Photo by John Zocco

 

Ultimate-Guitar.com recently invited their readers to submit questions to be answered by Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci. An excerpt from the online Q&A; is available below:

Q: What are some non-prog bands that inspire you? 

Petrucci: "Well, it depends on how you view prog. Because sometimes I categorize bands like Metallica for example as being a form of prog. If you listen to their music and song forms and especially earlier on, it was very out of the ordinary from what was going on in the length and arrangements and things like that. But if you just wanna call that metal, that would be a big influence. That's always been a big one. In fact I've always said Dream Theater's whole style kind of emanated from two kinds of fields."

Q: What were the two styles? 

Petrucci: "One was prog and we were really into Rush, Yes and Pink Floyd. But at the same time because of our age and what was being played on the radio, it was everything from Ozzy to Metallica. So we had that whole influence of metal and that combined is really what crafted our sound and our style. It's been that way ever since and that kind of philosophy of where a prog band plays in a metal style. It's kind of fun so it's sort of the best of both worlds." 

Q: You talk about Metallica being a major influence on the band. Did you ever see Dream Theater following in that tradition as a two-guitar group? 

Petrucci: "Yeah, I always did. A lot of bands we were influenced by that I was certainly into like Iron Maiden and Metallica, they did have two guitar players. But in a few different situations whether it be with Return to Forever with DiMeola and Chick Corea or even when we got into Yngwie and his band came out and he had Jens Johansson on keyboards. Even back to the Doors and the early stuff I was listening to with Kevin Moore, there was always a guitar/keyboard thing. Floyd was like that and as much as I was into the two-guitar bands, I always found it more interesting to interact with keyboards. I thought you could cover a broader spectrum that way so that's what I drifted towards."

Go to this location for the complete Q&A.;

Dream Theater are gearing up for the September 30th release of Breaking The Fourth Wall (Live From The Boston Opera House), a live Blu-Ray / DVD set of the band’s one-of-a-kind performance from the Boston Opera House on March 25th, 2014. They have posted an official photo gallery featuring shots from the production at this location featuring 26 shots.

Produced by the band’s own John Petrucci, filmed and directed by Pierre and François Lamoureux, and mixed and mastered by Richard Chycki, Breaking The Fourth Wall (Live From The Boston Opera House) is over 2 hours in length, capturing the special evening, which featured guest performances from The Berklee College of Music Orchestra and Choir. Breaking The Fourth Wall (Live From The Boston Opera House) arrives September 30th.

The collection will be available in multiple configurations including Blu-Ray, a 2 DVD set, and a webstore deluxe exclusive Blu-Ray/3 CD set with poster. Furthermore, Dream Theater have premiered a video of “The Looking Glass” (Live) taken from Breaking The Fourth Wall (Live From The Boston Opera House). All pre-orders will receive an instant download “The Looking Glass” (Live).

Pre-order options at this location.

Dream Theater’s John Petrucci commented on the special event saying, “In many ways, this was a huge homecoming for the band given the history of Dream Theater’s origins and ties with Berklee. With John and I both being alumni and Mike having been a professor at the college for 10 years, we saw the opportunity to perform together with the students of Berklee as a tremendous thrill and honor. We are extremely grateful for everyone's hard work in making this special event a reality and to all who participated.”

He continued, “All of the Berklee College instrumentalists and vocalists did an outstanding job that night and it was awesome to have one of its students, Eren Başbuğ orchestrate and conduct them live at the Opera House after having been a part of our latest studio release in the same capacity. Dream Theater has always had a great connection to the city of Boston and we knew that against the backdrop of the beautiful Opera House, this would end up being a historic stop on our 'Along For The Ride' world tour and an evening most definitely worth capturing on video. Beautifully filmed and directed by Pierre Lamoureux and brilliantly mixed and mastered by Richard Chycki, this is in my opinion, a major highlight in our nearly 30 year career as a band. We are eagerly anticipating its release this fall and really hope that everyone enjoys it!”

This past year Dream Theater earned a second Grammy nomination for “Best Metal Performance” for the single “The Enemy Inside” from their current self-titled worldwide smash album (released September 24th, 2013 on Roadrunner Records). Dream Theater made a spectacular debut this past fall, topping Billboard’s “Hard Rock Albums” chart while simultaneously entering at #7 on the overall Billboard 200. The extraordinary chart position marked the group’s third consecutive top 10 debut, and also saw Dream Theater making top 5 chart debuts in Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, Holland, and Finland, as well as top 10 debuts in Denmark, Austria, and Norway, with career high debuts in the United Kingdom and Australia. The band recently announced new tour dates which will see them bring their spectacular live show to South America, Asia and Australia later this fall.

For up-to-the-minute news, tour dates and ticket information, head to this location.