Rudess tells Linea Rock: "When I came in, my job was as a composer as much as it was as a keyboardist. But up until recently, many years later, our relationship didn't kind of mature to the point where we could sit down together and do a project like The Astonishing.

"When John conceived of the story, one of the first things he thought of is, 'Wow, it would be really cool if Jordan and I could sit down just together alone, without anybody else there, and just write this music.' And in doing that, it felt like it solidified a relationship that's been maturing through the course of years.