John Myung: tofretornottofret...

The wait in the sun outside Nextstage in Grand Prairie, Texas was a long and hot one, especially being dressed all in black. But it was a wait that was well worth it. For several years, I had wanted to do an interview with John Myung, and now that wait was almost over. After the show, I sat down in a large room for a chat with ‘The Silent Man’. Much to my delight, we had a good chat about the new developments in his life, technical aspects of writing and practicing music, and his side project The Jelly Jam.

To start off, what books are you reading right now?

That’s a good question. Books on parenting. Things that will help me gain more knowledge on how to raise my child.

So you’ve got a new baby now?

Yeah.

Tell me about him?

Well, he’s a year old. His name is Brandon. And like any new parent, you don’t really know what it’s like until the day you see your child. It’s been really incredible. He’s added so much to our lives. You can’t picture what it would be like without him. He’s such an important part of our lives now. I’ll have to show you pictures of him.

Yeah, definitely. I’d love to see them.

(John showed me the pictures right after the interview. Brandon is SUCH a cutie! He’s always smiling in the pictures).

What music are you listening to right now?

I’m really getting into the last record that Tool did. I can’t seem to get enough of that album. There’s just something about it that I’m really drawn to. The name of it is “Lateralus”.

How’s the tour going so far?

The tour is going really good. I’m having a lot of fun. It’s definitely a lot more productive than previous tours. Every night we play a different set, so we always have a huge list of songs to maintain. We’re also averaging at least five shows a week, and days off usually are days to get to one point or another, flying or on a boat or bus. So we’re making the most of the time that we have on the road.

I notice you’re playing the Chapman Stick again on New Millennium. What made you decide to break that out again?

Well, Mike decided that we should start playing that song again. So I said OK, I’ll break it out. And it’s good that we’re doing the song on the road again or that we’re playing it at all. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a part of my daily regimen. But I hope to make more time for it at some point. But right now I have so much going on, and just being a bass player right now keeps me busy enough.

What other basses are you playing on this tour?

I have my other fretless bass that I’ve had for a while now, the fretless (Yamaha) TRB6. The silver bass you saw tonight is actually in development. It’s still an ongoing prototype, which is a really cool bass. I’m so much more into this than I was the previous one because the pickup is actually a Music Man replica. But it was made for a 6-string bass. So there isn’t really anything in the retail area yet, but we think in about a year we’ll have a 6-string.

Is that one fretted or fretless?

It’s fretted.

Which brings me to my next question, do you prefer a fretted or fretless bass?

I play fretted 95% of the time, so I guess I prefer fretted. But you know, at the same time, I enjoy playing fretless too. Stylistically, I think the sound is much better for me than playing fretted.

What’s the difference between the two as far as playing them?

Fretless is very... it has a different soul to it. It’s very... (his fingers are moving like he is playing bass) It just feels really earthy where you press the string to the wood and the way it resonates makes it more like a classical instrument. It has a soul to it, where as a fretted bass is the opposite. It has a sharp bite to it. It’s great for most of the songs.

On the Jelly Jam album, who do you feel has influenced you?

My influences would be players like Geddy Lee and Billy Sheehan, I can hear the influences he’s had on it. I hear Jaco Pastorius. It was really cool to do. Like even Mike was saying, it’s probably the best recording of me playing bass. The bass really stands out. For me, in terms of just being selfish and just thinking about the bass, it’s probably one of the best records I think I’ve done.

How does this project differ musically or in the writing process from Platypus?

I just think there was more communication in the writing area and I think the direction was more clear-cut and apparent. I just found there was better communication with three people rather than four.

What about musically?

Musically, it’s something that I’m really proud to have done. It’s just a really good style. It’s just being its own thing. It’s not being Dream Theater, it’s not... although you can hear some King’s X. It’s just real. When you hear it, you’ll hear some King’s X influences on it.

I notice that on both “Jelly Jam” and “Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence”, you haven’t written any lyrics. Why is that? And personally, I love your lyrics.

Oh, thanks. I guess I didn’t feel it was important enough. I guess my mind wasn’t in the right place during the making of these records, I haven’t felt like I had anything to offer. But I feel it’s really cool to write lyrics because it’s a way of saying the same message over and over again but finding different ways of saying it, being able to express things you have on your mind or beliefs that you have, and being able to write about it in different ways. I wouldn’t rule it out. I’d like to start having at least one song on a record. We’ll see what happens.

In all the behind-the-scenes videos I’ve seen you constantly practicing on the tour bus or wherever you happen to be. How do you practice? Do you have a set of exercises that you start with?

For practicing on the road, I have one objective, and that’s to be able to play on stage and play these songs back to back (snaps fingers) and try to get everything right and have the stamina to do it. My fingers have to run every day in order for me to be able to play and not have my arms stiffen up. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m making sure I’m ready for the next show. It really is just a form of meditation, practicing, because you just kind of detach yourself and perform specific exercises and repeat them over and over again. And you get to a point where it’s more than just the exercise. You’re strengthening your hands. You’re developing coordination and building endurance. I guess it’s more conditioning through technique.

How do you come up with your bass parts?

A lot of the time when I first pick up the bass, I’ll play something. And then I have to record it there and then, or else I’ll never remember it. I’m pretty disciplined about that, where I put my minidisk player on the bus or somewhere and make sure I get it recorded if I feel strongly about it. The ideas just come as you practice. You’ll get to a certain point where all of a sudden you’ll play something and that’ll be an idea. That’s one thing that I read a long time ago. Neil Peart was saying that lyrically he wrote down any inspiration that he had when it came to writing lyrics. He was saying that it was just a matter of crafting, that was the real work. The inspiration is just as important to have because you can’t force it. It just has to be there. So between practicing, recording, and touring, whenever I get a grouping of notes that I feel is a good idea, I make sure that I record it. And when we write the record, I make a compilation of all the different ideas. And when you write, it’s like your mind is juggling all these different pieces, and sometimes you’ll come across the right piece to the puzzle that we’re working on.

Now that you’re writing as you go, how has the way you write changed over the past two albums, has it changed at all?

I like it a lot because you have to be productive. It anchors you for working and building quality stuff. Everyone feels more worked. I guess it’s a good balance between spontaneity and being disciplined in the fact that there is a deadline. I think it has a positive pressure.

Do you have a message for your fans?

If it wasn’t for them, I’d be in a different line of business (laughter). Thanks for being interested in Dream Theater and for buying our records and CDs.

Thank you very much.

All right. Thanks.

Nicole Stachowicz