John Petrucci interview (originally for a magazine)

Bill Pulice: First of all, the current status with Dream Theater – what happened with Charlie, ‘cause many felt the change was needed as far as could the band prosper better. So what happened with that?

John Petrucci: You guessed it. When he joined the band, we weren’t signed or anything like that. We knew he had a great voice. Everything just started to grow. All of the sudden, we’re doing shows, and everyone’s being really critical.

BP: That must’ve been tough.

JP: Yeah, but the thing about Charlie is his voice is great – he has a great voice. The thing that people don’t realize is that this just isn’t the band for him. He played piano and played guitar – he played a whole bunch of instruments – and he’d just sit there and entertain us playing Billy Joel tunes and Elton John and stuff like that. He’s great, he has that total voice, but his image and his persona and his voice just wasn’t...

BP: Rumors are you’re looking for a new record deal.

JP: Ummm...

BP: I spoke to Mechanic yesterday to see if you’re still on the label.

JP: We are, we’re still on the label. It’s weird. I don’t know how much I can actually talk about this. Well, the thing is, everything’s out in the open. We were kind of unhappy with what was going on, and since then we got a few offers from other major labels because of what was not happening with MCA. It’s not really Mechanic at all – we really don’t have anything against Mechanic. It’s just the support from MCA, which is where it all comes from. But now that we don’t have a singer, it’s like our band isn’t fully gelled yet, so they’re not gonna do anything with us until they see the full Dream Theater package.

BP: Alright I’m gonna cover some band questions, some personal questions. When did you start playing?

JP: When I was twelve.

BP: When did you really get serious about it as a profession?

JP: Probably about when I was sixteen, seventeen. That’s when I decided that I wanted to go to music school.

BP: Like a special kind of formal training?

JP: I took a couple music theory classes in high school, we got into that. I never really took guitar lessons, but I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston and studied there for one year. And that’s about it.

BP: So your basic high school music theory and when you left high school, you went to Berklee.

JP: Right.

BP: Your daily regimen as far as building chops – what does that consist of? What kind of exercises do you have?

JP: Very disciplined. I remember I always tried to learn like Steve Morse stuff. I freaked out when I heard the Dregs. Before Steve Morse, I was getting into... Rush is my favorite band, I was learning Iron Maiden solos. I think the biggest way that I built up my chops is I learned things from records. But then I was trying to learn this Dregs stuff and I was freaking out. You know, “I’m never gonna be able to do this!” And I would learn Yngwie’s stuff too when I first heard Steeler. And Al Di Meola. I think those are the three main chop-meisters that I couldn’t handle at that point. Then one of my teachers – actually was not even one of my teachers, he just was like a band guy in high school – was like, “Use a metronome.” I picked up the metronome, and I remember the first day I used it. I couldn’t [play] a Steve Morse lick, and I had learned like the whole ‘Bash’ solo from the live Dregs album. I just played it really slow with the metronome and built it up, and half hour later I had it and was freaking out! That’s what I did before I had any sort of idea of what was going on. I learned things. I used the licks and learned the songs to build up my chops, and then I just developed exercises.

BP: [How many] hours a day?

JP: When I was in high school, like six hours a day, and start to build up. Especially at Berklee it was like f***in’ all day.

BP: On your debut, was there anything you’d liked to have done differently?

JP: Sure. There’s definitely things that I could do differently.

BP: As far as the guitar?

JP: I wanted to use acoustic more on the album. I brought an Ovation and I realized that it wasn’t recording well. It was a Legend or something like that. It was brand new and we were trying to get sound, but for some reason it just sounded like plastic. I came to the conclusion that I gotta use a wooden acoustic instrument to record. So I had a classical and I used that, but I would have liked a lot more acoustic stuff. Some things, I like the way that came out, some things I think I could avoid.

BP: As far as the production and the mix of the record, the drums and the keys sound really dynamite. The guitar and bass aren’t nearly as good – they’re not upfront as much and sound a bit muddy at times. Are you happy with that?

JP: No. Everybody says that. Everyone says, “On your next record, more guitar.” It’s weird, though. At some point, it sounds cool, but... It was the first record we ever did and I could have been more prepared. Like I had brought in these Randle guitar amps, and they were transistor amps. I didn’t know the deal – I thought I was set. I had a good sound, went in there and it’s like, “Man, this sounds like s***.”

BP: The band was probably well organized for pre-production, but as far as experience in the studio...

JP: Exactly. In fact, when Terry Date came in, the band was set – he really didn’t do anything much with pre-production. We had practiced so much, it was just a matter of getting a good take. But so far as recording techniques, I didn’t even use my guitar. I used my guitar on the leads, but I used all these Ibanez. It was cool, I appreciate what they did, but I found out that my guitars... it wasn’t the deal. I used this old Marshall – I never used Marshall – I used this old Marshall head, so it wasn’t my sound. It was just weird.

BP: Did you print the effects?

JP: No, everything was dry.

BP: All right. Obviously, I would say you like effects. I believe you use MIDI stuff, right?

JP: Yeah, exactly.

BP: What’s your current set up, from main guitars to rack?

JP: Well, the guitar I’m using is an Ibanez. I don’t know what you’d call it. [laughs]

BP: Steve Vai model?

JP: It’s my model, not that it’s mass-produced or anything like that. I just had it custom-built. Ibanez has been really great since we recorded the record. We brought in like five guitars and kept the relationship going. They sent the other ones and then finally went to the factory, and they built this one that was modeled after the BC Rich that I had, so far as the neck. It’s just customized so far as the paint job, it’s like a leopard skin type material finish that’s really cool.

BP: Scalloped frets?

JP: No, it’s not scalloped – it’s just a different neck joint. There’s a lot of things different on it. I have a JEM actually – it’s a Steve Vai model. A BC Rich. I just got a classical. The rack is pretty sick. The rack is basically mostly Mesa/Boogie stuff. It’s a Mesa/Boogie 20 space rack and there’s a Quad pre-amp. So far as the effects, there’s a Samson Stage 22 wireless, a T.C. Electronic parametric EQ, a T.C. Electronic 2290 for chorusing and flanging. There’s a Rane mixer. There’s a Hush IICX, a Korg DRV-2000 digital reverb. An Ibanez compressor. What else is there? There’s a lot of s***. I love it. A lot of the guitar players that I grew up loving – actually two of them in particular – Alex Lifeson and [Steve] Morse – they’re into the effects and turned me on to it. I always wanted it to be like a keeper play, like the way they can just press program number 22 and immediately they don’t have to do a tap dance. Everything’s MIDI’d up to a Mesa/Boogie MIDI matrix, and it’s controlled by a pedal board.

BP: The beginning to ‘The Ones Who Helped Set The Sun’ – how did that come about?

JP: We always want to get more into the production aspect of records, like Pink Floyd and Queensrÿche. So we figured we’d tell a story before the song started. We actually were gonna start by doing our own samples, but we ended up with guitars blasting through the monitors, bass was live, and the keyboards [were] live. The guitar sounds like a keyboard – a lot of people think that’s synthesizer when it comes in with that melody, but that’s like two different harmonies.

BP: Your favorite track on the record, if you have one.

JP: Probably ‘The Killing Hand.’ It’s between a couple, like ‘The Ytse Jam’ and ‘The Killing Hand.’ I think ‘The Killing Hand’ is the most dynamic – it just has a lot of different levels of dynamics and characteristics.

BP: That’s a good segue into the next question: when writing a song – past and present – how do you approach importance of lyrical content? For example, ‘The Killing Hand,’ one of three songs you wrote all the lyrics for. You must be proud of that when you’d rather concentrate more on playing the guitar. That’s probably one of the strengths you’d be looking for in a new vocalist, being a good lyricist, although Kevin’s excellent.

JP: That’s a weird question because as much as we want the new vocalist to be involved, the new guy definitely has to be a musician. He has to know what’s going on or else the stuff is gonna go over his head. So far as if he’s a lyricist, we like writing. I mean, we definitely want another input. In fact, our drummer wrote lyrics for a song on the next album, and we really like that control because we write the music. So as we’re writing the music, we’re getting all these ideas and visions and vocal melodies. So as we’re writing, we’re getting a picture of the song. We write the music together. No one guy writes the music and hands out the parts – it’s totally collaborative.

BP: So you just get together a lot. You put certain time aside for band to practice and certain time for writing. So the lyrics as far as yourself, you enjoy it?

JP: Yeah, totally. I write a lot. I write poems. I have a whole bunch of stuff. I like that. I like the fact that Kev writes really well, too. It’s just really refreshing when you have a brand new song and then someone else writes lyrics, and you know they’re gonna be good. And you’re reading them and you’re like, “Yeah!”

BP: Next album – do you have any producers in mind?

JP: Actually we do. There’s a couple guys that we really like. Like Chris Kimsey – he did Marillion. We talked to Terry Brown quite a few times. He did the remixes on the two singles. I like the way those sound – I wish the whole record would have sounded like that. I don’t know if that would be a smart move, so far as the Rush comparisons we always get. But I really like him.

BP: Alright, just a couple standard questions. What’s your current favorite music right now?

JP: Aww man. There’s so many of them. Our drummer is always the guy who really knows what’s happening. He’s turned me on to a lot of I guess they call it ‘alternative’ music. Jane’s Addiction, Faith No More, Soundgarden. And then lately, for Christmas he got me Red Hot Chili Peppers.

BP: Your biggest influence as guitarists. Alex?

JP: Definitely Lifeson. Definitely Morse without a doubt – he’s my number one.

BP: I gotta get his new record.

JP: Oh man, it’s ridiculous. There’s so much music. For a third one, I don’t know – maybe it’s Yngwie. Probably Al Di Meola.

BP: Your band’s style is almost like a rebirth of sorts as far as progressive metal. A lot of people like myself at the Rhode Island show also approached these guys with welcome arms. As far as people who’ve already made it – musicians – who are some that have shown support?

JP: Definitely Fates Warning. We’re already good friends with those guys. Rush is one of them – Alex Lifeson is into us – he said that in an interview. There’s an all-Rush fanzine that had featured us, and they asked Alex if he had heard of us. “I wish I never did! That makes our job that much harder!” [laughs] He said that we inspired [them]. There’s a lot. Also King’s X, last time they played here, they actually listened to our disc. They said they recognized us, which is cool. Steve Morse is another one because he played the Ritz. Oh, Marillion’s another one too – we played the Ritz with Marillion on the 14th of November. It was our last show with Charlie. They were into the band. Steve Morse had heard us a few times and actually the last time he played the Ritz, we went up to him and gave him the disc. And then he saw Mike, our drummer, and he recognized him at a convention in New York. He was like, “Man, you guys are great!” and was totally going off. It was like, “Oh my God!” So some of these guys that have been our influences have complimented us. Also Geoff Tate from Queensrÿche – they were really into it. I had never really thought about that question before.

BP: I’m glad I asked it. It’s a good answer. I don’t have any more questions that I can think of.

JP: OK. There was something before... It was that music question that always gets me – what music that I listen to now. I’ve been listening to classical stuff since I started playing classical guitar.

BP: It does show. Derek Simon – I don’t mean to put you on the spot – are you happy with Derek?

JP: Yeah.

BP: What happened with Fates?

JP: It’s hard to explain why we didn’t go with Fates. We had a tour set up actually before the Fates one in Europe that Derek was doing with a promoter over there, and then when we found out that Metal Church wasn’t gonna do the tour with Fates, we thought we could book with them, and I guess the other promoter – since we left him – he kinda blew us off.

BP: When I first heard your album, I was a bit apprehensive. The more I listened to it, the more I appreciated you guys. And then the Rhode Island show – was that your best show?

JP: I think so.

BP: It seemed like everybody was really, really into it.

JP: That’s cool.