Prog “Alex Lifeson is such a big influence on me in so many ways. You know how it is when you discover a band as a teenager – you just get so invested in it. The first couple of Rush albums, I literally learned every song, and me and my friends, including [Dream Theater bassist] , jammed to all that stuff.
I think from learning all those songs, it’s just ingrained as part of my style. I remember dissecting and learning the guitar solo and all these different techniques of hammer-ons and pull-offs, even the scales that Alex used. I use that stuff all the time with Dream Theater.
Rush introduced me to progressive rock and metal, and the idea that song structures didn’t have to be the typical three-minute thing. That style of music was the perfect backdrop to storytelling and conceptual lyrics – things like . All of that had a huge influence on me and opened my mind to exploring a more unique way of writing in a progressive style.
His guitar sound changed the way I create my effects The odd time signatures and songs that had multiple parts – something like , where it’s broken into sections much in the way that would do it – was a big influence. His guitar sound changed the way I create the effects that I use. Some of his approaches to chordal playing and making a band sound really big with just one guitar was a huge influence on me.
The thing with Rush is, since they were just a three-piece, the guitar really had the job of taking up a lot of space. So the very b.