KM’s Dedication to Silence

[vivace]

Well, I gotta hand it to Mr, err no now Dr Moore. For some reason I’ve come back to this guys music this week, and it’s all left me feeling as confused and unsatisfied as it did 10+ years ago when I last visited.

Why the surprise? To be completely honest with myself, as the years went by, I gradually formulated and began accepting the theory that there was a sort of placebo effect going on. Like maybe on its own merits, the chroma key stuff is just OK. It’s only because I loved the early DT/Majesty stuff SO much, that I just wanted to like CK, and since it’s actually not bad, and we were in the more limited pre Spotify era I listened to it a lot.

I’m pleased to report that this theory was just wrong. The CK stuff is/was great and way ahead of its time. It’s different/modern for sure, but it scratches an itch that not much else can reach.

And that realization brings me back to asking wtf happened?? I mean cmon! Why did Kevin leave DT in 1994?? I found a 2005 blabbermouth interview where KM says it was because he tired of the “Majestic” complexity of DT. Still, nothing else out there in 2023 other than some Reddit peeps asking the same question. Like, is the guy from a wealthy family? Did he not need the $$ that came from being in one of very few successful rock bands in the early 90s? Creative differences?? Look, I’ll just say it, the official DT version of SDV is my favorite version of that song. It’s a bit unfair, because the other demo versions with KM singing are just demos, but my point is that DT actually did shift gears and actually perform this new KM style composition, the fans loved it etc… did the other guys in the band hate it?? That’s just not what it seems like… My guess here is that it wasn’t just creative differences, there was probably more to it, it’s not hard to imagine personal issues presenting themselves to young rock stars…I don’t believe KM has to say why he left, but it’s just the absolute dedication to silence has to be noted here.

Jump 20 years later to 2014 and you have a new fan funded project idea. You ask us to fund the creation of these demos. The fans that have stuck around through the transitions who genuinely liked the guys creative offerings. You think ok there’s a patreon page with a forum etc but somehow, it’s the same dead pan routine. We are now 10 years in, there’s no album, the last update was a couple years ago, nothing during the pandemic years, people are just asking hey what’s the status, and he doesn’t respond. Sure, I guess he doesn’t have to. Is it some sort of art house version of Neil Peart? I want to be clear that I am not criticizing KM , but it just strikes me as being so very odd. Like , you kind of can’t be Miles Davis and play with your back to the audience and then at the same time ask them to fund stuff? Or maybe you can, but why do you want to??! I don’t understand why this is what you want. And then we learn somehow through some grapevine that KM is now practicing medicine of some sort somewhere. Not gonna lie, that’s impressive! But , like, what about that fan funded project?? Integral artist from that era like My Bloody Valentine are way more forthcoming about telling their stories. Again, not a criticism, it’s just one of those things that I just can’t explain…at all.. and all the queries are met with ice silence. As you wish I guess…

[Keith Rober]

In many interviews with the DTs they have stated that the guy always had a personality that tended towards depression, perhaps that explains his way of composing so sentimental and almost always melancholic, perhaps that would also explain why the hell he decided to study psychiatry, t is a guy with some kind of mental disorder, you don't want to try to understand more than that. Still, that doesn't take away from the fact that he was a great artist and left us a lot.

[vivace]

Yea, I saw the Portnoy interview recently posted on the front page here. It really stuck with me when Mike says how hard they worked to achieve the breakthrough they did, and then KM just quits right at the beginning of their success.. he couldnt believe it. So....that kinda made me feel a little better. If even MP is confused about the whole thing, what hope do I have... although, I must say, I really dont like the way he handled the Patreon episode(?? err its been a decade now). He probably should have offered us a partial refund since we thought the goal was to make an actual album, but second best would have been to thank everyone, and offer some explanation. If that's gonna be too "personal" or breach some sort of barrier, then you know, I am sorry but you cant have it both ways. You already chose to cross that bridge when you asked *us* to personally fund *your* project. I guess we all have our struggles....

[Keith Rober]

Dec 18, 2023 17:37:10 GMT -5 vivace said:

Yea, I saw the Portnoy interview recently posted on the front page here. It really stuck with me when Mike says how hard they worked to achieve the breakthrough they did, and then KM just quits right at the beginning of their success.. he couldnt believe it. So....that kinda made me feel a little better. If even MP is confused about the whole thing, what hope do I have... although, I must say, I really dont like the way he handled the Patreon episode(?? err its been a decade now). He probably should have offered us a partial refund since we thought the goal was to make an actual album, but second best would have been to thank everyone, and offer some explanation. If that's gonna be too "personal" or breach some sort of barrier, then you know, I am sorry but you cant have it both ways. You already chose to cross that bridge when you asked *us* to personally fund *your* project. I guess we all have our struggles....

Yes, I mean... I'm a keyboardist for example and I learned as a child having him as a reference, his contribution in the world of keyboardists of the genre was enormous, the guy created a sound and a way of transmitting, he was ahead of his time that undoubtedly influenced many people to this day (and I include myself). However, as I mentioned above, very quickly I learned that he is simply a guy who always had problems with himself, I think he is someone who never knew what he wanted, and we have no way of knowing but I sense that he suffers from dysthymia or constant depression, which which explains everything in his actions. Finally, everything indicates that he took a path (or at least that seems so for now) which is to be a psychiatrist, we will see how long he lasts with that too, if in a few years he appears again and is no longer a doctor and we come up with something else strange, I wouldn't be surprised. We don't know how he grew up, we don't know about his family, we don't know about his personal life, only that he is a strange guy, and everything indicates that his musical side in terms of projects has ended, although everything also indicates that from time to time he makes some sporadic collaborations, I have found many of them in these years, appearances in strangers' songs, perhaps because he needs money or who knows, because he wants to stay active that way while he is a doctor.

[vivace]

Not sure I buy the whole depression thing. Can you cite any of these interviews? It's just not the vibe his work gives off to me. Critical, yes, sure, and maybe there is an obsessiveness behind it all that he struggles to cope with.

[Keith Rober]

Oh, I honestly don't remember that, I think it was in one of those rare interviews with the band, as soon as Kevin left the band, they didn't want to talk much about it, I remember Petrucci saying how much it hurt him, that he couldn't understand the decision but he had no choice. He noticed that he was very distant from them and especially from him (close friends) and that he noticed it as somewhat depressive. It's the only thing I remember, I don't know if that interview is on YouTube, but it was from that time in 1994 on the Awake tour. But yea I mean... neither you nor I can know this about, it's just speculation.