John Petrucci of Dream Theater had a chat with Bloody Disgusting last Friday about the band’s Grammy nomination, the recognition of metal worldwide and whether their political opinions effect where they play. Petrucci had some pretty interesting points to make, read below!
BD: While it must be amazing getting a Grammy nomination, the foundation is not really known for showing much love or appreciate to the rock and metal genres outside of their own categories. It often feels more like a popularity contest rather than an actual appreciation of music and the hard work that goes into it. Do you find yourself having these types of feelings at all?
JP: You know? I dont. Im a member of the Recording Academy and I see the way it works and even with the whole voting process its broken down into specific categories. There are Pop categories and Dance and Rock and Metal and Film and Score and everything else. Basically when you are voting you are urged not to vote in the category that you dont know anything about and to base your vote on the music itself. Its not based on popularity or friendships or anything else. Its a pretty big pool of voters.
The style of music that were playing, this progressive metal style, has always been an upstream battle for us. We dont usually get a lot of commercial exposure. I think that this genre being represented at the Grammys in the Metal category for two years in a row now is a recognition and an acknowledgement of something thats less mainstream and more on the periphery where theres tons of fans all around the world but the average person might not know about it.
So, in this case, I think its quite the opposite. I think theyre starting to recognize styles that havent been quite exposed in the way that a lot of pop music might have been.
BD: Do you think theres some reason for this recognition? Some sort of catalyst that caused it?
JP: I dont know. Ive always said that theres a huge progressive rock, progressive metal audience out there, in the world. We see it when were on tour. You can be in your own little sort of bubble in your hometown in the US and you hear whats on the radio. If you dont go beyond that you dont know. But weve seen it all over the world, in South America, Europe, Asia, across the US and North America and Australia. Theres huge audiences for this stuff. For me its always been there and its just a matter of time before the people have more of the means to spread the word. Its probably no coincidence with the internet and social media and the word being able to spread beyond the radio, where fans can go and talk and congregate and trade stories and a band could communicate news very quickly and in a worldwide basis. Im sure thats helped in bringing in this case us to more of the forefront of peoples attention.
BD: A lot of countries that you tour have some very negative press regarding their governments and their policies. For example, theres Russia and their view on homosexuality or Ukraine and the current riots. Bands like Pain Of Salvation have used that to say they wont tour a country because of these political situations. Is that something that Dream Theater thinks about or do you just go, play for the fans, and ignore the government?
JP: Im realizing this more and more that its one thing to get involved with your own political beliefs and stand behind you believe in personally. But as far as bands doing that in a way where they think theyre going to fight the government, the only people theyre really hurting is the fans. I hear it all the time in countries that you wouldnt expect or where there are lots of problems. There are still fans there and they dont give a shit. They love the music and they want to see you and its a shame that sometimes they cant. So, this is all about the music and music is a communication. Its a two-way street. You need people to play to in order to make that connection complete. Thats the way we look at it.
You cant chase that. The world changes so quickly. Last tour we played in Kiev and it was incredible and look at it now! Theyre having so many problems! It doesnt mean theres anything different with the fans or how they appreciate our music or how we think of them. We were just there, it was great! So you really cant think that way in our case.
Check out the rest of the interview at Bloody Disgusting
