Symphony X Megathread

[bostjan]

I'm curious, when you say that, do you mean that he doesn't have that "rockstar" attitude, for lack of a better description? Or (and this is my experience meeting some master musicians) he doesn't come off as like being an ultra introvert who only cares about music/playing and is not "normal"?

Everyone "famous" I've met, other than Michael Romeo, fit into one of two categories: 1. Boisterous and driving the conversation (not necessarily in a negative way, type A people can be a blast to be around) or 2. Aloof and withdrawn from the conversation.

For example, when I met Charlie Benante (drummer for Anthrax), it was a blast. He was cracking jokes nonstop and generally being ridiculous. When I met John Petrucci, he wasn't loud or anything, but he was gleaming with energy and still doing 90% of the talking. On the other hand, when I had met Victor Wooten, he just wanted to be left alone and not interact. When I met the guys from Symphony X, they seemed genuinely interested in listening as much as talking. It totally took me off guard. Granted these are all snapshots at very specific times and situations, not like I know any of these people on a personal level. It could well be that one person could meet a "famous" musician on a good day and have a good experience and then the next person could meet them on a bad day and it could be a total drag.

 

[eaeolian]

When I met the guys from Symphony X, they seemed genuinely interested in listening as much as talking. It totally took me off guard. Granted these are all snapshots at very specific times and situations, not like I know any of these people on a personal level. It could well be that one person could meet a "famous" musician on a good day and have a good experience and then the next person could meet them on a bad day and it could be a total drag.

We've played gigs with them several times, and they're good people - yes, even LePond, who's all MAGA. He's still a nice, engaging dude to talk to.

One of my favorite moments was sitting at the bar with Russ when we got bumped off the Blind Guardian show despite there being more than enough time for us to play - "I'm sure you guys will open when we come around ourselves - and we don't fuck our opening bands". Sure enough, that's how it worked out. Good guys.

 

[Sermo Lupi]

He’s a strange guy who stays out of the public light. In his whole career he’s only done a few guitar magazine features. I’ve heard from people they were adamant against ever releasing tab books, which has only changed recently and he’s very difficult to interview.

Michael has said in interviews that modern music distribution through streaming has killed a lot of his enthusiasm to release music. The band could churn out albums a lot quicker if they wanted. Like you said they don’t seem to care and have a lot of other musical projects to occupy their time.

Like others have said, I'm not sure I'd call Michael Romeo strange for not seeking the spotlight. He always comes across as very down-to-earth in interviews and seems socially adept (especially at fielding rather gushing and poorly articulated questions from fan-journalists).

I've heard Romeo say various things about the state of the music industry. He's definitely pretty sober about the fact no one is selling CDs anymore. However, nothing I've seen could be described as pessimism, as opposed to simple realism about the unnecessary rush of a write/record/tour schedule for a band in Symphony X's position. He's been very positive about the technical progress that's been made in the industry, especially in the way that it's helped independent or upcoming artists to produce and publish music more easily than Romeo was able to when he started out.

As an aside, I'd be surprised if Romeo was ever against releasing tab books. Maybe he didn't want bad tabs out there and turned down offers during the 90s when tab books were pretty terrible. Otherwise, he's always said that buying orchestral scores is the best way to learn composition, so I'd assume he's supportive of the medium in theory.

On a different topic, I've been messing around on the drums a lot more lately, and Jason's rhythms are vastly under-rated. I feel, even though I can't nail the nuances, I can at least keep up with virtually any Dream Theater song, but Symphony X's drum parts are at least just a little more intense, and I can't even fake it through an entire song without stopping at least once. I think that generally fits how Romeo's guitar parts are much more gymnastic than other prog bands. Since everyone compares them to DT, they are, in a lot of ways the anti-DT. Meaning, in DT, the vocals are more show-offy and the instrumental parts are rhythmically challenging, but the technicality is more in the nuance - in SX, the vocals are much more grounded and fundamentally simpler, with tons of nuance to make them difficult to replicate, whereas the instrumental parts are so much more flashy and in-your-face.

Jason Rullo is a beast.

It's been a while since I've done any rudiment theory to adequate explain this, but so much of Romeo's signature groove seems to come from those legato phrases that accentuate the backbeat. A good example in 4/4 would be the verse groove from the Savage Curtain. Rullo and Romeo play off each other to make those patterns really move, even when they're in whacky time signatures.

The fact they're so in the pocket makes the progressive parts seem heavier as well; there's always an ebb and a flow to it.