Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess Explores Solo Piano + Orchestral Projects Via Pledge Campaign

Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess may utilize traditional release methods with his band, but he's thinking outside of the box for his latest solo project. The musician has been working on both piano-based and orchestral pieces of music and he's using PledgeMusic to not only help fund the effort, but to provide a more interactive experience for his fans.

Loudwire spoke with Rudess about the campaign and he explains why PledgeMusic is the perfect avenue to spotlight his latest musical ventures. "This PledgeMusic thing was kind of natural for two reasons -- one of which was the kind of projects I'm doing are a little bit out of the box creative. And the other reason is I'm a very social media oriented kind of person," explained Rudess.

Speaking about his projects, the keyboardist stated, "One of them is recording this orchestral piece I wrote several years ago. I never really got a good recording out and I really want to do it in a creative way. I want to capture it really well with audio, but I also want to make a video, and create a video of the whole piece. And the other part of the project involves a new solo piano-based album, and instead of just releasing it in a traditional audio format, what I'm doing is putting together an interactive experience, so users or listeners will be able to use gestures on their IOS device to interact with the music and influence it, either subtlely or go wild with it and turn it into something completely different."

As part of the PledgeMusic project, Rudess has offered a number of incentives that include such obvious things as CDs, Dream Theater passes, t-shirts, DVDs, a music app and signed memorabilia. But the pledge tiers also provide such inventive options as a Skype music lesson or virtual lunch, an invite-only Internet concert, customized music pieces, credits on his release, having the keyboardist play on your album or, on the top tier, having him play a concert at your house. Rudess says, "You have to think about what's going to be interesting for people and bring them into the campaign. What's going to be fun and be possible for me to do?"

The keyboardist concludes, "The PledgeMusic thing has been interesting because I feel I've been able to open up and push the boundaries of what's possible for an artist that's been around for a little while. There's resistance to it in more traditional minds as to how the music industry has been, but I think that as we all know record companies are going away and there's not as many possibilities. We need to figure out the future and I think that PledgeMusic and that type of thing is a totally viable alternative for musicians to consider to get their music and creativity out there."

Rudess offers his new music pitch in the video above. You can check out his PledgeMusic campaign and donate here.