Drummer Mike Portnoy dismissed claims that "Octavarium" was an attempt to write a more commercial album, stating that the band simply "that side to [them. We love bands like U2 or Coldplay, as well as liking shorter songs as well." Portnoy noted that, after writing "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" and "Train of Thought", they had not written an album of shorter songs for some time. He said that the band had found writing longer songs easier than writing shorter ones, and that the band was not trying to write a radio hit as "the label wouldn't have done crap with it anyway."