Prince Quotes

The reason I stop playing songs is usually because I get sick of them, and then they find themselves back into the set list at some point.

We'll only be playing four new songs live, but all the material for the next album is basically finished.

My shows are always a mix of songs from all my albums with some rocking covers thrown in for fun.

Every concert of mine is different in terms of song selection.

I especially like the songs Hurry Up and The Curse Of Castle Dragon, and I often include them in my live show.

The problem with the Moodies is not what to play, it's what to leave out! That's always difficult. We stopped having support acts many years ago just because of that. We needed getting on to two hours; there's such a big catalog to call on.

At the end of the day, they're happy if you do the obvious songs towards the end of the set and you've got to try and make yourself happy by doing certain songs at the front end of the set.

I've always had a bazillion songs in my archive, but I want to play people stuff they know. Now that I have two albums' worth of material, that gives me freedom to compose a set that's more well-balanced and build a show rather than just a recital of some songs.

So you can have your program, but you also have to be ready to change it immediately because there are certain kinds of people who like certain kinds of songs and they like - some people want to dance when you come out, some people just want to be intimate with you. So you kind of feel your way through a show.

It's not a bad problem to have because a lot of classic acts are known for one or two songs and in their show they basically hold those songs off until the end and you sit through an hour or so of lesser known material but in our case most of the songs are well known.

Yeah, but on the U.S Tour we threw a new song into the set almost every night. Ofcourse, you can't do too many new songs every night as they've never heard it.

When you put an album out, you can't do any material from the album if people are paying to see you.

Fortunately any of the songs we've recorded can be extremely fulfilling to perform depending on the variety of circumstances that surround any given show.

I have such a great band. We had played all this material on the road. I just wanted to let it fly.

Creating a set list is like making a running order for an album. Certain things get pitted against one another that make more sense. One song sets another one off, or it might diminish it. You're just constantly looking for the next thing that's gonna make sense in a particular place.

My big frustration in New Order was that they played the same tracks all the time.

But when you're six records deep, every record has one or two songs that need to be in every set, so you're already looking at 12 songs that you know you're going to play.

There's really an art form to putting together a set list that flows evenly and that takes you on a ride and doesn't feel disjointed.

We never do the same set twice... We play for at least two and a half hours, sometimes longer, so there's a lot of songs from all the records. And we know there's a stable we as fans would want to hear, so we always give them, then we change up a bunch of songs and throw in a couple new ones.

Normally, when I write the setlist for a Dream Theater show, I'll change it up every night, and we can basically play whatever we want.

Initially, in starting to pick the songs for the live show, it was really a matter of picking songs that I loved over the years. As far as the album goes, it happened very naturally.

Through the years I've accumulated this big bag of songs. When I go out I do close to two hours, and it's all just attitude - and up-tempo. I've accumulated so many of those types of songs now that the show just gets off with a bang, and I'll only do two or three ballads the whole show.

Every show, every audience is different, and I just love leaving the venue feeling like we all know each other a little bit better.

[Rubinstein was] a fountain from which music spouted, not a recitalist.

It doesn't matter what happened last night or the night - or tomorrow night. It's all about what you're doing with this audience right now.