Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess recently guested on Breaking Absolutes and talked discussed his approach to playing music, his style, gear, and more. Check out the interview below.

Rudess: "One of the reasons that I'm a prog musician is because I'm also crazy in the sense that, for some reason, I get some kind of weird joy out of torturing myself.

When I was a kid, my teacher would say, 'OK, learn this Hungarian Rhapsody.' I'd take it and I'd look at the notes, and it'll be like, 'What the hell does this even say?' And I'd crash my hands down on the keyboard in frustration but somehow managed to keep going. It's not like that for everything. I'm not trying to build stuff and getting frustrated by pushing through. I'm just like, 'I can't do that.' But with music, I'll take something really hard and I'll have the same kind of thing like, 'Oh my god! Nobody can do this!' And then I'll keep working on it, keep trying to understand what the page says, what fingers to put on the notes, and push through.

So there's still a little bit of that in me, part of me wants to go, 'You know what? Don't even do that! Just relax and play, improvise something really sweet and soft.' That's easy and it's nice, but I guess who I am involves this kind of ability or madness to want to challenge myself and do weird things. Not that learning a classical hard piece is that weird."

Rudess recently released a video for "I Surrender" from his new solo album, A Chapter In Time. Get the album here, and watch the new clip below.

Tracklisting:

"Weightless"
"I Surrender"
"Light As A Feather"
"The Quiet Mind"
"After The Storm"
"Once Upon A Time"
"Empty Streets"
"And Breathe"
"Into Sleep"
"Flying"
"Patterns Of Thought"
"Touching Light"
"Twilight Rain"
"Stellar Enigma"
"Beyond The Clouds"

"I Surrender" video:

"Weightless" video: