If there is one (social) recluse who has learnt the methods of teasing his fans, then the award goes to Dutch pride Arjen Anthony Lucassen. After a bombastic comeback in 2013 with Ayreon’s ‘The Theory of Everything’, the man took the next step along with Anneke Van Giersbergen for an epic double CD concept album to be called ‘The Diary’ under the name of The Gentle Storm. Anneke has worked with Arjen on two Ayreon albums, ‘Into The Electric Castle’ (1998) and ‘01011001’ (2008). Arjen has earned a name for himself after releasing series of nothing but concept albums, touching on all the areas of music and emotions. This time he is back with a Live DVD titled “A Theater Equation” slated to release later this month via Inside Out Records.

Metal Wani’s Editor In Chief Owais ‘Vitek’ Nabi & writer Shivam Kalra had a chat with dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen. He discusses the upcoming DVD “The Theater Equation”, setting up the stage for the theatre, individual performance of each character & how James LaBrie managed to strike a chord on stage. He also talks about why he decided to do the theatre version of ‘The Human Equation’, backstage activities as the play was going & arranging the instrumental side of the DVD. Arjen throws light on why it wasn’t possible to have Devin Townsend & Mikael Akerfeldt on the DVD, how he managed to get musicians to fill them and the entire process of working with Devin & Miakel on “The Human Equation”.

As we spoke about the collaboration, he recalls sending ‘The Electric Castle’ demos to Steven Wilson for a collaboration, Steven’s thought on the music and why the collaboration didn’t work out. He expresses his wish to work with him in future only if the request comes from Steven & the future plan with a new project planned to release early next year.

Stream The Conversation Below: