In The Presence Of Dream Theater Part Two: John Petrucci

Matching the spirit of ‘In the Presence of Enemies Part II’, when Dream Theater returned to the UK for the autumn leg, things had taken a turn for the darker (and colder; although our very own Paul ‘The Funky’ Gibbons was still t-shirt clad and wondering why everyone else was freezing). With Paul and Greg in tow, who would be interviewing John Myung for his Catalogue article, we found ourselves in the bar at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall ninety minutes before the fanclub Meet-and-Greet with Dream Theater, waiting for John Petrucci. This interview would bookend the European and American tours, following on from our discussion with James in Newcastle that opens this issue.

As ever, John was very forthcoming and thoughtful , talking about DT’s progress over the course of the year and his satisfaction with developments for the band, the music and their fanbase. We also talked extensively about something that gets overlooked all too often: John’s lyrical contribution to DT. John enjoyed talking about this facet of his creativity and we would like to explore this further with him in the future. For now, we want to say thank you to John for his time and hope you all find the following as insightful and interesting as we did.

RP: It’s been a busy year for Dream Theater. How would you sum it up and describe the tour to date, in a general way?

JP: Well first of all, I would start by saying we have one of the best groups of people on tour with us that we’ve had since the beginning. Meaning our management team, our road crew, our sound and lights, our backline people, we just have a great bunch of people and not only is the whole show being presented very professionally, the whole tour is unbelievably smooth with these people and I think we have the best tour package as far as our sound and light – it has never been as good as it is now. So we’re really very grateful for these people we have working for us and we’ve played some really cool shows. Summer time, it’s always interesting doing the festivals, you never know how that’s going to go and of course there were a couple of key ones, really cool ones...

RP: Download being a big thing?

JP: Yeah, you know it’s funny. from the outside, a lot of those things seem really big to people, and probably rightly so, but just as a guitar player it’s a pain doing those shows and you’re trying to get through those types of things, as jaded as that might sound, because of the circumstances of a festival, it’s very hard to do. You’re just thrown up there, there’s no soundcheck, you haven’t got any of your gear, it’s really hard to do, 15 minutes change over, so you’re kinda like, it’s hard to be in the moment of “Yeah! I’m at the Download Festival!”

KP: We were quite near the front, right in the middle of the crowd, and we were stood there, looking round at all these fans and they’re so young as well, and we were going “Haven’t they done well?!” We were so proud!

JP: Yeah, that is cool. Obviously, that’s the reason for doing those shows; you’re going to turn on a younger or a different audience. So, that having been said, they’ve been great, we’ve played some really cool shows.

RP: Looking at the gigs so far this year, noticeably from a fan’s perspective, there’s been a change in the demographic this year. The fanbase seems to be a lot younger.

JP: Yeah, I noticed that.

RP: Do you think that Dream Theater is now happening for the next generation?

JP: Absolutely.

KP: I’ve also noticed that as a girl, I’m less and less in the minority these days.

JP: Oh really? Well, that’s good!

KP: The younger generation seems to have lots more girls.

JP: Right. So that’s awesome!

KP: Do you guys really see these changes?

JP: Yeah, I definitely see more of a balance, although obviously a lot of men in the audience (always will be!) I do see a lot of young kids and, to illustrate precisely what you said Richard, I got a fan letter last night at the gig, and to sum it up, the kid was 12 years old, he said he’d been listening to us for four years and his father turned him on to us in 2003. So there you go. It’s the next generation, so we’re a bunch of old men at this point, still playing music!

RP: It’s kind of surreal for us. I was talking to two guys next to me in the front row at Manchester and they were both 16. They were both guitar players and totally in awe of you and into that whole kind of vibe. It was really interesting to see the next generation, because I was thinking “Christ! These guys are half my age!”

[Laughter]

JP: Well, you know what’s good about it? From an artistic perspective, you never quite get the same impact as when you first came out, because you’re new, people are hearing you for the first time. If you notice, a lot of our fans that have been with us a long time, their favourite album has always been Images and Words. They like the earlier ones because that’s when they were introduced. The cool thing with the new generation is their first album might have been Train of Thought and you talk to them and that’s their favourite album. So you get this kinda renaissance feeling, like “okay, people are listening to the music for what it is and for that time, in a sense without all this history and for where we’ve been.” It’s kinda cool as an artist to have that.

RP: It also seems that the time is now right for Dream Theater. The way the genres of music, especially metal genres have moved – DT seem to be slotting really well into that context.

JP: Yeah, I think so too and I think it’s important to point out. A lot of people say that for our last few albums “Oh you guys are getting heavier” and stuff like that. I think that that side of our music is really important and it might be one of the reasons we’re identifying with younger kids. Because prog, traditionally, is not like that. The thing that’s different is the metal side. I think that people like that. It’s one of the things that makes us sound different and sets us apart and it’s an important element.

KP: Looking back on the tour, since we saw you at the very beginning in Newcastle in the summer, what would you say was your favourite show or a specific highlight from the tour?

JP: Y’know, everybody’s perspective is different as far as why there’s a favourite show.

KP: But for you?

JP: A lot of my perspective has to do with (a) how well I played, (b) what it sounded like and what my gear was doing. I’m very guitar-centred.

RP: In your own little world?!

JP: Yeah, I’m in my own world! I can be playing in front of 10 people and if I have a great night, it was the best show of my life! And vice versa. I’m trying to think, it’s hard to recall. The Wembley show was really good I thought. It’s not always that the biggest show was the best. The Score DVD was one of my least favourite experiences.

KP: If you remember, we spoke to you the night before, in Boston and you said to me “I just hope nothing fails”...

JP: Yeah!

KP: So the pair of us really felt for you...

RP: when the guitar cut out in ‘Under a Glass Moon’.

JP: Well there were so many things! That happened, I had a cold, I was sniffling all the time, I didn’t feel like 100% aggressive and in my element, I felt kinda weird. So it’s not always the set up and the show and the prestige of the show. It’s hard to remember everything, I mean I thought last night (Newport, Wales) was great, and that was one of the smallest shows. You just never know when you’re just going to have a relaxed feeling. To me the best shows are the ones where the band is very relaxed and everybody’s in the groove and in the moment. The musicality definitely comes through. In some of the earlier shows it’s hard to get that because we’re kinda rusty and not in the stride of it. So I kind of hate that at this point we’re at the end of the tour. we’re all oiled and in the groove and now we’re going to take two months off! So when we play in Asia we’re going to be all rusty again! You have to get your headspace back into performing and all that.

RP: At the start of the tour, one of the things we discussed with James was the difference that being on board with RoadRunner has made. Before the tour, there was obviously quite a lot of visible extra promotion (especially in this country) and is that something that has continued and translated into the tour as well?

JP: Absolutely. Like you said, the whole set up was great and we haven’t had something like that in a long time. The album charted higher in most countries than ever before. Including in the US, we had a top 20 for the first time. The press has been continuous throughout the tour. It appears, from my perspective, to be a bit stronger in Europe, as far as intensity. Not to say we didn’t have it in the US, but it just seems more in Europe to me.

RP: This time out, you’re obviously touring with support. Has that been a good choice for this tour? Has it been a positive experience for you as a band, in terms of shorter set lengths and the like?

JP: Yeah.

RP: Symphony X seems to have really hit it off with the audience as well.

JP: Absolutely. They did a really great job and in all these circumstances you meet these guys that are really cool and the bands that we toured with in the US were really great guys, Into Eternity and Redemption. With Symphony X we knew them before and this way we just get to know them a bit better. They’re from the same part of America as we are, so you form friendships and the musicality... I think it’s been great. So we’re still (playing long sets) – I don’t like playing too little. Again with the festivals, you’re only playing 45 minutes – it’s over before it’s started. So it’s cool having an opening band and still playing for at least 2 hours.

KP: How will that translate into ‘Progressive Nation’ coming next year?

JP: Well that’s going to be more bands so...

KP: Will it be a day-long kind of thing?

JP: It’ll take quite a few hours to get it all done, yeah! It will probably be like four or five hours...

RP: Are DT still going to do a full-length set?

JP: Well, we’ll have to be a bit shorter...

RP: Guitarist’s questions now! At the end of the Octavarium tour you were using the B rig, after using it in South America you decided you liked it better!

JP: Yeah.

RP: Are you still using that or have you enlarged again?!

JP: No, I changed again! When we started recording Systematic Chaos I changed the amplifier. I’m actually using a (Mesa Boogie) Mark IV. I did the album with that and I did the subsequent G3 tours with that and then we finalized the rigs for the world tour. I actually have an A, a B and a C and they’re pretty much the same... although the C rig has Mark IIs.

RP: Have you been playing about with different stomp boxes as well? In the studio photos you seemed to have things like the MXR EVH Phase 90 and things like that.

JP: I got more into that, yeah. When I was younger. every kid had stomp boxes; that’s what you did, they’re portable and all that. As I got ‘professional’ I got away from that. I almost viewed it as being kind of cheesy – “you can’t do that!” So several years back I got back into that and started to do that again, so I have four different pedals built into my rig. The cool thing is I still use the digital effects as well, so the combination is cool.

RP: I’ve noticed as well you’ve got the wah wah stage centre. Is that about developing the stage presentation a bit?

JP: Yeah, the wah that I use for the rack now, you can use remotely. You can use like four different ones or something. Obviously when you’re using the wah wah you’re kinda glued to one spot. I wanted to get out there...

RP: And be in the centre a bit?

JP: Yeah, and do all that good guitar... stuff...

KP: Posing?!

JP: Yeah! [laughter] It’s important!

RP: And now a bit of a random question, but where did the ants come from?

KP: And all the other stage stuff? It’s the first time really since Falling into Infinity, that you’ve had stage props...

JP: Yeah, that’s true. I mean, we’d like to do more of that. Really those are just things that are kinda on the stage, it would be even cooler to have the stage built up. Anyway, obviously it’s all based on the theme of the artwork. I don’t know exactly who made the things... I was told some students, like a student art class made the ants; it was like a project that somebody commissioned.

RP: So looking forward to next year, what sort of things are you hoping to achieve?

KP: What do you have lined up that the fans would like to know about?

JP: Well, we will still be in a touring cycle and we are still promoting Systematic Chaos, so we have another single that’s coming out, for ‘Forsaken’...

KP: This is the Manga-style cartoon?

JP: Yeah, there’s an anime cartoon that’s being developed now, which I’m really excited about and really involved in and who knows what will happen with that, but I think in the end it’ll look very cool.

RP: We heard you personally were very involved with it...

JP: Yeah, it’s coming out great so I think it will be really cool.

KP: Do you know when it’s likely to be making an appearance?

JP: It’s supposed to be January. I don’t have confirmation on that, but that’s what we’re shooting for.

KP: It shouldn’t need to get re-shot, so it should be on time?

JP: [laughs] No! Not with this kind of project! Actually, this took a lot of planning; there are so many stages to the animation. Obviously, working with a Japanese company, the story had to be translated, the director had to kind of give their take on it, develop the characters and of course, the animation of the background and everything – it’s really involved. So we needed a lot of lead time, in fact, I first brought up the idea when we were doing the ‘Constant Motion’ video, so that’s how long ago it got started... And then, like I said, we’re still in a promotional year; so we have touring up until June.

KP: You’re going to some new places this time?

JP: We are... I’m not sure what the final schedule will be, but we are going to Australia for the first time, which I think is going to be great. I went there with G3 and I think Dream Theater are going to do really well there.

RP: G3 was a testing of the water really wasn’t it, for you and Mike?

JP: Yeah, and I think it’s going to be great. I’m not sure what all the final dates will be in Asia, I know we’re only doing one Japanese date, which is different for us. We will do South America as well, which we’ve discovered in the past few years, is a great market for us, one of the biggest actually.

RP: 20,000 fans in Chile...

JP: Yeah, so it’s pretty freaky! That will be very cool.

KP: Do you think there’s any chance you will get more stage gear, screens etc. out there this time?

JP: Erm... well it’s hard to say. I think the show will probably remain pretty consistent for those other legs coming up, because obviously it will be our first time going there on this tour. When we go back to America on the ‘Progressive Nation’ tour; maybe things might change. We might not even have as much on that. It’s a kinda different vibe, it’s not so much ‘this is our big show’ it’s more of a group effort.

KP: I’ve wanted to ask you about this for a long time, since ‘Voices’ being my favourite song, DT songs have always had spiritual or religious overtones in certain places (not consistently) I was wondering, do you feel that your Catholicism has impacted on the lyrics that you have written?

JP: Yeah, definitely. I think in a couple of ways, not in the way of traditional Christian music where I’m actually ‘preaching.’ I don’t think I have written anything like that actually. One would be that some of the songs that I write are spiritual reflections, y’know on something that happened...

KP: Can you give examples?

JP: Erm... some of the more personal songs like ‘Endless Sacrifice’, ‘Another Day’, ‘Take Away My Pain’, things that are real personal things that happened to me that I was experiencing – there’s a few of them that come more from here [gestures to his heart]. On the ones that are more fictional-based, it’s influenced it with terminology. I think that there’s a lot of powerful terminology, that as soon as you say... something. it evokes like ‘woah’ – a strong image...

KP: Can you think of an example of that?

JP: Yeah, like ‘Lines in the Sand’. “Crown of thorns... “ as soon as you say that it’s like “okay. Jesus Christ”; there’s certain terms that are just like that. Let’s see, I use it all over the place so it’s hard to say where exactly.

KP: There were two that struck me. Firstly ‘Voices’ – it was my favourite song (I named the fanclub after it!) to me, it just drips with Catholic guilt! It’s always struck me that way, it’s not a preachy thing, it’s the feeling that we all live with.

JP: Well, you know what? I guess that’s how it works its way in, because ‘Voices’ is actually, I’ve written about this a lot too, it’s about psychotic disorder. The facts in that song are more based on actual medical documents – I did research on schizophrenia and stuff like that – so it’s fictional, but based on that factual information; the religious terms come into it to describe, to make things more vivid. When I was writing it, I wasn’t really writing it from a religious point of view; I was more writing it from a medical point of view, because I saw these terms and these medical things that were just brilliant. Like the guy felt like his skin was inside out – I read that and I was like “Oh my God! That’s unbelievable! I gotta write that!” [laughter] So, it’s more from medical terminology and stuff.

KP: Do you see ‘The Great Debate’ in that vein as well?

JP: Erm... ‘The Great Debate’ was probably more current events-based. It wasn’t something that I felt like as a Catholic I have to write about this; it was more like “that’s a really cool topic!”

KP: It’s funny to me, because until fairly recently I worked as a biologist and I felt that a lot of that song was sometimes the kind of thing that I’d go to work every day having those kind of conversations in my head.

JP: Yeah!

KP: I’ve felt that kind of conflict...

JP: Well I’ve seen that kind of stuff on the news a LOT and you’d have interviews with a priest, next to a scientist and I just thought that was unbelievable...

RP: Which is how it plays out in the song...

JP: And once again, the things that come out of peoples’ mouths and you’re like “Oh my God! That’s a song – right there! That’s 10 songs! That’s a concept album!” And then you start writing about it and the way the religious background comes in, it kinda feeds into it, not in a preachy way, it’s just more of your experience and some of the terms and things.

KP: The other thing that struck me was on the new album on ‘In the Presence of Enemies’, you know all the definitions, death, fear, sin...

JP: Oh yeah!

KP: “Sin – caught in a moment of weakness.” It’s very vivid to me, that description of what sin would be...

JP: Yeah. Right. Well, that whole section is like the reading of the Last Rites, “in my darkest hour; Lord have mercy on my Soul,” all that stuff, once again, it’s powerful imagery. For me, and I have to be honest with you, maybe most writers are like this, maybe they’re not, with the exception of the real personal lyrics, a lot of the stuff that I write is not as deep as one might think, it’s kinda like I’m a creative person and I just go with it. Like “woah, that’s cool, I can’t believe that guy said that!” And then you just start, I really like the sounds of words, the poetry part, and how things sound when they’re sung and then you put that to a song, the impact that it makes and maybe part of the beauty of it is people will read into that and come up with their own ideas and I think that’s great, that’s awesome.

RP: I get the impression it’s something you get a lot of satisfaction out of. Is that something you’ve developed in parallel with the whole accomplished guitar playing side of things? This comes into a much more overall, encompassing thing about music?

JP: I love it. Absolutely. I really enjoy the process. I think that also with the darker tone of the music, it’s easier to write – it’s hard to write happy songs!

RP: You can get more edgy topics...

JP: Yeah, edgy topics and especially on this new album, I just had a blast with vampires and monsters and things! You can just write about anything. Maybe it’s hard for people to hear; but it’s maybe not as deep as you might look into it. If you find something that’s poignant about it, then that’s great. But a lot of times, the seed is so simple. ‘Misunderstood’ is all based on a simple line that I heard somebody like Billy Joel say – how can he go from being in front of a million people to back in his hotel room by himself? I thought “that’s pretty interesting. I could write a whole song about that!”

KP: A lot of people have said that they never dared raise that song with you because they felt it was too personal a topic for you.

JP: And it’s not!

KP: That’s fascinating.

JP: That’s a perfect example then! That’s fine. Read into it. I think it’s cool to be abstract and music reaches us in all different levels. I mean people say they played ‘The Spirit Carries On’ at a funeral and everything. That’s completely a fictional story, based on a character in a murder scene, and nothing to do with real life. I’m not even Buddhist! I don’t believe in that! [laughter] But if somebody relates to it on that level then cool. You know a lot of the seeds are a lot simpler than people might think.

KP: The thing that we were wondering was how much of it was something that you are aware of and how much of it was because it’s part of you, that’s how it comes out?

JP: There’s a combination. There’s the inspiration and then there’s the craft. The inspiration is really, really small and the craft part’s really... big. It’s like “wow that’s a cool line!” and then the other 90% is *sigh* “what rhymes with erotomania?!” There’s that part But it’s all interesting to me. I like it!

KP: Thank you very much!

JP: You’re welcome!