“Usually there would be a hero who destroys the asteroid. I didn’t want that. I wanted to end humanity!” Self-confessed egomaniac counts the ways of our deaths on his first solo release in 13 years

Arjen Lucassen – Songs No One Will Hear cover detail.

13 years after his last proper solo album, Dutch polymath Arjen Lucassen has gone apocalyptic on Songs No One Will Hear, with a little inspiration from some of his favourite sci-fi-themed records. He tells Prog why he wrote “the sountrack to humanity’s final days,” what he’ll be doing when the asteroid hits and his future plans for Ayreon.

It’s one of many popular suggestions we hear these days to promote a healthier, more carefree approach to life: dance like no one’s watching. Similarly, the idea of making music like no one’s listening is surely an attractive one to any artist who labours under the weight of audience expectation.