John Petrucci interview

Crooked Step: How are you? How is Progressive Nation going?

John Petrucci: It’s really good. We have about a week left and we have three great bands with us, and it’s great playing with Opeth every night; we love them. Bigelf is great; great guys. And Unexpect is great. So it’s been really cool and fans are really enjoying it. Like I said we have a few more shows left here in Barcelona and Italy, and we’ll be done.

CS: Do you like playing in Spain?

JP: Yeah, Spain’s always good. There’s only one thing I don’t like playing in Spain is they put a lot of the concerts in bullrings and it’s really not good for concerts because the floor is dirt and it’s very echoey, so the only thing I wish they would do is have like a proper arena that would sound good. We played last night in Madrid and it’s just like being in an echo chamber; too much reverb and stuff. But the Spanish fans are really great.

CS: Which do you enjoy most: studio or live?

JP: They’re two different things. I really enjoy both. The studio is great because it’s such a creative time. I love to write, I love to produce, I love to play guitar and see a song start from really nothing and grow into this whole piece; I love that. But live is cool too, because I’m a guitar player that loves to play with my sounds and new gear and new guitars. There’s a certain feeling about playing those songs in front of the audience that’s really cool. If I had to pick one, it’d probably be the studio, but I really enjoy both.

CS: A long career back, do you see yourself as a rockstar?

JP: No. I’ve been playing, for example, with John Myung since we were in middle school, like teenagers, so it just seems like we’re the same kids – a little bit older – and it’s pretty amazing that people really have embraced our music and that we have such a successful career all around the world. It’s really fantastic, so we’re humbled by it; nobody feels that rockstar type of thing. We’re really not that kind of a band anyway; we’re pretty grounded.

CS: How would be your perfect concert?

JP: There’s no drugs or drinking; we’re pretty boring. We put all of our focus and all of our energy into the music, into trying to play as good as we can. We’re always practicing backstage and constantly going over parts. We talked about it before we go onstage, we talk about it after we go onstage about what was not exactly right and on the challenges. So we focus really all of that energy into just trying to play the best that we can.

CS: Have plans to go on with a solo career?

JP: I did a solo album in 2005 which is called Suspended Animation and that was a lot of fun to do. Subsequently I did a bunch of G3 tours which was also fun. Like you said, my main priority is Dream Theater. I will do another solo album, but it’s something that I do as a side enjoyment thing. The fact that people dig it and they like it, that’s cool too, but the focus all these years – really for everybody in the band – [is] keeping Dream Theater the priority.

CS: Beyond progressive metal, do you miss playing other guitar genres?

JP: I like to do that sometimes, and the good thing is that I can do that. If Jordan and I want to do another concert, we can do that very easily. The good thing about having a career is that if I wanted to do something jazz, I can; I can get together with jazz guys. But between Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment and my solo albums, it’s very fulfilling; I don’t feel like I need to go out there and do an acoustic gypsy album. I feel very musically fulfilled.

CS: Why did you return to writing fictional lyrics?

JP: It depends on the album, the songs and my mood. The fiction was on Systematic, and Black Clouds is all nonfiction, it’s all real stories, things that happened to me. ‘A Nightmare to Remember’, ‘The Count of Tuscany’; they’re all real episodes and it was a really good experience to write from very personal events that actually happened to me, which is kind of cool to be a storyteller.

CS: Feel the need to improve on every album?

JP: Yeah, to a degree. On every album, I want the guitar to sound as good as it can. Sometimes that means new gear, sometimes it means vintage gear; it depends. But I’m always trying to go for the best guitar sound that I can. As far as my technique, I do. I try to raise the bar every time; maybe do something I haven’t done before. It doesn’t mean that every album has to be completely different, but it’s good to put some things in there maybe that I haven’t tried before. And the good thing about that is it helps me to grow as a player, and then of course I have the challenge of trying to play that stuff live. I think it’s important to constantly challenge yourself and not be complacent, not be lazy; try to practice, try to raise the bar. I think that the fans of our music pick up on that as well.

CS: What are some new bands and music that you like?

JP: I’m not really into new bands. I like the new Muse album, I think it’s great. [I] checked out the new Megadeth album; that sounds really good. The new guitar player is great. The new Chevelle album sounds really good. There’s not really a brand new band or anything like that. I’m not incredibly on top of all latest and greatest things that are out there, but as things come my way and as I hear about things and get turned onto things, I’ll listen to them.

CS: Do you usually listen to classic albums?

JP: I don’t really just put on old albums and stuff like that; I listen to a lot of satellite radio – at the gym, in the car and everything – to me that’s a good way to get turned on to some new stuff and hear a wide range of things. But I don’t go home and put on Dark Side of the Moon and listen to it. I’m not that kind of music listener.

CS: Tell us about your relationship with the members.

JP: It’s great; we’ve known each other for a really long time now and we’ve gone through many of the same things at the same time. Getting married at the same time, having children at the same time... So we’ve had this sort of life experience professionally. So we have a very close bond – personally, musically, professionally. It’s our family.

CS: Plans for a concept album?

JP: We always like to keep those thoughts to ourselves. When it comes out, then you’ll see. But with all the albums, you’ll notice that we never really talked about it before we do it, so who knows? The thing is, as an artist, as soon as you tell somebody, “I’m gonna do this,” then everybody starts to think and you get lots of speculation. It’ better not to say anything. We’ll see what happens on the next one.

CS: What are your plans after the tour?

JP: This Progressive Nation leg is gonna end in Slovenia on Saturday, a week from today. The next part of the tour takes us to New Zealand, which we’ve never played before; it should be fun. And we’ll be in Australia as well. The new year will take us into South America, and we’ll see what happens from there.