Interview With Dream Theater’s Guitarist John Petrucci

I recently, had the opportunity to speak with one of my favorite guitarists, Dream Theater’s John Petrucci. I found him to be intelligent, open and friendly. I believe this will be the first of many discussions with Mr. Petrucci as Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment take us boldly into the new millennium.

Terry Wickham: How do you think this particular album will be compared to the other Dream Theater albums?

John Petrucci: I really think that this is our best. With Jordan joining the band, the whole caliber of musicality and everything has just risen. The songs and the playing is really the best we’ve done. I’m excited about it. It’s like super progressive, heavy and we didn’t lose the elements of songwriting that’s important to us.

TW: Did you guys produce this one yourself?

JP: Yeah.

TW: Did you mix it yourself?

JP: Actually David Bottrill mixed it.

TW: What has Jordan brought to the table that maybe the two other guys didn’t bring?

JP: Definitely a heavy classical influence – that’s for sure. A real technical fire, he’s just like the best player I’ve ever seen, you know. It kind of like raises the whole all around level. We’re all kind of being challenged by each other.

TW: Did you find that the band before this was getting too comfortable? What was the reason for the move to bring in Jordan? Just because he was so good?

JP: Yeah, after doing two Liquid Tension records with him, he’s just really cool to work with, there was a chemistry that I really related to, not only his playing and musicality but as a person and where we were going musically. I wanted to bring that full time into Dream Theater.

TW: I think it was a good move. When you hear the other albums that the two other guys have done since, it’s very different than the direction I’m guessing Dream Theater is going. When I heard Chroma Key and Platypus it’s very different from Liquid Tension.

JP: Yeah, it is definitely.

TW: Speaking of Jordan, I think both Liquid Tension albums really rock.

JP: Thanks .

TW: Ever going to be a third Liquid Tension album?

JP: You never know. We’ll leave it open, you know.

TW: Now you guys are all in one band anyway, except for Tony.

JP: Exactly.

TW: He’s an unbelievable player.

JP: Yeah, he’s so awesome.

TW: What was your personal favorite Dream Theater album before this album?

JP: I think Images and Words and Falling Into Infinity are my favorites.

TW: Any particular reason why?

JP: I think Images has a place in our hearts because it’s the one that kind of broke us. It’s not our first record but the first major label, when we first started to really get recognition. I really like the songs on it and the production. And Falling Into Infinity because I really like the production on that. The whole way we wrote it, I think the level of songwriting kind of rose on that album.

TW: At what point did you feel as a guitarist that you had “made it”?

JP: I think when I felt I was getting recognition in the community. After Images and Words came out, I was starting to get some recognition. We started to tour professionally. I got a lot of live playing under my belt and all that. It really felt I was doing it professionally. Not only financially, but the whole rising to the occasion.

TW: Actually doing it.

JP: Actually doing it as opposed to playing and practicing, not professionally – out there making the money, recording something you’re out there promoting. It’s just like a whole big machine. You’re part of it, you’re driving it, that’s when I felt like, “Yeah, this is professional.”

TW: When did you first start playing guitar?

JP: When I was twelve.

TW: Before you felt you crossed that line, for a couple years was it ever frustrating? Like “Damn, I really want to be doing this. I know I can do this. But I’m not quite there”? Maybe it wasn’t because of you, but you just didn’t get lucky. You weren’t at the right place at the right time.

JP: Well actually, Dream Theater’s been real lucky. We got signed right away for When Dream and Day Unite. Without even doing any sort of playing out, building a following like a lot of bands would do. After we did that album, we were looking for a new singer and that got kind of frustrating. We had the taste of being signed and doing a record but here we are with no singer, the label doesn’t really care and we want to get out of that deal. There was a period right before Images and Words that was like a year and a half; just going to rehearsal like five days a week, doing it, grinding it out, guitar lessons, and I always knew deep down inside that I was going to do it. I’m sure a lot of people feel that way. It actually materialized, which makes it all feel better.

TW: Without a doubt. When you were teaching lessons, did you feel it helped you as a guitar player?

JP: It definitely did. I really liked it. It kept me on my toes. Constantly learning music, you’ve got to have all your knowledge like right on the tip of your tongue, people want to learn it. You kind of have to be a little encyclopedia, have your chops up, have yourself organized, write things down to teach things. I got myself to kind of like get a method going. Very helpful.

TW: Do you find now, that you have made it? I think Dream Theater is the top of progressive rock, I’m sure most people feel that way. Now that you’ve had that success and everyone thinks that you are an amazing guitar player, do you find yourself getting comfortable with that or you don’t want to get comfortable? You want to keep growing and going higher.

JP: Definitely want to keep growing and going higher. There is so much I want to achieve. There’s things that I can’t play. Styles I’m not comfortable with. I constantly feel like a student of the guitar. When you do it professionally, you gain confidence, I’ll say that. So my playing is probably more convincing and I feel good about it. But as far as getting comfortable, no way. I’m always practicing and moving on. Learning new things, wanting to push and get better.

TW: Liquid Tension Experiment 2, the song ‘Another Dimension’ – wow! I think it has one of the most powerful endings to any song I’ve ever heard.

JP: Really. It’s pretty heavy, that ending there. I love it. I think it’s very cool. It’s actually very Dream Theater like. I think in the riffs, if you put vocals to it, it could almost be a Dream Theater song. Very sort of heavy guitar riffy, very much in our style. One of the things I love about that is the different feels we go into.

TW: You have that acoustic part.

JP: Yeah, kind of goes into the reggae sort of vibe.

TW: Latin sound. I like it. What’s your favorite cut off the LTE2?

JP: That’s definitely one of them. I never have just one. I really like ‘When The Water Breaks’. I guess if I had to pick one, that’s pretty awesome.

TW: I also like ‘Chewbacca,’ where you guys really build it up. That has a really nice sound to it.

JP: Do you know the story behind that?

TW: No.

JP: That was actually a song that Tony, Jordan and Mike improvised. Just them jamming. I wasn’t there when they did it. To turn it into a song, I learned all of Jordan’s riffs and doubled them on guitar and came up with parts in between, to make themes and make it sound like a song. To build it like you said and everything else. So when it was all done, it sounds like it was written.

TW: I could never tell it was just a jam.

JP: It’s like taking a drawing and I colored it in. That type of thing.

TW: Now when you are doing Dream Theater, give me the difference doing it compared to Liquid Tension. Personally, what does the Liquid Tension give you that the Dream Theater music doesn’t? And vice versa...

JP: Well, the thing that Liquid Tension gives me is a lot of freedom instrumentally because there are no vocals. So it’s a chance to have, for example the guitar do a lot of melodic things and carry a lot of the roles the vocals would. That’s a lot of fun. Almost along the lines of like the way Satriani would do stuff. Because it’s all instrumental and the guitar is doing the melodies. I don’t intend to do a lot of that in Dream Theater. I mean I’ll do melodic sections, themes and solos and stuff. But it doesn’t carry the melodies. The thing that Dream Theater gives is the overall musical experience. I’m a lyricist, so I love writing lyrics and vocals. Dream Theater has more concept behind it. Liquid Tension is...

TW: Like an experiment.

JP: Exactly.

TW: Which is a good name for it.

JP: Right. So that’s the big difference.

TW: I was really a big fan of some of the funky rhythms you played on Images and Words. I’m not saying you haven’t played that since on anything, but do you think we’ll hear more of that in Dream Theater? Almost like a Prince rhythm.

JP: I totally know what you mean. Ummm, I’m trying to think if we have something like that on the new album...

TW: I totally dug that stuff.

JP: Like on ‘Take the Time’.

TW: Yes. Almost sort of like a funk.

JP: That’s cool. I don’t know if I’ve done a lot of that lately. Think you’re right. I’ll keep that in mind.

TW: Obviously Dream Theater has created a lot of music and like you said, you don’t have one favorite song. What are a couple songs you like playing?

JP: ‘Metropolis’. It’s a lot of fun to play. ‘Voices’.

TW: What’s the most difficult to play?

JP: They both have difficult sections.

TW: Do you find one is difficult to play live that has a certain studio sound?

JP: There are a couple of them like that, that are more produced. It’s hard to really get all the sounds. Kind of more of the mellow ones are like that, like ‘Hollow Years’. That has a lot of different guitar textures in that and I can only play one live so you have to sort of juggle a bit and pick which ones you want to do. That has acoustic strumming behind it, with acoustic melodies, different sort of electric guitars, it’s very orchestrated. It’s orchestrated subtly, it’s hard to get that vibe across live.

TW: You know the song I really like that I don’t think you’ve ever recorded is ‘Forever’.

JP: We actually did record that. We recorded it during the Awake sessions. It’s on the B-side of something.

TW: Unfortunately I don’t have that.

JP: Maybe the single of ‘Lie’.

TW: That’s a cool song.

JP: It’s on the Tokyo video, the live version.

TW: Yes, I do have that video. I noticed on Once In A Livetime, you played a little Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars. Are you a film fan, like a science fiction film fan?

JP: I’m not a huge film fan but I like those particular films. I love Star Wars and the Close Encounters movie. I think that the images that both of those scores evoke, are just amazing. You play it and automatically people can relate to the movies and I think that’s real cool. Certain soundtracks stand out.

TW: I think that also you picked the right songs because those themes almost fit into those Dream Theater songs.

JP: They totally do. A lot of times we’ll write something or I’ll play something that sounds very similar to something else and I’ll sort of play that thing that it’s sort of similar to. I’m almost admitting where it came from.

TW: [laughs]

JP: It’s also almost a fun thing. Like you want to go there, like a sort of cliché.

TW: I thought your guitar solo on Once In A Livetime was pretty awesome because you had so many different things that you blended in; Liquid Tension, ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’, the Italian jig song. I thought that was pretty creative how you mixed it all into one solo.

JP: Thank you. That was definitely fun to play.

TW: When you’ve heard other guitarists, all the live albums, since you were a kid, did you ever hear a particular solo that you really liked?

JP: I used to love the Randy Rhoads solo back then – it’s on Tribute now. It was from the King Biscuit Flower Hour. It was from the radio. It was this live Randy Rhoads solo that I just worshiped, learned, couldn’t stop listening to.

TW: I read somewhere that the Iron Maiden Piece of Mind album is one of your favorites. I thought that was a great album too.

JP: That was an amazing album.

TW: I sometimes wish that they would get back a little bit to that.

JP: Maybe they will.

TW: What guitar album have you heard recently that made an impression on you?

JP: There was this guitar player named Ron Thal and his band was called Bumblefoot. I thought that was pretty incredible.

TW: I actually have never heard that, but I know someone who works with him, a female guitarist named Jaye Foucher. I guess she does a guitar Internet magazine called Guitarapalooza, I believe he writes for that.

JP: Is that right? I met him at the NAMM show. He knows some friends of mine and he gave me a CD and I listened to it recently and I was pretty blown away by the playing on it. I thought the band was cool too. Kind of Rage Against The Machine type stuff.

TW: When you are recording the albums that you’ve done, do you try to listen to any other guitar players, or other music that inspires a particular album? Or do you just record it with nothing else in your head?

JP: I don’t know, I guess I just record it. Sometimes I’ll listen to guitar players who are favorites of mine for inspiration, like the Dregs, Steve Morse or Alan Holdsworth, things like that to keep me going.

TW: Out of all the players who are out there that you’ve run across the last few years, is there any certain players who you’ve become friends with? That you hit it off with?

JP: Well, I know I just mentioned his name, Steve Morse. There’s a guy I listened to who I was very, very influenced by, was completely blown away by. I’ve seen him play, I’d see him at the guitar clinics and as I started to get professional, I kind of got into the position to meet him. He actually reached out first and kind of extended his friendship. Since then, I’ve played together with him, I see him pretty often; Dream Theater played with Deep Purple. We’ve hung out a lot, we have a friendship now. It’s really an amazing feeling to go from a total fan, an admirer and you become friends. It’s very, very cool.

TW: It’s really neat, like a dream come true.

JP: It really is.

TW: I can relate to it a little degree, my three favorite players are you, Geoff Tyson and George Lynch. Over the last four years I’ve become friends with George Lynch.

JP: That’s great.

TW: It’s really neat because you see this guy in magazines, you see him play live and then suddenly you’re talking to him.

JP: Yeah, also as a player, Steve Morse is somebody who really shaped my playing. It’s kind of more than just meeting a celebrity or something. It’s like meeting somebody who indirectly did something very important for me.