Watch Mike Portnoy rip through Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ after hearing it for the first time

nme.com:

Dream Theater‘s Mike Portnoy has created his own drum parts for Taylor Swift‘s ‘Shake It Off’ after listening to it for the first time – check it out below.As part of drumming platform Drumeo’s popular First Time series, the channel challenged the veteran prog metal drummer to create his own parts for a song he had never heard before – which turned out to be Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’.After listening to a snippet of the track – which was played to him without drum tracks – Portnoy dove right into jamming along to the song during his first listen.

After his first listen, Portnoy joked that it “sounded like something out of Disneyland in Japan or something” before confirming that he did not know the song, or that it was from Taylor Swift.While listening to the song one more time, Portnoy said he didn’t know how to write a chart for the song because “it’s like Bob Dylan.

It’s all verses, it doesn’t change keys. I don’t even know what to write. I’m just going to jam to it, I guess.”After ripping through his second take – complete with blistering fills and double-bass, Portnoy was then told what song it was and who had performed it.

He replied: “Oh my god! That’s Taylor Swift? Only the biggest artist on Earth. I had no idea.”He continued: “Taylor, I’m really sorry.