John Petrucci interview

The last time we spoke, back in August, we talked about an 8-string that was being developed, which you said would probably make a debut on the new Dream Theater album. Do you have any updates on that?

I do. Dream Theater went back into the studio after Liquid Tension. We went back in the fall, and we’ve been working on an album that is going to come out later this year. It’s coming out awesome, and there is, indeed, an 8-string song on the record. So, we’ve been working on an 8-string. It’s an 8-string Majesty. We have two prototypes so far. I was able to use one to write with and record with. We’re still working some things out to get it perfect. But it will be on the record and it will be something that comes out at some point. I don’t have a release date on it yet, but it’s awesome. It’s totally inspiring and awesome and I can’t wait for people to hear it. I’m so glad it made it on the new record. In due time, you’ll be able to see it and hear it.

Playing that 8-string, did that open up some new doors for you, as a guitar player? How was that experience?

For me, it was kind of a similar experience to back in the day when I got my first seven-string [for 1994’s ‘Awake’], which is what I had anticipated. When I got my seven-string, I had never played one before and I didn’t know what to expect. The way I approached it was that it was just an extension of the range of the guitar. I know that sounds obvious. But instead of approaching it as a stylistic thing, like I’ve heard bands that play seven strings and they sound like this, so I have to play it to sound like them. I didn’t go into that mentality. I just picked it up and, because it’s a Majesty, it felt like my guitar already, so I was used to that and there was just one lower string, so I took some riffs that I normally wouldn’t be able to play in that key, and play it down there. That’s the way I approached it. I think that when you hear the first song that I wrote with it, that I recorded with the band, it sounds like Dream Theater, it sounds like me playing what you might expect. It doesn’t sound like I’m trying to mimic a style or a genre or anything like that. I’m just playing it in my own way, with my own approach. That’s the way I did it. It was so comfortable. It’s just one more string to get used to. The fun thing was that I can play certain riffs in lower keys because I have those lower notes now. It’s been really fun. I’m having a great time with it.

In a live setting, do you think you might explore that concept a bit – playing older songs in a lower key?

I don’t think so. I think I’ll keep those songs intact the way they were written on the instruments they were written. It might get a little weird to re-work them with lower strings. I suppose I could do that, but I don’t think so.

I was just listening to the new Liquid Tension Experiment album. It’s fantastic. It’s been over two decades since the last record. What made you guys decide that now was the time for a new album?

A couple of things. First of all, it was something that was on our minds, because constantly, for the past several years, people have been asking us if there will be another LTE album. The answer was always, ‘Maybe someday. But there are no plans.’ Everybody was busy and on tour and everything else. Doing my solo album [‘Terminal Velocity’] last year with Mike [Portnoy on drums], and having that connection, and just logistically, working it out. We did it at the Dream Theater studio, and having the drum kit miked up and ready, we were poised to leave it set up and we figured we’d just come back to it after my album was done and do a Liquid Tension Experiment album. That was the logistical part that worked out. Then because of this horrible pandemic, everybody was home, which is a very rare occasion, when there are no conflicts with touring schedules and everything. So the fact that everybody was home and available, and we all live not too far from each other, so there were no flights that had to be taken. Everybody got COVID tested and we came into the studio, and like I said, we were already set up and ready to go. Those different things combined, and it just made sense to do it now.

Even before the pandemic, it was so easy for bands to just send files back and forth and kind of piecemeal albums together, so I think it was cool that you were able to have everyone together in the studio and do it properly.

Yeah, it’s one thing to send a file to someone and get their opinion on it or kind of trade ideas back and forth that way, but it’s another thing to write together. I know of people who do that, but I’m not a fan of doing things that way. I like to be in the room with the person playing and be able to see what they’re doing right in front of you and being able to react to what they’re doing, especially with Liquid Tension Experiment because it comes from such an improvisational beginning. So it’s really important to have everybody there and collectively work off of each other. I don’t think it really would have worked, doing this album remotely, at all. It would have been really hard. It’s one thing to send files to other people and bounce ideas off them. But to write together and react to each other in real-time and communicate in a way where there’s a flow, and things happen quickly, which is what happens with Liquid Tension Experiment, you can’t do that virtually. It’s too weird – the lag time and video and sound quality, and all that stuff [make it very difficult].

Did you bring any ideas into the studio or did you go in with a blank canvass and jam it out?

I did have some ideas. Jordan [Rudess] came in with some ideas too. Those ideas were really just seeds that were there if we needed them. A lot of the songs really just evolved from jam sessions. The first thing we did is we made four really long improvisations where we just played for a half-hour or more and recorded them. Then we listened back and documented what we may have stumbled upon that might be a cool idea. Some of those ideas got used and got combined with some of the ideas and riffs that I came in with and some different progressions and themes that Jordan came in with. That, and just the nature of writing together on the spot, like Tony would have an idea... the first song that opens the album, we wanted to have something that’s crazy and fast and in unison. So that creativity on the spot, all of that stuff combined, is what makes up this album. It happens in a very short period of time, which is really fun and very much the spirit of Liquid Tension.

How long did the album take to record?

“I don’t know, officially, but it was probably only a couple of weeks to write everything and record stuff. We tracked drums and bass at that time. I did guitar overdubs later. Jordan recorded keyboards from his home studio. So there was a little bit of that. It was fast. When I think of the production time from beginning to the end of a Dream Theater record – making the plan, going in, writing, recording, tracking, mixing, mastering, artwork, all that stuff... you’re talking about a five-month period most of the time. So this was a lot quicker. Of course, this is instrumental, there are no vocals, so it’s different, but it was definitely quick.

Do you feel like there is more room and freedom for you as a composer when there are no vocals?

It’s just a different setting. I’m very used to writing in either setting. When there is not a vocalist, you write in a way where the different instrumentalists have that role handed off as the song goes on, as far as who is going to be featured as playing the melody or the solo or the theme or whatever, and that changes hands throughout the song. In the case of Liquid Tension Experiment, it could be any one of us at any given time. When you write with vocals, music is being written knowing that there are vocal sections, and arranging the music around them. So, there will be instrumental sections will be interludes between the vocal sections, there are interludes, and choruses, and reprises and verses. Then there are instrumental departures that come back to vocals. It’s a different mindset. The freedom, if anything, in the case of writing instrumental music, is that you don’t have to think in that way – that you have to make room in the arrangement for a vocalist. It’s just that instrumentalists will take on that role in different capacities as the song goes by and it gets handed off, like a torch, throughout the song.

When you’re coming up with instrumental melody lines, do you ever write lyrics and play to the lyrics?

Generally, not. I guess every once in a while, that will happen. But generally, I like to write the music and the melodies first and then put the lyrics to that afterward. I guess I have, on occasion, come up with a melody based on a lyric, which is the other way around from what I usually do. So, it will hit me sometimes, it depends. But usually, it’s the music first.

The first song on the record, which is ‘Hypersonic’... dude, I broke a sweat just listening to that song. That’s an intense song. How did that song come together?

Well, once we have the plan, which is that this song is going to be up-tempo and it’s going to be an ass-kicker, we wanted the opening to really grab people’s attention. We knew it was going to be the opening track on the album, in the spirit of ‘Paradigm Shift’ from the first record [1998’s self-titled]. Once you have that assignment, then it’s just a matter of constructing it. That opening riff is a guitar line and the key to getting the kind of impact that song has is that everybody needs to play it together. When you play something up-tempo, in unison like that, where it’s so tight, and nobody breaks from it, that’s when you get that locomotive effect. Otherwise, if it was just a rhythm section and a guitar doing that line, it would almost just sound like a solo. It’s the fact that we’re all playing it in unison that gives it the desired effect.

Do you recall when you first met Tony Levin? What was that like?

You know what... I assume it was when we did the first Liquid Tension Experiment record. I don’t think I had an opportunity prior to that to meet him. We went to a studio in upstate New York called Millbrook [Sound] Studios, where we did the first and second Liquid Tension Experiment records. We also had some writing sessions ahead of time... I think it was at Mike Portnoy’s house – if I remember correctly. Maybe I met him there. I may have met him at Mike’s place. But it was way back when we did the first Liquid Tension Experiment record. Of course, I’ve always been a big fan of Tony’s. I was a big Peter Gabriel and King Crimson fan. He’s just world-class as far as a musician and bass player and creative person. The music he’s made and the music that he’s played on, the list is just so extensive and so impressive. He’s one of a kind.

You guys really seem to mesh together very well, as is evident on the records and in your live shows.

Yeah, there’s great chemistry, man. Mike and I had it for a long time prior [to LTE], just from being in the same band. We discovered, when we met Jordan, that we had similar creative chemistry – and same for Tony, it just worked. When we all got into a room and started improvising, that’s the sort of music that came out. It worked, everybody’s personalities and musical chemistry just clicked, which is great. It doesn’t always happen. But it was really nice that it did.

We heard recently from Mike that he originally wanted [LTE] to be very separate from Dream Theater and he said he originally had Dimebag Darrel and Tom Morello on his list of guitarists. Were you aware of that, at the time?

Yeah, we were kind of in a position where, at the time, we were getting offers to do different side projects. I had been approached to do something as well, and Mike had told me about something he was putting together and that a couple guitar players didn’t work out, and he asked me if I would be interested. The mentality was that I was supposed to do a project too, so why don’t we just combine efforts and it’ll cover both. That’s what happened. I’m really glad that he asked me and I’m really glad that we did this together because even though we were in Dream Theater together, Liquid Tension offered us something different as a fully instrumental outlet. Of course, at the time, we didn’t know Jordan. He wasn’t even in Dream Theater [Jordan was yet to join DT in 1999], so that was cool, and getting to work with Tony, who is iconic, so yeah it really worked out great.

You’re such a natural fit in that band that it’s hard to imagine what it would have been like to have someone like Dime or Morello in there.

Yeah, I mean everyone has something great to offer, musically. Obviously, Dime – rest in peace, we miss him, I’m sure he would have been great. And Tom Morello is great. It just would have taken on a whole different sound based on their input and creativity. This is a project where we all get to explore a different side of ourselves musically, so it’s fun, and people seem to enjoy it. It’s still fun and I’m so glad we got to do another record after 22 years.

I heard that this record is part of a two-album deal. So, is there a chance we won’t have to wait 22 more years for the next one?

Yeah, there’s a huge chance. You won’t have to wait. There are no immediate plans. The new one has yet to come out. Obviously, the world – and the touring world is in a very strange place right now and there are a lot of unknowns. No one is really sure how long this is going to go on, as far as not being able to tour and do live concerts. So it could be something where we all continue to be locked down and we go back in right away, or things will turn around and touring will resume and everyone will get busy again with Jordan and I with Dream Theater, and Mike, with his bands and projects, and some more time will pass until we’re able to get together again. It’s all very unknown right now so there are no plans. But it will happen, and people won’t have to wait so long for the next one.

You do G3 quite regularly, which is such a cool tour. What are some of your favorite members to tour with and some of your fondest memories of those tours?

Oh man, I can’t pick a favorite. All those guys are such amazing people and amazing players and amazing friends. I’ve done so many of those tours, I’m just so honored. It’s such a blast and such a celebration of the guitar. I’m so thankful to Joe [Satriani] for inviting me the very first time he did, back in 2001, and continuing to invite me. I can very confidently say some of the most fun times I’ve ever had on tour and on stage have been playing those G3 shows and being able to tour with, and trade solos with, all my favorite players. It’s been phenomenal. Of course, I have very fond memories of the very first one I was asked to do, which was me and Joe and Steve Vai. I still look back and I can’t believe I actually did that. Then there were so many other incarnations of it with Paul Gilbert, and Eric Johnson, and Steve Lukather, and Steve Morse, and Phil Collen, and Uli John Roth... I don’t want to leave anybody out but, every one of them was such a great experience. It’s just fun. G3 is a blast. It’s all about guitar playing and comradery and having fun on stage.

Is there a guitarist out there that you haven’t had a chance to jam with, that you’d really like to at some point in the future?

I’m sure there are. I grew up being the biggest Rush fan of all time. If I had to name my favorite band of all time, it would be Rush. I never got an opportunity to play with Alex [Lifeson], that would be a little kid’s dream come true. That would be amazing.

I want to go back to something you said about 7-strings. Some of those bands who sort of defined that ‘7-string sound,’ many of whom were in that whole nu-metal genre. What were your thoughts on that music when it came out? Did you ever feel threatened by the success of that style of music, or feel pressure to change your sound at all?

No, I feel like Dream Theater, with whatever was going on around us including, at the time, in 1992 when ‘Pull Me Under’ hit, from ‘Images & Words,’ the rock scene that was thriving was not prog metal. Prog-metal wasn’t even a thing, really. It was right in the heart of the grunge movement. But I liked those bands. I was a fan of those bands. So, I didn’t look at it as something that was threatening or something that pulled me away from what I wanted to do. I saw what we were doing as just what came naturally to us, probably because we grew up loving Rush, and Yes, and Iron Maiden, and stuff like that. We just put it all together and that’s what came out. But when those other bands started to emerge, we never felt like we should change or keep up with current trends. We just didn’t think that way. We’ve always kind of done our own thing. I don’t think I’ve ever felt threatened by other music. At times, I’ve felt inspired by other music.

We always hear from these guys who were the shredders in the ‘80s who had their careers hit pretty hard when grunge came into style. But prog rock has always been different. It always seemed to have an audience no matter what genre is in style at the time.

Yeah, that’s true, for sure. You can never really go out of style if you never were in style. That’s the beauty of it.

As far as the gear on this [new LTE] record, I assume that you used your signature guitars and amps? Did you use anything new on this record?

Well, you have assumed correctly. I used my signature Ernie Ball Majesty 6-string and 7-string. I used my JP-2C signature Mesa Boogie head. The wah is my JP95 signature Cry Baby. So I used all the stuff I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to develop with these amazing companies. The signature pickups are in my guitar, the Dreamcatcher, and The Rainmaker. I did use a Taylor acoustic a little bit. It was a Taylor Builder’s Edition 614CE. There wasn’t a lot of experimenting, as far as that goes. There was a Dark Glass compressor that I used on some of the clean stuff, that I hadn’t used before, that I loved. I generally will use TC electronics pedals like my Dreamscape pedal, but I have also been a longtime user and fan of the BOSS pedals, ever since I was a kid. So I was experimenting with some of their Waza pedals – like the Chorus Waza, and the Dimension C Waza stuff, and the Phaser. So that was slightly different, but it was all in the same ballpark as what I would normally use. I don’t experiment with a lot of gear. I try to get a pure sound and since I’ve developed these instruments that give me exactly what I’m looking for, I don’t really have to search for it. I know when I plug my Majesty in my Boogie, it’s going to sound exactly the way I want it to sound. So that’s a really great position to be in, and I’m very thankful for that.

Do you recall the first original song you ever wrote?”

Oh man, I kind of remember the time period. I don’t know if I can remember the first song, but I do remember getting into it. One of the things that were really helpful for me in those formative years, I started playing guitar when I was 12, so by the time I was 15, I had a few years under my belt. I met [Dream Theater bassist] John Myung when I was 12. There were young players when I was growing up who I was able to get together with and jam and play cover tunes and stuff. As you’re getting together, you can actually explore being creative on your instrument and having someone there, like John was... and still is, all these years later, to start to make music with. It’s definitely helpful. This is probably an obvious statement but, I think that is definitely where your identity as a creative person really becomes important. There’s an aspect of learning an instrument where you’re just learning how to play it and trying to figure it out and, in the case of guitar, getting calluses on your fingers and learning to play chords and get your hands to do what you want them to do. There’s that part, and then there’s another part where you’re turning it into a creative outlet and developing your own sound. It’s a whole different thing. You’ve got to be careful that you don’t spend too much time in the mimicking portion and that you’re able to break out of that. Sometimes that means just being able to play with other people. As you play with other people, which I did a lot in my teenage years, you start to find out who you are as you interact with other players. As counterintuitive as that sounds, I think it’s really true. If you’re just always playing by yourself, you might lose some perspective and what you sound like in different circumstances.

Did any of those early riffs or song ideas [from you and John Myung] make their way into any of the Dream Theater material?

Not into the later stuff, but there was a period when John and I went to Berklee – we were 17 – and we met [drummer] Mike Portnoy there. We started writing some of the initial stuff. Some of the riffs and stuff that John and I had done in high school made it into demos that we did that turned into Majesty, which was the core beginning of Dream Theater. So, some of those early ideas did make it into those early demos. But once we got past those very early years, there were no old riffs that seeped into stuff that is more current.

I know you get asked about bodybuilding a lot. I guess my interest is more from the technical aspects of it. Are there some pros or cons that bodybuilding offers, as far as your technical ability to play guitar?

I think it’s a really positive lifestyle and a positive outlet. The only con could be if you’re not careful and you injure yourself. Again, I’m stating an obvious thing. But you have to be careful with your hands and your wrists when you’re throwing around large metal plates and objects and bars and stuff. You can’t take the same risks as an athlete would. So that’s what you have to watch out for and that’s the things I’m ridiculously careful about when I’m weight training. There are certain things you can do to keep yourself a little better protected against injury. Sometimes you learn those lessons the hard way, but I think the pros clearly outweigh the cons. Anything you can do to boost your health and your physical fitness and your strength is really important for life in general, especially living the sort of lifestyle that I do and musicians do where there is a lot of travel and you need to take care of yourself. I’ve seen what happens when people don’t take care of themselves and then an injury happens and they’re laid up and they can’t play or tour. It’s definitely important.

Some of these guys who do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I don’t know if they insure their hands or what but that seems like a good way to hyperextend a finger or something.

Yeah, I mean that’s the thing. Everybody has their own comfort level. But for me, I’ve always avoided exercise forms that beat down on my hands. But it works differently for different people and people have different comfort levels on how they like to work out. But for me, I’ve always sort of played it safe that way. If I’m doing a form of exercise where there is controlled movement and motion and I can monitor what’s going on and there’s nothing that’s going to surprise me and cause an injury, that’s my comfort zone. To me, weight training falls in that category.

Have you ever had a mishap that caused you to miss dates or cause you to take some time off from the guitar?

Nothing that has caused me to take some time off. I’ve done some things that have tweaked stuff where I learned not to do that again. I did dislocate my shoulder skiing, but that can happen when you go tumbling down an icy hill. But thankfully, nothing has happened in the gym. You learn your lessons, you know. I’m in my 50s now and there are things I did in my 20s and 30s that I don’t do now, like some stuff where I’m bending over and putting stress on my lower back. You learn as you go. The important thing is having the mindset where fitness is a lifestyle. That should be a constant in your life. It’s important to me. I hate feeling weak or unfit. Also, I find that mentally, it’s really good for reducing anxiety and keeping you level. So, it has that benefit as well. Exercise is a great outlet for stress, anxiety, and those kinds of feelings. I know I always feel better after I work out. Even days where you’re just dreading it, after your workout, your whole mindset changes and you just feel so much clearer and more alive. Plus, you know that when you go to pick up your suitcase, you’re not going to throw your back out.

I recently got to listen to, for the first time, ‘When the Keyboard Breaks,’ which is such a cool concept. Can you take us through that show and what happened? Had you guys ever switched instruments like that before?

That was in Chicago, I believe. We had done a short Liquid Tension Experiment tour and Jordan had some issue with his keyboard. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was something to where either a note was stuck, or everything he was playing was coming out a half step off. Something really wacky was going on to where he couldn’t play the keyboard anymore. So he was actually on the phone with people trying to tech it out when he realized that the whole concert was going by, so he picked up a guitar and we ended up jamming. That is something that we will do from time to time. We’ve done it in Dream Theater, where I would hop on the drums and Mike would play bass... it’s fun to do that sometimes. Fortunately, Jordan can play guitar, so it worked out great. It might not have been the concert that people expected but we made the best out of it. Sometimes it’s being there for the things that go wrong that make it special.

Well, thank you for taking so much time out of your day to chat with us. The new LTE album is great! And We’re looking forward to some new Dream Theater.

I can’t wait for you to hear it. Jordan is actually tracking keyboards as we speak. I can hear the Leslie from his Hammond bleeding out from the other room.