The Electric RECLUSE
In a world of musicians restrained by carefully worded, PR-driven responses to questions, it’s refreshing to discover that Arjen Lucassen doesn’t follow that debilitating trend. Honest and engaging, the mastermind behind Ayreon is a self-confessed perfectionist and social recluse, and recounts with good humour the origins of the Ayreon project back in the early 90s.
“It was the days of grunge and Nirvana, and here I come with a progressive rock opera,” he laughs. “It was stupid, man. I went to 30 record companies and most of them said, ‘We love it, it’s great, we’re going to play it each evening but we’re not going to sign you because we can’t sell this.’ I still have a lot of the faxes from all the record labels, telling me they loved it but weren’t
