Dream On

John Myung of Dream Theater meets Mike Brooks for a catch-up on all things fleet-fingered and progressive

Dream Theater have much to celebrate in 2016: the tail-end of their 30th anniversary, no mean feat in the current musical climate (in which most bands feel lucky to survive five years, let alone 30) and the release of their 13th album, The Astonishing, a conceptual double album containing the musical score (34 tracks split over two ‘acts’) to a story by guitarist John Petrucci.

BGM last caught up with bassist John Myung back in February 2014, so it’s about time we got the low-down on this new project.

“We’ve been so busy,” Myung explains. “We were recording and touring through last summer and then we came back home. We launched this show in London at the Palladium over two nights in February and a show in Amsterdam, so it’s really soaked up all of my time. This album is something that John Petrucci had wanted to do for a while. He’s been working on it for the past couple of years but he only brought us into it once he had something solid to present. It just seemed that this was the right time to break things up and do something new, which is something that we’re all up for. It took a lot of work: I saw how hard John had to work through the whole process. Even as we were touring throughout Europe, it was just consuming, but I could see how dedicated he was to the idea. I think everyone has been challenged to a certain degree.”

Having reached their 30th anniversary, DT might have been tempted to look back on their accomplishments with a satisfied grin – but Myung is having none of that. “It’s about our ability to work together – we always want to maintain focus and understand that things change from album to album,” he explains. “Just as important as it is to want to be part of the creative process, sometimes it’s not always necessary in a band situation, and the role for other players is just to be a team player, doing everything one can to complement what is going on. Our engineer was a big part of getting this whole thing organised and recorded. He helped me get my sounds and came in with fresh ideas, new gear and new mics and helped me not to repeat myself. I don’t like to be static, I like to evolve a little bit – and he turned me onto subtle but really effective processing techniques. He brought in a Suncoast B1P preamp bass pedal: it’s actually a Pearce BC1 bass preamp, which was amazing and one of my favourites.”

As a renowned bass technician, Myung is continually adapting his sound, whether through his playing technique, amplification and effects, or the bass itself. “I’ve been focusing on gear that delivers the core weighting of the sound, and trying to capture the fundamental tone of the instrument. I’ve really dialled into my custom Music Man Bongo six-string: I’m really happy where that has taken my playing, it’s the ultimate tool for me. I now have the pickup selector staggered in notches, so I can recall exactly what I like about a sound. I was pretty frustrated with the previous pickup selector knob, it was always easy to move and you were never sure if it had moved. I’ve also brought back some older pieces of gear, like the 400+ Mono Block by Mesa Boogie, it was on pretty much the whole time and it has a really cool ambience to it.”

With the level of touring DT undertake, and the complexity of the material itself, it’s not easy to perform to a high standard night after night. For Myung, when it comes to life on the road, slow is good, apparently. “I stay disciplined and do all the common sense things,” he tells us, “but every day I play really slowly for at least 20 minutes to an hour, and I build from there. I try to play for at least two to three hours minimum every day: it’s always a case of starting slow and building and warming up. I never try to jump the gun and do more than I can, because that’s how you really hurt yourself. I always make sure I’m warmed up going into a show: I have to be in a certain state of mind, body and spirit, and it takes me two to three hours to prepare and feel good about what I’m about to do. That’s probably the most important part of staying in shape. The first night of any tour, I always find myself wishing I had played this stuff 10 times more than I have done, so I try to push myself more, and that seems to work.”