John Petrucci interview (excerpts)

Mitch Lafon: Talk to me a little bit about this album in terms of how it comes together, because we all know the story: you’ve got Mike Portnoy, it’s been 15 years. What compelled you at this time to say, “I need to put something out that says ‘John’; doesn’t say Dream Theater, doesn’t say something else, it says ‘John’?

John Petrucci: You mentioned the 15 years. For some reason, the interest in this type of thing has ramped up over the last several years where there’s really not an interview that has gone by where I don’t get asked, “When are you going to do another solo album?” so it’s been on my mind. I started playing some of the new music live, and doing events like guitar camps where I’m playing solo material and realizing I don’t have a lot of solo material. [laughs] So everything was culminating to, “I really should do this. If I’m gonna do it, I just need to find the perfect window of time.” Actually before COVID hit, I had planned on starting this in March of this year. I just didn’t realize I would have a full chunk of endless time to actually complete it. In that sense, I’m glad I did, because I don’t like doing things piecemeal; it’s kind of the way I did the first solo album, so I’m glad I had that time to do it.

ML: Let’s quickly talk about Suspended Animation it was done partly because you were going on the G3 tour. So when you’re when you’re doing Terminal Velocity and you’re talking about having more solo material, is that indicative of you wanting to do another G3 or going out on a solo tour? I mean why have the solo material if you’re not going to use it in a sense?

JP: Anything’s possible. Of course G3 is Joe Satriani’s project, and every time he asks I always say “yes” because it’s so much fun, and who would say “no” to that, and I’ve done so many of them. Partly because of that, because even the last one I did, I’m still playing the same material. It’s become this running joke and that’s why I incorporated two of the new songs – ‘Happy Song’ and ‘Glassy-Eyed Zombies’ – into those tours. I’m also doing things like the guitar camps where I’m playing a concert. I don’t really have plans of a solo tour per se, but if these different opportunities and things come up and continue to come up, as the world gets to a better place... I just thought it would be nice to have new music to play. So it’s not as if I’m actually planning a solo tour, but just nice having catalog now. [laughs] And speaking of Suspended Animation, as part of the bigger plan, I made it available digitally in streaming for the first time since I released it back in 2005. So yeah, it’s catalog; it actually says release date 2005 when you go on to Apple Music or whatever.

ML: When you when you did Suspend Animation and you’ve done interviews since, you sort of suggested that it was to sort of take stock of where you were in your guitar playing. 15 years later with Terminal Velocity, where are you in terms of your guitar playing and how have you improved and where do you get that inspiration from? Is it still a measuring stick as to where you are musically?

JP: That’s a good way of putting it, whether that happens like on purpose or not; it’s kind of bound to happen. I think I kept the same sort of mentality with Terminal Velocity that I had with Suspended Animation, meaning that I wanted to do solo albums that were really solo albums that just featured guitar; didn’t have a lot of distractions, guitar/bass/drums, and showed some different sides of my playing that you might not hear necessarily in Dream Theater. So I went with that same mentality, but of course over 15 years, I’d like to think that I got better on the instrument, that I got better at producing and that I got better at finding that tone that’s been in my head and making that happen. That’s partially due to being fortunate enough to develop signature instruments and amplifiers – Ernie Ball/Music Man, Mesa/Boogie – and actually having the things that I didn’t have 15 years ago; developing those things to the point where it’s so dialed in. Even the last Dream Theater record, Distance Over Time, with that guitar sound and the technique that we got, we carried right into this, because it’s just like all the pieces of the puzzle fit; the formula is right.

ML: Let’s talk formula and then we’ll talk producing. In terms of song structure, when we think of a classic rock vocal song, it’s verse-chorus-verse-chorus-you’re out; how do you approach the structure of these songs? And I’m going to ask you sort of the silly question, but how do you sort of know when to begin and when to end in an instrumental album?

JP: It’s not a silly question. For me, when I’m writing new music, it either comes from some idea that I had collected at some point over time. Like Terminal Velocity, the opening track, I was playing guitar one day and I stumbled across [the main riff] and I was like, “This is cool, let me record it,” and I just always record these little ideas and I collect them. So sometimes the starting point is just simply being organized and saying, “OK, here are all these ideas I have. Oh wait! That one’s cool – I could picture that as a song opening.” Then I start to build the song and it just happens organically I guess as to the structure and when it feels like it should be over. I always try to make the songs interesting for me to listen to. So if there’s ever a point in the song where there’s a lull or it gets boring or not motivating or whatever, then I know I need to make a change. I try to use myself as like the barometer, like, “Am I interested in what’s going on or not?” Especially with instrumental guitar music, it’s really, really important; there’s no vocals, on my albums there are no guests, so you’re not looking forward to like, “Oh, another guitar player is playing on here or whatever,” it’s all me, so I got to be careful. I have to make sure I’m keeping the interest of the listener up – and myself – and that’s sort of the way that I produce.

ML: In terms of playing, is it thought out though or is it somewhat improvisational? [Do] you approach it where you sit down with a programming or whatever, and you write stuff out and you get the music notation, or do you sort of just say, “All right, I’m going to play. I have this melody.” How do you get it from the head to the recording?

JP: Well no, I don’t write out the music notation. For me, I have the training – I went to Berklee and did all that – but I never followed through and used it, so my skills at that are weak; so that’s not the first place I go to when trying to put music down. What I do is I record it right away, so I just use my phone. Whether something comes to me outside of having a guitar with me or more often while I’m playing, I’ll just kind of stumble onto something – this happened yesterday too – immediately I’m like, “That’s cool. Don’t ignore that little voice in your head that says record it,” and the easiest way is just with my phone, I put on voice memos and record it, label it. Then when it comes time to write the music, I think I’m very deliberate, like “I’m going to construct this song now.” So I’m in the studio, I’m set up, I’m in a comfortable place, there’s an open Pro-Tools session and the ability to get a tempo map going, and I’ll start to build it. It’s like building a house and that’s the way I approach it.

ML: In terms of producing, you obviously produce this one, you had Andy Sneap in there too, and Jimmy T, but talk to me about having your ears on your project and not having that outside set of ears, because sometimes it can be important for somebody to say, “Hey, this is not working. This is not good. You should push this. You should layer that.” Talk to me about doing it yourself, and is there an advantage and a disadvantage to not having outside ears?

JP: There could be both. I think in the case of me producing Dream Theater, there’s more pieces of the puzzle, because there are more guys – there’s vocals, lyrics, keyboards – and we’re writing music together. I have to look out for everybody. As a producer I have to keep my eye on the ball, make sure that we’re following through with what our plan was for the record and hopefully make sure that everybody feels happy and heard and creatively satisfied. It’s part of that role; you can’t get tunnel vision in your own way. It doesn’t really work especially when you’re in the band producing; maybe for an outside producer that works. But in the case of my solo album, it’s just me, so there’s not that type of pressure and I feel like even though I don’t have the sounding boards, it’s OK because I really know what I want, and if anything, I don’t need distractions from that. Jimmy T, who is the engineer, is wonderful too, and since I wrote the whole record and recorded it with him manning the computer, he was great at giving me that kind of feedback when I needed it. In fact, I credited him on this record for additional production because he was really wonderful in that sense.

In the case of Andy Sneap, he’s a mix and master [engineer] and that brings it to the next level; it’s a whole nother step I try not to infringe upon. I hired him because he does an amazing job, he knows what the hell he’s doing. He has an incredible discography, he’s a guitar player and I have to be really careful there, because I don’t want to be too much in my own little bubble, like I’ve been working on this for three months and now I’m handing it over, and then tie his hands and not let him do his thing. So I really try to step back and be like, “Do your thing, and if there’s something that’s really not in the direction that I’m feeling, then we’ll talk about it.” But Andy was wonderful and very, very detail oriented, and took so much time to do this; he was really generous with his time to do this.

ML: You were producing some of the albums with Mike; there was this production team with Mike. So when he leaves as a drummer, it’s not just that, it’s this production team, but then you go on and produce the albums by yourself. What was that like for you in terms of the transition from being a duo producing team to being the only guy, and how important was Mike for you to sit in the booth and go, “OK, we’re making this album back and forth?”

JP: Very important – we worked together really closely on those albums and shared a vision on what we were looking for and how it should turn out; there’s no doubt about that. When he left the band, you’re right – my production partner left as well. I kind of took it on as a challenge, but discovered that it was something I was really, really into; I really enjoyed it. Yes, I had more weight on my shoulders, more responsibility. Producing a record – we’re talking about things that are a little abstract right now as far as the vision of the album and getting from point A to point B – but there’s also a lot of technical stuff and managerial stuff and clerical stuff that goes along doing all that. You’re kind of in charge of all of it. I had a lot more workload dumped on my shoulders, and then you realize what somebody was doing with you after they leave; like, “I never realized I have to do all this stuff as well.” But again, it’s something that I ended up really enjoying and continue to enjoy, and I’m just really happy and thankful that my band members trust me in that position. At any given time, they coulda been like, “John, you know what? We’re not into this. We’re gonna get so-and-so to come in.” They’ve been wonderful and they trust me, and I think that the success that we’ve had as a band since I’ve been producing solely has helped back that up as well, so they trust me in that position.

ML: You have done recent interviews where you’ve talked about Mike coming back and all this, but would you consider him as a production team to come back, and have the next Dream Theater with [him]? It may or may not be awkward, but it also may or may not be fantastic and great.

JP: [laughs] It’s an interesting notion for you to bring up, but honestly, no, I wouldn’t consider that. I’m selfish about it at this point – I don’t want anybody coming in! [laughs]

ML: Let’s quickly talk about Mike: he leaves the band, he goes off and does the Twisted Sister stuff, which I thought was fantastic. What did it mean to you when he left on a personal level? Because here you are – you’re battling it out on the undercard of bills, you’re in bars, you’re in small clubs and you’ve got this team; one of the team members leaves. Was it difficult on a personal level to just say, “Wow! We’re losing this great talent, but I’m losing my brother”?

JP: Yeah, of course, no doubt about it. We met when we were 18 years old; met him at Berklee. John and I went there out of high school, met Mike – he happened to be a fellow Long Islander, New Yorker – and we formed a band, and we were in a band for 25 years. You know the history of Dream Theater, so that was a blow both as a band member and as a friend. Because you are brothers when you’re in a band, and you spend a lot of time together. Not only do you spend a lot of time together, but your lives are so intertwined. Our families all grew up together; our wives were in the same band. When we got married, the wedding parties were like our band and their band; all the kids grew up together. It’s a big, big thing. So thankfully, that didn’t go away over the years.

Of course, when a band member leaves like that, there’s a lot to deal with, there’s a lot of business. Even if it’s amicable, things can get sticky and there’s a lot to work out. So you get through it, you work it out, and then there’s a little bit of breather time. “OK. Time to pick up our pieces and get our professional life back in motion,” which we did right away with Mike Mangini thankfully, and realized, “OK, everything’s gonna be OK and we’re moving on.” And great things happened, and as that time is passing, it’s a little more contact with Mike Portnoy, a little more hanging out, spending holidays... All the while like I said, families have all been friends, kids are all friends. Then eventually we get to the point we’re at now, where I’m doing a project. “Hey, why don’t you get Mike to play on it?” Nothing’s weird, nothing’s awkward, everything’s cool. We’re brothers and any of the nonsense that might have...

ML: Because there was a little bit of nonsense in the press for a couple of years, but when people are hurt, we say things that we don’t always mean.

JP: Yeah, and I pride myself in never having gone down that road at all. I have a lot of respect for Mike and that’s not my personality, not something that I would do. Those are decisions that you make, and then you’re thankful because you look where we are now: I get to have my friend who I met when I was 18 years old play on my solo album; he did a killer job.

ML: Terminal Velocity of course does have Mike on it. You have said that a lot of the drums were pre-programmed; there were drum tracks and he sort of came in and mimicked them or copied them or brought them to life, however you want to put it. Was there any room for him to improvise and put on his stamp? Did he have to stick to these demos? Talk to me a little bit about the drum tracks and what kind of freedom he had or didn’t have.

JP: I spent two months either writing new music or recording for the first time older music – like ‘Happy Song’ and ‘Glassy-Eyed Zombies’ – that maybe I played live or I had an old demo or whatever, but I never actually recorded. So I fully recorded the real ‘keeper’ guitars as I was writing the music and as I was recording all those older songs, and as I would write the guitar parts and record, me and Jimmy T would program drums. Jimmy T is a great programmer, he did most of it; thinking, “This feel here,” he plays bass, I play a little bass, “Let me put a bass part down, build this song.” By the end of two months, the songs were done, the real guitars were recorded, fully tracked, and there was drum programming and bass playing on it. It sounded like a finished album. I could have released it then. [laughs] It wouldn’t have been as good but it was pretty damn good. That’s what I sent to Dave and Mike.

Mike asked me, “Do you want me to play exactly what you programmed? I’m not really that kind of a drummer.” And I was like, “No, I want you to do your thing, for sure.” He’s like, “OK, cool.” He couldn’t get around learning the songs; he had to learn the songs, map them out. If there were specific tight instrumental lines I wanted him to play just like they were written, that was fine, but from the moment the click counts in, all the fills and everything that he’s doing, I mean that’s all him. That’s how it came to life. I would say that a lot of the feels on the record as far as if it was in double time, half time, etc., he was taking my guidance on what I programmed because that’s how I was imagining the parts, but he did his thing and as he did his thing, he was copying some of the guitar moments that I did on the record.

Dave LaRue was getting the stuff at the same time and we were communicating, “Hey Dave, Mike just laid down this drum track. Can you play that drum fill he did when he goes into a triplet? Can you match that?” And so that process of Mike approaching my already written pre-recorded guitar in a way that was more off-the-cuff, more instinctual, more spontaneous, and Dave LaRue playing to Mike’s parts, in the end made it sound like we kind of all played together, and the songs all have this great sort of spirit and energy and life. I love that and I was afraid about that or concerned about that because like I said, I had recorded all the guitars; they couldn’t be moved, I wasn’t going to change anything. [laughs] Tempos couldn’t have been adjusted; it’s just, “That was it. You gotta play to that.”

ML: But Mr. Portnoy’s a pro; he knows what he’s doing.

JP: He’s a pro. He came in, he nailed everything, he was great. He’s so funny – he doesn’t do a lot of takes – he will do one or two takes. He’s like, “Ah, I think I got it. Let’s come in,” and we’ll listen and it’s like, “Yeah!” He did a killer, killer job. It was great. And we got to hang out which was fun; he came up to my studio for about a week, so we had a good time.

ML: We jokingly at the front said ‘catalog artist’ and all this, but with this time off and with Dream Theater and things closed, do you start saying, “OK, maybe I just work the next six months on the next new solo album or get a head start on the next new Dream Theater?” Where do we go on this forced break?

JP: You’re right, yeah. I mean not a solo album – that’s done. [jokingly] I need 15 more years for the next one! In the case of Dream Theater, sure, we’ve had to pivot and adjust our schedule. We still had touring that was supposed to happen in the spring and the summer, and with that not be happening in the foreseeable future, we’re talking... There’s so many different things being floated around out there, and things are different in different countries, but we’re talking possibly over a year from now. Obviously, we’re not gonna sit around and do nothing. We didn’t plan on writing a new studio album this year, but we will, because that’s what we do; we’re creative people, we’re not gonna sit around. If we can’t perform live, then we’re gonna be creative, so that’s how we’re approaching this.

ML: By the way, in terms of touring and stuff, some of the European countries and some of those other countries are opening up, but they’re not allowing Americans to fly in, so you’re sort of like, “Oh wow! I can play St. Louis. Great.” [laughs] So is that a challenge though, not knowing that even if other countries open you may not be allowed to fly there?

JP: Yeah. There’s tons of challenges. I mean, this is something that none of us have ever faced – and not just us by Dream Theater – [but] every band on the planet. It doesn’t matter your level; everything was halted and stopped. Even when it goes back to some sort of semblance of normal, what is that going to look like? That’s also a big question. Are the venues gonna be at half or less capacity? What are ticket sales gonna be like? What’s travel gonna be like? And then if it all opens back up, is it all going to open back up at once, and then every band on the planet is gonna try to book shows? There will be no tour buses or crews or hotel rooms or venues to book.

ML: But that’s actually a problem because a lot of bands have held off releases. They go, “We’re gonna release it when we can tour,” and that’s like...

JP: ...it’s all gonna come out at the same time!

ML: Right! We’re gonna have 187 albums in February of 2021.

JP: You have to kind of expect that. Like I said, everybody’s in the same position. I’ve said this before, but as a musician, I’m able to make new music and there are opportunities for me career-wise to still be proactive. My heart goes out to the crews that are grounded, that aren’t able to work that all of us depend on so much. I know it’s really hard for those guys, so we’ve got to get to some position where everybody can work.