Dear Arjen hi. Thank you very much for sharing your valuable time with us and speaking to our webzine. We would like to congratulate you for the latest offering of Ayreon.

Hi Stefanos and Giannis, you're welcome. And thanks for the compliment!

Let's start plainly. Could you share with us some details concerning "01011001"?

t's my 7th Ayreon album and both lyrically and musically it links all my previous Ayreon albums. It's slightly darker than the other albums, mainly because I was going through a depression during the making of the album.

Normally albums like those of Ayreon are not conceived without effort and elaboration. What was the critical mass of inspiration for "01011001"?

I listen to a lot of music (old and new) every day and I also watch a lot of (sci fi) DVDs. As always music is the best healer, this album saved my life.

Are you content with the final outcome?

Oh yeah. I am my own boss, so I only release my albums when I'm a 100% satisfied. It's hard to be objective yet though of course, ask me again in a year.

Every Ayreon is kind of a much anticipated event, because you produce very challenging albums and the guest musicians is always an attraction. But my question is do you feel such way? Do you feel pressed by the media's and the fans' anticipation?

Not at all, quite the contrary. I need the challenge when I'm doing an Ayreon CD. And it's very good to know that people are really waiting for my music, it's very inspiring.

I guess you have answered this question many times, but I would like to ask what comes first, the vision of calling some musicians and singers or the songs themselves. In general how the composing and the arranging of an Ayreon album are processed?

I start recording some little ideas on guitar (chords, riff, melody) on a simple cassette player. These ideas usually come up when I'm watching TV or when I'm waiting for something and I start noodling on my guitar. In other words, when there's no pressure. When I've got about 50 ideas I start recording and arranging them in my studio. After a couple of months I usually have about 2 hours of music. Then I put the songs in the right order and start contacting singers. Meanwhile I let the music inspire me to come up with a story. When all the singers are confirmed I divide their parts over the album and the last step is writing lyrics. While I'm writing the lyrics the story unfolds itself.

During the years you have experienced many collaborations with great artists, such as Fish, Neal Morse, Clive Nolan, Robby Valentine, Ken Hensley, Bob Catley, Jorn Lande, Derek Sherinian, Thomas Bodin, Steve Lee, Bruce Dickinson amongst others. Besides the fact that this must be a dream-came-true case for most of the people, what was their contribution to your vision?

Oh yes, very much so. I mostly fly them in and record them in my own studio, so we can work until we are both satisfied. It's indeed a dream come true to be able to work with these amazing musicians.

Is there any musician you haven't yet cooperated with, at least from those you wanted to? Who would this be?

Yeah, the list is endless. Primarily of course all those great musicians that have influenced me when I was growing up. But luckily there's new talent surfacing every year.

"Into The Electric Castle" was your most complete effort in my opinion and the one that introduced me to your music. From then till now does your approach towards composing remain the same?

Yes, I think the general approach is mostly the same, but of course little things change. Like 01011001 was mostly written in the studio while I was recording.

What's the story behind Ayreon vs. Avantasia affair? How was the idea conceived and who is responsible for this?

On January 25th 2008 both rock operas of me and Tobias Sammet, respectively Ayreon's ‘01011001' and Avantasia's ‘Scarecrow', were released simultaneously. The press called this event the ‘Clash of the Titans', and we were pictured everywhere as bitter rivals. In the many interviews we both did we had to answer a lot of questions about each other, without even having heard each others albums. Upon release both albums immediately entered CD charts in various countries all over the world. When I heard that Tobias had managed to get my all-time favourite artist Alice Cooper to guest on the Avantasia album, I completely freaked out and sent a funny hate-mail to Tobias' MySpace, which Tobias unfortunately never received. Later on Tobias decided to send a mail to me just to get acquainted, because we had to talk about each other all the time without even knowing each other. We started corresponding quite a lot by mail and as it turned out Tobias in his turn was equally jealous of me getting Bruce Dickinson to guest on an Ayreon album! The idea rose to rise to the challenge set up by the press, put some coal on the fire and record something together. The result is this cover version of Elected.

Is it indeed a thin line between love and hate?

Well, of course we don't really hate each other. I just might hate him if I knew him better though, haha!

Do you think that you opened a "school" with Ayreon, because after Ayreon introduced this kind of rock/metal operas or thematic albums, many other endeavors followed?

That's very cool indeed and a big compliment for me! I wouldn't want to call it a school though, that would make me the evil teacher with the pointer and the grey hair.

If you were asked to name an album that changed your life or inspired you to create a band like Ayreon, which one would it be?

That would be Jesus Christ Superstar with Ian Gillan.

Have you ever thought of putting any of your albums on the screen? I do not mean producing a DVD with Ayreon, but to realize your concepts on screen backed up with your music. I guess it would probably be a unique science-fiction event.

That would be very cool indeed! I hope someday a producer or director would be interested to do this. It would of course cost millions.

Dear Arjen thank you for your kindness to answer our questions. We wish you all the best and to continue providing us such excellent albums.

No problem, and I'll do my best. Keep up the good work! Cheers, Arjen.