John Petrucci Interview

by Brian D. Holland.

Guitarist John Petrucci calls it fate that he and bassist John Myung happened to run into drummer Mike Portnoy at Boston’s Berklee College of Music in the mid '80s. Though the convergence led to the formation of Majesty, the name was eventually changed to Dream Theater because of legal issues. Enduring the typical yet untimely inconveniences that many rock bands go through, creative differences leading to member changes in particular, these three have sustained that common bond for almost twenty-four years. Add into the picture Canadian vocalist James LaBrie, who joined in 1991 for the recording of Images and Words, and Julliard-trained keyboardist Jordan Rudess, who replaced Derek Sherinian in 1999, and it’s the Dream Theater brew of excellence that fans have come to respect and adore.

The band’s name alone sheds descriptive light on their magical style. A dream theater is precisely what they are. A combination of hard rock, progressive metal, and technical wizardry, Dream Theater’s music is theatrical, visionary, melodic, and extremely enchanting. Their new compilation CD, known as Greatest Hit (…and 21 other pretty cool songs) [Rhino], is an excellent representation of the music they created from 1991 through 2005. It’s divided into two parts: “the dark side” (CD 1) and “the light side” (CD 2). A palpably vivid separation for sure, lyrically and musically, it’s an ingenious balance and expression of diversity in both their potent and melodically smooth performances.

Since the band’s inception, John Petrucci has been known for his expertise and perfection, both technically and theoretically. With influences like Yes (Steve Howe), Metallica (Hetfield and Hammett), and Rush (Alex Lifeson), he has gone on to stretch the boundaries of metal guitar in every possible way. Ranked number nine in Guitar One’s “Top Shredders Of All Time,” he was also named “Guitarist of the Year” for 2007 by Total Guitar Magazine. Alongside friend and cohort Joe Satriani, he has been one third of the renowned G3 tour six times. He hopes to do that again as well. Just off the Progressive Nation Tour, a successful venture that Portnoy has stated may ensue in ’09 as well, Petrucci is thinking seriously about a follow up to his successful solo release, Suspended Animation.

Below is my recent interview with John Petrucci.

Brian Holland: How does it feel to have a "greatest hit," John?

John Petrucci: [Laughing] Pretty wild, Brian.

Brian: It’s always kind of funny when serious rock bands and prog performers put out ‘best of’ compilations, primarily because they’re never top 40 oriented, of course.

John: No. Not at all. The funny thing about it is, in this situation, in our minds we thought they all should’ve been hits.

Brian: They were with the fans.

John: Exactly.

Brian: Zappa released The Worst of the Mothers, and Pink Floyd A Collection of Great Dance Songs. As with Greatest Hit, it’s good to have a little mockery in there.

John: Yeah. You can’t take yourself too seriously, especially with something like this. I mean, the way that it’s put together, it’s more of the commercially friendly selections of our catalogue. We have tons of songs that are about twenty-five minutes long, as you know. So, based on the type of collection, that element of comedy is found in a lot of bands. Even Rush has that element.

Brian: Yes, they do. Though you had just mentioned one, talk a bit more about your influences. Supposedly you’re highly influenced by Rush and Metallica.

John: Yeah, definitely! When we were younger, those bands were mutual. We were all fans of those bands. John, I, and Kevin Moore, our original keyboard player, brought it together. We didn’t know Mike until we went to Berklee in Boston. It just so happened that we liked all those bands. A Lot of the same bands kind of brought us together. Yes was a big one, and Iron Maiden. So, we found this common connection. But the biggest was probably Rush.

Brian: Were you a fan of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer or King Crimson as well?

John: Yeah. It was definitely part of the Long Island scene where I grew up, in the New York suburbs. Progressive music was all over the radio, which is kind of strange compared to now. You heard Crimson, ELP, Yes, and Rush on the radio.

Brian: You strike me as a perfectionist. Is that true?

John: With certain things, sure, when I’m in the studio or when I’m performing and trying to get things right. There’s also a certain element, obviously to the style of music we play. It’s not all prog necessarily; it has a lot of roots in rock ‘n’ roll and metal. Part of that style means not being perfect, and having a certain raw feel for things. You have to find a balance.

Brian: Does the fact that you have to be an above average musician in technical proficiency to perform progressive music have its difficulties and complication in the live setting? Do limitations exist?

John: It doesn’t have limitations, but it definitely has complications. I mean, obviously, you have to be in top shape. The way that we look at it, and the way it feels, is that every time we perform a concert there’s an element that’s almost like a gymnastics event. You have to put all of your focus and concentration into getting all of these different routines as perfect as you can. So it takes a lot of preparation and a lot of constant maintenance of your chops and everything. You can’t just have a couple of beers and not practice and then go onstage. You’d absolutely stink at trying to play that type of music.

Brian: Did a Berklee education do a lot for you when it came to success? Could you have done it without it?

John: I don’t think so, because that’s where we met Mike.

Brian: Well, the social and band member aspects, right.

John: It was a fateful meeting, and a great experience and opportunity for all three of us. And not only did John and I meet Mike and start Dream Theater, but we met a lot of great players and saw a lot of great performances. It was a very cool experience for a young musician to go through.

Brian: Did you get to perform at the Berklee Performance Center back then?

John: Actually, when we were going there, you didn’t just get to play there regularly. John and I were fortunate enough to get picked to be a part of their Guitar Night while we were there, so that was fun. Later on, the band would play there, but the stage came over as being too small.

Brian: In your opinion, do you think that melody and song relevance get lost when too much shredding of scales is abused and utilized to excess?

John: I think it can. The song structure, melody, and phrasing always needs to be an integral part of any composition, unless its purpose is solely to be some sort of technical explosion, which in itself may have a meaning within an album or within a concert or something like that. But yeah, that’s a danger. The most renowned and revered guitar players in rock have a total balance and the ability to play very moving music, and they shred when they need to shred. It’s a very important balance. Classical music has all of those elements. Any piece will go from being very beautiful and moving to extremely technical and difficult, all to serve a purpose within the composition.

Brian: Talk about the songwriting process of Dream Theater. Is there a certain formula, and does the scenario ever exist in which artistic taste collides with technical aptitude?

John: We like to get together and play off of each other. We’ll set up in the studio and do a lot of improvisation. We’ll record a lot of it and kind of work with it and build songs from that. Sometimes we have clashes and ideas and things. It’s all part of the process and it gets worked out, and it’s what makes the music, in the long run, unique. Different people are contributing, so you can take things in different directions than just one person might have imagined.

Brian: Being the drummer in a band like Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy must have quite a lot to do with the process, time signatures and such. Are time signatures of immediate importance when writing a song?

John: Sometimes they are. Sometimes a riff or phrase is specifically written in a certain time signature, because whoever wrote it felt that way about it. If it came from Jordan, John, or myself, that may have been the way we felt about the riff. Other times the time signatures are manipulated, and they’re crafted more in the arrangement of the song. So, it really depends.

Brian: Outside of the progressive, is there another style of music you listen to that fans may not be familiar with, another side to John Petrucci maybe?

John: I don’t know if they wouldn’t be familiar with it, but I listen to a lot of heavy music. To be honest, I don’t listen to a lot of progressive music. The bands I said I was influenced by sort of stuck with me. I certainly check out great guitar players and things like that, but I don’t generally put on ELP in the background in my spare time or anything, you know. I listen to a lot of satellite radio.

Brian: Thank God for satellite radio. It has provided us with the ability to hear music that ordinary radio ignores.

John: Yeah. It’s awesome.

Brian: In the recent Progressive Nation Tour, you were hitting a lot of smaller venues. Did that pose any complications?

John: A little bit. It was four bands, a traveling festival. We were trying to keep it more intimate, but it definitely created a lot of action onstage, and a lot more for our production staff. And we only played for ninety minutes, so it wasn’t what people are used to when seeing Dream Theater play, you know, three hours or whatever.

Brian: Will you be preparing another solo CD, in the vein of Suspended Animation?

John: Yes, I will! That’s something I had a lot of success and a lot of fun with. It enabled me to do the G3 tours also. Yeah, time for another one.

Brian: Another G3 as well?

John: If it comes up. Joe [Satriani] is a good friend of mine. It’s his operation, so I’m always up for it if he offers. I’ve done six so far, everywhere from the US, South America, Australia, Asia. It’s a lot of fun.

Brian: Do you have a comfort zone on the guitar, or is there no such thing?

John: Yeah, there are certain things that are more comfortable to play, that just kind of come naturally. There are certain chords and riffs and things like that. But I think the challenge is to make the things that aren’t comfortable, the things that are difficult, join into that comfort zone, so that they can be played as effortless as possible.

Brian: What is it about your Ernie Ball Music/Music Man guitar that makes you stick with it?

John: They’re such a great company, and the guitar is absolutely amazing. The Ernie Ball people, those at Music Man, make incredible instruments. The way they’re crafted, the way they sound, the way they feel, the way they look, they’re just phenomenal guitars. They’re such a supportive company to me, and all the touring and recording I do, they’re always there. Definitely one of the best moves in my career was to get involved with Ernie Ball. My signature model [EB/MM JP Baritone BFR] is his best guitar, in my opinion.

Brian: Strings. You use a lot of different ones, a lot of .09s.

John: I change the sets from time to time. I’m playing .10s now on the main standard tuning guitar. But what we do is, Drew Montell over at Ernie Ball figured out a formula that calculates string tension based on the tuning. Even if the guitar is tuned down to C, let’s say, it will feel as close as possible, tension wise, as my main standard tuning guitars. So the string gauges are calculated down with a formula. It’s actually really kind of cool. And my action is set pretty low.

I use two [Mesa Boogie] Mach IVs and one Lonestar. They’re awesome amps. They’re my current touring rigs. Everything pertaining to my gear can be seen on my website, too, and it has all been updated for the [Progressive Nation] tour.

Related Links
John Petrucci
John Petrucci's Gear Page
Dream Theater
Brian D. Holland's Review of Greatest Hit

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