Dreaming Again: Dream Theater Return To The Forefront Of Progressive Metal

Joe Carona

February 14, 2000

Dream Theater’s John Petrucci Gives KNAC.com The Exclusive Story On The New Album & The State Of Progressive Rock

This is an exciting time to be a prog rock fan. The genre that brought us such heavyweight epics as2112, The Wall, and Operation Mindcrime has a new offering for thrill seeking listeners: Scenes From A Memory. The new Dream Theater release, Metropolis Part 2, is an enormous hunk of blistering prog-metal concept album, with unfathomable riffs, and diabolical plot twists. Continuing the tale of “Metropolis 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper,” from their breakthrough album, Images And Words, the DT boys have created their masterwork. The disc tells the tale of Nicholas, Victoria, murder, intrigue, and reincarnation. In short, Nicholas discovers through past-life regression therapy that he was Victoria, a young girl murdered under mysterious circumstances. Nicholas subsequently uncovers the bizarre truth of the tragic event, the apparent suicide of Victoria’s lover (“The Sleeper”), and the secret agenda of his Senator brother (“The Miracle”).

Currently on tour in support of this epic saga, Dream Theater, swung through Los Angeles for local shows that included a dazzling multimedia performance complete with screen projected images from the story, and a nightly run through of the album in its entirety, plus a barrage of older favorites, dating back to their first indie release. The first of two nights at the Palace in Hollywood, however, proved to be less than the usual Friday night rock show. Oversold, and overcrowded, the venue was shut down by fire Marshals just minutes before Dream Theater finished their opening song: a ninety minute live reading of Metropolis 2. Never missing a beat, DT announced that they’d continue to play the piece until they were dragged off. When the mikes were cut, the audience sang; when the monitors were cut, the band played on through stage amps, finishing the “Spirit Carries On” section of the new album. The frantic crowd proceeded to applaud the band’s heroic gesture, and stomped and clapped in hopes of bringing ‘em back; not for five minutes; not for ten minutes; but for a 53 minute ovation, until the riot squad finally cleared the venue.

I had the opportunity to meet with John Petrucci and James LaBrie earlier that afternoon. Lounging in their Palace dressing room, going through acrobatic vocal exercises, and fingering scales with inhuman dexterity, the two were charming and candid as we discussed the adventurous set for their current tour. James retired to rest his pipes, while John and I ventured into chat mode.

KNAC.com: “Hey, John. How’s it goin’?”

JP: “Doing great”

KNAC.com: “Caught the show you did in Santa Ana the other night. This is quite a show you got.”

JP: “Oh, yeah. It’s kinda challenging.”

KNAC.com: “Well, I wanna talk to you about the new album, Scenes from a Memory. In the grand tradition of concept albums, Operation Mindcrime, Misplaced Childhood, Dark Side of the Moon, this album will likely take on a life of its own; the plot will be discussed and dissected, and “talked about for years”. So, first off how did the concept for Metropolis 2 come about, and was it conceived during Images and Words when you recorded Metropolis Part 1, or later on?”

JP: “Well, no it was conceived back then. Metropolis 1 was written back in the Images and Words days, and I knew that there had to be a part 2, at least, but I had no idea what it was gonna be. So I think that what happened was that a few years later we wrote a song and we called it Metropolis Part 2; it was about a 25 minute song, and we were talking about putting it on our next record. But then what happened was, we got a new keyboard player (Jordan Rudess) and I didn’t want to just use the old song. So what Mike (Portnoy) and I thought would be a good idea, was to use that song as sort of the centerpiece to a bigger picture; a whole entire record of it. So that’s where it really all started.”

KNAC.com: “So when you were coming up with that, did you tackle the storyline first, or write the music first?”

JP: “The music. We knew what the general subject matter of the piece was, but we didn’t come up with the complete story until all the music was written. I always figure it’d work the other way, but what happens is we’ll have these bits and riffs and melodic themes, and some of them go unused; so as far back as Awake we’d have these bits we liked but they didn’t fit into one song or another so we’d throw em on the shelf, and when it came time to do this one we had some new music and the Metropolis 2 thing, and then we just pulled out some of the stuff off the shelf, and soon we had this huge piece of music to play with.”

KNAC.com: “Well you mentioned the 25 minute version; I know on the Internet there’s been this long rumored 25 minute version that was recorded back when Derek (Sherinian} was in the band. So is that something you’d ever release as a B-side, or on one of your now infamous Fan-Club Christmas discs?”

JP: “Absolutely not. The only version we have of it is one that we recorded right after we wrote it. You know, literally that night. And it’s the most sloppy, horrible rendition of a complex song that you can possibly think of. Then that was it. We never did it again, played it or recorded it or anything, until we approached this new record.”

KNAC.com: “Just generally, which sections of music from Metropolis 2 were included in that early version?”

JP: “Well a lot of the themes came from the original version. “The Overture” (1928) theme was from that; some of the riffs in “Dance of Eternity”, some of the crazy instrumental parts came from that, and the general concept came from the early version.”

KNAC.com: “In addition, to the dramatic storyline, and some very adventurous playing, the new album also has an awful lot for a listener to sink their teeth into, in the way of sound effects, dialogue, narration, and things to convey the action of the story; a very Bob Ezrin sort of feel to it. How did the band go about deciding on how to produce this record the way you wanted it to sound.”

JP: “Well, we decided going into this that we didn’t want to have a producer. The reason was that we were going into the studio with this huge concept, and this huge piece of music, but knew we’d have to finish writing it and tie it all together in the studio, and we couldn’t picture a producer sitting there while we basically write and complete the album. And the other thing is we just didn’t want to have any sort of pressure, or anybody looking over our shoulders to do this type of record. So we went into a great studio, with a great engineer, who we love to work with, and just figured ‘you know what; he’ll get the sounds, and we’ll just do it our way.’ So what ended up happening was that we had Kevin Shirley to mix a lot of it, he was wonderful, and then Mike and I were doing so much during the sessions, that we decided to call ourselves the producers.”

KNAC.com: “Thematically, of course, Scenes From A Memory begins as Nicholas (the present day character) comes to find out that he was Victoria (the victim of a mysterious murder/suicide) in a past life.”

JP: “Yeah, absolutely. That should be understood. That’s the central theme; you have to have that to move forward with the story.”

KNAC.com: “Good. OK, well, you know sometimes, you ask about lyrics, or plot specifics, and it’s like, well, you figure it out.”

JP: “Right. But yeah, that’s a big part of it; Nicholas is Victoria reincarnated.

KNAC.com: “Good, OK, well then one thing that maybe isn’t quite as clear cut is, what’s the significance of the Senator (the powerful political figure in the Victoria storyline) and Julian (the Senator’s brother) being referred to as “The Miracle” and “The Sleeper” throughout the story.”

JP: “It comes from Metropolis Part 1. Well, OK, this may sound funny, but we wrote this story like this; We wrote the music to Metropolis 2, the new record, and tied in a lot of the musical themes from Metropolis 1. We hinted at music from Metropolis 1.

KNAC.com: “Like Hemispheres hints at music from CygnusX-1.”

JP: (Laughs) “Yeah, well we’re huge Rush fans; you know where we’re coming from. But we didn’t really have any lyrical tie-in to Metropolis 1, and of course to get it just right, you have to tie it in. So we had this whole story about reincarnation, and we weren’t sure how to tie it all together, and I think the way we did it, well, I know the way we did it (laughs), was that we took the two characters from the first story. Now the first story, in Metropolis 1 is a bit vague. I wrote it a long time ago. And although we’re really proud of that piece of music, I was not too clear lyrically what was going on. Anyway, that story was about these two children, brothers, who come to be known as “The Miracle” and “The Sleeper”. One of them is given all the good things in life: opportunities, education. Then he rises to power and influence and great things. Then the other is basically told that he’ll never amount to anything, and how he spirals into lethargy. So it’s kind of a self-esteem thing, and how different people view the world and move through life. Those two characters, grown up, are the brothers, in this new story. So Julian, has a lot of problems. “The Sleeper”, because he has low self-esteem, has drinking and gambling problems; he just can’t seem to get his shit together. Then there’s the Senator, “The Miracle”, who has basically been lifted into a position of power, his whole life he’s been deified publicly, he’s successful, he has this big house, but the irony is, of course, that he’s the one who ends up murdering Victoria and his brother.”

KNAC.com: “So the album delves into this whole topic of reincarnation and past-life regression, so I was curious if you or any of the members of Dream Theater prescribe to any of those ideas, or think it’s a possibility.”

JP: “Well, none of us have ever tried that type of therapy or anything, but, yeah, I think we all think it’s at least a possibility. I mean, there’s so many things that happen where you go ‘Man, this is like deja vu’, or like, even with your own family; like I see it with my son. Sometimes he just does things, and it’s like I see my father in him. Little things he might say or do, you know? It makes you wonder. Then especially since I did some research on the subject, there’s a lot of things that make you think it would make sense. But I think the more general message of Metropolis 2 is the “the spirit carries on” message, which is more universal. It seems like many religions embrace the notion of life after death.”

KNAC.com: Research? So did Dream Theater actually, like, go to the library and check out book on reincarnation to write this record?”

JP: (Laughs) “Yeah. (Laughs) Well, I did. I read up on the subject. Got all the character names from books and tapes.”

KNAC.com: “Well, then is the little girl on the cover of Images and Words, Victoria as a child?”

JP: (laughs) “No, probably not. It could be though.”

KNAC.com: “Well, the show for this tour is pretty epic. I think everyone was pretty thrilled that you decided to do the new album in its entirety, as a concept piece, with visuals, and everything. So how did you go about picking the set list, and was there discussion about whether to pick and choose a few new pieces as opposed to including a 90 minute piece of continuous music?”

JP: Actually, the only time that there was any discussion was when we first toured in Europe, right after the album was released. So it was discussed, should we do the entire album, or should we just do certain parts. And at the time I thought it was important that we just do certain parts, because the people at that point, just weeks after its release are not gonna know the whole album too well, and we knew we were going to go back to Europe later on this tour, and so that was the only period where we didn’t play it all. Other than that, it was understood from the beginning that we wanted to play the whole thing.”

KNAC.com: “Are you guys totally exhausted after you finish this set.”

JP: “Yeah, we’re just thankful that we can get through it.”

KNAC.com: “Would you say that this is the most challenging show Dream Theater has ever put together?”

JP: “Yeah!! I think it’ll get easier as we tour, you know, but, what I always tell everybody this; because of the way we wrote it, a lot of the stuff we never actually played straight through as a band, because we were recording; we were in the studio. You know, you can stop, change something, go back, arrange things, overdub. So what we had to do was to actually learn the album as a whole piece of music and play it as a band. So some of the easier parts were fine, but “Dance of Eternity” (laughs), well some of that stuff is really wacky!! Yeah, definitely challenging.”

KNAC.com: “Let’s go back for a moment and talk about a bit of the band’s history. You guys started out as a band called Majesty. (FYI – the instrumental track “Ytse Jam” from Dream Theater’s debut album is “Majesty” spelled backwards) Who were the original members of Majesty and who’s still in the band?

JP: “Well, the original members who are still in the band are myself, John Myung (on bass) and Mike (Portnoy). Then Kevin Moore (original DT Keyboard player) was in that lineup, and our first singer in those guys was a guy named Chris Collins, who was a Kings Park (New York) High School buddy of ours. So we did a demo with him. Then Charlie Dominici came in. We weren’t Majesty when we got signed to Mechanic Records; we had to change the name because somebody owned it, so the first record ( When Dream and Day Unite) came out as Dream Theater.”

KNAC.com: “Is anyone in the band still in touch with Charlie?”

JP: “You know what, Charlie came to see us in LA, like, when we played the House of Blues a couple of years ago ( Falling Into Infinity tour). I think he moved out here.

KNAC.com: “I was listening to an old album the other day, and glancing at the liner notes and saw his name. It was a band out of Long Island that had a few pop hits in the late 70’s called Frankie & the Knockouts.

JP: “Yeah! (laughs) Yeah that was Charlie’s band.”

KNAC.com: “Wow, then he must’ve been quite a bit older than you guys.”

JP: “Yeah, he was. He was a lot older than us.”

KNAC.com: “So which of you guys are from Kings Park?”

JP: “I am. And John (Myung).”

KNAC.com: “And me. Born and raised at Harrison’s Pond!”

JP: “Really?! No way. You lived there? What Street?”

KNAC.com: “Knight Lane.”

JP: “No way; that’s so funny.”

KNAC.com: “We used to hang out at Harrison’s Pond and play guitar all the time.”

JP: “Totally. Me too. That’s awesome.”

KNAC.com: “King’s Park High School?”

JP: “Yeah, of course. Me, John, and Kevin (Moore), we all went there. Well, I graduated in ‘85.”

KNAC.com: “So I was two years before you.”

JP: “Wait, so do you know my sister? (laughs)

KNAC.com: (Laughs) Would you want to know if I did? I don’t remember. San Remo Elementary school?

JP: “Yeah, that’s where I went! This is so weird. Really funny. Who did you have?”

KNAC.com: “This goes back a ways. I remember Miss Small. Miss Rothman was the music teacher.

JP: “Yeah sure!! Miss Rothman. She became Mrs. Gilbert. She married the PE coach!

KNAC.com: “Right! Yeah, I think I had a crush on her when I was in her class. She looked just like.”

JP: “Olivia Newton John. Right!!! (laughs)”

KNAC.com: (Laughs) “Too funny!”

(Historical Note: Any DT fans looking for a pilgrimage opportunity that’s the equivalent of a Beatle fan visit to Liverpool, spend a day at Harrison’s Pond in Kings Park New York, find Mrs. Gilbert and thank her for inspiring John Petrucci to make music)

KNAC.com: “So, ever since the Majesty days the band has used that little “M” logo, which I understand was the crest for Mary, Queen of Scots. What was the significance of that, and why’d you continue to use it on all the Dream Theater albums?”

JP: “You know what? It’s just that when we were looking for some sort of logo for the band. like, ‘ooh, our band logo. Ahhh’, Charlie was actually looking through books, and he saw that, and drew it; and its similar to her crest. So he goes ‘hey, guys, check it out.’ So we used it. And as for why we keep putting it on our albums, I don’t know, now it’s just a part of the whole thing.”

KNAC.com: “Dream Theater fans, especially those on the Internet, seem to worship your every move.”

JP: “They’re, like, very into it.

KNAC.com: “Very into it. And yet a lot of critics tend to refer to Dream Theater as an overly technical band; pointing out the heavy note-density, or claiming that it’s not music but some advanced form of math or algebra. How do you feel about that type of criticism. Do you think your music is overly complex?”

JP: “I don’t think so. I think it’s actually very musical. I think our music has a lot of emphasis on melody and composition. I think it’s very musical. But, yeah, it does get real technical at times.”

KNAC.com: “Do you ever feel the pressure to make a record more complex or progressive to meet the expectations of the fans from the last album?”

JP: “It’s funny, you know, I like writing simple songs too, but it’s like, part of what’s fun when we get together, yeah, it’s fun to come up with the wild, crazy stuff and put it together. I think the fans kinda know us for that, which is cool, but as I said, I think we’re a very musical band, I think there’s a lot of content in the lyrics, of course we’re hug Rush fans; we love Yes, and all that stuff. So you know where we’re coming from.”

KNAC.com: “Well, speaking of complex music: Liquid Tension Experiment. How did that project come about?”

JP: “That was a thing with a label called Magna Carta, and they had offered me a project where they wanted me to get together with some of my favorite players. The opportunity to work with Tony Levin. (smiles) I think they originally wanted me to do covers, or something, by bands that influenced me. Then at the same time, they had asked Mike to do a project, and he was getting together with Jordan (Rudess), and one day he asked me if I wanted to do his project. So I said ‘you know I’m supposed to do one too, so screw it, instead of doing separate ones, let’s just get it together.”

KNAC.com: “Is there any possibility of a Liquid Tension 3?”

JP: “Probably not. Three of us are all in the same band now. If anything we’d like to do some more live playing. Maybe get a live album out of it.”

KNAC.com: “Actually all the guys in the band are involved now in outside projects. James has got Mullmuzzler; John recorded the Platypus disc. Is there any talk of any of those projects doing live dates, or anything in the future, or they just one-off things.

JP: “Yeah. I don’t know if they’ll do any live stuff.”

KNAC.com: “Mike is now involved in another upcoming project. A band called Transatlantic.”

JP: “Yeah. Right. I know all the guys. That’s Mike, and Neal Morse, from Spock’s Beard, Pete Trewavas from Marillion, and then the guitar player (Roine Stolt) from a band called the Flower Kings. It sounds a lot like Yes, or early Genesis. Real long songs. It’ll be out later this year. We’ll still be touring for this record.”

KNAC.com: “Touring in support of such an enormous concept album, did the band consider either floating a giant pig over the venues, or constructing a wall in front of the stage?”

JP: (laughs) “Yeah right! Do you want the real answer to that? Well the funny thing is that, yeah, we’re big Pink Floyd fans of course, and we’d love to have all that stuff, but we don’t play giant stadiums, so.. But we got the screens, and some lighting effects, and we’re making it work on this level.”

KNAC.com: “Does Dream Theater earn royalties by the note and is that why your songs are so frickin’ long?”

JP: “I wish we did! The question of notes is kinda funny, but I think, maybe in Europe, royalties are paid according to song length. So, like, A Change of Seasons made all kinds of money. (laughs) But it’s not per note. You’re not the first to say they either; I always make that joke, that if we got paid by the note we’d be millionaires.”

KNAC.com: “Does anybody remember laughter?”

JP: “Uhh. Zeppelin?”

KNAC.com: “Why does Mike Portnoy always put his bathrobe on at the end of the show?”

JP: “He gets pretty sweaty.”

KNAC.com: “Ok. Movies. The Wall, and even Marillion’s Brave concept album, have been made into long form movies. Have you guys considered the possibility of a screenplay for Scenes From a Memory?”

JP: “Yeah. I think it’d be great. It would make a great movie. But, you know, it’s not like we’ve got directors knocking down our doors. But I think it would be a great challenge.”

KNAC.com: “In a perfect world, who could you see cast as Victoria?”

JP: “Oh my God! Oh! I really don’t know. But for some reason I picture Victoria being a brunette. Yeah. I don’t know why. But I don’t know. That’s funny.”

KNAC.com: “Has the band discussed at all the plans for the next Dream Theater project and the direction you’d like to take the music in? Shorter songs? Or possibly a Metropolis III?”

JP: “Definitely not Metropolis III. It’ll be song oriented. Will they be shorter? No, not consciously. It’ll be whatever we come up with. And with Jordan in the band now, I think it’s safe to say that stylistically it’ll continue in the direction of this record, which is, you know, metal mixed with prog; that’s kinda what we’re about. So we’ll continue that way.”

KNAC.com: “OK, these are the last three questions, I’ll just rapid fire them at you. Critical questions, though.”

JP: “Ready.”

KNAC.com: “What was the first album you ever bought?”

JP: “Oh, I think it was Yes. No, I think it was In Thru The Outdoor. I think so. John Bonham!

KNAC.com: “Roth, Hagar, or Cherone?”

JP: “Oh, Roth! Yeah.”

KNAC.com: “And if you were trapped on a desert island and you could only bring one Rush album with you, which would it be?”

JP: “Only one Rush album? Only one? Ummm, I think Hemispheres. Yeah.”

KNAC.com: “Beautiful. Well, thanks again. It was great chattin’ with you.”

JP: “Yeah, same here. Its real funny that you’re from Kings Park. You take care.”

Of course, just hours later, Dream Theater’s explosive conceptual foray into cinematic grandeur came to a screeching halt at the Palace. The scene outside the theater was a chaotic sea of frustrated rockers with severe cases of prog-us interuptus. Thankfully, the Saturday night LA show was marked by a dazzling and full-length set from Dream Theater. Running through the complete piece of Metropolis Part 2, as well as DT standards, “Peruvian Skies,” “Voices,” “ Pull Me Under,” “Fortune In Lies,” and “Take the Time”, Petrucci’s Kings Park contingent gave LA a night for to remember. Somewhere in New York, tonight, Mrs. Gilbert is proud of a coupla kids from her music class, who learned their scales and made it to the big time.