Though Mike Portnoy is all primed to promote Parasomnia – his first album with Dream Theater since 2009’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings – the progressive drum great recently side-stepped his usual duties to deliver a Taylor Swift cover. Specifically, he hit the pop star’s 2014 hit single “Shake it Off” for the good folks at Drumeo.
Portnoy’s take on T-Swift came up during an appearance on Drumeo’s “For the First Time” YouTube series, and as the name implies, the drummer did not know what he was hearing when they first pumped the tune through the speakers.
“Is that something that’s popular?” he said ahead of the Swift reveal, which kinda blew his mind— a super-fitting reaction, considering he also felt the peppy O.G. pop beat sounded like Toni Basil’s dome-blowing “Mickey” single from 1981.
“Do you really want me to learn this,” he joked at one point with the Drumeo team, who were hella stoked to have Portnoy fully exploring his kit while re-interpreting the song. He added that his daughter would “get a kick” out of his revamp—which is a pretty great, if unintentional dad joke to come out of a drummer, if you ask us.
Seems like Portnoy had a lot of fun proggin’ up the pop song, jumping through things with a preliminary jam before hammering in his hits with vibe-changin’, breakbeats-to-mosh-style aplomb.
In addition to pulling out his drum sticks, Portnoy also offered an olive branch to Swift in terms of a possible collab, should the singer ever want to have the drum legend playing a beat behind her one day.
“Taylor, I’m really sorry,” he joked. “I still would play with you in a heartbeat. I swear I wouldn’t do that.”
Does he ever miss a beat? Is there, in fact, lightning in his feet? Haters are probably gonna hate, hate, hate, but you can see Portnoy’s percussive Swiftie salute via the player up above.
Back to Dream Theater, the band are due to release their Parasomnia February 7th via Inside Out Music/Sony Music. The group likewise discussed the making of the album, as well their 40 years of work together, in Revolver’s new Winter issue, of which they’re cover stars.
You can order a copy for yourself at our shop.