John Petrucci, John Myung interview

John Raaness: So this is now one month into the 25 year anniversary tour for Images and Words. How’s the tour been so far?

John Petrucci: Really good. A lot of fun. When we first announced that we were going to be doing this, it was kinda like towards the end of “The Astonishing” tour and we knew that 2017 was the anniversary so “Oh, let’s do an anniversary tour”. We were just kinda gonna do a short run, and then we announced it – all the promoters all around the world were like, “You gotta come here!” “You gotta come here!” “You gotta come here!” Even when we were in the US, “Are you coming to the US with this?” and we were like “Uh... I guess so!” So now all this year is gonna be touring. We didn’t plan on it, we were gonna be done, but it’ll be a big year of touring for us.

JR: How do you approach rehearsing for a tour like this when you go back to do a whole album that you did 25 years ago? Do you approach like you would any other tour? How do you approach the rehearsals?

John Myung: Yeah, it’s the same mindset. We have to play this amount of music, and this is what we’re playing. Case being with this, a lot of it is already in our programming, in our hands and stuff, so the review process was easy.

JP: I was kinda surprised when I listened back, like “What did I play?” as I started to rehearse the songs it just kinda all came back. We must’ve played the Images songs like a billion times; probably why.

JR: When you choose the songs that kind of wrap the whole package around Images and Words, how do you select the other songs on the setlist?

JP: Well, ‘A Change Of Seasons’, which is the encore, was easy, because that song was supposed to be on Images and Words. Not everybody knows that, but when we went into the studio to record, it was supposed to be a double album and at some point during the session, the label came in and was like, “No, we’re not gonna put that song on the album!” It was really supposed to be a part of Images so it made sense to put that as the encore. And in the first part, we wanted to give a little tip of the hat to The Astonishing because that’s our latest album, and originally we had four songs from the album, like a little suite, but our time went way over, [laughs] so we had to shorten it. And we tried to put in a couple of songs that we hadn’t played in a while, and a song that we’d never played – keep it exciting. We also didn’t have too much time to prepare for this, because we were doing The Astonishing, and then the holidays came, so as much as it would’ve been great to do this song or that song, it’s like, “Well, what songs do we know already?” [laughs] Even ‘The Dark Eternal Night’ was a challenge getting that one back up, but things like ‘As I Am’ and stuff – they’re kind of in our blood, so we put those in. Songs like that.

JR: [directed to John Myung] You’ve got a solo-intro to ‘As I Am’, where you’re paying tribute to one of your big bass heroes. What made you choose that particular song?

JM: John actually brought up doing an influential tip of the hat to Jaco, because the ‘As I Am’ intro is harmonics-based. So, I went back and listened, and it seemed to really connect really well. I don’t know, it was just something that John thought of that turned out to be a cool thing.

JP: I love that piece. I have to give John a lot of credit, because before we broke for the holidays, I kinda wrote an e-mail and it was like “Let’s try to add a whole bunch different things into the set to make it unique” and I made a list of, “We’ll do this, we’ll change ‘Metropolis’, we’ll put a drum solo.” And we all went away for vacation. [When] we got together to rehearse – we only rehearsed for two days – and John was like, “Hey, what about that intro thing? What about the Metallica?” and I was kinda like, “Oh crap! You remembered everything!” [lots of laughs] So, we’re like scrambling to make all these changes.

JM: The e-mail that was actually intercepted, and not lost!

JP: Right, exactly. But John had learned all the things, and all the changes. Even in ‘Metropolis’ there’s a section where normally it’s a guitar and keyboard unison, and we decided to make it a band unison. And that must be hard on bass, cause it’s pretty wailing. I mean, not for you. [pointing towards JM]

JM: It’s actually not too hard.

JP: Yeah, but he learned it, and I was like, “You learned that?? Holy crap! I guess we’re doing it!” So that was cool.

JR: Looking back 25 years ago and now, what’s the biggest difference for you guys as a band, as a full-time band?

JP: Jordan and Mike! [lots of laughs] It’s the biggest difference!

JM: The biggest difference, yeah...

JP: Two different band-members, than 25 years ago.

JR: I mean, as far as the way that the band is run, everything from how you guys work within the band, the management...

JP: Oh, it’s way more professional. I mean, when we started, we literally had never toured before Images, and we were like driving ourselves in a van, and we had really no experience. So, we’re way more professional now, I’d like to think in all our experience, how to put on a show, how to tour, how to travel, all our gear, and our production and our lights...

JM: For me experience is the biggest difference. It’s awesome going back though, revisiting that period of time, because it was so powerful, so much was happening. And the music has a timeless quality where we all still enjoy playing it. I think that it’s cool when you can achieve that. When you can be part of something that you don’t get tired of. It’s nice when that happens.

JR: When you write songs now, you create the albums, do you feel that you can predict which songs are gonna be the ones that really catch on? Like ‘Pull Me Under’ was kinda bit of a surprise...

JP: It was, yeah...

JR: That wasn’t the one you thought would really hit it off, but it became a huge success overnight. Do you feel you can kinda more predict that sort of success now? Or is it still the same like it was 25 years ago?

JP: It’s kinda the same, to be honest with you. Sometimes, we’ll all be psyched about it: “Oh man, that song is gonna be huge!” and then nothing happens. [laughs] So I think it’s a dangerous thing to kinda chase after. Because with Images and Words, we weren’t writing to write singles, and we didn’t have that kind of success, and the music has a really pure outcome because of that. So you can’t get caught up in a “We’re gonna write this, hopefully make it be something that is played on the radio” – that’s a bad place to be in. We just have to write what comes naturally, what feels good, and sounds good to us, and hope for the best.

JR: How do you approach that, when you create a new album? Is there a certain framework that you kinda wanna work within, in terms of style or direction, or like with an album Octavarium that has a huge concept to it, or Scenes From a Memory and obviously The Astonishing? Do you kinda sit down and talk these things through before you start jamming along or...?

JP: Yeah, we do. I can take you through every album almost, but they all have pretty much a preset direction. If not very specific, at least generally. Like Train of Thought, we wanted to make really heavy, we wanted to make every song be a song that the crowd would be excited when we started the song. Remember that mentality, and we wrote it in a rehearsal place. Scenes was a concept album, so we had to follow a story and have themes. So it really depends on the album.

JR: What’s the biggest challenge of being on tour? For you guys, as individuals?

JM: Just staying healthy. Not getting ill is the biggest challenge, because it’s so easy to catch a bug, and that just ruins the tour, the whole part of the experience. For me, that’s the biggest challenge, as well as just getting enough rest. Just all of the kinda basic things.

JP: Definitively being away from home. That’s always been the biggest challenge – all of us have been married for many, many years, and raising kids. The kids are getting a lot older now, full-grown adults. That’s always the biggest challenge is being a husband and a father away from your family for extended periods of time – four weeks, five weeks, whatever...

JR: Do you make the schedule so that it’ll work better with also being a family, father?

JP: We try. It doesn’t always work out, but we do try. We try to be home for holidays, and people have certain requests and special occasions and things happening – big landmark events and stuff with their families – we do try to work around that for sure.

JR: Is that part different now, in 2017, than 25 years ago?

JP: Yeah. I remember we just toured whenever, right? We were just...

JM: Well, the Images and Words tour was an exception. I remember celebrating holidays in various locations.

JP: Yeah, exactly. [laughs] I don’t know if you remember this, like, Thanksgiving in the back of a semi – things like that. But we don’t do that anymore. [laughs]

JM: I think since then we’ve always made a point of being back during the holidays and big family type of events.

JP: Yeah, we try to give ourselves time in-between the tour legs, so it’s not consecutive months of touring.

JR: In the position that Dream Theater is now in 2017 where you obviously have a huge catalogue of hits and songs, and with doing Images and Words back to back as well, I can see the future of Dream Theater doing like two different roads: one would be continuing to do “major hits” and the other would be to continue the road that you’ve been on, the “write, record, tour, write, record, tour” kind of schedule. What sort of future do you see for Dream Theater? The coming years?

JM: Just to continue being part of music. Music evolves. I see being able to write and do what we do, being able to be part of something that is bigger than oneself. That’s the gift of being in this band and being able to do what we love to do, but continue with experience. I think being able to have the experience now... it’s nice to have, and it’s almost like a fuel. It sort of reaffirms what we’ve done, what we’re capable of, and where the challenges are going forward.

JR: It seems to me that the driving force behind Dream Theater – having followed the band for many, many years – is the being able to create new things, moving forward, create new music, but with experience. Is it difficult not to get into a track that you’ve already visited before? Is it difficult to find new elements? Is that something that comes naturally, or is it something you have to say, “Wait a minute, we did that”?

JP: Yeah, sometimes that happens, but I think generally everybody in this band loves playing music, everybody very sincerely loves playing their instruments and getting together and being creative people. I don’t think we’ll ever lose that. So because of that, when we’re together and we write, just things happen and we have ideas for days and days and days. Yeah, every once in a while it’ll be like, “Oh, we did that before,” so you have to watch that. And the other side of it is that we all love to perform. We’re musicians who enjoy the challenge of trying to recreate what we did live in front of people; we understand the power of live music and how that is a great experience for people to come and watch people play. We like watching that ourselves. So there’s those two parts and I think that it sounds really simple, but what drives us is that we love doing what we do. And we enjoy each other’s company, and it’s a lot of fun.

JR: When you write your music and you record, do you think “how will we do this live?” or do you ever think “We’re never gonna be able to pull this one off”?

JP: Yes! Many times! [lots of laughs] And I’ve heard other musicians talk about this – that’s how you get better. You come up with some crazy thing, you say to yourself, “How the hell am I going to do this?” and then you do it! You figure out a way to do, and that’s how you get better.

JM: Yeah, between me, John, Jordan, James and Mike, there’s a lot we can accomplish with technology and all that.

JR: Is it easy to be tempted to let technology do the job for you?

[JP laughs]

JM: Well... [smirking]

JP: No, because we love to play. We can either hire extra musicians... [laughs] It’s something that we try to use appropriately where it makes sense. For example with The Astonishing, the whole album was orchestrated – full orchestra, full choir. “How are we gonna recreate that really live, without travelling with a 80-piece orchestra, breaking the bank and losing our houses?” [laughs] It would never happen! So, having that recorded music on playback, playing to that movie, to us was a good example of using technology in a way where the music is still live, is still the band, but you’re having an enhanced experience because of the tracks and the technology bringing that forward, so that’s the way we try to use it.

Kim Arthur Sakariassen: Do you guys pay attention to the fans on the internet, the memes and all that stuff?

JP: Sometimes. Not always. It’s kind of a weird thing, because as any public artist, you have to be careful with that, because if you read into stuff too much, or if you’re too regularly reading comments and it can really mess with your head.

KS: Absolutely.

JP: So personally, I try to stay away from it, but things pop through, of course, and there’s a lot of funny things and cool things. It’s amazing how much time and effort they put into certain things they do and sometimes those things come through and you’re like, “Ah! That’s really cool!”

JM: Yeah, certain things are really good when it filters through. But with me, I don’t need it – I don’t find it useful. If I did I would spend time addressing that, but our schedule is being healthy, keeping music right under my fingertips, being prepared, warmed up. All of these things are really important to me. To kind of delve into all these opinions and things like that, it’s almost like... If I did find it useful, I’d probably be more open to it...

KS: Dream Theater fans can really be some of the most mouthy people. [laughs]

JP: Oh sure. But I’ve said this before: it means that people are listening very closely and carefully. And we put so much work and detail into what we do, that it’s kinda cool that people are picking up on that stuff. It’s funny, we played a show a couple of weeks ago, and something happened with my guitar and it didn’t play a part, and it went back through, and it was this little kind of clean guitar line, and this guy was like, “Hey, you didn’t play that part” – and I was like, “I didn’t think anybody would notice that.” [lots of laughs] So that’s cool. But for me, the forums, the social media, that – as a guitar player, career minded person – the cool thing about it is that you’re able to reach people very quickly. And you’re able to spread news and information. For me, I have other things going on – there’s guitar camps and meet and greets and clinics and new instruments that come out – new signature instruments, things like that. And it’s a great way to tell everybody what I’m doing. Reach hundreds of thousands and millions of people really, really quickly that are in the same community. And for that, it’s absolutely amazing – it’s an unbelievable tool. But if you’re a thin-skinned kind of person who can’t take criticism, reading a lot of comments and things is probably not a good idea. [laughs]

JR: Do you often think about the fact that you are huge role models to thousands of musicians all over the world? And really think about the things that you do and say?

JP: Yeah, sure.

JM: I think it’s just something that naturally happens when you have a career and things evolve, and that’s a part of what happens. People find out about things by listening. So it’s more or less how we grew up. We grew up listening to music and being drawn to certain bands and it’s just a natural thing to let those influence become a part of your life. So, it’s sort of just this natural progression.

JP: Yeah, we understand when you look up to certain people [they] can have an influence on you, sure. I mean, us growing up, there were certain musicians who we followed and there’s some that you really respect because of how they live their lives, or their practice ethic or whatever it is. So we realize we can have that same influence, for good or for bad, so I think everybody is really conscious of that. We don’t wanna get out there and just be bad, negative influences on people. [laughs] Plus, that’s not who we are anyway. The thing with this band is, if you’ve ever talked with us – and you guys have known us for a long time – this is how we are.

KS: Absolutely.

JP: Yeah, it’s not any different. At home, here...

KS: So you’re now going to have the camp, as you mentioned – that’s something you’ve been thinking about, teaching people?

JP: Yeah. John and I went to Berklee, we come from a background of learning about music, being musicians who are students of music and still loving that learning. I’ve done master classes, guitar clinics, whatever – I’ve never done a guitar camp. So this is the first one I’m going to be doing in August. And I’m looking forward to it, because – it’s not only that for four days these guys come in, guys, girls, play guitar and we have a great time – but the instructors that are coming, who are guests are of the most amazing guitar players on the planet. You got Tony MacAlpine, Andy McKee, Andy James, Tosin Abasi, Jason Richardson, Devin Townsend... Every name I mention is like, “All these guys are gonna be in the same place, teaching, jamming?” It’s gonna be really cool.

KS: And you’ll have concerts in the evening?

JP: Yeah, we’re gonna have concerts in the evening, we’re gonna have a barbecue, we’re gonna hang out. It’s on Long Island, actually, in the town where we record a lot in Glen Cove, so it’s an area of Long Island we’re very familiar with, it’s beautiful in the summertime, it should be fun.

KS: [to JM] And you did an instructional video a very long time ago – have you thought about doing another one?

JM: No, I haven’t really thought about it, actually. I think, for me, it’s more about just staying creative and learning more about what I do, because there’s always things... Like software has become the new instrument, and recording, and there’s so many things that you try to do, so I try to get more of that kind of stuff in when possible. But being in the band and doing what we do is a full time job, so it’s hard to take on much more than what we have – it pretty much consumes every free minute.

JR: What sort of music would you listen to that would kind of trigger the creative part of you?

JM: Anything that moves me. I try to listen to things outside of what I normally listen to and discover new things, and I try to let those things become ingredients of what is going to happen in the future. Start internalizing things that really move me, and things that I find powerful. And then find a home for those kind of things with the band. That’s what makes us unique, that’s what makes the band the band. That’s what I love about bands when people can achieve that, you find common ground and you build upon that.

JR: What in new music that you listen to would impress you, or make you go, “Oh wow, this is really cool”? Is there anything in particular – technique, skill, songwriting?

JP: It’s all of those things, it depends. There’s still a big part of us that’s floored by some crazy technique by a musician. Like, “Holy crap! What the hell is that guy doing?!” Sure, and if in the context of what they’re doing musically – it has some substance, then that’s even better and that’s the thing that catches your attention. But sometimes, like John said, it could be anything. Any style of music just hits you. You don’t know where you are, where you’re gonna hear, and if it moves you and makes you feel something, then there you go. That’s what it is. So yeah, it could be songwriting, could be the production, the sound of it. Sometimes you hear something – “That sounds unbelievable! I wonder who produced that? I wonder who mixed that?” And like I said, yeah, technical stuff, still, of course. We’re all students of the instrument – you hear some crazy player that’s out of their mind, it still kinda gets you going.

JR: Is that something you try to tap into for each album: the craziness, the really fast unisons and all that. Is that something that you feel like you gonna have to have on a Dream Theater album?

JP: I think it’s natural. It’s part of what we do. It’s part of wanting to do that, and I don’t see that ever going away because every time we get together, somehow it will come out in some form. It’s just a part of what we do.

JR: Well, that’s good to hear.

JP: Yeah, it’s fun. It’s fun.

JR: Well, I mean, that’s part of what makes Dream Theater really unique as well. For me it’s like when you see you guys like, one minute you’re playing something that makes your jaw drop, and the next minute you just close your eyes and you drift away with the music. Which is really, really unique for Dream Theater.

JP: Thank you. I appreciate it. I mean, that’s something... those two elements, there’s kinda like that really exciting shock/hyper musicianship thing, that’s always fun to be a part of, and fun to listen to – I love listening to stuff like that – but there’s also the bigger thing, which is the landscape, the songwriting and the melodic part, which is such a big part. When we listen to music, we get the chills when we’re listening to it. It doesn’t matter if it’s simple or complicated, those moments are special. So we try to capture all that stuff. I think it makes for more interesting songwriting, more interesting albums, more interesting concert experiences. It’s not just one thing. If you were being bludgeon over the head with just constant notes, it’d probably get boring. And maybe the other way, if it was just all atmospheric, getting lost, you might fall asleep. So we like the combination.

JR: Have you guys noticed a change in the demographics of the fans lately? Or is it kinda still the same, like a huge range from young to older? Or has there been any noticeable change in that over the last few years?

JP: More Norwegian fans [lots of laughs] than ever before, it’s pretty amazing!

JM: Well, the people that grew up with us, as a result their children have grown up with us. So a whole younger generation of fans have been created as a result, and they’re coming to shows. So we’ll see people from elementary school to adults.

JP: It’s pretty wild. And it’s more of a mix between men and women, whereas when we started it was mostly guys. I think now, it’s more of a balance between men and women, like John said, younger kids or people that are older that enjoy music. You never know what a Dream Theater fan is going to look like, you can’t judge somebody by what they look like.

JR: Must be amazing as an artist to have that sort of reach, because [for] a lot of the really popular artists these days, it’s very narrow (their audience) – 19 to 23 – for certain types. But for Dream Theater, you have a huge reach from young to old, from guys to girls, to everything. Is there a huge difference in the crowd interaction from country to country? Or continent to continent?

JP: Yeah, it depends,

JM: Yeah. Italy [has] tons of energy and emotion, singing and things like that. In certain places, they’ll be a little bit more conservative and observant. So, the energy dynamic is probably the biggest noticeable difference, as to whether they’re just sitting and observing, or if they’re celebrating with singing and really putting out a lot of energy. Those are the noticeable differences.

KS: How do you deal with that then? The difference in dynamic?

JM: Just try to stay focused, and to not let it distract you.

KS: I can imagine that it’s quite hard to one night play for a very energetic crowd, and the next it’s just blank stares.

JP: Right.. You just take it as it comes. Like John said, we’re playing and we enjoy what we’re doing, and we’re trying to put forth the best music that we can, regardless of the audience. Having said that, if you’re getting more energy back from the audience, you can feel it for sure – it kinda amps you up. But we realize that even if people are more observant, they bought a ticket because they want to see us play. So we know they’re there because they want to be there. So we don’t have to worry about it too much.

JM: Yeah, everyone has different expressions, right. It doesn’t mean less or more of anything. We get it, we don’t get offended. We know, in this particular type of area this is how they show respect. They’re not gonna try to interfere with what James is doing...

JP: If we’re getting tomatoes thrown at us, it’d be another story! [lots of laughs] But people are pretty happy to be there.

JR: You mentioned James, and James is doing a little bit more talking this time between songs, which I’ve missed over the years, and I think it’s great. Was that something you consciously talked about?

JP: Yeah. I had a conversation with James, because there’s a nostalgia to doing a tour like this. With Images and Words, even though it was our second album, for a lot of people it was the first album they got into, it was their introduction to Dream Theater. So there’s fans who’ve been with us for as long as the album came out. And I think that there’s a little bit of a Storytellers vibe that’s very cool, and I love what James is doing. Every night I tell him, “I love what you’re doing”, because it’s a very personalized moment during the show where he’s sharing stories that a lot of people don’t know, only we know, and it kinda marks the importance of the album and that period of our lives. So I absolutely love that he’s doing that. I find it very entertaining myself.

JR: Yeah, and it brings you guys a little bit closer to the audience as well.

JP: Sure, it’s way more personal.

JR: I remember the Storyteller series that they used to do on MTV, I found that really interesting, because as you say you get the stories that you never heard, these funny things that happened during recording or on tour.

JP: ...a little insight. In the same way that you might, in a private dinner party or something, tell a story about, “Oh man, when we did this...” he’s doing that in front of a lot of people. It definitively makes it more intimate, and brings closer to the band, I think.

KS: And he’s quite a funny guy too...

JP: Yeah, he’s very funny, he’s hysterical. Yeah, James is really funny.

JR: What’s the plan for the rest of the year for Dream Theater?

JM: Keep going!

JR: Keep touring?

JP: Yeah, it’s a big touring year.

JM: Keep touring, and enjoy it.

JP: We thought we were gonna be done, like I said before. We have a second European leg in April and May. We’re gonna take summer off, and I have my camp in August, we’ll reconvene in September, we’re gonna be playing in Asia, and we’re gonna bring the same tour to North America where, like I said, as soon as I announced it all of our US fans were like, “You gotta come here!” So we will do that in the fall, and that will bring us just before the holidays. Probably in the following year we’ll get in and we’ll start working on the new album, but not before that.

KS: I think we’re done.

JP: Awesome guys, good job! Thank you guys for everything that you’re doing. It’s a long history, you guys, you were telling me, started here, so it’s really special that we’re here.

JR: It really is. We would never have imagined that you guys would come to this town. It’s always Oslo, the bigger town. They get the big crowds and all of that. But as soon as it was announced and the tickets went on sale, it was sold [out] in a blink of an eye.

JP: That’s great. And we really appreciate it, we really do – especially what you’re doing Kim. Because you’re not a hired guy by us. You’re doing this because it’s something you enjoy doing, and that is such a huge service to us, it really us, because you’re bringing the whole international fan community together. So bravo on doing that.

KS: Thank you.

JP: We really, really appreciate it. It’s really nice, because we don’t really have anyone that does that for us. So I want you to know how much we appreciate it.

KS: Thank you.

JR: And it seems like the format Kim is doing is really working, cause you see how many Dream Theater fan communities that are there, that raise their hands and say, “We’re here, we’ve been here for a while!”

JP: It’s amazing! It’s very, very cool. So, it probably doesn’t get expressed enough, but we really do appreciate it. Because we don’t personally do that. We’re focused on writing and playing and everything else, and there’s really nobody in our organization that necessarily does that, so you’re an extension of that, it’s really, really cool.

JM: And very invaluable. I think thatt’s something that experience has kinda taught me: it’s great when your organization grows, and there’s a bigger team or a bigger group, I think it’s one of the things that helps us.

JP: It definitively does!

JM: It’s almost like the saying, many minds are better than one. The more thought, the more ideas, the more energy that we have... I think it’s great to be able to have that sort of room or place to kinda reflect into, to understand what’s happening – a sounding board.

JP: And it’s still really important and valuable for us, because we’re still grass roots in a lot of ways. We’re not all over the radio, we’re not a pop band, we’re not mainstream in any way, so the community that is out there is very powerful and very big, but bringing them together and communicating in that way, it’s amazing.

JR: I always find it so cool to see when you guys put out a new album, how long it takes before you have the first cover version.

JP: I know, right? It’s unbelievable.

JR: And the last time it didn’t take even 24 hours!

JP: It’s unbelievable, yeah, I know.

JR: And it’s great!

JP: And it’s great too! There’s a lot of talent out there!