#284: Dream Theater Keyboardist Jordan Rudess

Dream Theater keyboardist and solo artist Jordan Rudess is our guest this week. We discuss his new solo album Wired for Madness and how he finds time for his own material within Dream Theater’s busy schedule, how blues influenced the album, the importance of using musical elements that make people smile in contrast to the heavy stuff and the importance of the visual aspect of the album's title track. We also talk Dream Theater: if the polarizing response to The Astonishing played a part in the direction of their new album Distance Over Time, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, the difficulty of finding all the sounds he used on the original recording to replicate live, and at what stage in his life he discovered he needed to be a creative person. Petar and Jozalyn tackle the church burnings in Louisiana, David Hasselhoff making metal songs, how Knight Rider would make a great concept for a metal album, Hot Topic somehow still thriving in the modern climate, the release of Oli Herbert’s cover of a Eurythmics song, his widow's strange behavior after that release, and the ongoing campaign to name the recently-photographed black hole after Chris Cornell. Songs: Jordan Rudess - “Why I Dream” Dream Theater - “Fall Into The Light” Dream Theater - “Paralyzed” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices