JOHN PETRUCCI REACHES TERMINAL VELOCITY

Dream Theater’s resident lord of the strings uses the lockdown as an opportunity to record some sick instrumentals — with a little help from former bandmate Mike Portnoy

- JON WIEDERHORN

IN EARLY 2020, WHEN DREAM THEATER WERE TOURING EUROPE TO CELEBRATE BOTH THEIR latest album, Distance Over Time, and the 20th anniversary of 2000’s Scenes from a Memory, John Petrucci had no immediate plans to finish writing his second solo album, which he has worked on sporadically between Dream Theater activity over the past few years. At the time, there was hardly time to think, let alone put together a schedule for anything that didn’t involve his main gig. The band was scheduled to remain on the road through at least the end of April and then begin discussing the follow-up to Distance Over Time. But then, like every other touring group, Dream Theater were forced to ground operations in late February due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only were the musicians unable to play shows, but they also couldn’t practice together or work on new material since Petrucci is in Long Island, New York, which, in March, was near ground zero for the Coronavirus and all the band members were adhering to CDC guidelines, wearing masks and socially distancing. It didn’t help that vocalist James LaBrie was at home in Toronto. And the band didn’t want to work together digitally.