John Petrucci comments (excerpt)

One artist who’s relatively new to the full-on social media world is Dream Theater’s John Petrucci. Since the departure of drummer Mike Portnoy, the rest of the band has stepped up to the plate in interacting with fans more – including a hilarious new promo video for the A Dramatic Turn Of Events box set.

“It’s something that we enjoy doing,” Petrucci says. “Everybody’s very eager to get involved. Mike Portnoy certainly did a lot for the band. He was out front and he was the communication between fans and the label. I really appreciate everything that he did. But you tend to get a little bit detached from what’s really going on. To give you an example, I didn’t even know there was a promo video for the Black Clouds & Silver Linings box set until they asked us to do this one. Now everybody is way more in the loop and involved, and we’re keeping things that way on purpose. It’s just having better communication.”

Petrucci says this has also helped communication within the band.

“Having Mike leave was a wake-up call. You really need to keep tight with everybody, know what everybody’s thinking, and if there are any weird feelings, get those out and talk about things. It’s a funny side-effect, but it’s been a positive one.”