When I listen to symphonies, or long pieces of music, there are so many different moods and movements, and things that are really beautiful going to something with a lot of tension.
It's amazing how well real strings blend with metal, like that whole sound.
Rush is one of the common denominators in our band as far as a band that everybody loves and grew up with and was a big influence.
I listen to somebody like Shawn Lane, and unfortunately he is no longer with us, but I hear him playing and I am like, 'That is just absolutely ridiculous.'
I've always said that there's a huge progressive rock, progressive metal audience out there, in the world. We see it when we're on tour.
I think it's really hard to describe music without alienating somebody.
Just because something is very technical or heavy doesn't mean that it's not melodic.
We've always had a very strong focus on the instrumentation, and our approach to our individual instruments.
That's kind of the nature of being in a progressive band - always trying new things, moving forward.
I'm a fan of creative writing and telling stories.
I love playing live, but our tours generally last about a year. I could never do this without the understanding and support of my wife. She's also a guitar player, and we knew each other before Dream Theater started touring.
Your solos should be as interesting as any other part of the song.
Although music comes from a very personal place, talent is meant to be shared.
As a guitar player, playing instrumental music is a blast.
Dream Theater music, there's a lot of background and context to the songs, as far as the subject matter and the albums they come from.
When we tour in America, the shows are great, and the fans are just as passionate and excited as anywhere else in the world, but in other parts of the world, in parts of South America and in parts of Europe and Asia, the size of the venues and the amount of people we get at concerts is considerably more.
One very important side of my playing lies in rhythm; I have a very percussive style. It's one I've developed with Dream Theater over the years, and requires the guitar to be very locked into the rhythm of the drums... way more than what would normally entail.
The cool thing about our fans is that they're not just passive concert goers.
For a band like us, one that you don't necessarily hear on the radio, it's our fans that keep us alive and keep us going, and it's been an ever-growing base, especially with the younger kids that play guitar and want to play complex music.
Seeing Rush the first time was huge for me. That was my favorite band and I couldn't believe they were actually in the same building as me. I was totally freaking out when the show started and when they started to play it was almost like cartoon characters coming to life. I couldn't get my head around the fact that it was really them.
