The style of music that we’re playing, this progressive metal style, has always been an upstream battle for us. We don’t usually get a lot of commercial exposure.
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 .
We’re always in that head space about the audience and less about us at that moment.
Many times we talk about the people that have come to enjoy the show. They went through a lot to get here, whatever they needed to work out in their lives; they got babysitters, they traveled, and purchased the tickets. So it’s up to us to deliver the goods!
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.
Now that we’re established and we have a history we know that we can expect people to show up and to have a good time.
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.
I almost rely on other people to say, “Hey, you ever hear of this band?” And I’ll say, “Oh, I’ve never heard of that!” And I listened to them and thought, “What the hell?”
I remember feeling for the first time going somewhere where I was part of a community where I didn’t feel like an outcast. I felt like I belonged. Everyone had a guitar strapped to their back.
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.
Going to the Grammys, being nominated for a Grammy, that was a really big deal for me, for us as a band.
There’s different levels of where we do well throughout Europe. Fortunately, for us, it’s pretty great all throughout it.
Stay focused when you’re playing alive, so you’re not distracted by something going on.
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.
I experimented a bunch with Ernie Ball in getting the strings to not flop around too much, but at the same time not to be too thick to where you’re playing telephone cables.
I don’t have very eclectic tastes in music.
I really rely a lot more on memory. I’m definitely not as good of a sight reader.
To be in Boston, which is a great city and which is full of many colleges and young kids, and to be around that many people that were at the same point in their lives, who played guitar or whatever instrument – it was just perfect. It was a great environment.
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.
If I’m not in an environment where I can record, it’s great to be able to write something down, to be able to know how to do that, to be able to write notation. You grab a piece of paper and there it is. It’s the cheapest recording equipment you can buy: a piece of manuscript paper and a pencil!
I went straight out of high school, and when I was 17, all I wanted to do was play guitar.