17 Quotes by Jordan Rudess

Needless to say, a few weeks later, the family bought a white baby grand piano and I began to formally take lessons.

When you get down to it, that's what we love. But each album we make is different because some discs are more art-rock and some are heavier.

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

I used to accompany kids at school when I was in second grade. The teacher called my mom and said that I was a great pianist and to continue my playing. My mom stopped her and said, 'But we don't have a piano.' Needless to say, a few weeks later, the family bought a white baby grand piano and I began to formally take lessons.

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 time, they almost didn't want to hear them. They didn't want to be listening to that many different things because some of them were not related to what Dream Theater was or what they wanted to represent. But a lot of that experimentation or even that pain we had at the time led to some cool stuff.

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 can extend what music is. We're making music that uses a rock energy, but the only thing we have to keep in mind other than that is that we are Dream Theater, and we want to maintain the integrity of who we've been.

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 Theater's best compositions -- I dug pretty deep into my background in Genesis and Yes and wanted to bring some of those flavors forward.

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.