine: Some people use up half of their lives trying to find that one thing, that one job that makes them the happiest. You obviously have found your ideal job, but how long did it take you to realize that this is what you wanted for yourself?

Derek: I think it was when I first starting experimenting with LSD when I was in my early teens, when I came to the epiphany that I wanted to do this forever. 

Paragon Music Magazine: What did you do to pursue it?

Derek: Just relentless persistence. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Any other jobs that you would be interested in if you didn’t get the opportunity to be in the music industry?

Derek: No, not really, it’s all I really know how to do. If I wasn’t doing music, I would be into real estate, buying houses, doing that. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Some young musicians don’t prefer going to school to major in music because of the pressures and the narrow-mindedness of some professors. What was your experience like at Berklee Music College?

Derek: I loved it because it was the first time that there were so many talented players that were concentrated in one facility that, you know, you don’t get that in normal life and if you go there with a program, if you go there knowing what you want to get out of it precisely, and then tailor-make your program geared toward that, then it’s wonderful. A lot of people that didn’t do well in music college, I think they didn’t have a distinct game plan going in and they just got overwhelmed. There’s so much shit going on, it’s an easy escape to just remove yourself from it, say “I don’t need this,” but there’s so much information there, come on. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Ever get told you weren’t playing something right even though you were just following your creativity?

Derek: Well Berklee is a heavy jazz school, I mean, jazz is emphasized very heavily there and so, yeah there were some teachers that insisted, “You gotta learn these real book tunes,” but I just can’t stand that stuff and I just had to play my own thing. 

Paragon Music Magazine: Plugs? Hair plugs? Butt plugs?

Derek: All I could say to the young musicians is play the music that’s inside your head, don’t try to be something that you’re not, and don’t compromise your musical beliefs unless you’re getting paid a lot of money! And, look out for my new solo record on InsideOut, November it’ll be out, I don’t have a title for it yet, but keep tuned at DerekSherinian.com.