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.

We're not the kind of band who writes an order abundance of songs and picks from them, we usually write for the album.

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.

Music is a communication. It's a two-way street. You need people to play to in order to make that connection complete. That's the way we look at it.

When we first started and started hitting new places for the first time, you kinda didn't know, because we were new. Sometimes we played tiny little clubs and sometimes we'd play a larger place.

The only thing I had in my mind [when I was 17 ] was that I was going to be a professional musician. So it was just the right environment.

Obviously the best way to retain the most profit is to not give any of it away. That's something that you certainly learn through the years.