Nikola Savi? of Prog-Sphere.com has conducted an interview with Dream Theater's guitarist and founding member John Petrucci. A couple of excerpts from the interview can be read below:

Prog-Sphere.com: Do you think that with two Grammy nominations we have progressive metal receiving some kind of recognition after all these years?

Petrucci: "It definitely seems like that. I mean, this is the style that we’ve done from the beginning. We believe in it, and we know that all around the world there are people that appreciate that kind of music, there’s fans of this style of music, it’s been around for many years and our metal twist on it, it’s something that we’ve been doing for almost 30 years now. So yeah, I think it’s relevant and it’s important since today’s music scene is definitely reflected, not only by a lot of young bands that are fusing the style into their music, but also by being recognized by many different organizations, including the Grammy. So, it’s really cool. Because it’s something we love to do, we believe in it and it’s great to get that kind of recognition."

Prog-Sphere.com: The North American Along for the Ride tour kicks off on March 20 in Toronto. Will you be making any drastic changes in the setlist, comparing with the setlist you perform in Europe?

Petrucci: "No, the set’s gonna be the same and the way that we are doing things this time around it’s very – there’s a certain flow through the set and through the story. Everything has a meaning and a purpose, all of the songs that we chose, all of the visuals and everything. So, it’s more like a storyline that goes through the show. In order to deliver in a most professional, exciting and consistent way it was important for us to keep the same set, so it’s gonna be the same and I’m actually really excited to bring it in North America, because we’ve got incredible reactions to it here in Europe. It’s a very unique set, it’s a lot of music, it’s an evening’s worth, there’s three hours and it’s really intense. I can’t wait to bring this to North America – US, Canada, Mexico. It’s gonna be great."

Prog-Sphere.com: You decided to take a different approach in the studio for this album. The idea was to capture the live energy of the recording session. How much did you succeed in doing so, in your opinion?

Petrucci: "In my opinion I think that we completely succeeded in that. We had a great engineer Richard Chycki (RUSH), he’s set all the sounds so it’s really dialed in from the beginning, so anything that we wrote and recorded from day one we were able to keep. And so there’s a lot of spontaneous performances that are captured that you hear on the album. I think like doing things that way, it kind of makes the energy level and the spontaneity that much higher and that much more of an element on the album. I think we definitely succeeded, I can feel it. You know, when I listen to it, crank it up in my car or wherever, to me it’s very exciting. It has a lot of attitude, energy and spirit to it."

Read the full interview at Prog-Sphere.com.