John Petrucci (Dream Theater): “I was trying to get that classic, dark, mysterious feel... almost like Randy Rhoads in ‘Diary of a Madman’”

This may be a moment many have been waiting for, for 15 years. Dream Theater have returned with their sixteenth studio album, Parasomnia. The album is the first with the iconic lineup of vocalist James LaBrie, guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, keyboardist Jordan Rudess and drummer Mike Portnoy since 2009’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings. The album was produced by Petrucci, sound handled by James ‘Jimmy T’ Meslin and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returns once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art. We wanted to get the inside scoop on the record and called up none other than John Petrucci.

Albert Perera: Hi John and thanks for sharing your time with us, your schedule has been more than full with the 40th anniversary tour.

John Petrucci: No problem and yes, it has been quite a world tour.

AP: How did it go? We were able to see you in Madrid and the truth is that everyone was delighted.

JP: We started in October. Our first show of this 40th anniversary tour was October 20th.

AP: Yes, in London.

JP: Yeah, so a long time in Europe, we went to so many countries, and it was incredible. Really incredible. The audiences were fantastic. The shows were huge, and we’re having so much fun on stage. We have been in most parts of Europe and then we just played in America, for example in Mexico City, which was an outdoor show, so that was fun. Then South America up until Christmas.

AP: I was in Madrid for the show, and we all can see that the band are very close and playing like never, in my opinion.

JP: Yeah, we’re really having a lot of fun on stage. It’s been great having Mike back in the band and just kind of reconnecting with that original chemistry that we all had together. We’ve known each other forever. We met when we were 18 years old, and you just feel like you’re back on stage with your buddy and your brother. And so I think that energy is definitely obvious to the audience, like you were just saying.

AP: But here we are to talk about the new album, this Parasomnia, 16th studio album since Black Clouds, and first with Mike. I have to say that I enjoyed listening to the new songs. I think it’s great material. And every time that I listen to the record I can find, as always happens to me, with every Dream Theater album... Every time I listen to the album, I discover and rediscover new elements, new melodies, new things, because there’s a lot of elements.

JP: There are

AP: You produced the album and engineered it by James Meslin and mixed by Andy Sneap, repeating the team of  A View From the Top of the World, another excellent album in my opinion. I guess you feel great working with this team and also with the rest of the band.

JP: Yeah, for sure. Jimmy T is such a great engineer and he’s been engineering our records for a while now that, like you said, A View From the Top of the World just mixed by Andy. And I think that combination – Jimmy T, Andy and myself producing – I’m really happy with the way we work together and how everybody kind of sees it the same way. We’re all on the same page as to how we want this, the music to sound and to come across. And of course, the band is very happy with it as well. And they put their trust in me as a producer, which I’m very happy about. And everybody in the band is super happy about how it came out. So, yeah, I love that. I love that team. I think it’s awesome.

AP: As we said James has been working with you since a long time ago. He knows, I guess, how to explode your sound. Did you change anything from the usual way of working this time for this album? Because working with the same people, maybe at the end of the day the incentive is to try something new...

JP: Yeah, no, we did. Actually, we have our own studio that we built probably about six or seven years ago. But we had actually just an expansion. We expanded the size of our live room.

So that was something new that we were doing in there. I think that really helped the sound of the drums and everything. And, yeah, James or Jimmy T, as we call him, he’s always looking to experiment with new microphones, new ways of doing things. Even with the guitar, we went a little bit retro and we were able to buy the original Neve preamps that were used to record the guitars on all the classic Dream Theater albums, from Images and Words to Scenes From a Memory to Train of Thought. So we’re combining like vintage gear with new techniques and new mic techniques, and it’s always a lot of fun. It’s very adventurous.

AP: Andy is becoming, or maybe it’s better to say, he’s one of the great audio mixing guys and audio engineering of metal scene...

I agree.

AP: Especially in the last times with classic heavy metal, working with Priest or Saxon. What do you value the most in their contribution to these two albums, the last two albums, to how it sounds and especially the new one?

JP: Yeah, well, Andy, I mean, he I agree he’s one of the best mixers out there now. And I think that he really just understands guitars. I mean, guitars are obviously a big, big part of heavy metal music and as are drums, too. You know, whenever you listen to an Andy Sneap mix, it just immediately sounds big and aggressive and three dimensional and he really understands it. And what I absolutely love about him is that he takes so much time and on the details of the mix. He really, really cares. He’s really passionate about mixing and making sure that the music would sound as best as it can. So he’s always questioning and refining and going back.

And I can’t tell you how generous he is with his time on the music. We work very closely together through the mix process and he’s just unbelievable to work with and especially on the latest Dream Theater album. I think this is the best sounding Dream Theater album in our catalog. And I think that’s because Jimmy T did such an amazing job recording it. But also Andy really brought it home with the mix, making it sound just epic. As soon as you put it on, you get sucked into it.

AP: And he’s not afraid of trying new things, because I remember, for example, a video that is on YouTube in their studio in England, he built something trying just move a microphone, just to separating from the amp, millimeter to millimeter and trying to change the angle and with these kind of things to find the right sound.

JP: Yeah. And he is very adventurous and very inquisitive. And he’ll all we literally talk every day when the mix is going on. And he’s always questioning, “Hey, do you think maybe with the kick drum, we should try this?” He’s always trying new gear, new plugins, new things. And that’s what makes him great. Now, he’s always questioning and saying, “Is this the best that it could be? Or could it be even better?” So, yeah, he’s amazing.

AP: You mentioned the expansion for the live room of your studio. Thinking about that I guess you work the new songs together and not individually with your own ideas and showing to the others at some point...

JP: Well, we wrote the record together. We started in February. We wrote it with everybody in the room. And as a guitar player, of course, I always prepare riffs and chord progressions and ideas and things like that. And I always bring that into the so we have some starting points, we have some direction.

And of course, I came into the band with the idea of calling the record Parasomnia, which is an idea I had a few years ago. I just thought it was like the perfect title for a Dream Theater album because it deals with sleep disturbances and we’re called Dream Theater. So it couldn’t be more perfect. And it also led to like a really sort of dark and mysterious and heavy dream state kind of record. So that was great. The whole band was on board with going in that direction. And, yeah, we did write it together in the studio.

AP: Talking about this parasomnia that you mentioned, can we consider this Parasomnia concept album? Because parasomnia, as you mentioned, is a term for disruptive sleep related disturbances, including sleepwalking or sleep paralysis and night terrors. And all the album have this common element.

JP: Yes, exactly. Yeah, this is definitely a concept album. You know, the way that I like to picture it the way Dark Side of the Moon is the current concept album. It’s not a concept album where there are characters and a plot and a story. But there’s a common musical, there’s a common lyrical thread, which is, like you said, all the sleep disturbances. And there’s also common musical threads that connect the songs, recurring melodies and themes and also little cinematic vignettes that connect the songs and make the listener feel like they’re going on some kind of adventure. In this case, it’s a sleep adventure and all of the kind of disturbing and weird things that happen while you’re sleeping.

AP: Actually, people are used to listening to songs in advance or singles with Spotify and these kinds of things. For me, these songs take all their meaning in the context of the album. It happened, for example, with ‘Night Terror’, in my opinion, listening to the whole album, the song became even different because I feel it belongs to the concept. This goes against how the music industry works today. What’s your thoughts on it?

JP: Yeah, I agree. I absolutely agree. In fact, this is our 16th album. We’re celebrating 40 years as a band, so we’re definitely old school where we still think that albums and we call them albums that they should be listened to from beginning to end, because that’s what we used to do when we were growing up. We would get a new album, whether it be from Rush or Pink Floyd or whatever, and we would invite our friends over and put the album on, turn down the lights and listen to the whole thing as if we were watching a movie. And so we still feel that way. So we still write records in a way that we want the listener to experience the whole thing from beginning to end, just the way you did.

AP: Musically, I think it’s clear that, in my opinion, it’s one of your hardest albums. In some way, it reminds me Train of Thought. Maybe this is the reason you played songs from that album in the 40th anniversary tour also.

JP: Well, I agree that it’s definitely a heavier album. I think that the theme, the Parasomnia theme, is very dark. That lyrical content is very dark. And so that led to the heaviness. Also, just getting together, with Mike rejoining the band, being in the studio, you have all this energy and excitement and that leads to a lot of riffing and heavy things. So that was definitely part of the inspiration. As far as the setlist, you know that Mike put together the setlist for this tour. And he tried to really celebrate the 40 years of Dream Theater by picking songs from different albums across our catalog that were fan favorites. And some of those are the Train of Thought songs, for sure.

AP: It’s difficult to talk about the songs because I feel we can talk about each song for at least 10 minutes. Two that touch me especially are ‘Dead Asleep’ and ‘Midnight Messiah’. The first one with that very heavy riff and the pitch harmonics, quills, and the second one with a riff that is very close to classic heavy metal. Again, very heavy.

JP: Right, right. You know, ‘Dead Asleep’ is one of my favorite songs on the album. The chord progression that starts that song off and the main riff is something that I had worked on for a while. I really was trying to get that classic, sort of dark, mysterious... like almost Randy Rhoads, ‘Diary of a Madman’ vibe to it. And I really love the way that song came out. And ‘Midnight Messiah’, yeah, again, I think that when writing an album, if we’re talking about people listening to it from beginning to end, then you want the mood to be different as you’re listening to the album.

You know, sometimes it’s great to have stuff that’s really heavy and technical and progressive because that just kind of is exciting. And then sometimes it’s great to have things that are more mysterious or mellow or beautiful because that kind of gives you relief. But also, when you have stuff that’s more straightforward, more heavy metal, more traditional, that also brings a sense of like, it makes the album more interesting, because all of a sudden, oh man, there’s a song I could rock out to and I could head bang and fist bump or whatever the things you’re doing. And so I think that’s important to keep the album diverse. And also songs like that, like ‘Midnight Messiah’, I bet is going to be great live when we play it. I bet the audience is really going to groove on that. And same with ‘Dead Asleep’, as a guitar player, when playing those kind of heavy riffs, I really see the reaction in the audience. Those are some of the more fun songs to play for sure.

AP: Honestly, I think this album can be played entirely live because it makes sense.

JP: Yeah, I agree. And that’s something that we hope to do later in the tour. But eventually, yeah, we’d like to kind of shift things to more focus on Parasomnia. And it would be great to play it from beginning to end. I think it would be a really cool experience for the fans. I think that we could do some really great imaginative things with the visuals of the show. And I look forward to that. Yeah, it’s going to be great.

AP: Now I understand a lot of things because one month before starting your tour in London, I had the chance to talk with Mike and just told me about the new album that is definitely classic Dream Theater. Once I listen to it, I can understand.

JP: Right, right. Exactly. You get it. Yeah.

AP: Well, you have already made it clear that you are going to give all possible support to the new songs live, even with the possibility of playing the whole album. It wouldn’t be new either, you have already done it on previous occasions.

JP: No, exactly. I think Parasomnia definitely will be a great one to do the whole thing. But yeah, sometimes we play an album in its entirety because it’s a concept album like Scenes From a Memory or The Astonishing. But sometimes we play Dream Theater albums in their entirety because we’re celebrating an anniversary, maybe it’s the 20th anniversary of an album or something. And so it’s fun to do that as well. So yeah, we’re no strangers to playing full albums.

AP: Talking a little bit about you as a musician, you’ve been playing Ernie Ball guitars since 2014 I think and recently a new edition of your Majesty guitars appears celebrating the 10th anniversary. There’s a 20th anniversary and now this 10th anniversary could be a little bit confusing maybe?

JP: Yeah, well actually I started playing Ernie Ball/Music Man guitars in 1999. Yeah, so it’s like 25 years with Ernie Ball/Music Man and it’s been amazing. Lots of anniversaries like you said, The Majesty now is celebrating its 10th anniversary. I debuted the special 10th anniversary edition Majesty in the ‘Night Terror’ video and that’s a beautiful silver guitar we call Silver Chalice. That’s the color with the incredible pickup covers that Larry DiMarzio did. We debuted that guitar and when the video came out, all the guitar players were like, “Oh, what is that guitar? I need to get one.” So that guitar is finally out and available. It might be sold out so people should check if it’s still available.

AP: Are you still using the VR2 mics live?

JP: Yeah, we’re doing that live. In the studio we get a little bit more detailed and put a bunch of different mics on the cabinets. But I think the VR2s from SE, they really do the job. Just one microphone on each cabinet. I play in stereo so there’s a left and a right and they do such a great job bringing the sound to life.

AP: A couple of days ago I was watching a video on YouTube about all your gear live for this tour. I think it’s your guitar tech. He explains something about the two pedals that play with the single to the L and to the left and to the right just to become the guitar signal in a stereo signal. It’s crazy.

JP: Yeah, there might have been an older video. There is a pedal I was using called a Mimic pedal by TC Electronic that does that kind of left-right thing. On this tour I’m not using that. I went old school. I’m using an old TC Electronic 2290 which if you remember that rack unit was just classic on every album. Every studio of course still has a 2290. I used to use those in my racks for years and years and years and I decided to bring one back. So now I’m using that to do that split that you’re talking about. It sounds so cool. Really classic sounding.

AP: That proves that even for you that have been playing guitar for a lot of years and you’re obviously one of the best guitar players in the world, there’s always something new to discover.

JP: Oh man, well thank you for saying that. I’m always, always tweaking. Always. That’s why my company is called Tone Mission. I’m always on a Tone Mission. I’m always experimenting and exploring. That’s also what I love about Andy Sneap because he’s the same way as a guitar player. It never ends. It’s a continuous Tone Mission.

AP: Can you expect in some point in the future, I know you’re focused right now in Dream Theater, but can you expect in some point in the future an album following Terminal Velocity?

JP: That was the first musical thing that I did with Mike since he left the band. I asked him to play drums on the record. He did such a great job. We even toured together on that album. I did my first ever solo tour a couple of years ago. I’m not thinking about it right now.

AP: Well, we hope to see you playing the new Dream Theater songs live. Thanks for your time.

JP: OK, nice talking to you. See you then.