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Rudess has always been one to be interested in the latest technology or ways to do what he does best, play music, so talk moved towards his "Keyboard World" and what new equipment he is excited about. I was particularly interested in hearing about this new dangerous looking thing, the Zen Riffer. "Well...in dream theater world I have some new stuff on this tour that I've been enjoying. One of the things you may have seen in YouTube or something like that is the Zen Riffer. It's so cool, it's awesome. It's so great, it's very fun for me to get away from the keyboard rig which is more stationary and come out kinda get to jam with John and show off a bit on that level. It's a custom made thing a guy called Charles Tentindo made. Right now I have a black one, which is pretty cool, but I think [by the time I get to you] I may have another one that he's making that's this cool kinda paint called Crazer Paint that has some amazing shadings and it responds to light really well. So I'll pull that out and play it there. If you go online and look up Crazer Paint, you'll see it. My Zen Riffers going to be painted like the one that looks kind of silverish.

Now I had always thought Rudess had a bit of the ‘Mad Scientist" in him, but I never imagined he would work it into his live show. "My tech is freaking out, did you ever see that thing on YouTube with the Tesla Coil responding to music? Well he's freaking out because supposedly if you put that on stage everyone's going to get electrocuted. You gotta see it, it's awesome. So that's some of the stuff that's going on." Anyone who wants to see what Doctor Von Rudess-stein is talking about should definitely click here.

Having many fingers in many pies and always active with something, there was a whole other world to delve into with Rudess...JR world. "JR World...well lets see, working on my Online Conservatory a bunch these days, Richard Lainhart is working on editing some new guitar footage that we shot with Daniel J, who is the guitarist on my last album and that's gonna be cool. Danni and I are focusing on upping that whole thing, keyboard stuff that I've done going up there from the new album, and we're excited about pushing that forward.

How did you feel when you learned that "Systematic Chaos" had leaked onto the web weeks or months after its release? What's your opinion on this whole MP3-file-sharing thing that's been going on?

"Honestly, I understand the fans. They are willing to have an album as soon as they can. I feel the same when one of my favorite bands finishes an album. I can't wait to get my hands on it, so I totally understand that. But for me, on the other side of the fence, it's frustrating sometimes because you want people to hear it directly in its full fidelity presentation. You want them to see the artwork, and the booklet, and kinda get the whole big picture, so it's frustrating that that can't always be maintained, but, you know, it's uncontrollable. I can't get crazy about it.

When I read it leaked I was actually very calm because we expected that to happen, and to be honest I was surprised that we held it so long without a leak, cause we delivered the record in mid February, and it leaked 3 months after. I think we held it pretty well."

Talking of Kevin, I think a lot of Dream Theater fans were looking forward to seeing him onstage with you on the 20th anniversary tour. Taking your relationship with him as a musician and a person into account, which would you say that are the reasons for his always kind-of-reserved-defensive attitude when it comes to talking about Dream Theater and getting involved in things related to the band?

"Well, I was disappointed he didn't do it as well, It's not like he wasn't invited. I did invite him to participate with us at the 20th anniversary. I invited him to participate on the 15th anniversary of "When Dream And Day Unite". The invitation has always been there but he always turned it down, so any disappointment should not be pointed at us, it should be pointed at him. That's just his nature, he's the type of person that is very strong-minded, and I have to say the word stubborn. Once he sets his mind to something he sticks to it and you can't change it. It was because of that that I realized that if he had stayed in Dream Theater, the band would have probably broken up. People look back and comment about "Images And Words" and "Awake", and look at Kevin like there was this great formula and chemistry; that's not the reality. The reality is that the personal chemistry and the working and creative chemistry would not have lasted another year or two. He's not at all interested in progressive music, he's not at all interested in heavy music, so there was absolutely no place for his taste vision in Dream Theater anymore."

I've noticed that each time Dream Theater go out on tour, everyone apart from John Myung, sports a new look. Does this make you the most fashion conscious band in prog?

[laughs] Hmm that's funny. I think we are pretty fashion conscious especially our guitar player who is notorious for having like a completely different image, like every time I see John... like first of all his hair grows incredibly fast – incredible – it's unbelievable – I said to him "John, your hair, it grows so fast, the other day you had this really short spiky hair – what's going on?"
The other day I met him at the airport and I swear to God as he walked up to me he could have been either a wood chopper after an extended stay in the woods or from the band Pantera or some other band because he had his hair pulled back and he had this really really bushy face of hair and I thought "Oh my God" [laughs] but he is into it and it's really great, you know we are in the arts, we're entertainers and we're having fun, and we not only like to change our visual thing but we, personally, for instance with my keyboard set up, but when I come back and start a new world tour I like to have something different – something – some element...