Interviews

Interviews: John Petrucci of Dream Theatre

Interview with John Petrucci, guitarist in Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment

Jeremy: You're a very diverse player. What's your musical background? Did you come from a musical family?

John Petrucci: All the children in my family played instruments. They never stuck with them into their adulthood, but they did play. My sister played the organ, my little sister played clarinet, my brother played bass. We all played instruments. I'm the only one that kept going and pursued it.

Jeremy: Do you have a long history of formal training?

John Petrucci: I went to Berkeley College. Right after I graduated high school I went for a year and I didn't stay for the full four years. That's where I met Mike [Portnoy, Dream Theater drummer] and we started the band.

Jeremy: Do you find yourself having more creative freedom with Liquid Tension Experiment?

John Petrucci: It's a different type of creativity because there's no vocalist. There's actually not a lot of pressure because there are no preconceptions. It's not like it has the history that we have to keep up with. The guitar and the keyboard end up taking over a lot of the melody. We do have a lot of freedom creatively.

Jeremy: Does Liquid Tension Experiment ever play live or is it just a side project only for the studio?

John Petrucci: We actually wanted to do a tour after we recorded the second one, but we only had the opportunity to play four shows, but we'd still like to do something in the future. It depends on our schedules. Tony Levin is very busy, so it'd be kind of hard to nail him down.

Jeremy: How is it working with Jordan [Rudess, Liquid Tension Experiment keyboardist] as Dream Theater's new keyboardist? Can we expect the next Dream Theater album to have a more "jam" air about it like Liquid Tension Experiment?

John Petrucci: Working with Jordan is unbelievable-that's the reason he's in Dream Theater. There is such a chemistry and I have so much respect for his playing and writing that he just had to be in the band. So, it's been incredible working with him on the new Dream Theater. It's not going to have the improv kind of thing. That's not what we were going for with Dream Theater, but it will have that similar kind of energy. We wrote the record in the studio, the same way we did with Liquid Tension. Same process. No sort of demo stage before.

Jeremy: Is "3 Minute Warning" really just a complete jam?

John Petrucci: Yeah. That section was just us picking up our instruments. Tony Levin [bass, Liquid Tension Experiment] really wanted to jam and he said that if we didn't jam in three minutes, he was going to leave. He wanted to go home. He was waiting all day to jam. So, we jammed and there's no preconceptions or anything.

Jeremy: After going through so many keyboardists, how accurately does Jordan reproduce the former players' parts?

John Petrucci: So far we only played one show which was in Korea and it was a nightmare because it was outdoors during a typhoon. We did rehearse with him. We had one rehearsal-just one. He was unbelievable. The music sounded better than ever. He reproduces all the sounds and then some and he can obviously play all the parts, so when you see us live, the old material will be recreated way, way closer to what's going on on the records.

Jeremy: As far as your Ibanez signature series goes, how's it feel to have your own model?

John Petrucci: It's great. It's totally a dream come true. I could pick one up off the shelf and use it for a show that night.

Jeremy: Is this an exact replica of what you play?

John Petrucci: Yeah. It's very consistent. I know that I have a certain sound and a certain feeling guitar whenever I pick it up.

Jeremy: What other gear do you use?

John Petrucci: I use a ton of gear! As far as amplification, I'm a big Mesa/Boogie man. I have a ton of stuff. I use a lot of really good signal processors like T.C. Electronics, Lexicon, Eventide, all the high-end stuff.

Jeremy: One of my favorite Dream Theater moments is the interlude in "Metropolis-Part 1." How does Dream Theater come up with breaks like that?

John Petrucci: A lot of that is similar to the Liquid Tension type of writing. It's real stream of consciousness. It's like you just kind of go in there and you don't have any rules set. So it's not like, 'oh, we have to do this four times and repeat this.' You just kind of write the stuff and put one art into the next. It's a stream. Whatever we feel should happen next happens.

Jeremy: You manage to be an astounding player without leaning on speed and showing off your technical abilities all the time. How?

John Petrucci: I am very influenced by players that have a really good sense of phrasing and melody. Growing up I was drawn to like Neil Schon, the way he plays melodically. And also the compositional styles of players, not just their technique, but how they write music. Like the music of Yes and Rush and Steve Morse and the Dregs. Definitely, developing my technique has been an important part of my playing so I can do whatever I want to. That's really important to me. But, it's not the be all and end all. Music is more than that. It's one element of it and I like to be more expressive in a well-rounded way.

Jeremy: Dream Theater is somewhat unique in that everybody seems to contribute to the lyrics. When you pen words, do you do it before or after the music? From where do you draw lyrical inspiration?

John Petrucci: Generally, I write the lyrics after the music. There've been a couple of occasions where I've written the lyrics at the same time as the music. I don't really write a poem and then apply the music. I don't do that. As far as inspiration, sometimes, some things are science fiction. You know, you're laying there in bed thinking of some wacky story or you maybe experienced something in a movie or a book or something that sparked an idea. A lot of it is also philosophical perspectives on things that happen in your life. You know, experiences, good and bad and how you deal with those. Everybody goes through things that hit them emotionally. It's good to be able to express those lyrically. It makes for a good song.

Jeremy: How does having a child affect your life in Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment?

John Petrucci: Well, we all have children now. I have three, Mike has two, James [LaBrie, vocalist] has two, Jordan has two, and John [Myung, bass] is the only one who doesn't have any kids. We definitely as fathers want to spend more time with out kids. We realize the importance of that. It doesn't change what we do musically. It definitely inspired us. We experience a whole different group of emotions having children. The only way it's affected us and changed the way we do things is to be more responsible as a father, not just be out there 24-7.

Jeremy: I remember a Guitar World cover a few years ago picturing a corpse-like Joe Satriani and touting the message "Shred is Dead." Weighed against the rest of pop music, how do you think Progressive rock is doing? What do you see in Prog's future?

John Petrucci: Well, I mean it's obviously not very popular. If you look at the Billboard top 200, it's like Ricky Martin, Britney Spears, Limp Bizkit; it's nothing like Progressive Rock. I don't know. Whether or not it'll ever be in the Pop limelight in the way it was in the 70's, that remains to be seen. I don't know if that can happen. I tend to lately hear more about bands doing it, but unfortunately there aren't a lot of bands that have exposure on a major label at that level. So, usually, the public doesn't hear about them.

Jeremy: What's in store for the future of John Petrucci, Liquid Tension Experiment, and Dream Theater?

John Petrucci: Well, as far as Liquid Tension, we'd like to play more shows live. It's a matter of nailing down Tony and figuring out when we can do that. We don't have any plans right now to do another record for LTE, but you never know. As far as Dream Theater, we just finished up our latest and we are now gearing up for its release which will be October 26th. Once that comes out, we'll embark on a world tour. We'll spend the next year or so all over the world supporting it.