With all tools at my disposal, I'm 100% into chasing tone and checking out new equipment and "geeking" out during sound check by taking too much time.

We're always in that head space about the audience and less about us at that moment.

You might pick up some influences from another type of music that you wouldn't normally think of, but, you know, maybe as a guitar player, it will come out in your improvisational style, maybe as a song writer it might come out in your note choices, or in your melodic choices, and it just helps to making your music that much more original and unique.

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.

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.

In Japan they're definitely more over the top. They had four Boogie stacks and 20 guitars. But otherwise it's pretty much the same thing, except there's a translator. It's really nice.