"Absolutely not," he told BigMusicGeek.com. "And I think that's why it came as such a shock to everyone of us. It wasn't like we were all bangin' each other's heads, not seeing eye-to-eye or wanting to be in the same room with one another. None of that was going on. Everything was cool. It was quite simply a surprise. Mike had mentioned that it wasn't something that was spur-of-the-moment. He just doesn't operate like that. When he mentioned to us that he had been thinking about it off and on over the last year, it was obvious that he had been having these feelings for quite some time, wanting to separate himself from anything regarding the future of Dream Theater. It was simply something that we didn't see coming in any way, shape or form. It was just an absolute surprise."