Time to focus on who I consider to be one of the most prolific composers / musicians of modern day progressive rock: Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Starting his career in a band called Vengeance, Arjen soon discovered that going his own path gave him far more possibilities to explore all his talents.
His band Ayreon is world-renowned, and other projects like Star One, Guilt Machine, and various other collaborations have a huge following. So much so indeed, that the tickets for his next live event in September 2023 sold out in ten minutes flat. I was lucky enough to score two tickets for a matinee that was added to be able to allow more people to enjoy his uncanny ability to bring together musical talent from all over the globe.
Arjen to me is a soul mate, his albums like "the Electric Castle", "the Human Equation", "the Final Experiment", or "the Source" all entered my life with a weird "coincidence". And though it seems presumptuous to claim this, I would swear his solo project "Into the New Real" came about because he read my novel entitled "Make IT Real". Weird indeed, but there were just too many hints in the lyrics and general story for that not being a distinct possibility.
But that is OK, because the novel only exists as a freely downloadable PDF to be used, abused and enjoyed by anyone for free. And on top of that, I consider it an honor if my creativity inspired a creator like Arjen!