John Petrucci interview

Did you try out anything new on this record as far as techniques or gear? You had been talking about incorporating 8 strings into the mix, did that come to fruition on this record?

It didn’t, no. This album is all six-string, except for ‘Temple of Circadia’ which is a seven-string. So there is no eight-string on this record. The eight-string project with Ernie Ball Music Man is something we are working on and hoping to have developed as this year goes on. I’m hoping that on the next Dream Theater record I’ll be able to explore that, but no, not on this one. This record was my Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty, mostly the 2020 models that just came out, and then my signature Mesa Boogie JP-2C head through a Boogie Recto 4x12. It’s a very simple setup but it’s just so pure and I love the tone on it. I was very happy with the tone of it. The gypsy-jazz solo in there was something new for me. There are some faster passages where I was experimenting with a hyper-speed picking technique that you can really only do in short bursts, but there are a few moments on the record where you’ll hear it and it jumps out – it gets into that 20-notes-per-second thing. So I was experimenting with where to put that to make it effective. I think I did a lot more arpeggio based playing. There are a lot of passages that involve arpeggio sequences – more than I’ve used in the past. So that was really interesting. It’s just a trio – there are no keyboards, no vocals – so I think it helps to define some of the chord movement by playing in that way, weaving through arpeggios and trying to keep it more interesting. Otherwise, it sounds like an exercise, so I was trying to make it more of a musical statement. I think there is a bunch more of that on this record for sure.

You mentioned your Ernie Ball signature guitars – you’ve been very loyal to the gear that you like to use. Why did you initially decide to go with Ernie Ball for your signature? Were there other offers on the table? What made you stick with EBMM for so long?

You know, it’s been 20 years, so it’s crazy. We actually celebrated our 20th anniversary. At the time, when I was playing Ibanez, which I played for about 10 years. As you know me now, I’m really into the gear development side, the R&D. I have signature products that are the result of working with companies that I really love and very talented engineers and artists and trying to get my thoughts, as a creative person, across as far as how I think an amp could be better or perform better. So I started to get into that headspace several years into the Ibanez deal. I really just couldn’t make those ideas happen in that respect. At the time, my favorite guitar player in the world was Steve Morse and he was playing Ernie Ball Music Man and I had a relationship with them from using their volume pedals. I was just ready for a change. I always really admired their guitars. Whenever I would pick one up in a store, they just played great and they were pieces of art – just incredibly beautiful guitars. My tech and a good friend at the time, Mark Snyder, told me I should check out this company. So I made that connection and had a conversation with Sterling Ball and I made the change and never looked back. It was over 20 years ago. I wasn’t in a position where I was looking to shop through guitar companies and compare offers, I just went straight in with the Ball family and I’ve stuck with them because they are an incredible, amazing family. They’re the real deal in every way. They’re passionate about what they do – the innovation, the guitar building, and together we’ve been able to create this unbelievably fulfilling and successful line of signature instruments with my name on it. I couldn’t see doing things any other way. It’s been incredible. It’s one of those moves in my professional career where I’m just really very thankful that it happened. It was a big turning point in my professional career. I talk with those guys on a weekly basis, so it’s a very close relationship. Even as we speak, we’re working on what’s coming next – you brought up the eight-string, and that is one of the projects. So it’s just a continuing creative relationship that is unbelievable.

It’s hard to even imagine you strapping on a Strat or a Les Paul and going out on stage.

It’s funny, I don’t even own those guitars. I never was a collector kind of guy. Once I had the ability to design an instrument that works perfectly for me, I had no reason to go outside that. As a result, I don’t own any other kinds of guitars. Some guys are so into it and so knowledgeable and I have a ton of respect for that but I’m not well versed in all the guitars out there and vintage instruments and things like that.

Some people get pretty deep into the weeds with stuff like that.

Oh yeah, I can totally see why. I never really had the desire to do that, or the need to do that. Ernie Ball and I came up with what, to me, are the perfect musical instruments. It’s like if you had the ability to design the perfect pair of shoes that fit you and were more comfortable than anything else out there and they looked exactly the way you wanted, why would you go shoe shopping?

I wanted to get into some of the more technical stuff. You’re a very learned musician – you went to school for it. So I’d like to get your input on the debate of ‘Can music theory kill creativity’ and what are your thoughts on players who might be deemed ‘less refined’ like Kurt Cobain or Billie Joe Armstrong?

Well, I think that’s one of these debates that has come up. There’s an idea that learning too much about music might change the way you create in a negative way where maybe you overthink things. I think it really depends on the person. I do believe that some people have the gift of music and raw talent and I think that some people find that path without any schooling – it’s like they’re born with it. It doesn’t mean they don’t have to work hard at their craft but they just have that innate gift. So I have a lot of respect for and I don’t take anything away from the players you mentioned at all. In fact, they are people who write great music and are great at what they do, or were, in the case of Kurt Cobain. But I’ve also seen where people who take the path where maybe they have that gift like I was describing and then they go to school and it changes a bit. It could change for the positive or the negative. I think it’s a difficult question to answer because I think it depends on the person. If I take my own experience, going to Berklee [College of Music], learning more about music and music theory, it helped open my mind and it helped to give me more options as a player to grab from. But when I create music, what I try to do is still approach it from that raw, primal, beginning. When you get into the weeds, as you said, and you’re trying to figure stuff out and you’re trying to craft your songs, which is a big part of it, then all that music training comes into play, you might have more options than you would if you hadn’t had that training. It’s like any other art form. You have people who are amazing dancers and artists, but as they train and get into different disciplines, their options grow, and it helps them become better. The only time it might hinder it is when you lose sight of that original spark – that gut feeling you originally had for your art form. So there’s a balance. That’s a deep question you asked and there are a lot of debates about it and I don’t think there’s a clear answer to it. I think it really depends on the person and their life experience.

When you talk about that raw attachment to your instrument, what was that first thing for you that instilled that raw desire to play guitar and how have you held onto it for so long? It’s definitely still there – I can hear it in your solo record.

Thank you, I appreciate that. I try to stay connected to that because I think it’s really important. It’s important in any style of music, but especially with playing a rock style, it’s really super important, because it needs to be genuine – that rock sensibility. For me, it was when I was a teenager growing up on Long Island in New York and I would jam with my friends. I think that’s what sort of instilled it and helped me to connect to it. I’d just go to my friends’ house, we’d go in the basement and we’d just have these crazy jam sessions. There were different pockets and groups of friends who would play different styles, some would play more metal, some blues, some jam band, some jazz. I think just getting that experience of just being a teenager and exploring improvisation and jamming, and what you can do and what you can’t do, what gear does, that helped to solidify that connection. So I always try to make sure I’m connected with it. I’m glad to hear that you picked up on that because – especially with instrumental guitar music, I want you to listen to it and I want it to sound like I’m still the same person who just loves playing guitar. I want that to come out. I don’t want you to listen to it and feel like you’ve heard it before, it’s boring, and I’m over it. I want you to listen to it and you feel the excitement, you feel the joy, and you think, ‘This guy really loves playing guitar,’ and that’s what’s coming across. That’s the connection I made when I was 16 years old.

I feel like you have to love hearing the guitar before you love picking up a guitar and playing it. When you listen to Metallica today, does it still hit you the same as the first time you heard it?

I would say, in general, yes. I still get that impact if I hear a song by Rush, or Metallica, or Yes, or whatever bands I was listening to when I was a teenager. I still get that feeling of the way the music impacts me. The difference is that back then, when I was learning guitar, I had no idea how they were doing what they were doing, on every aspect, even the fact that the amplifier they used on ‘Master of Puppets,’ I now have a signature version of that old Boogie – that is just mind-blowing to me. Back then I had no idea what they were using. Technically, trying to learn that stuff, I didn’t know how to play it, I didn’t know what they were doing. It wasn’t the same as it is now for players where you can just go on YouTube and see exactly what they were doing. So there was a huge learning curve. That part – the mystery of how they were doing it isn’t there anymore because now I’m experienced, I’m a professional, so I know how to play guitar now, hopefully, and I can play those songs and know what they were doing, musically. But the impact of those songs is 100% still there. It doesn’t get old.

It was cool getting to hear you play with Mike again – what did you miss most about playing with Mike?

You know, what was really cool about playing with him – and when I say playing ‘with him,’ it’s a bit of a stretch because I had written and recorded all the music and did drum programming. Mike learned the album and played it to my tracks, so we didn’t really play it ‘together,’ but what I like is that he made it sound like we played together. His playing is very lively and energetic and off the cuff and spirited. So even though he had to learn preexisting songs and listen to the drum programming that me and my producer, Jimmy T. [Meslin] had done, he was still able to interpret it in his own way and I think it brought the songs to life. When I listen to it now, I know how we did it – Dave recorded the bass at his studio in Florida, but it sounds like a trio playing together. Songs that have a lot of positive energy like ‘Happy Song’ or ‘Terminal Velocity,’ it sounds like we’re kind of all jamming together and I like that. Mike brings that to the table. I think there are parts on the album where I add those twists – the Latin or blues or swing or metal – he can bring all of that to the table and do all that stuff. So that was really great. It was really fun having him on the album – I’m really happy that he did it.

Was it a reconnection for you two or had you stayed in contact with him for all these years? And do you plan to do anything else with him in the near future?

Actually, we had been in contact – our families are very close. So even after he left the band, we had been in contact. It definitely increased in frequency as it went on to where we would spend the holidays together and stuff like that. But this was the first time we actually hung out for a significant amount of time together, and definitely the first time doing something musically together in over ten years from when he left [Dream Theater]. The drum tracks took about six days, so we spent a good week together hanging out and tracking drums, eating together, whatever, just enjoying time together, which we haven’t done for a long time.

I know we’re running low on time but I’ve heard reports that Dream Theater was planning to start work on a new record in 2021. Has COVID pushed that timetable up a bit?

Yeah, it’s definitely been bumped up. Every band is in the same position. We had planned to tour through this year in Asia and Australia and a summer tour – that all got postponed or moved or canceled. So with the touring future being so uncertain, we’re not certain when the next Dream Theater is going to happen. I know every band and crew are in the same situation, and I feel for them. With that in mind, we will move our schedule ahead as far as getting into the studio to be creative because that’s what we do. If we aren’t touring again until this time or later next year, I mean who knows, the last thing we want to do as musicians, and as creative people, is to sit around. So we’d rather get together and work on the new recording. So we’ll be doing that this fall and it’ll be slated for release sometime next year.

The solo album is incredible. I’m excited for people to hear it. Anyone who loves the guitar is going to be blown away.

Thank you! This has been fun for me, just like ‘Suspended Animation’ I’m releasing this on my own label, but this time I’ll be doing distribution worldwide with The Orchard on vinyl, CD, streaming. So it’s fun for me to wear that record company guy hat.

Is it hard to put that hat on sometimes?

Yeah, a little bit. I’m at my computer many hours of the day and then it’s time to write music. But it’s fun, it’s a challenge, it’s different learning that side of the business.

What made you decide that the time was right to do another album?

I guess the short answer is just being very busy with Dream Theater and everything involved with that in terms of creating new music and touring and producing music – there’s just not a lot of extra time. It sounds like an excuse, kind of. I guess if you go back to the first [solo record], the reason I did it was because I had created music in order to play on Joe Satriani’s G3 Tour back in 2001. So I turned that music into a solo album and that became ‘Suspended Animation.’ I guess along the way I wrote some more songs. I played a couple of the songs from ‘Terminal Velocity’ live on other G3 Tours as well but I don’t know, I just never had the right amount of time to get it done. I don’t like to piecemeal – I like to start a project, get really into it, and complete it. So I decided to do it now because, before the pandemic, it looked like there was going to be significant chunks of time off from the Dream Theater tour cycle [that was supposed to start in March 2020]. Then the pandemic hit and all touring got canceled, so I had more time than anticipated, but I had planned on doing it this spring anyway. I also had a third Guitar Universe coming up, that was supposed to be in August – that has been postponed until next year, but I thought it would be nice to have it done before then. So there were a few reasons why now made sense. I would get asked about it constantly in interviews, so I knew there was an audience for it and that people liked the first one and wanted to hear another one. I wanted to eventually get to it. 15 years seems like enough time so I figured I had better do it now – before it turned into 20 years.

I was fortunate enough to get a chance to listen to the record. It is quite a piece of work. I had to listen to it about 10 times because I kept having to go back and go, ‘What the hell was that?!’ Is there a part on the record, a song or a solo, that you are most proud of, or most excited for fans to hear?

There are a few moments on it that I’m really excited about. I think that the moments on the record that are a little different than anything else, like on ‘Gemini’ where it goes into that gypsy jazz guitar solo, that is different than any other soloing you’ll hear on the album. On ‘Temple of Circadia’ when the middle section gets really moody and almost goes into that Ozzy, Metallica, thing and gets super melodic and builds really nicely – that’s the only moment on the record like that. So I like those parts that are unique and pop up. It creates some variety and makes the album interesting to listen to. With guitar instrumental music, you have to be careful because you can only listen to so much widdling. You have to make sure the songwriting is good and the structure keeps the listener’s interest. As a listener and a producer, I always try to take a step back and make sure that is happening. So keeping it melodic in between the shredding and adding in a moment like the two I mentioned help to keep the sonic landscape and listening experience more engaging, so you’re not gapping out while all these notes are going by.

I thought ‘Out of the Blue’ was a really moody bluesy kind of song. That one caught me off guard.

On the first album, I did a jazz-blues song – basically, I mean I do it my way and I changed up the bridge but ‘Lost Without You’ on ‘Suspended Animation’ was a jazz-blues song. I don’t know any guitar player who doesn’t like jamming over a blues tune. It’s just fun. That kind of ballad-y blues that is on ‘Out of the Blue’ mixed with a little bit of a Dregs-ish or Steve Morse-ish compositional changeup in the middle, I like that combination because you can go from a soulful expression in the character of the blues but also move into something that has a bit more movement, harmonically. I like that combination, instead of sticking to a strict blues form. To me, it’s one of those things that makes the album more interesting to listen to because you kind of don’t expect it and it keeps you on your toes. It might surprise you and grab your attention back instead of just having the listener say, ‘oh this is just a blues song. I’ve heard this before…’ – it goes somewhere else. That’s part of my writing style that I like to do.