Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band comprised of James LaBrie, John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, John Myung, and Jordan Rudess.Dream Theater was formed in 1985 under the name “Majesty” by Petrucci, Myung, and Portnoy, while they all were studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, before dropping out to help support the band. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remain today along with LaBrie and Rudess. Dream Theater has become one of the most commercially successful progressive bands since the height of progressive rock in the mid-1970s, despite being relatively unknown in mainstream rock circles. Though the band has had a few extremely successful hits (notably ‘Pull Me Under’ in the early 1990s, which had extensive MTV rotation), it has mostly stayed underground for its career, feeding off support from fans.
The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won many awards from music instruction magazines. Dream Theater’s members have collaborated with many other notable musicians.
Guitarist John Petrucci was named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any other invited guitarist, following in the footsteps of Eric Johnson, Robert Fripp, and Yngwie Malmsteen.
The band’s two highest selling albums are Images and Words (1992), which was awarded a gold record although it reached only #61 on the Billboard 200 charts; and Awake (1994) which reached #32 on the Billboard 200. Dream Theater has sold over two million albums in the U.S., and over eight million albums and DVDs worldwide.
The band is currently promoting their latest album, Systematic Chaos, and is preparing for the North American leg of their world tour, which began on July 24, 2007 in San Diego, California.
DiscographyStudio releasesWhen Dream and Day Unite (1989)
Images and Words (1992)
Awake (1994)
A Change of Seasons (1995, EP)
Falling into Infinity (1997)
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999)
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)
Train of Thought (2003)
Octavarium (2005)
Systematic Chaos (2007)
Live releasesLive at the Marquee (1993, EP)
Once in a LIVEtime (1998)
Live Scenes From New York (2001)
Live at Budokan (2004)
Score (2006)
CompilationsGreatest Hit (...and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs) (2008)
Current band membersJames LaBrie - lead vocals, percussion (1991-present)
John Petrucci - guitar, backing vocals (1985-present)
John Myung - bass, Chapman stick (1985-present)
Jordan Rudess - keyboards, continuum, lap steel guitar (1999-present)
Mike Portnoy - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1985-present)
Awards and certificatesRIAA gold and platinum certification
Images and Words (Gold) - February 2, 1995
Metropolis 2000: Live Scenes From New York (Gold) - November 8, 2002
Live at Budokan (DVD) (Platinum) - January 26, 2005
Live in Tokyo/5 Years in a Livetime (Platinum) - March 22, 2006
Score (DVD) (Platinum) - October 11, 2006 [31]
Keyboard Magazine Jordan Rudess was awarded the following 'Keyboard Magazine Reader's Poll award':
Best New Talent (1994)
Modern Drummer Mike Portnoy won the following Modern Drummer magazine Reader's Poll awards:
Best Up & Coming Talent (1994)
Best Progressive Rock Drummer (1995-2006)
Best Recorded Performance (1995 for Awake, 1996 for A Change of Seasons, 1998 for Falling Into Infinity, 2000 for Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, 2002 for Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and 2007 for Score)
Best Clinician (2000, 2002)
Best Educational Video/DVD (2000, 2002)
Hall of Fame Inductee (2004)
Guitar World The album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was ranked #95 on the magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time.
Total Guitar John Petrucci won Guitarist of the year award (2007).
Other recognitionsAt Dream Theater's Salt Lake City show, Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. signed a proclamation making July 30, 2007 "Dream Theater Day" in the state of Utah.
On December 2007, Dream Theater were chosen as the Xbox Live's artist of the month.
Dream Theater's music video "Constant Motion" was voted second in the Headbanger's Ball 2007 competition
Official website :
http://www.dreamtheater.net/
John Petrucci John grew up on Long Island, Kings Park to be exact, where he, John Myung & Kevin Moore all attended school together. He started playing guitar at the age of 12 (After a brief fling at age 8 when he noticed his sister got to stay up late for her organ lessons. His little plan didn..t work out being that his guitar lesson was after school, and soon lost interest.) He quickly realized his influences and was determined to reach their level of ability. Some early influences include Yngwie Malmsteen, Randy Rhoads, Iron Maiden, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Yes, Rush etc. As the rise of thrash & metal hit John expanded his influences to include bands like Metallica & Queensryche. Needing more of a technical challenge, his fingers demanded adapting the hammering speed & melodic style of players such as the Steves (Steve Morse & Steve Vai), the Als (Allan Holdsworth & Al DiMeola), Mike Stern, Joe Satriani, Neal Schon & Eddie Van Halen.
His musical education began with a great music theory class he took in high school. Being primarily self taught, he did receive a few lessons when he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he learned jazz composition and harmony. While at Berklee John and John Myung who was also attending, met Mike Portnoy and started a band called Majesty which would later turn into Dream Theater.
John has recorded 8 albums with Dream Theater, and has also been involved in several side projects including Liquid Tension Experiment with Tony Levin, Age of Impact and even a Sega Saturn game called Necronomicon.
His love for lyric writing combined with his unique composing style of progressive fusion shape the sound of Dream Theater. For a complete listing of his recordings check out his discography.
John lives with his wife, Rena, and 3 children, SamiJo, Reny and Kiara in New York. When he..s not playing guitar he spends most of his time with his wife and children inline skating, biking, working out and watching movies.
(source : John Petrucci myspace )
LINKS :
www.johnpetrucci.comwww.myspace.com/johnpetruccimusic
Subject: Dream Theater 
Wed 20 Feb 2008 - 23:56
