DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci is featured in a new interview with Pollstar.com. An excerpt is available below:

Q: The new album seems to be a hit with your fans. Are you ever worried about how new material will go over?

Petrucci: "You know what, when we toured we did some open-air shows over the summer and we played one of the songs, the song that’s nominated, 'On The Backs of Angels', and that went over really well. And we just finished a North American tour and the response to the new songs is so great that we actually added one or two (to the set), because we were getting reactions from people who were really liking the new songs and upset sometimes that we weren’t playing some of them."

Pollstar: You guys are huge overseas, maybe bigger internationally than in the U.S. Have you pinpointed a reason for that?

Petrucci: "It’s a very good question. I’m not 100% sure why. It could be a cultural thing. When we tour in America, the shows are great, and the fans are just as passionate and excited as anywhere else in the world, but in other parts of the world, in parts of South America and in parts of Europe and Asia, the size of the venues and the amount of people we get at concerts is considerably more. Differences of playing to 20,000 people as a headliner as opposed to 5,000 or 6,000. Yeah, there’s a significant difference.

In some cases it’s something that we’ve built. Like the UK, for example. The first time we played in London we played a club. We built to the point where we were able to now headline and sell out the Wembley Arena. So sometimes it’s a matter of working hard and going back and building it. And in some countries you’re going for the first time, and there’s an amazing amount of people because there’s an anticipation possibly. Further into our career, if we hit a country for a first time, like a couple years ago going to Moscow in Russia for the first time, or wherever it may be, then having a developed career backing up it, then those initial shows are very big.

We’ve built from the beginning. I do remember the first couple of times coming to Europe, and we played clubs and smaller places. In Europe, they do have the festival opportunities that we take advantage of, which we don’t really do in the U.S. So maybe we’re hitting a lot more people that maybe never heard of us in that sense. So that might be a reason as well.

The other thing in the U.S, is that – while we’re thankful to have a great fanbase no matter what – maybe radio and TV and stuff like that plays a bigger role in expanding a band, their level of recognition. Whereas in other countries, in South America and Brazil and places, maybe it’s just that a lot of people really love metal and hard rock and really want to go to concerts and they don’t care if it’s on TV or the radio, maybe it doesn’t matter as much.

There is a built-in cultural thing where people enjoy metal music and they enjoy progressive rock music, progressive metal, where it’s this big thing where it might not be as much in the U.S."

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Roadrunner Records recently issued the fourth of four webisodes featuring Petrucci and TRIVIUM's Matt Heafy discussing guitars; playing technique, exercises, and much more. The webisodes were filmed when the bands were on tour together in 2011.

Check out parts 1 - 4 below: