John Petrucci - Dreamtheater (24/10/2014)
Dreamtheater's John Petrucci kindly took some time out recently to chat to The 59th Sound about their epic impending Aussie tour.
The band's monumental influence and talent - both as a group and individuals - has more than justifiably yielded them top notch spots in countless publications 'best ever' lists, and continues to crowd their (presumably gigantic) trophy shelves. "For us it's like, we're all students of music, y'know? We all continue to try to grow and practice. We all love it, we all listen to music, watching and hearing talented people. To get acknowledgement from our peers, and from the different circles of music is a great sort of affirmation of what were doing. Because we love it! We're fans ourselves and never too proud to say that there's more to learn.”
At this point, a particularly vocal chicken in your interviewer's backyard interrupts John's train of thought. "I hear a chicken! I was wondering what that was. That's great, that's awesome." Brief as the chicken's interruption was, it bares no comparison to the mammoth three-hour set times that Dreamtheater have come to masterfully churn out for privileged audiences the world over. "We started doing that a while back. We'd go see bands like Rush who were doing that. Or 'An Evening With...' situations like Pink Floyd, and we always thought that was kind of cool because if you're a big fan you can just go and experience all of this music. The band has a flexibility with that amount of time to really reach back in to the catalogue and play a big variety of songs. For us it works perfectly with the amount if music we have out and the lengths of our songs and everything, it gives us way more freedom. It's something that after a few tours if not doing that, having opening bands - even two or three on some occasions - we definitely were getting the request to do that again from our fans. I think they really wanted to see an evening where it was just us and kind of breaking it up in to two acts is a good way of making it work for people as well. It is a long show to stand there and play."
John freely elaborates on how one musters the physical and mental energy to play in front of a crowd for three hours. "I guess there's certain things you learn to do as you get in to it. You learn how to pace yourself, knowing what time the show is, when you should have that perfect shot of espresso so it's timed correctly, when you should eat, so you're not distracted by anything on stage. How long to warm up, all that kind of stuff you kind of get in to a rhythm, I guess. Once we're in to it and playing, it kind of goes by pretty quickly for us, actually! One of the things that makes it really enjoyable is it's not just playing together and be able to be musicians and do what we do, it's the reaction and interaction with the people in the audience that really makes every night unique and special energy. Even on days before you hit the stage and you're tired, you'd be surprised. You see people dancing and smiling, there hands up in the air, and you get tons of energy back. It's awesome."
When off to see your favourite band, it's gospel that somewhere deep down you'd hope they'd play every damn song they've ever written. Even with a three hour time slot, there's no way Dreamtheater can achieve that impossible wish. Although they come a far deal closer than most bands, it's curious to find just how they decide on what's worthy from their sprawling and immense back catalogue, and if fans get to help choose. "We do it ourselves, but it definitely is a lot of pressure. You know that's at the end of the day, you're certainly not going to satisfy everybody. You know how it is to see a band, they don't play a certain song that you want and you're disappointed. I think the best thing for us to do is every time we go in to it, it to try and create a unique set list. Something that maybe isn't just the same every album cycle, so you're not just seeing the same songs. We do try to think 'What have we played before? What is a rarity? What special events are coming up?' Things like this tour, we took a really fan-based approach. Although it came from within the band, we thought 'Hey, the Awake album came out twenty years ago, lets do a chunk from that. Scenes came out fifteen years ago, let's do a chunk from that. Let's really play some songs we've never played before, and make it something really special."
"When you do that you're certainly taking a chance, because you could alienate people who didn't like that album, or maybe there's too much of this or that. Fortunately on this (recent) tour, we've got a lot of great positive reaction to the set list, and it was wonderful. It makes it even better."
After such a storied career making such complex and ambitious music, it's interesting to see how John approaches creating new material, and whether or not the stigma of it having to resemble his classics is apparent. "You got to be careful with that, because the reason we got in to this in the first place and why we love doing what we do is the art. It's because we're musicians, we love to write, we're creative people, and that's what we love to do. So you always have to make sure that's at the forefront, and you're not doing it for somebody else, somebody else's reasons or motivations. When you do that, the music comes out in such a way where there's integrity you can hear and feel, people pick up on that, I think. That's when they enjoy the music. If you start kind of chasing around what this or that person would like, second guessing, you start doing it for the wrong reasons and can get yourself in to a lot of trouble. You don't want to be contrived, that's not a good thing."
With talk of new martial, it's curious checking to see if any is on the horizon for Dreamtheater once they're home from the forthcoming Australian stint. "We'll definitely need a bit of a lie down once this tour is finished, for sure (laughs). We've been touring since January. The shows in Australia will be the last of the tour, so that'll actually wrap up the world tour. Then we'll go home and have a couple of months just to really decompress, be with our families, enjoy the holiday season, and all that stuff. At the same time, were always writing, we're always thinking. It's kind of what we do, always looking to the future. It's something that we're really fortunate to do, y'know? Being creative and writing music is what we live for."
Before departing, John happily spares a message to further entice their already deeply dedicated (but geographically distant) Australian fan base. "We don’t come to Australia every time we tour. Its unfortunate we don't get there every time. So this time we are! Not only that, but they're the final two shows of the tour, so I would say that if you're a fan, you enjoy the music, you want to come see us play, it's probably going to be your final two chances in a while (laughs). Last two shows of the tour! We're so excited to be coming down there, and we hope everybody can join us."
Todd Gingell
An evening with Dreamtheater - Australia 2014
Wednesday 29/10 - Melbourne, Palais theatre
Thursday 30/10 - Sydney, Big Top
The band's monumental influence and talent - both as a group and individuals - has more than justifiably yielded them top notch spots in countless publications 'best ever' lists, and continues to crowd their (presumably gigantic) trophy shelves. "For us it's like, we're all students of music, y'know? We all continue to try to grow and practice. We all love it, we all listen to music, watching and hearing talented people. To get acknowledgement from our peers, and from the different circles of music is a great sort of affirmation of what were doing. Because we love it! We're fans ourselves and never too proud to say that there's more to learn.”
At this point, a particularly vocal chicken in your interviewer's backyard interrupts John's train of thought. "I hear a chicken! I was wondering what that was. That's great, that's awesome." Brief as the chicken's interruption was, it bares no comparison to the mammoth three-hour set times that Dreamtheater have come to masterfully churn out for privileged audiences the world over. "We started doing that a while back. We'd go see bands like Rush who were doing that. Or 'An Evening With...' situations like Pink Floyd, and we always thought that was kind of cool because if you're a big fan you can just go and experience all of this music. The band has a flexibility with that amount of time to really reach back in to the catalogue and play a big variety of songs. For us it works perfectly with the amount if music we have out and the lengths of our songs and everything, it gives us way more freedom. It's something that after a few tours if not doing that, having opening bands - even two or three on some occasions - we definitely were getting the request to do that again from our fans. I think they really wanted to see an evening where it was just us and kind of breaking it up in to two acts is a good way of making it work for people as well. It is a long show to stand there and play."
John freely elaborates on how one musters the physical and mental energy to play in front of a crowd for three hours. "I guess there's certain things you learn to do as you get in to it. You learn how to pace yourself, knowing what time the show is, when you should have that perfect shot of espresso so it's timed correctly, when you should eat, so you're not distracted by anything on stage. How long to warm up, all that kind of stuff you kind of get in to a rhythm, I guess. Once we're in to it and playing, it kind of goes by pretty quickly for us, actually! One of the things that makes it really enjoyable is it's not just playing together and be able to be musicians and do what we do, it's the reaction and interaction with the people in the audience that really makes every night unique and special energy. Even on days before you hit the stage and you're tired, you'd be surprised. You see people dancing and smiling, there hands up in the air, and you get tons of energy back. It's awesome."
When off to see your favourite band, it's gospel that somewhere deep down you'd hope they'd play every damn song they've ever written. Even with a three hour time slot, there's no way Dreamtheater can achieve that impossible wish. Although they come a far deal closer than most bands, it's curious to find just how they decide on what's worthy from their sprawling and immense back catalogue, and if fans get to help choose. "We do it ourselves, but it definitely is a lot of pressure. You know that's at the end of the day, you're certainly not going to satisfy everybody. You know how it is to see a band, they don't play a certain song that you want and you're disappointed. I think the best thing for us to do is every time we go in to it, it to try and create a unique set list. Something that maybe isn't just the same every album cycle, so you're not just seeing the same songs. We do try to think 'What have we played before? What is a rarity? What special events are coming up?' Things like this tour, we took a really fan-based approach. Although it came from within the band, we thought 'Hey, the Awake album came out twenty years ago, lets do a chunk from that. Scenes came out fifteen years ago, let's do a chunk from that. Let's really play some songs we've never played before, and make it something really special."
"When you do that you're certainly taking a chance, because you could alienate people who didn't like that album, or maybe there's too much of this or that. Fortunately on this (recent) tour, we've got a lot of great positive reaction to the set list, and it was wonderful. It makes it even better."
After such a storied career making such complex and ambitious music, it's interesting to see how John approaches creating new material, and whether or not the stigma of it having to resemble his classics is apparent. "You got to be careful with that, because the reason we got in to this in the first place and why we love doing what we do is the art. It's because we're musicians, we love to write, we're creative people, and that's what we love to do. So you always have to make sure that's at the forefront, and you're not doing it for somebody else, somebody else's reasons or motivations. When you do that, the music comes out in such a way where there's integrity you can hear and feel, people pick up on that, I think. That's when they enjoy the music. If you start kind of chasing around what this or that person would like, second guessing, you start doing it for the wrong reasons and can get yourself in to a lot of trouble. You don't want to be contrived, that's not a good thing."
With talk of new martial, it's curious checking to see if any is on the horizon for Dreamtheater once they're home from the forthcoming Australian stint. "We'll definitely need a bit of a lie down once this tour is finished, for sure (laughs). We've been touring since January. The shows in Australia will be the last of the tour, so that'll actually wrap up the world tour. Then we'll go home and have a couple of months just to really decompress, be with our families, enjoy the holiday season, and all that stuff. At the same time, were always writing, we're always thinking. It's kind of what we do, always looking to the future. It's something that we're really fortunate to do, y'know? Being creative and writing music is what we live for."
Before departing, John happily spares a message to further entice their already deeply dedicated (but geographically distant) Australian fan base. "We don’t come to Australia every time we tour. Its unfortunate we don't get there every time. So this time we are! Not only that, but they're the final two shows of the tour, so I would say that if you're a fan, you enjoy the music, you want to come see us play, it's probably going to be your final two chances in a while (laughs). Last two shows of the tour! We're so excited to be coming down there, and we hope everybody can join us."
Todd Gingell
An evening with Dreamtheater - Australia 2014
Wednesday 29/10 - Melbourne, Palais theatre
Thursday 30/10 - Sydney, Big Top