"John Myung - Living The Dream"

by Karl Coryat

Bass Player April 1998

p. 33-36



Most musicians would kill to have fans as rabid as Dream Theater's. Like

erstwhile Deadheads, they trade set lists, live bootlegs, and bits of

information across the Internet with incredible attention and devotion. But

unlike the largely cultural phenomenon of the Grateful Dead, Dream

Theater's fan base was built entirely from the band's music. A large

proportion of Dreamophiles are players themselves who attend the band's

shows for dazzling instrumental displays and grandiose arrangements, not

just good tunes. To be worshiped en masse by your fellow players - what

more could a musician want?



Critics are quick to point out the cerebral, note-heavy, often

self-indulgent nature of Dream Theater's music. (Those 13-minute,

three-part songs just aren't cool to some people, you know?) Yet if there's

one visceral, grounded element to DT's sound, it's the bass playing of John

Myung. Amid blazing guitar solos, drum pyrotechnics, and vocal coloratura,

Myung rarely flashes his impressive Berklee-honed chops. Instead, he's

usually holding together the music with rock-solid, sequencer-like

ostinatos, huge B-string pedal tones, or simple but harmonically rich

fretless figures. On the band's fourth full-length album, Falling Into

Infinity, Myung expands his sonic territory to the Chapman Stick, a

12-string electric axe played entirely by tapping.



Even though the grungified world might turn up its collectively pierced

nose at such arcane sophistication, John and his cohorts pride themselves

on not following trends or cramming themselves into pigeonholes. They play

only the music they want to play, and somehow they've found an audience

that gobbles it up and comes back for me. Since last fall the band has been

on a year-and-a-half, around-the-world tour, doing their own thing for

insatiable DT fans several times a week. A bassist's impossible dream?

Pretty much!



For this interview Myung, 31, wasn't interested in discussing his

background or Dream Theater's past. (He was profiled in February '94, and

extensive information about the band can be found at its official Web site

www.rsabbs.com/dt and the unofficial DT Web site www.dreamt.org.) Instead,

he wanted simply to promote the new album and the Signature Series bass he

co-designed with Yamaha. Another example of following his own lead and

kowtowing to nobody? Perhaps, but hey - if he's attained god-like status by

doing just that for years, why stop now?



***



KC = Karl Coryat

JM = John Myung



KC: Dream Theater songs can get very intense and note-heavy, but you rarely

depart from a foundational role. How do you avoid the temptation to

overplay?



JM: I guess it's just the way I chose to live within the tracks. My

challenge is always to come up with a bass line that I can really live

with, something that doesn't bother me - and some of my favorite bass lines

the most solid, functional ones. I don't mean to say you need to limit

yourself, but when it comes to building a song, I think your job as a bass

player is to find the perfect supportive line.



KC: What new musical directions did you take in recording Falling Into

Infinity?



JM: For one, I wrote a song, "New Millennium," on the Chapman Stick. That

was very positive and inspiring, because I was able to bring to the band a

new element. I love the character and different sounds the instrument has,

which partly come from the fact that the notes are tapped.



KC: How much of the inspiration comes from the sound and how much comes

from the technique?



JM: The sound dictates the type of playing you're going to do. I approached

the Stick with a bass player's mindset, playing grooves - rhythmic,

supportive ideas that lock with the drums - but I also wanted to explore

the other things that felt natural to me. It was definitely a learning

experience; it made me very conscious of space, because sometimes I would

play something and step into the guitar department, and I'd have to think,

Okay - back over to the bass department! I was never conscious of space

until that happened. It made me listen more to what was going on around me,

and it made me find things that could live in harmony with the other

instrumental parts.



KC: How did you get turned on to the Stick?



JM: When I was going to Berklee in '85 - '86, a friend of mine had one. The

instrument was completely foreign to me. But I'm a fan of Peter Gabriel and

King Crimson, and I've become a big fan of Tony Levin and the Stick work

he's done with them. Over the years, it just slowly grew on me to the point

where I actually wanted to play the Stick. Tony really gave me the desire

to pursue the instrument and explore what it's all about.



KC: What about Tony's playing do you admire the most?



JM: He just has a way of coming up with the best bass grooves - really

solid ones where you could drop a bomb on them and they'd still work. I

also admire his nuances, especially on Peter Gabriel's So [Geffen]. That

whole album is a masterpiece, but even if you listen to just the basslines,

it's quite amazing.



KC: You've also expanded your fretless playing.



JM: That's something I'm really pleased with. [Producer] Kevin Shirley was

able to inspire performances I didn't know I had in me. For example, the

first half of "Peruvian Skies" is very Pink Floyd-like. One night Kevin

brought me into the control room and told me the bass playing wasn't doing

anything for him. He wanted me to try a different approach, so he asked me

to take out my Yamaha TRB fretless. I started recording, and in the

beginning I didn't know where I was going with it; I was kind of just

playing anything. But then we took a break and he put on Pink Floyd's The

Wall [Columbia]. We listened to the fretless playing on "Hey You," and

Kevin told me, "Go out there and play with the Roger Waters mindset - be

Roger Waters." [Editor's Note: Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour claims to

have played bass on "Hey You."] So I immersed myself into what was

happening on that track, went out there, and did the best I could on

several takes. By the next day he had comped the track together [made a

composite performance from several takes], and when I listened to it, I was

amazed - it didn't even sound like me. I'm thankful he didn't just say

"Okay, play to this song"; he challenged what we put down onto tape and

asked questions like, "Is this really the best you can do?" Or, "Is this

really the best approach?"



JM: The whole recording process was different. With our earlier albums,

we'd record all of the drums at once, and then we'd do the rhythm guitar

for all of the songs at once, and then all of the bass lines, and so on.

When you do that, you don't really get to explore the nature of each song,

and you get kind of numb to everything. For this album we decided to record

one song at a time, and when we were done with a song Kevin would mix it

and master it, and then we'd move on to the next one. That was great

because it allowed us to give each song the attention it needed and to

explore all of our creative options. We also got a more diverse album, and

the songs ended up with more dimension and character.



KC: Since recording, have you been working on any new musical concepts?



JM: Well, I'm in touring mode right now. I have my bass with me, and this

morning I did some practicing. But we have only one tour bus, and between

the band and crew it tends to be quite crowded. Practicing in that

environment is difficult, because no one wants to have a headstock in his

face. But if most people are asleep and I'm up, I can carve out a little

space and do some playing.



KC: What do you work on?



JM: I try to find new ways to weave chord tones together: coming up with

all of the possibilities, meditating on that for a while, and then finding

out which ones I want to remember. Chord tones are valuable tools for a

bass player; all styles of music use them, so I'm always trying to find

different ways of playing and understanding them.



KC: Does your playing ever fall into a rut?



JM: Yeah, but whenever that happens I try to change my point of view - the

way I look at the instrument.



KC: How?



JM: Normally you take a scale or chord and learn it, and that's great - but

it's also important to spend time applying it in a musical way, like using

it to create a melody over changes. Or say you want to study the harmonic

minor scale; I'd recommend looking into all of the modal changes from

degrees 1 through 7 and the chord-formation possibilities that are there.

Also, the different phrases that can be created by starting on each degree.

I've found that once you find a new way to look at something, you

understand everything more. That's when ideas start coming to you.



KC: Do you compose much on the road?



JM: A lot of ideas, both lyrical and musical, tend to come to me on the

road. I record them onto cassette and save them. When it comes to actually

writing, it's helpful to have a lot of inspiration already captured; then

it's just a matter of listening to the ideas, sifting through them, and

crafting them into songs.



KC: What keeps you going over the course of an 18-month world tour?



JM: Going out and playing in front of thousands of people is one of the

most amazing feelings; I can't really put it into words. We've been playing

in some small arenas on this tour and right before a show it's incredible

when there are 7,000 people out there totally psyched to see you. Then the

intro tape goes on and you walk out onstage, and the rush of adrenaline

happens. It's a feeling that just has to be experienced to be believed.



KC: Would you say live playing is your whole reason for being a musician?



JM: We go through different modes - a writing mode, a recording mode, and a

touring mode - so there are many different aspects of where we are right

now as a band. We're a live type band, but we also appreciate the studio

side of things: collaborating on ideas and constructing songs. We love the

creative mindset of writing and recording.



KC: Considering your knowledge and technical abilities, what's left for you

to explore?



JM: There's an awful lot that went on before my time - players such as

James Jamerson who added tons to the craft of bass playing. Every time I go

into a record store I try to find another CD with Jamerson tracks, and I

try to get into that head space a little. There's so much out there it can

be pretty overwhelming, so I'm not going to pursue it all at once. The way

I look at it, that's what I have a life for. Bass playing is my love, my

life - and there's a lifetime of information out there that deserves to be

investigated.



Equipment - Building A Dream Bass



John Myung has favored basses by Spector, Tobias, Tung, and lately, Yamaha.

He wasn't crazy about his TRB6's string spacing though, so he and Yamaha

engineer Leo Knapp began collaborating on a Signature Series bass, which is

expected to start shipping this summer. "At the beginning, John mentioned

there were a lot of very nice but really expensive 6-strings out there, and

he wanted to come up with something more affordable," says Knapp. "We also

wanted to go with a 35" scale length to help articulate the B string, and

we'll be using a maple veneer on the top. A lot of times, if you put a 1/4"

or 1/2" cap on the body, it starts to noticeably affect the sound; plus,

it's hard to get consistently good wood in those thicknesses. The veneer

will eliminate those problems and look great at the same time." Underneath

the cap will be a basswood body core. The electronics aren't finalized, but

on the current tour Myung is playing a prototype with active pickups he

says "don't make any noise at all." One thing that is certain, though, is

an infinity-symbol fingerboard inlay. "I came up with a variety of

designs," says Knapp, "and that was the weirdest one I made. I had no idea

Dream Theater was going to call the new album Falling Into Infinity, but of

course that's the design that John picked." Instead of a single intricate

inlay, the symbol will be made of abalone fingerboard dots to keep costs

down. "I'm very proud to be with a great company like Yamaha," says Myung.

"Getting a signature bass doesn't happen to a lot of people, and I feel

fortunate and honored to have been given the opportunity."



Karl Coryat

Bass Player