Obscurity without the "Indie" label?

All right, first I am going to type out a paper on indie culture that I wrote about a year ago, then I will compare it to my musical tastes.

Technically "indie" means "independent," which means an artist that is self-managed, or are managed by a label of any size calling themselves "indie." Since the music, lyrics, pitches and rhythms, don't change (maybe the production quality), it shouldn't be called a genre.
In other words, with today's accessible technology, you can't tell from listening whether or not it's independently made.
"Indie" is more about the culture than the music. It's all about obscurity: If you like stuff no one's really heard of, you win! So it's not about the music at all, the music is just a veil to hide the agenda behind. Oh no he said the word "agenda" that must mean he's an evil haterrrr
Progressive and experimental music, on the other hand, is not obscure because it's lacking in musical skill or creativity. On the other hand, it has too much of those attributes for the general public to handle! Thus, it's about the music, and it just happens to be obscure. If a progressive band can achieve popularity without altering their music, that's great. (See Yes, Pink Floyd and Rush.) But since indie culture revels in obscurity and the music doesn't matter too much, an indie band becoming popular (See Death Cab) is no longer attractive because they no longer bring sought-after glory for liking something obscure.
So progressive and indie- they sometimes overlap. Both are generally obscure, but for different reasons. Both tend to be elitists, but for different reasons.
Indie: Must like stuff no one else does so as to look cool. The actual music they listen to, as long as it's unpopular (for any reason), could be any genre.
Progressive: Likes really good music. Unfortunately most people don't, so the bands are sometimes obscure.

Jordan Rudess Interview

Ok, I just found this on Digg. Here's the text with my commentary added in red.

DREAM THEATER - Jordan Rudess
12.05.2009

The Berklee College of Music graduates (not all of them) have become the most commercially successful progressive metal band worldwide (w00t). With over 8 million audio and video releases sold so far, Dream Theater have spread the word about their masterly (it should be 'masterful', an adjective. The adverb based off of that is 'masterfully', anyway) instrumentalism (what is that, a genre? A discipline? A condition? Just say "their instrumental skills") and musicianship to every (populated) corner of the globe.

Now with their 10th studio effort (hopefully a succeeded effort)-'Black Clouds & Silver Linings' the five American (one Canadian) virtuosos are about to confirm their leading place in the pantheon of contemporary rock music. (I bought this and will review all of the songs soon and very soon.)

It was produced by drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci (as usual). And we are talking to their keyboardist - Jordan Rudess.

an interview conducted by Vassil Varbanov

LET’S START WITH YOUR NEW ALBUM ‘BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS’. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? ANY GOOD? ("no it's crap")
Ha ha ha, yeah. I think it is OK. Actually I think it is one of our best albums (what!?! Fo sho???) and I’m very proud of it. I had to listen to it a lot because I had to learn everything I play on it for the tour because I’ll have to play it again. (Why not just refrain from being so unprofressional as to forget what you just recorded?) And listening to it I’m feeling very good about it. (that's a given)

HERE COMES A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION. FOR LOTS OF PEOPLE PROGRESSIVE MUSIC HAS ALWAYS BEEN SOMETHING FOR THE ELITE (Probably) AND SOMETHING BORING. (NEVER!!! The Contrary!!! My Caps look weak amongst this perturbingly formatted question) BUT YOU GUYS SOMEHOW MANAGED TO MAKE IT FAR MORE ACCESSIBLE. (Accessible=Selling out_ in my sarcastically idealistic realm. The underscore is to indication of the equation's end. I almost said "realm" instead of "world" and "termination" rather than "end." I guess I can be an elitist snob upon occasion. Also I didn't know if "sardonically"is a word, because Firefox's spell check is acting up. I'm sorry.) AND AFTER ACHIEVING SUCH A THING, WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR THE BAND NOW?
Wow! I don’t know. I guess the challenge is to keep coming out with really great music, music that is not only true to Dream Theater, our spirit and soul, but also music that people are really gonna like. This is not necessarily hard for us, because this is what we do. (Plus we're sweet.) But because this is a crazy world and there’s so much music out there so everything is possible. (Random sentence there) And the goal is to keep producing really good music and make it something that's successful, but also really true to ourselves. (w00t)

THE NEW ALBUM IS ONCE AGAIN PRODUCED BY PORTNOY AND PETRUCCI. DID YOU EVER HAD THE DESIRE TO GET MORE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION? (Well technically the whole crew is involved with making the product.)
Well, the way that Dream Theater works right now is that there are three main writers of the music – myself, John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy. (Portnoy works on the big picture and buisiness side of things, the other two come up with the riffs.) So I feel very comfortable in the role of a composer and also keyboardist in the group. The production I also feel comfortable letting John and Mike do it (Nice sentence, you middle schooler. That's right, I saw that use of 'gonna' earlier. And you also habitually say "I'm doing good." I struggled with that one extensively, so....on second though, why don't I fell empathy? I'm like Teddy Roosevelt.) . They are very good at guiding the Dream Theater ship. And what I mean by that is that they have a really firm grasp of what a Dream Theater album should and could sound like. And I really trust them to make those calls. They have been here since the beginning and they know what made the group successful in the first place. (Good answer. Swell, not swill.)

And I think they have a really strong feeling with the kind of direction that will continue to make the group successful in the real world. (No matter what kind of music you actually want to make, right?) So this is how I feel about it. (As a concluding remark, it should've been "that." You know, I mess up too often to nitpick.)

OBVIOUSLY GUITARIST(S) STEAL THE SHOW IN A ROCK BAND AND SINGERS (DO)TOO. DID YOU HAVE MOMENTS IN YOUR (INSERT NOUN HERE) WHEN YOU HAD THE BURNING DESIRE TO GRAB THE GUITAR?
Yeah. I had a really strong moment to grab the guitar kind of recently when we were out doing the Liquid Tension shows, that’s the side project of Dream Theater. My keyboard went broken during the show and I went to John Petrucci and I grabbed his guitar and I played some solos. So, I had the desire and I took some immediate action. (Stoooooopid! We're talking about the big picture here! At least he didn't try to market "When the Keyboard Breaks" which is an obvious Led Zeppelin reference.)

THE KEYBOARS (Run! The wild hogs will unlock your innards!! Did you see the Caps inflation above? All for continuity's sake. Now this little interlude is nulliffying its efforts. Also, Keyboar rhymes with Ybor, a part of Tampa, FL where Christian rhymer KJ-52 grew up. I was a big fan back in 2004-06) ARE YOUR BIG THING AND OBVIOUSLY THE GUITAR TOO. (Obviously? Since he's worked with it to a comprable extent & everything...) BUT IS THERE ANY OTHER INSTRUMENT YOU THINK YOU ARE GOOD AT? ALL OF YOU AT DREAM THEATER ARE THE EPITOME OF AMAZING INSTRUMENTALISTS... (nice sentence there)
I also play an instrument called the continuum (oh please, that hardly counts as a different instrument) – it is something that’s seen with me on recent Dream Theater tours, sort of a fretless keyboard. I have practicing on it for quite a while. (He pretty much sucks- My theory is that being a classical pianist for years caused him to rebel and seek electronic pitch-bending instruments and explore their facets instead of making music. The sweet main theme to "Nightmare" is the only cool thing he's done. At least do some chords or shred or do something besides randomly slide around like you're a toddler in a PlayPlace) The other instrument that I am very involved right now is the iPhone – you can do amazing musical things on that. (The pinnacle of human technology, perhaps. By the way, Jordin Sparks sucks.)

MEANWHILE PEOPLE CONTINUE TO SAY THAT THE MOST PERFECT INSTRUMENT IS THE HUMAN VOICE. (It might be. The computer is getting pretty close though) TO WHAT EXTEND (you're looking for the noun, not a verb here, dude) DO YOU FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT SINGING?
On my first rock solo album which was called ‘Listen’ I sung a lot of stuff. And if you go back and research my catalog you can hear me sing. Well, I’m not James LaBrie, I’m not what you call ‘a singer’, but I can sing correctly. (I'd adopt that qualifier also.) Of course it is not something I have ever done with Dream Theater and part of the reason is that when I joined the band they were a very established group in a business point of view and in terms of their ways, so it was never a topic in the group. (What the heck?) But I do love to sing and probably will sing in the future in my own albums and other places. (I did not know about this, nor had I though about it.)

PLEASE TELL US, WHICH IS YOUR CLOSEST FRIEND OUT OF ALL THE OTHER FOUR PEOPLE IN THE BAND. BUT PLEASE DON’T BE LIKE ‘OH, WE’RE ALL FRIENDS, WE’RE LIKE FAMILY’ AND SO ON…(I love this question!)
You want to know but you don’t let me tell you. (hurr good one...)

YEAH, BUT IT’S NOT LIKE CHOOSING BETWEEN YOUR KIDS HERE, YOU CAN SAY WHO YOU’RE CLOSER WITH THAN THE OTHERS.(This interviewer knows what's up.)
Lets pot it this way (like a plant?)– when we’re out on the road, which we are a lot, I hang out most of the time with James. We get along very well and go to dinner and do stuff together. We have a similar kind of social feel out on the road. It’s wonderful about Dream Theater, and I’m not just saying it, is that we get along very well. It is one thing that helps the band together and moving forward. It is an unusual situation because we’re not people who are involved with a lot of partying and drugs. I’m sorry to disillusion any of the fans out there who are imagining that we’re having some amazing parties after the show in the bus, (who would do that?) but we are a very stable type of people that work hard on our music and care about it a lot. (woot)

OK, WE GET IT, YOU’RE NOT MÖTLEY CRÜE. AS FAR AS I REMEMBER OUR PREVIOUS INTERVIEW WITH YOU WAS TEN YEARS AGO, SO NOW WE WILL DARE ASK YOU THE FOLLOWING QUESTION – WHICH ONE OF THE TWO PREVIOUS KEYBOARDISTS IN DREAM THEATER’S HISTORY DO YOU PREFER - KEVIN MOORE OR DEREK SHERINIAN?
Ha-ha, that’s funny. I think I have said many times that they are both very good players. And it is hard to pick one instead of the other, but I know that Derek is still much more involved with playing the keyboards than Kevin, who is more involved in sonic stuff, working with synthesizers and very interesting ambiences and also singing. He is a very talented musician. They are very different. (Okaay, howz about we answer the question now?)

THESE (this?) SHOULDN’T NECESSARILY BE A LOGICAL EXPLANATION – WHICH OF THE TWO PLAYING STYLES DO YOU FEEL CLOSER TO YOUR OWN?
Let’s put it this way – I think Kevin had a greater keyboard influence on Dream Theater. He established more in the role of keyboards in the band. Derek did a wonderful job but never put it as a statement in the band, he made a statement for himself after he left the band in Planet X and stuff like that. (Another avoidance.)

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING SECOND SHOW IN KAVARNA. DO YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT SETLIST FOR FESTIVALS AND OTHER SHOW? I MEAN, OF COURSE YOU DO, BUT TELL US WHAT THEY ARE.
We will definitely have a different setlist. When we play a festival the amount of time is shorter, so we have to be conscious about it when we put together our setlist. And Mike, who puts together the setlists, puts a lot of effort into that and they are very thought out. And there is nothing random about it at all. He checks what we played at the same place the previous time we were there. I think you can expect a nice balanced combination of our albums even for the shorter amount of time we will play. (dumb question)

YEAH, BUT YOU’RE LIKE THE HEADLINERS OF THE LAST DAY OF THE THREE-DAY FESTIVAL.
Oh, so the length will pretty much stay the same. (Yeah you idiot)

THESE MEET ‘N GREET PACKAGES THAT YOU SELL TO FANS FOR THIS TOUR – DO THEY SELL WELL?
That’s a good interview question for my manager. I have no idea how the sales go at this tour.

OH, WE ALMOST FORGOT TO ASK YOU (:) (and this isn't an emoticon)WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE CLASSICAL COMPOSER?
Well, if I have to answer from a piano player’s point of view my answer would be Frédéric Chopin. (not Liszt?)

BECAUSE HE IS REALLY ROMANTIC?
I think that it is because he really understood the piano and the way it resonates. (umm ok) And I can really relate to his music when I play it on the piano.

rights Tangra Mega Rock

And that's that.