Having just finished an intensive tour of Europe, Rudess is enjoying some well-deserved time off for relaxation and it seems recovery.

"Everybody is doing well, we're happy to be taking two months off. We had a very intense tour of Europe, we had six weeks [of] schlepping around Europe. The tour was great but after six weeks of traveling like that you get burnt out. And actually towards the end one of the last shows was on my birthday, and I had gotten really sick, we were in Spain and I had a really nasty virus and fever and everything and I was having to play anyway.

"I was doing a lot of walking on the road and everything. It started out good but then I was walking just for my sanity and maybe pushing myself too much and going out for two-hour walks, it was deep. So by the time I got home I was really still toasted and it took me a long time to get over what I caught. So I spent like three weeks at home just coughing and feeling pretty shitty. But now I'm getting my energy back, you know, crazy usual self, family stuff, thinking about all the different things I want to do. I have a little bit of time to concentrate on some other things. I just can't stop thinking about this music stuff!"

With Dream Theater having never played in Australia before, and some of the members having never even touched our soil, I had wondered if we should expect anything special for this debut tour, but it seems we're not the only ones who don't know what to expect!

"I think it's gonna more be a surprise for us man, we've never been there you know? I've never stepped foot there!"

I've had a friendship and working relationship with Rudess that stretches back almost six years, so I find myself all of a sudden jokingly taking the weight of the tour success on my shoulders.

"I can't wait to see what the response is. You've been promising me a good response for years so I want to see it! I'll have you up on stage [if it bombs]... That's right, take a bow salty, this is your fault.

"[But] what should you expect? It's a pretty good show and at this point you guys will be pleased to know it's fairly dialed in. We've done a lot of shows around the world now and on this particular run, and it's pretty tight and it'll be tight, even though we've had two months off we'll have played a bunch of shows in Asia so we'll probably remember most of the notes we're supposed to play.

"We're going to be doing a nice assortment of [songs from] the various albums we've created over the years with a focus certainly on the new one, Systematic Chaos, and it's a very good tour for us to come there because we have a great lighting guy, a terrific sound man, wonderful video person and everything should be well dialed in."

I mentioned that many of the Australian fans had assumed we would have to get a cut-back rig and less of a stage show that the rest of the world seems to get, however it was awesome to hear that we are getting the full show.

"Yes, it is awesome, it's so exciting. It's a big cool show, with some great things on the screens. Do you know one of the guys who has created a lot of the visual things for us is from Australia? Very talented guy. So yeah that's what it's gonna be, we're gonna go there and do our thing and everyone should be happy."

Rudess has always been interested in the latest technology and 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 his new dangerous looking thing, the Zen Riffer, which is similar to a keytar in that it allows Rudess to venture out from behind a motionless keyboard and start moving around.

"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 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 [Petrucci] 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 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.

"Then I'm still playing the Continuum which is cool instrument for me, but nothing new... for the world it's still a little bit new but I've been playing it for a while. Then in the spirit of progressive rock on this tour I've added a thing called the Memotron. I'm sure you've heard of the Mellotron, which is the classic keyboard instrument, well now I have a Memotron, which is supposed to be a real digital recreation of the famous Mellotron. It's very cool and it totally has that sound.

"In Dream Theater world, Korg Oasys that I use is so capable. I mean, if it came down to it I could probably play the whole show on that. It can do any sound and it's an extremely powerful instrument, but you know, this is partly show business and it's gotta be fun.

"Things like the Zen Riffer and coming out front and the Memotron which is such a great tip of the hat to progressive rock are cool. I am leaving my big modular synthesizer at home, I didn't take it out on the whole Europe run, I decided to give my tech a break because the thing is so heavy. I would walk in and sometimes feel a little bit bad that I had him setting that up. I mean my system looks big enough right now, there's a lot of stuff there, ask my tech, he'll tell you it's definitely big enough! But I'm always trying to push it and thinking of new ideas for this tour. I'm already thinking about what I may be able to do the next time. I'm thinking about interactive video screens and all that good stuff."

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.

Not all of his new gear is on the road, and with the tour downtime Rudess has had a chance to play with some new toys at home and ponders on the future of music as more and more ways of making it are developed.

"I'm enjoying being back in my studio, that's great man. I've been doing some programming and working on some Roland stuff and new stuff which is a lot of fun, and I'm working with this new instrument called an Axis 64 which is crazy.

"Over the last four or five years I've been attracted to alternative controllers. I love playing the keyboard, it's my life really, but I'm interested in other ways to control sound. I'm one of those people that when the argument that always comes up with musicians and electronic and computer people, about the guy who's jamming on the computer over there, the DJ guy, is he a musician? And people go, 'No man he's just pressing things on the computer' or whatever, and I'll be the first one to go, 'You know what? It's a new generation and these people are making music in different ways and this guy's an incredible musician, look what he's doing!' So I'm open to anything and I'm into it.

"But you know, I like electronic music a lot also."

What about a giant floor-based keyboard? Would we ever see him run out and tap dance up and down one of those while playing the Zen Riffer?

"Oh that'd be cool... and then I'll come up in the second keyboard solo and I'll do the MIDI glove or the MIDI body suit. Yeah, a whole night of alternative things. Have you seen this instrument called the Tenori-On? I don't have one yet, but I want one, it's very cool. I do have the Axis 64, and I'll be doing a video of that pretty soon."

I asked Rudess about his Roland VP550 that he had demonstrated in a couple of videos and whether it had been used in a certain part of Systematic Chaos. After me (badly) singing the part I meant, and Rudess also singing it, neither of us could remember the name of the track. It was a good insight into how the brain of someone so musical works and gave an idea of how intense preparing for a tour must be for him.

"Hopefully I'll think of more of the Dream Theater music when we get back on the road (laughs). But you know, it's so easy for me to put it all out of my head, because I'm such a big music lover that it's difficult for me when we're preparing for a tour, to like, listen to other music, I have to really listen to Dream Theater over and over again and I really like to listen to other stuff.

"Given a choice, you know I'll listen to Porcupine Tree or I'll listen to Boards of Canada, all kinds of different things, or classical music and I get so much pleasure out of that, but I can't fill my head with that right before a tour. So in this break I've been listening to so much music and checking out all kinds of stuff.

"You know if people want to check out some of the electronic music stuff that I really love, there's an artist called Murcof that's an excellent player, and someone who's a little hard to find but one of the most talent people who makes records is David Tipper, really amazing. Then there's a great artist, well, he's got like three albums and he goes by the name Dntel, all of that guy's stuff is awesome. So those are some cool things. Have you ever heard the Super Furry Animals? I really like that group; they're very quirky, very cool. They're a Welsh group, they're not really like 'prog', but they're quirky. Sometimes their music sounds like a 50s or 60s television show. Almost like Grateful Dead meets Pink Floyd meets The Beatles kind of thing, it's weird."

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.

"And my new album The Road Home [released] a few months ago was very exciting. I have to say it has been an unusually good release in the sense of just getting a lot of positive response. It's so wonderful, pursuing that album was such a labour of love. It's an album of cover songs where I went back and I did some of my very favourite progressive rock songs that influenced my life a lot. Songs like "Tarkus" from Emmerson, Lake and Palmer, "Dance On A Volcano" from Genesis.

"It was so much fun to do and now that I've put it out there it's been fun to get a lot of response. And most things, actually all things...everything I've read has been really just positive and giving the album really good feedback. Unusually so, I mean usually people have negative things to say about anything, but it's been getting everybody in a really positive light and enjoying it.

"In fact I've been on the road since it came out so haven't been home or around friends or anything like that. And over the last few days I've been socialising with friends and I saw the guy, one of the head programmers for Korg who's a good friend of mine, and I let him hear some of the new album, I gave him a copy which was really fun. And an old friend of mine who was the director at Kurzweil came up as well so you know, seeing all these people and being able to share all this music that I made. One of my best friends came over today and I realised he never got a copy of it so I gave him a copy. You know, it's been a nice thing to spread around.

"And meanwhile as I said, I'm home and just thinking about music and what's next for me, you know, this last album I did The Road Home was my last album for Magna Carta in this particular contract period, so now I have to think about what I'm going to do. I'm looking forward to doing some things, like a piano thing because I have this beautiful new Steinway grand piano at home and then... I don't know. Some of the things I'm hesitant to talk about too much because I have to see if they even happen, but I have my plans. When I get off the road and have some time I'll work on some of my stuff."

An Evening with Dream Theater kicks off around Australia in January 2008. Dates and venues can be seen at the KMW Productions website.

Any budding keyboardists out there who want to learn tips and tricks from one of the masters, be sure to check out the Jordan Rudess Online Conservatory.

For your chance to win a double pass to An Evening With Dream Theater in your city be sure to check out the OzProg Dream Theater Competition!