I know we play a part in the story of progressive music, but for us those influences are the real fathers, the ones that we were interested in.

Dark master of sin, now my soul is yours.

If you bring somebody into the band you are going to be with them a lot whether it's in the studio, on the tour bus, or at dinner every night; you want somebody you enjoy being around. You don't want an annoying guy .

Personality wise, we are all kindred spirits. I've said this before; if we [with Mike Mangini ] ever went to high school together we would have been friends. He is just one of us! We felt that immediate connect.

I'm a member of the Recording Academy and I see the way it works and even with the whole voting process it's broken down into specific categories. There are Pop categories and Dance and Rock and Metal and Film and Score and everything else. Basically when you are voting you are urged not to vote in the category that you don't know anything about.

If someone is feeling out of sorts or detached it's a great time to bring them in and restate why we are here and what we are trying to do.

Guitar players get inward and analytical about their playing but when you start to get positive feedback from other players it makes you think that it is coming together.