I've been following Doug for a long time now... but I've been following Arjen for almost 25 years now. Great to see the two merge here!

Arjen is such a sweet soul! I love him! It doesn’t hurt that he makes some of the worlds best music! My Star One hoodie just came!!!

Thank you for this great interview with my fellow countryman. As always Arjen Lucassen is one of the most modest musicians I know, but also one of the best. His latest Star One album "Revel In Time" is really incredible. I'd like to highly recommend it. Hope that through this channel Arjen Lucassen gets some more "brand awareness" in the USA. He deserves that, in my opinion. Once again, thank you for this interview...

WOW what a surprise! huge Ayreon fan for ages, some of my fav albums. Complete legend. Excellent interview

Arjen being a viewer is high praise! The Human Equation is my fav Ayreon album.

Great guy that Arjen. Thank you for this intervew.

So it WAS "Q"!!! I saw him and was not sure if it was this actor! Thank you for this interview! Since a few days I fell into a Ayreon rabbit hole and it is awesome! Love love love it!

Omg! I can't wait to see this conversation.

One more of Arjen's projects: The Gentle Storm is definatelly worth checking out.

Thank you for this interview. Arjen is simply amazing. Great guy and, of course, such a creative person! I really respect him and, it’s so great that it was you the interviewer, Doug!

Amazing, thank You so much, I love Ayreon since early 2000's. The Human Equation is one of the best albums ever!

I'm kinda proud of my inspiration also being Blackmore when such musical geniuses share it, too :)) Human Equation is one masterpiece from start to finish - one of the best concept albums i've ever listened. Go, Arjen!

omg is happening. Can't wait for human equation. Thanks Doug, you really made my day!

Such a humble and great, down to earth guy. One of the best composers in rock/metal/symf/prog music at this moment. Making amazing albums. Great great dutch Hippie

No way!! Arjen's the best!

Doug is not going to regret getting to know The Human Equation, such a great album

Great interview Doug. Now to do some Ayreon songs.

HEY DOUG! I'M BORN ON APRIL 10TH TOO! Greetings birthday twin!

🎼It’s the Daily Chaaaat🎼

I can't wait for you, Doug, to hear a full Ayreon experience and see the depth of Arjen's creativity and we are blessed to hear you riff off of one another. Arjen is a driving force in virtuoso musicianship in the most creatively pure part of the industry.

Please make an analysis to the Into the Electric Castle album!!! It's such an amazing masterpiece!!!

Star One: Prescient (with Mike Mills, Ross Jennings)! Really would like to hear your take on that one - compositionally I think it's really interesting. And Mike Mills really should get more attention ( have a look at "Meet the Sloth" if you like a long track! )

This was so fun. Love watching Arjens playfulness, everytime I listen to him my respect and admiration grow. BTW I personally enjoy his voice, I love that he often appears as a character himself. Been listening to Rebel in Time, but frankly I'm going one song at a time. I dont just want to sit and go through it. Rather listen to a song, wait for a few days and process it the enjoy the next. This stuff is far too good to engulf in one sitting. I prefer to take my time and savor every note. Really what a wonderful wonderful time, thank you. Hard not to feel a surge of creativity after such an excellent talk.

Arjen being Arjen, will probably be the only one to be interviewed by KZfaq reactors, because he's not your typical prima donna rockstar. What a great guy.

I've been a fan for life

Doug you’re getting all my favorite people on your show! So awesome!

Arjen is such a cool, nice guy. I've been a fan of his stuff since The Electric Castle which is probably my favorite album. You have to listen to that one.

Nice. I hope you'll do some reactions of Arjen's work for us plebs who are not patrons too.

You two are the kindest people found on youtube.

Ok, so youtube just got a new benchmark for musical discourse. FAN tastic!

Nice to have Arjen from my country. He is just awesome.

Well, that was fantastic...what a lovely man Arjen is...well done!

In a near future Doug should interview Anneke V Giersbergen, also Dutch, Arjen partner in projects and multiskilled artist.

God Bless You, Arjen!

I've had this tab open for days and finally got to it. As usual, kicking myself for taking so long. Great interview, Doug. Arjen's a pretty recent discovery for me too, relative to his long career, anyways, but I think he's great and so is his work. He always introduces me to some new musicians and singers as well! ps, DS9 is the best Trek! TNG is a close second, though.

I tend to not like interviews all so much, but this one worked. Thank you both.

The two things I love the most in a single Video. Thank you !

I must say Arjen is one of the greatest masters of the kraft, and because of purchasing an Ayreon album on a whim I had been introduced to master rock and metal artists that have restored my faith in the prog rock and metal genre. Arjen and his supergroups have truly helped revive and re-popularize the prog genres. He is one cool cat that never cops out and should have his own hall of fame for the greatest music ever!

The Human Equation is an amazing piece of work and probably still my favorite overall piece from Arjen, but I love basically all his work.

Doug: "That's me, April 10th" Anthony: "I'm April 3rd" Me in my computer: "I'm April 13th guys!!!"

This is so amazing ]:) Thank you for sharing this Doug

Awesome interview. Arjen is one of my biggest musical heroes!

Two of my favorite people!!! Oh, this is gonna be good! I'm a wee bit into the interview and had to add that my first album was The Beatles Yesterday and Today. I was 4 years old. John Lennon is my favorite Beatle, and I personally think he was the better singer and songwriter. That being said, I LOVE Arjen's work. He is an absolute genius!

Hey Doug, what a fantastic surprise! Being Arjen's fan for the better part of my life, it's so amazing to see you not only discovering his catalogue, but actually getting him on your show! What a treat mate, Arjen is such a fantastic guy, nice one!

Great interview guys...cool hearing you speak Arjen !!

Love the conversation about how to make musical ideas work. In Arjen's case it became clear to him that great musicians make his ideas come to life by making his demo's their own. Sounds simple, not easy to do. Great interview Doug, ty

YES!!!!We love him!!

👏👏👏👏

Another fantastic interview!

Guilt Machine - On This Perfect Day is still the pinnacle for me.

You gotta listen to the whole thing, for sure!

It feels like both of them are excited to have a chat but Doug is like "Nope, I gotta get through my list of questions in 30 minutes." 😆

I think Doug will really dig the Shooting Company of Captain Franc B Cocq. The soundscapes are awesome... It's so laid back yet intense. And the Lennon-esque vocals mixed with the Pink Floyd vibe is so cool.

Two of the nicest people in the world on the same stream! Excellent stuff :-)

My fave is "The Theory of Everything"... music is awesome, and guest singers killed it (Tommy Karevik especially, and Marco Hietala)!!

First of all thx for that Interview Doug. Interesting and out of the obvious-Questions, that makes it even better. And while listen to Arjen answers, theres so much Jari Mäenpää (Wintersun) experiences in it from the background of how to compose their masterpieces und such..rly cool. I wonder what wonderful composings those two could do together :) maybe one day..Arjen..u get in touch with him? :)

This is beyond WOW!!! this is holy shit!!! hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Iove magical mystery tour

Dude is a legend!

C'mon Doug he and you are kindred spirits. Get his xclnt music out there. More reaction videos please! Yours truly, lifelong Progger

It is cool to have Arjen Lucassen on the channel. Try to react to old Ayreon albums. Actual Fantasy, The Dream Sequencer, Flight of the Migrator

Arjen is not only a master in his craft, he is the only one. 24 years of Ayreon and Arjen and still going.

First one "The Final Experiment"? You are not the only one. The Final Fantasy thing started as "last project" for the studio. Look what happened to that. More people should be doing "final" things.

Great interview. If you get the chance after listening to Human Equation, give The Final Experiment a listen.

He's over 2 meters tall? That explains why it always looks like his ceiling is too low.

Do the Universal Migrator pt1 next :D

I didn't realize that your a bass with a higher speech register (like I am), so now I have suggestions for videos or even general listening. The acapella groups Voiceplay and Homefree have not only brilliant bass singers, but formidable arranging skills as well (and all the members of both groups are brilliant singers). Then there is the bass gang, a group of 4 relatively young bass singers (one is 17 and I think the oldest might be mid 30s) who do some brilliant work. All of these basses ( Geoff Castellucci, Tim Foust, Bobby Waters, Peter Barber, Tomi P and Marwan Ayman) also have solo work they do as well which showcases there individual range. There are more groups too, just these three are my personal favourites. And then all alone are Colm Mcguinness (Folk Instrumental), Jonathan Young (mostly metal) and Tim Storms (just a stunningly low voice)

April 14th ✊🏻

The Human Equation reaction is a patreon exclusive?

Guide them back on the river of time!

As I noted on another post - on the one hand, Arjen can focus the songs on the artists. but then...where do the harmonies come from? How does he listen to Marcela, Irene, Floor, Anneke, and work out an arrangement that just brings the best of all of them

Arjen and Doug, you do get a point here, good one... stick to your vision... Iron Maiden had that too, they could have a record deal back in 1976.. but had to cut their hair and play punk... NOPE !!!! Awesome how you got to where you are today..

JUST W O W : Arjen best thing ever happened to this planet ( with Devin Townsend :P )

Why don’t you try the live version of the album The Human Equation: the theatrical equation.

The Universal Migrator

Oh The Human Equation will be a patreon exclusive, sad :(

I have requested you please reaction Rammstein band another song

This was way too short!

In fact I have mixed feelings about Mr Lucassen. I think he’s better than his ideas, I mean, great guy, amazing musician that delivers lots of cheesy & pretentious works. Kinda Dutch Steven Wilson, both prolific, although I do no think SW work is that cheesy.