It is a progression overall, a moving from say a (short) rock song to an eight-minute epic, just basically not creating a wall where you can only do one thing.

Basically it acts as a companion and also like an extension of the record and vice versa.

He nailed it when he said a good song makes people think, move and feel. That's what we try to do with every song we write and record. If people are doing all three of those things, then we did our job. Making music is not a one-dimensional thing.

It seems to me that few people walk their ways with deliberation, stopping every so often to delight in the seasons and in the simple, important, enduring things. Most of those I know are either rushing about blindly, almost headlong, or inching along, looking down. Both methods of progression are, in a spiritual sense, not progression at all, but symptoms of fear.

No matter what has happened or what you fear will happen, you have to walk as though you were going somewhere—not in a hurry, not at a crawl, and certainly not running away from something toward you know not what.

It cannot be said too often, or by too many people, that the path we follow must be taken a step at a time—never on the run, and never standing still, neither going backward nor marking time. Everyone hazards a guess at the future—his own, the future of those he loves, the future of the country and the world. Statisticians often come up with some amazing suggestions; so do computers; but no one really knows. Only He know, Who created this world in all its beauty, and our small selves, with it. And it's just as well that we don't know.

We had traces of our music that could be liked by the punk scene or the hardcore scene, ... But that was what people did with us; they said they could put us out on tour with anybody because 'nobody really knows what you guys are. You got some of this, you got some of that, it will probably work, let's see what happens.'

I just think it's that we bring a lot to the table. There's the concept idea, which is very interesting and, again, I don't think has been done. Concepts have been done over a standard record, but not like this. And the songwriting is different. There are classic rock influences, and I think they come out more because the band has gotten better.