JOHN MYUNG DREAM THEATER

The acclaimed prog-metal bassist shares essential tips that will help you become a better player

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Progressive metallers Dream Theater, now 31 years into their career, are about to release their ninth live album—an impressive statistic, given how hard it is these days to get a single studio release out, let alone a live one. Distant Memories—Live In London was recorded last year at the quintet’s sold-out live show at the Apollo Theater in London, UK, when the band were touring their latest studio album Distance Over Time and celebrating the 20th anniversary of their concept album Metropolis Part 2—Scenes From A Memory.

The live sound is punchy and clear on the album, a fact that bassist John Myung attributes to taking the right staff along with them. “Our main engineer, James ‘Jimmy T’ Meslin, did a great job of overseeing everything,” he says. “He came out with us as a monitoring engineer, so to have him there every step of the way, from the way everything sounded on stage to the way it was actually mixed, was an amazing asset. Monitoring engineers work with musicians in a very close relationship, and there’s a certain dynamic there where you can get to know each other, which really translates well to the actual recording aspect.”

He adds: “There’s a trust there, because a lot of the time the front-of-house engineer at a show may be someone that you don’t have a whole lot of history with. They don’t have the time to do the homework and listen to your material, whereas a monitoring engineer who has toured with a band for 18 months, as Jimmy did, has done the homework that is necessary to really know the material. You can reference the tiniest sections and he’ll be right with you, because he knows exactly what you’re talking about.”