A day after it was announced that Mike Mangini would be vacating the drum stool in Dream Theater to allow for the return of Mike Portnoy, Mangini has shared details of his debut solo album, Invisible Signs, due November 11, 2023. He posted the following message on social media:
"I’m so happy to finally announce the date for the release of my upcoming album Invisible Signs, coming your way on 11/11/23 . Swipe left to see the full tracklist! Can’t wait for all of you to hear it!! Don’t forget to pre-order your autographed physical copies clicking the link in my bio… you can also pre-save it in its digital format."
Joining Mangini on Invisible Signs are bassist Tony Dickinson, guitarists Ivan Keller and Gus G. (Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne), and vocalist Jen Majura (Evanescence).
Tracklisting:
"Freak Of Nature"
"Invisible Signs"
"Habit To Change"
"Not Drowning"
"Deep Inside"
"Saying Sorry"
"So Alive"
"Glamorous Shades"
"It's Noise"
"Let Me Shine"
"Seek And Find"
"Black Box"
"Freak Of Nature" lyric video:
Mangini commented on the lyrics for "Freak Of Nature":
"Beyond being about forces of nature like hurricanes, as well as other unstoppable forces, this lyric was inspired by elite athlete Rob Gronkowski who played TE (tight end) for the New England Patriots. The way that he would pound through opposing players reminded of what a hurricane does. Players in many sports have special qualities. Neither critiques nor praises affect their nature, change what they are or how they work. The non-effect of critiques and opinions seems pointless and somewhat funny to me. They simply do what they do while seeming like super-heroes at times. For a song lyric, 'force of nature' didn’t sound as impactful as 'freak of nature.' The sound of the 'ka' in 'hurricane' was more similar to 'freak' than say, 'tornado.' It is sound that put the two together. Like all the lyrics on the album, they can be interpreted by the listener."
"Not Drowning" lyric video:
Mangini spoke about the lyrics for "Not Drowning":
"While listening to the chorus part of this song sometime in 2018, I heard word sounds in my mind and the word 'drowning' fit it pretty well. I didn’t want to write about it literally though. Also, the lyrics on this album aren't about personal events or stories and they're supposed to be simple and quickly digestible, not complex like the content (below) that I found. This album is purposefully not 'prog' in any way."
"Searching terms related to 'drowning' eventually led me to the word 'confusion.' That made me think of the confusion surrounding the findings of Quantum Mechanics. I found instances of physicists and mathematicians saying that the test results seemed strange and 'wrong,' and that they could not reconcile it with their view of reality. Some said there are things about it we cannot know, or maybe are not supposed to know. It seemed to me that spending too much time immersing oneself in it can make a person crazy. Einstein died confounded by it spending countless hours trying to recocile it with the reality he knew. The myriad of unfounded conjectures outside the physics community conjured up a comedy skit in my mind, yet there is something that is not adding up at the very core of it all and that's not funny. The lines 'Not Drowning' and 'I will breathe' each relate to the hope of clearing away what is blurring the reality of something in all kinds of situations."
"For a song lyric, I suspected that singing about physics wouldn’t be as common as the idea of jumping in a saltwater pool. I needed a descriptive location for it. 'Backyard' didn’t work, so I used the word 'nation' because everyone lives in one. That word led me to 'radiation,' as that’s what heats up a pool and has a cool sound to it when sung. Mainly, words come to me as sounds, then I search around and form something cohesive, but try not to sacrifice how the words sound."
"I thought this might be interesting to know about. At the end of the day, however, it’s just a song for rocking out!"
"And then there's the simultaneous 7/8 in Common Time and a wild solo section for the Musos!"
For further details, visit Mike Mangini on Facebook.
