In The John With Petrucci (Almost!)

Location: Southampton

I met up with john backstage at Southampton to discuss his back catalogue. There was no space, so initially Rikk (the tour manager) suggested putting us in the ladies toilet, but fortunately he did not have the code for the door. Instead, we met in the corridor and John was happy to take questions for nearly 30 minutes surrounded on all sides with CDs on the floor. On with the interview...

TFG: I am going to start right at the beginning with Dorothy Wallace. How did you come about?

JP: Long time ago, I taught guitar in a record store. She was just a customer or something and she was doing an album. She needed a guitar player and someone said, John’s good, ask him. It was so long ago, I don’t remember.

TFG: You don’t remember the tune?

JP: No, not really.

TFG: I gave you a copy of this a couple of years ago. Do you remember it and did you get the chance to play it?

JP: No.

TFG: Did you play the whole song or just the solo at the end?

JP: Probably just the solo, but it was so long ago.

TFG: Are there any other very early recordings that are not ‘out there’? In the ancient history, where you think “no-one has ever asked me about that?”

JP: Probably. I had friends that I used to record demos with.

TFG: So that gives collectors something to have a look for?

JP: Once again, I was very young, but they may still have the recordings.

TFG: You have done a couple of instructional items. Obviously Rock Discipline is the big one. Where did the idea for that one come from?

JP: At the time, the instructional video thing was pretty popular and it was considered a big deal to do one of those. There was a guy, Robbie Richardson who asked. He is still in the industry.

TFG: It has been reissued several times. How many do you think have sold?

JP: How many? A lot. We beefed it up and did a DVD version a few years ago and it was great. The way he did it was to shoot some Dream Theater footage in rehearsal and he shot some interview footage. I remember it being a lot of work for me, preparation and putting the little lessons together. I had a little backing track, a sequencer for programming.

TFG: You did Wild Stringdom as well.

JP: That was really nothing. It was just a collection of the lessons that I did for Guitar World. So I really didn’t have to do anything to put that together.

TFG: You also do a lot of work for Japanese guitar magazines. There are things such as the Mystic Dream exercise DVD and Young Guitar.

JP: Young Guitar... you know now a lot of the guitar magazines in the US are asking that when they do a feature on you, that you do some sort of video lesson. It did not used to be like that. It was only when I went to Japan that I did the video. I did a bunch of them.

TFG: I found three of them. How many do you think there are?

JP: Hmmm, I’ve been on the cover several times and I think there was one every time. Now, in the US, I have done some. There were a couple for Guitar World. The latest feature, which I don’t think is out yet, has another with me for Guitar World US. That seems to be the way it is.

TFG: And how does the creative process for that work?

JP: There is no creative process. If you are lucky, you get a call the week before, but it’s usually the same sort of thing. It usually centres around the new album. They want to see some licks from the new album.

TFG: So they break it down?

JP: Yeah. It’s not my favourite thing to do. First of all by the time this stuff happens the album is just out, or not even out yet or the tour has just begun. So for example on this tour, we are only playing ‘A Rite of Passage’. I don’t even know the other songs! We just wrote them and recorded them. So if the questions are ‘how did you do this in this song’ or ‘how do you play that?’ I just sit there and go, “I don’t know.” [laughs]

TFG: So if James hasn’t learned the lyrics, I’m not learning the guitar?!

JP: Yeah, you are somewhat on the spot so it is not my favourite thing to do. I just did a thing for DiMarzio that is going to be on that site. It is an interview and some playing. Now with the internet, it has become very much the standard. If you go to Mesa Boogie, then on the site, there is an interview and I explain a bunch of gear. I did one for MusicMan.

TFG: Now, from a collectors’ point of view, it is stuff that we can see but I don’t have to find it, buy it and store it?

JP: Right.

TFG: Another thing. Seventh Heaven, which was when you first started seven string guitar. That was Japanese only.

JP: If I recall, that was something that they sent to music stores. Something to persuade people to buy the guitar.

TFG: Are there any others of those that, looking at the pile, had you thinking, ha, he has missed one?

JP: No. They do that every so often, little compilations, but it is hard to keep track.

TFG: So you are not obsessive like Mike, making sure that you have a copy of everything?

JP: No. There is like a ton of stuff out that I have done that I don’t have. I’m not a collector.

TFG: Can I ask you about Guitar Battle? How did that work? Did you do that remotely or were you in a room with these guys?

JP: I wasn’t in a room. What is on there?

TFG: Purple Rain, something...

JP: Oh yeah. Back then everyone was using ADAT, so they would send you a thing with the tracks on it. That’s what this was. It is a bit like the Queen Tribute album.

TFG: One of the real oddities that a lot of people may not have heard of is Necronomicon. It is a Japanese computer game. How did you get involved in that?

JP: It was fun. When Dream Theater started to gain recognition, Japan was one of the initial markets that we did really well in. So there was an interest from Japanese game manufacturers to get me as a name to promote their things. So they asked me to do it.

TFG: And you did the epilogue and the prologue.

JP: Yeah, it sounded like there was a lot of money in it for only a little bit of work. But actually it was a challenge as I had to write original pieces and they had to be specific lengths. Once again, it was on ADAT and I had to use a drum machine.

TFG: It’s probably one of those things that a lot of people have not had the chance to hear. As far as I am aware, the game only plays on the Japanese version of the Sega Saturn console.

JP: There was a period when I was playing that music at my guitar clinics. So if you find some old bootlegs, it will be on there.

TFG: You also did, which I did not bring with me, the Ibanez Rock and Play.

JP: Ah yes, it was a little lesson.

TFG: Yes, it was a cassette player and came with a lesson on tape. Obviously Ibanez thought they would ask you to do that. I don’t think it sold in any numbers. The one I have still has a price sticker on it for $250.

JP: Are you serious? So cheap. [laughs]

TFG: You mentioned before some of the side projects that you did, Queen, Rush’s Working Man. You helped out on Age of Impact. Is there anything that you are thinking about doing in the future or is that something that you had time for then but don’t now?

JP: Yeah. For some reason then, with Magna Carta, those offers were something that were coming all the time. It pops up every so often. I play on Marty Friedman’s album.

TFG: Talking of that album, you played on that but you only played on one track, and if I’m honest I can’t really tell that it is you, sorry.

JP: That was kinda fun. We were in Japan. I went to the studio, very professional, very cool. He was kinda like producing me as I was playing.

TFG: So did he give you the riff or did you bring it?

JP: No, I was just like soloing over this section. But he was guiding and producing. It was neat because I don’t normally do that.

TFG: Was it a similar sort of thing with the Jon Finn Group?

JP: No, Jon just drove over to my house. Everything was kind of archaic. He had his board and his ADAT I plugged in and did it.

TFG: It has been a while since you have been involved in anything. What would be the criteria if someone came to you and said, “John, I want you to work on this?”

JP: It would have to be something that I really wanted to do. I get offered things like this a lot. A lot of times it is artists I am not familiar with, or different foreign projects...

TFG: So you push most of that back?

JP: I do, I’m pretty busy. But if it was someone that I respected or was friends with, then it’s not a problem. Back then, a lot of the offers you took them because you could, you were not as picky, you had the time or you needed the money. As time goes by, you become more selective.

TFG: What about G3? Will you be doing more of that? More recording?

JP: G3, I’m really glad I got to do a CD with them. I was really honoured to do that. Obviously, that’s Joe’s thing. I’ve done six tours with them and if they asked me to do another one, I would do it in a heartbeat because it was a blast.

TFG: On that tour you were playing a lot of stuff off your own solo album. That took forever to come out. What are the plans for a follow up?

JP: There aren’t any! [laughs]

TFG: It is a great album. I’m not usually a fan of instrumental albums, but that one is good.

JP: I am not incredibly motivated to do things like that. It is okay, but I did it out of necessity, because I didn’t have any material to play on G3. It was a nice thing to do but I don’t feel that I have to do another one. I probably will, but not just yet. There was a part of it that was definitely enjoyable but when you listen to Dream Theater, it is like the way that I write; it’s the same, so it’s not like I am getting a whole different thing out of it.

TFG: So you don’t fancy doing the tribute act thing that Mike does to try different things?

JP: No, not really.

TFG: Suspended Animation was self-distributed. How many of those sold?

JP: A lot. I would love to know, but we did really well with it.

TFG: And was there a reason why the first issue split track eight into two parts?

JP: Just a mistake.

TFG: That is good, because us collectors collect the first edition and then the fixed one, so you sold me two. Did you have any involvement in what Magna Carta put out with your name on the back?

JP: What do you mean?

TFG: All these. Prime Cuts and Guitar Greats. They didn’t come to you?

JP: No, I did not even know they were out. What’s on there? [picking up Guitar Greats] Is this new?

TFG: Not really, about two years ago.

JP: No, they didn’t ask. [studies CD with some contempt]

TFG: And this one here, Terry’s (Bozzio), just look at how they spelt your name.

JP: Oh my god! Oh, it was Explorers Club that was on this one. That’s so stupid. You know, these guys messed up. They had something good in the beginning. It was totally cool and then typically, they did that bad story of a record label, when they just take advantage and go down the road of being sneaky.

TFG: Well, I am going to show you another one. Have you ever heard of that? It’s Sonic Residue from Vapourspace.

JP: No. Never heard of it.

TFG: Well, what they did on here was take some Magna Carta tracks and then remix them with house music and drum and bass. It is beyond awful.

JP: Is it bad?

TFG: You will have to ask Mike about it. He had words to say about it.

JP: I haven’t heard this.

TFG: I would give it to you, but I don’t think you would like it. Another little oddity. Have you ever seen this one? The CD is Tiles but the music...

JP: It’s our CD?

TFG: It is your CD, a mis-pressing. Mike probably has that one.

JP: That happened to my wife, Mike’s wife and actually John’s wife all were in a band together. And they have a funny story where their CD had the wrong music on it. It was like Irish folk music.

TFG: One thing I really enjoyed was the Evening With CD you did with Jordan. Any plans to do that again?

JP: Once again, no plans, but if we had the opportunity we would do it. The neat thing about that for me was because it was one of those things that Jordan asked, in fact his wife organised it. We decided it would be in a jazz format where we would have some structured melodies and then some improv. And then talking to my wife about it, we decided to record it.

TFG: And it came out on Sound Mind Music? [Ed: JP’s own label]

JP: She set that all up, and the website. She started the business. She’s unbelievable.

TFG: And yet when it went onto Favoured Nations, it acquired another three tracks.

JP: I recorded ‘Bite of the Mosquito’ in the studio. ‘The Rena Song’, I was not crazy about how that originally came out so we did not include it. And the other. ‘State of Grace’, we didn’t put that on because of Magna Carta. We did not want to have to deal with that.

TFG: One more thing to show you. Have you seen this?

JP: Improve your writing from A to Z?

TFG: This is an English book that an American writer has put together on improving your writing. However the whole thing is full of examples using Dream Theater.

[I won’t transcribe the full conversation and all the examples that I showed John and those he found himself. However, I had to remind him who Pipo & Elo were. Nevertheless, John was very taken with the book and thought it was ‘hysterical’. In fact, I had to prise it from his fingers.]

JP: That is one of the coolest things I’ve seen. Do you know anything about the guy who wrote it?

TFG: We are doing a book review in the next New Voice fanzine. [Ed: and we also have an interview with Ross Edwards.]

I would like to thank John for his time.