John Petrucci to UG About Learning Hours of New Material From ‘The Astonishing’: ‘It’s Not a Process I Enjoy’

Posted Jan 27, 2016 05:15 PM

“I wish I could just flip a switch and I’d just know how to play everything.”

If Dream Theater has previously pushed the limits of prog and metal on their earlier albums, it is nothing compared to what they’ve achieved on the new “The Astonishing” record. This time around, the band has written 34 songs taking up two CDs.

Built on an original story written and conceived by guitarist John Petrucci, “The Astonishing” also incorporates complex live orchestration and live choirs. Petrucci also pulled out his Taylor for the most extensive acoustic playing he’s ever put on record. Additionally, the album features the debut of the JP-2C, the first signature amplifier Mesa Boogie has ever built.

“I literally don’t have to look any further to any other Boogie,” Petrucci says. “This does everything I need. It’s the exact sounds I would ever need forever, hahaha. It’s really a dream come true. It really is.” Here, the guitarist talks about his new amp, the new album and the new tour.

UG: Dream Theater has recorded a lot of concept albums in the past but “The Astonishing” is the first real rock opera since 1999’s “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory.” How challenging was it to create the new album?

JP: The most demanding thing about this whole thing was just how much music was involved because we wrote two album’s worth of music. So, every step of the way from writing the story to writing all the music to writing all the lyrics and of course recording everything and even the mix, everything took twice as long as it normally does. There really, really was a lot of work to do. We had the entire album arranged for orchestra and choir. That’s a lot of music and a lot of scores. There’s 34 songs and that’s a lot of words to write as far as lyrics go and a lot to sing.

It was simply the volume of work that was most daunting?

That was the biggest challenge. In the beginning as far as writing, until I got a real grip on it after I had written the story and started to collect musical ideas and then I sat down with Jordan [Rudess, keyboards] and it was just the two of us, probably the most overwhelming thing was, “Alright, how am I gonna organize the story in such a way where I can apply music to it and start to write music for the different parts of the story?”

How did you approach that process?

It took this really organized way of doing things like storyboarding the whole thing and rearranging it over and over and rewriting and doing all this stuff. So that part in the beginning really was like I was scratching my head for a while until I was able to wrap myself around it.

In our previous interview, I had asked you about your approach to the guitars on the Dream Theater album and you said all the guitars and amps were set up from out the outset with all the sounds you were going to need. Was that your approach on this record?

This was actually a lot different because the last record we did set everything up and miked it and started recording as we were writing right from the start like you said. This time because of the nature of the kind of the album it was, it was just Jordan and I writing sometimes at each other’s houses and then eventually in the studio in a very kind of private, controlled environment. Sometimes just in a small room and sometimes in the control room. We really didn’t have a lot of gear set up. The band wasn’t set up really so it wasn’t until I started tracking that I got the guitar sounds set up. There was a bit of tracking I did during the writing that I ended up keeping. But for the most part when it was time to say, “OK, let me track the guitars now,” then I got my sound and started. So it was a completely different process this time.

You went back to Cove City Sound Studios in New York where you recorded the “Dream Theater“ album. For you as a guitar player, why do you feel so comfortable in that particular studio?

It’s a great studio. First of all, it’s on Long Island and it’s not too far from where I live. It’s a place we’ve called home for a few albums now so we’re really comfortable with it. We love Richie Cannata who owns it. We basically move in and we take over the place. It’s a real great environment for being creative and for recording. The guitar sound always comes out great there. They have a Neve board and an SSL and they have everything we need. [Studio A holds the Neve 8068 and SSL 4000G boards with Ultimation and a Pro Tools 10 HD 3 system, with Apogee Symphony I/O’s and a wide selection of plug-ins].

It’s obviously an unbelievable studio.

It’s just a really wonderful studio that makes us feel very at home. I think that’s important to be in an environment where you’re very comfortable and you can be yourself and be at your creative best.

Cove City is a digital studio?

Well, it’s both. It’s analog and then they have the Pro Tools right, which we recorded to. But we went through the Neve and the SSL. I think the SSL was for the guitars I’m pretty sure. I don’t remember. But yeah, so we’re able to mike up all the drums and have ‘em go through the board and then get that all on ProTools digitally. So it’s a combination.

You brought in Richard Chycki [Rush, Aerosmith] once again to record and mix the album. He has obviously become an important part of the Dream Theater team.

He is. He’s like a sixth member of the band. Actually he spent more time on this album than a lot of the bandmembers did because he was actually in there from the beginning once we moved into the studio and it was just Jordan and I. So he was there as we were writing and then through all he tracking of each instrument and each player. He recorded the vocals up in Canada for 12 weeks with James and then mixed the whole thing in the city with him for about two months.

You mentioned that James LaBrie did the vocals with Richard Chycki up in Canada. You weren’t there when the vocals were being recorded. Why?

Well, basically I had written all the lyrics and had many discussions with James as far as [direction]. This was a very deep album that was based on a story that has many characters. So it was, “How are we going to do this?” We talked about at one point bringing in maybe some female voices but eventually James said in our discussions, “You know what? I wanna do this myself. I think I can do this.”

Obviously you trusted his instincts?

I know he has lots of different ways he can make his voice sound. So when it came to recording vocals and especially on this album where he had to kind of discover these different character voices and work on them and make them up, it is the type of thing where you want to be in a private space.

Which makes a lot of sense because doing vocals that way becomes a really personal experience.

I know he feels really comfortable when he records with Rich. He has such a history with Rich. They were in a band together [Winter Rose] when they were younger and he’s worked on albums with James for a long time. There’s this kind of vibe when it’s just the two of them where I feel like, “Alright, even though I’m producing and I wrote the lyrics, I’m not gonna be somebody who’s there who represents almost a judgmental side.” You take that ingredient out.

That makes a lot of sense because your presence during those sessions could have upset that balance between the two of them.

Yeah. I gave him a lot of direction before he went in as far as, “This is how I picture this character sounding. This is his role.” Of course he read the story and had all the details but it was like, “I picture this voice as being more gruff. I picture this person as being more angelic,” et cetera. And then he took that information and worked on it. For the most part it would work.

Were there moments when the vocals didn’t work?

Sometimes James would send something back – as soon as they were done, they’d send it to me – and if it was off the mark, I’d give them my notes and we’d do it again. I have to say I think this is really such a high point for James as a vocalist. I think he pulled this off in an extraordinary fashion and it’s some of his best vocal work to date. I’m so proud of what he did.

And how did you approach the guitars on “The Astonishing”? Was there a lot of experimenting with sounds?

We were taking a lot of risks with this album with it being based on an original sci-fi, fantasy story and it’s two albums long and it’s a lot of new music and there’s real orchestra and real choir. There were so many risks we were taking and so many things that might take it out of the norm for Dream Theater that I felt the core sound of the band – the drums, the guitars – really needed to be the grounding to make this still sound like Dream Theater. So if anything I was really conscious of like, “Keep the guitars heavy and crunchy. Keep my solo sound the way I’m comfortable with and used to and has become my signature a bit.”

Had you messed around with new guitar sounds and stuff in the same way you approached the vocals, the album might have turned off Dream Theater fans?

I think that’s important that the sonic stamp of the band still sounds recognizable. I didn’t really wanna get too experimental with the guitar sounds. On the flipside of that, one of the things I did do that I don’t normally do is I went in and played off of the vocals and added guitar parts that played off of the vocals. You’ll hear more improvised little fills and things around vocal lines and stuff like that.

You’ve never done that before?

That’s something I don’t generally do too much. I thought it was really effective in this case because I think it added to a more musical interpretation. It added to the emotion because sometimes you can pull out those Neal Schon notes as they follow a vocal line and really lifts it. I did that a bunch.

The Music Man was the main guitar once again?

Yeah, absolutely. My Music Man Majesty guitar. In fact I ended up using the 6- and 7-string Artisan versions. Those were the guitars on the whole album. I had a bunch of my Music Man guitars in the studio and those were the two I continually went to and ended up using. There’s one song called “The Path That Divides” where I used a JP15 Music Man 7-string but other than that it was all the Majestys.

There was quite a bit of acoustic on this record.

There’s a lot more acoustic on this album. It’s definitely due to the fact that the music was written as a score to the story so we’re following the story arc and it means every moment can’t be guitar riffing. It has to go into those more sensitive or more acoustic moments.

What kind of acoustics were you using?

I got a couple of new Taylors that were really, really beautiful. The main 6-string Taylor I used was a new model: 916ce. There’s one song called “Heaven’s Cove” I used a 12-string and that was an 856ce. Yeah, they kinda play more of a featured role. The song “A Life Left Behind” actually starts with an acoustic, kind of proggy riff, which is something we’ve never done and has a very Yes sort of feel.

That is exactly the influence I got from “A Life Left Behind.” In fact, Steve Howe was one of your guys, right?

Steve Howe is totally one of my guys. I love his guitar playing and the way he layers his guitars. I love his use of acoustic and electrics and mixing that. He’s never been the kind of guitar player that gets a metal type of sound or anything so sometimes when you hear my playing you might not make that connection. But he’s a huge influence. Yes is one of my favorite bands of all time and the whole musical, prog writing style that we do comes from that. It really draws you back to his type of sound when there is a cleaner [electric] or acoustic guitar that’s playing more single-line, riffy things, notey things especially along with the piano or synth. Then it really gets that whole Yes arrangement vibe and you can hear that big time on “A Life Left Behind.”

The first vocal you hear on the album is “The Gift of Music” and that actually opens with acoustic guitar.

Yeah, that’s an example of a blend and that’s something I’ve been doing for a long time. In fact ever since the opening few notes of “Pull Me Under” where we discovered that sound. It’s a mixture of acoustic and clean electric because the acoustic gives the percussion and the piano-like quality and the body and the electric especially if we put chorusing on it gives the chimey-ness and I just really, really love that combination. Yeah, the beginning of “The Gift of Music” is a combination of acoustic and electric clean.

Your solo on “The Gift of Music” was the first solo everybody hears on the album. Because it was the first solo on the album, did you approach it in any specific way?

Those types of thoughts are more in initially constructing the songs and what their purposes are. In the case of “The Gift of Music,” I kept thinking of this whole thing – because we’re presenting this double-album as its own standalone show – every time we were writing and I referenced it, I kept saying the show. I would never say the album. Thinking about that and after the intro and after the first big overture, “The Gift of Music” is really the introduction to the album. It’s the first time the vocals come in and the first time you hear stylistically where we’re going. So that song does have that very positive, upbeat, progressive thing. So the solo sort of fits in with the style of that song really.

In constructing that solo then, you thought about it more as just a part of that song as opposed to the first solo on the record.

I wasn’t necessarily thinking, “OK, this is the first time they’re gonna hear me so I better make it good,” hahaha. I try to always play my best at any given moment ‘cause I really feel guitar solos are opportunities to help take the music further. It’s not just an excuse to noodle but to actually be its own musical composition that helps drive the music. But yeah, I had a lot of fun with that solo.

Your solo in “A Savior in the Square” was really lyrical and did exactly that: it really helped define and expand the song. Can you talk about how you created that solo?

Sure. First of all, thank you. I really appreciate that. I like having moments like that because especially as a lead guitar player in that case, I like to show different sides. To me, it’s always about, “What makes the most sense for the music at any given time.” That’s the connection. It’s the equivalent of when people say somebody is living in the moment. When you’re experiencing life in the moment, this is experiencing music in the moment. So the thing is to make a musical connection to what’s happening around you. Then if you’re gonna be the lead player, you want it to kind of fit in there and sound effortless to the listener so that it really is a musical experience.

Talking about sounding effortless and having a sort of organic feel – as if that solo was always there in that particular song – is what lifts a solo from good to great.

There really was a very simple melody that came right out. It didn’t take a lot of construction. It was very inherent to me in the music. Initially, I played it with a clean sound.

Really?

Yeah, that whole intro solo was with almost a bluesy, clean sound. Later on as I was recording solos and I listened back and I was like, “Uhh, I’m not sure if I’m really loving this.” I went back and did it with the very signature Boogie sound and did like you said that real melodic thing. But it originally existed exactly the same way but with a clean sound.

You mentioned the Boogie – your amp rig was the Mesa Boogies again?

This is actually news that hasn’t been announced yet and it’s gonna be announced very, very soon. I’ve been in development of a signature Boogie over the last couple years. It’s something that’s been a dream of mine since I’ve played Boogies forever. I played ‘em literally forever and they’re on every album I’ve ever done. I’m a huge fan of the Mark II C+ and I’ve begged those guys for years to do a signature amp but they don’t really do signature amps. They did a limited run of a Carlos Santana reissue of a Mark I but this is their first bona fide signature amp with a guitar player.

That must feel pretty amazing.

I am more than proud. I’m just bursting to talk about it. The entire album – all the rhythms, all the leads and all the cleans – was done with that one amp. It’s just tremendous. I was using prototypes because they weren’t even completely done. That’s what you’re hearing.

What will the amp be called?

It’s called the JP-2C and it’s awesome.

Can you describe the amp?

Like I said it’s based on the exact circuit of a Mark IIC+, which is my favorite Boogie of all time. In fact they actually used my favorite Boogie to model it off of. They went in and did the same transformer. It’s the real deal C+ and a real reissue of my amp that was made in the ‘80s. But we modernized it so the wish list I had was very much performance-based.

How did you update it?

We made it a three channel amp so there’s dedicated clean, then two lead channels. The original C+ just had one lead channel and one clean. There’s actually two graphic EQs, which none of the Boogies have had. It’s a first. Two graphic EQs so you can assign either lead channel to either EQ. Also the entire head is MIDI-capable, which is another thing they’ve never done with a head so it’s ready to go. You plug your MIDI cable into it and you can access all the channel switching and everything through MIDI, which is an amazing thing to be able to do with a head. It also has a built-in CabClone so you can play direct and that sounds incredible. So it’s just filled with all these really great performance features.

You will be performing “The Astonishing” in its entirety on your upcoming tour. That must be an insanely time-consuming process to learn two hours of new music.

You are 100 percent right, Steve. I’m actually doing that right now and it’s so overwhelming. I was talking to my wife and it’s like, “Do you realize even if I learn 20 songs, I still have 14 left,” hahaha. It’s so out of control and it’s just like this mountain of work. As I’m going back I’m like, “What the hell did I even play?” and I have to go back and relearn it. It’s absolutely insane and it’s driving me nuts.

That’s the thing: you play a part on record once and then you have to remember what it is you played.

I have to say it’s not a process I enjoy. I wish I could just flip a switch and I’d just know how to play everything, hahaha.

Since “The Astonishing” is based on your own sci-fi and fantasy story, this seems like a good last question: When the aliens land and find the Dream Theater time capsule, which three songs will they find inside and why?

Oh, wow. That’s incredible. That’s crazy, hahaha. They’d have to find “Pull Me Under” because that’s a song that kinda put us on the map in our career. It’s a big one and a fan favorite for a long time. I think they might find “The Spirit Carries On” from “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory” because there’s something about the message and the importance of that song. It’s very dear to a lot of fans and it’s very powerful in our career.

The third song?

I would immediately go to this new album because it is by far our most detailed and ambitious work to date. It brings everything we’ve ever been interested in from movies, the storytelling, the music, the visuals, all in one album. So I’d have to pick a song from this album. There’s a moment on the album where there’s actually two songs together: “The Walking Shadow” and “My Last Farewell.” I think it’s a really, really cool and dramatic moment on the album so we’ll put that one in the time capsule as well.

Thank you, John. Play all the good notes.

Thank you. Great talking to you again. Talk soon. Bye.