We had just come off of making [2003’s] ‘Train of Thought,’ which was a very heavy album,

Thirty years later, I still play my Moog synthesizers and they continue to blow my mind. He was a really kind and wonderful guy. He changed so many people’s lives.

Everybody brings something to the table, and we don’t pretend not to have other influences, … For instance, with the big title track — which I’m very proud of and think is one of Dream...

All of the guys love to take serious topics and go for it; we’re not writing a whole lot of love songs. With ‘Sacrificed Sons,’ we had some sensitivity there about how we’d present it....

I had done two albums with the Liquid Tension Experiment, and both were interesting compared to Dream Theater, because with those we didn’t have the window or the parameters of what Dream Theater is,

The thing I like about that whole movement is that you can continue with rock music, but bring it to a real musical, harmonic, melodic, rhythmic place where it isn’t just rock anymore — you...

I know Dream Theater fans can be extremely possessive of this group. There were some fans that liked me joining, and I’m sure there were some who wanted to run screaming into the night.

Those two Liquid Tension albums introduced me to Dream Theater fans. And it helped ease my joining a bit.

It was a little hard for me at first: I remember coming in with a ton of ideas, and I wanted to present them all, and they wanted to hear them, but at the same...