I'm realizing this more and more that it's one thing to get involved with your own political beliefs and stand behind you believe in personally.

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 used to rehearse and that's where the roots of Dream Theater formed. Y'know, we used to play cover songs and jam to [Iron] Maiden and stuff but we were writing songs and it was this metal, loud style and we'd constantly get knocks on our door, because the rehearsal rooms were right next door to each other, and these jazz guys would be like, "Can you guys turn it down a little?"

I often think about my Music Man guitars being 100 million percent tailored to my needs as a player and how lucky I am.

We've seen progressive rock all over the world, in South America, Europe, Asia, across the US and North America and Australia. There's huge audiences for this stuff. For me it's always been there and it's just a matter of time before the people have more of the means to spread the word.

Since I'm in a band, and I'm not usually in situations where I need to read, it doesn't come up as often, and I don't rely on it as much.

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.