John Myung interview

Roie Avin: We're here with John Myung talking about his bass playing for the upcoming Dream Theater album. Talk about your approach to this record and how maybe it's different than previous albums.

John Myung: My mindset going into the record in terms of just what kind of a sound I wanted, I kind of left it open to Jimmy T, who's engineered prior Dream Theater records, but this time he was the main one pulling the cart, making sure everything was to his spec in terms of the gear we used recording. I was interested in seeing what he would come up with as a bass sound, because I know what I love to use. But I was more interested in seeing what his perspective would be. And I think a lot of what he came up with in terms of sound, created a sound that was easier to hear on like an iPhone. And then I realized, “Well, the way we listen to music is different now”, so I really appreciate the fact that the tone that he was getting was something that I actually could hear on a smaller device, smaller driver, smaller speaker. Whereas the gear that I was using is more for a bigger system, which you don't necessarily hear on an iPhone. So we went with that. It was really, really apparent how it was sitting in the necks because it was very, very alive. And I can tell when the batteries were starting to fade – that's how noticeable it was, where you could actually kind of hear. So actually when we recorded the last song on the record, I actually had to do a portion of the beginning because at the end of the song I did a battery check and I noticed that there was a definite voltage drop and big tone variance. So, I'm really happy with going with that approach. It's a way of adding a new dimension to the album that prior would not have happened.

RA: Did trying different bass guitars and different bass strings also come into play for that?

JM: To a certain point, I've determined that the best version of the Bongo Six that I have right now is utilizing two humbuckers. The two humbucker option gives me the most tonal varieties; just by clicking the switch it gives me tonal varieties where I can determine which setting is good for which song. So I think it's just the experience of having played many different versions of bass through the years where I've determined that that's the best working bass for recording.

RA: The band, musically, has always had a lot of dynamics. – there's the big, heavy, chunky guitar parts, and then there's the more atmospheric things, keyboard-based stuff. So does your playing change dramatically based on those different styles?

JM: Yeah, absolutely. The bass is really responsive to attack. You'll get different levels of flavors of attack just by raising or lowering the action, whether or not you play down by the nut or around the middle of the neck. There's a lot of different ways to push the EQ, depending on how your hands are positioned on the instrument. So the sound really is just in your hands. You just have to know how to direct it on the instrument.