Has Mike ever been extremely frustrated within Dream Theater or the music industry to the point of giving up?

MP: This band has been through MANY, MANY ups and downs through the past 15 years (most of which are behind the scenes and you wouldn't even notice) and it takes alot of perseverance to endure it all. The making of Falling Into Infinity in 1996 & 1997 was a very frustrating period for me because I felt alot of my “control” over the band and “vision” for the band slipping away. There were many “Powers that be” that were sticking their noses and opinions into our music and not leaving us alone with the creative side of things.

There were also a few other people on the “inside” that were willing to go along with all of these suggestions which made my battle even more difficult because I didn't want to have any further internal conflicts. So at the end of the day, I rolled over and played the game as well in order to move on with our career. Go forward another year to 1998 and we are getting close to wrapping up the world tour for Falling Into Infinity and the record that we made *by the ... more.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.