I recently had the opportunity to sit down and chat with one of rock’s true creative geniuses. He is the co-founder of Savatage, one of the greatest progressive rock groups ever. Upon the foundations of that, he built the incredible Trans-Siberian Orchestra which has become a holiday tradition for many. I, of course, am speaking of the incredible vocalist and songwriter, Jon Oliva. Jon has a new solo record out and a tour in the works. Join us for the inside scoop and find out what he’s been up to.
KE: Hi Jon! How are you?
Jon: I’m doing splendid. How are you darling?
KE: Very well thank you. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. You have a new solo record out, “Raise the Curtain.” Can you tell us how this new project came about?
Jon: Well, it actually came about on a sad note really when we lost Matt LaPorte (Jon Oliva’s Pain). He passed away suddenly and you know it was really a very hard thing to go through. It was very emotional and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do after that. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the JOP band or anything. You know, I guess I just felt that I needed something to keep busy and I didn’t want to deal with a band situation after losing one of my best friends. I just was like, you know, I just have to do something. I came down to my friend Danny’s house who was also really good close friends with Matt. We just started hanging out and working, just writing together, just jamming around and that’s how it kind of started. And I had these last few riffs of Criss’s left and I was like you know, if I’m gonna do this, it’s the time to do it really. It gives me a break from the JOP thing. I can get the rest of Criss’s music out there and, you know, just clear my head and not have to worry about a band for awhile and that’s really how it started.
KE: Now you did mention that you used some of your late brother Criss’s material on the album. Was that something you always wanted to do?
Jon: Well, what it is, I’ve been putting Criss’s material out since the first JOP record. Every JOP record, all four JOP records, have Criss Oliva contributions on them. What happened with this was I got down to the end of the box of tapes I had. I only had a couple of tapes left and ironically they were the earliest songs that we ever wrote together. It was really strange and there was only about three or four or five pieces left and that was it and I had gotten all his music out. And I was just like, you know, after losing Matt so suddenly you just start thinking about things. I was like I’m not croaking before I get the rest of my brother’s music out. So that was something I vowed I would do and that’s why I guess that sense of urgency. I just wanted to do it and then I could move on and that’s where it all comes from.
KE: You play almost everything yourself on the new record, all the vocals and almost all the instruments. What was the reason for that decision and did it make things easier or more difficult for you?
Jon: Well, it was easier because the only person I had to argue with was myself. (Laughter) I had my friend Danny play the organ and a lot of the keyboards and stuff and Chris Kinder played drums on a few songs. But other than those two guys, yeah, I pretty much did everything. It wasn’t that it was easier. It was just that the style of the music just suited my playing better than the guys that I was playing with. Mainly the guitar players and the bass players because most of the guys I play with are in the heavy style and as you listen to the record a lot of the stuff on this record is very versatile. There’s not a lot, I mean there’s only a few songs that you would really say are heavy metal songs. It’s a very versatile album and I just I didn’t want to sit there and spend the time trying to teach guys who are accustomed to playing heavy metal and shredding how to like say look now you only have to play six notes not thirty seven. I just decided it would be easier to do it and more fun with myself because again, I wanted to get away from the band thing after Matt died. I didn’t really want to have a lot of people around. I just had Danny around me and Chris Kinder and that was really it except the engineers we worked with, our little buddy Wayne and other than that. Yeah, it was very good therapy for me.
KE: You mentioned that it was a very versatile record and I think that is one of the things I liked the most about it, just a great mix of songs and styles. How do you prepare vocally and musically to go in all these different directions?
Jon: I drink a lot! (Laughter) Usually after I’m hammered. I think about it like this. If you go to see a movie, even if it’s a violent movie, you don’t want to see nothing but violence for an hour and forty minutes you know. You’ve got to break things up. Music is an emotion as much as it’s an art form. It’s an emotion too. I like to bring you up and bring you down. The way I did the album was I imagined it sitting in a movie theater and the lights go down and that opening song “Raise the Curtain” comes on and the curtain starts to rise up and that song finishes. And then imagine every band member comes out, like four or five Jon Olivas, and you kick into the concert which starts with the second song, “Soul Chaser” which is the first vocal song. And then I take you through to the end and then when the lights start to dim down that ballad comes on and that’s the end of the show.
KE: I love that analogy! It’s a terrific album and I especially enjoyed “Father Time.”
Jon: Oh, thank you so much.
KE: Now, are you going to get a band together and tour this record. I know you can’t tour and play everything yourself.
Jon: Well, you’d be surprised. (Laughter) I’m learning how to play drums with my feet right now. I’m doing a storytellers tour starting right after Thanksgiving. It’s just gonna be me and Chris Kinder. I’ll be doing some stuff with backing tracks and I’ll be doing some stuff live, telling lots of great stories.
KE: And you’ll be doing new songs from “Raise the Curtain?”
Jon: Absolutely! I’ll be doing that and I’m going to go through the whole history of Savatage and JOP and TSO and everything else that I’ve ever done and tell some really great really funny live stories about the things that I’ve experienced over the last thirty years.
KE: Sounds great.
Jon: I figured it’s the best way to do this tour with this type of an album. It’s very up close. It’s gonna be a seated event, very up close and personal. I’m gonna do a question and answer and a meet and greet after each show. Really try to get close with the audience and bring them through the whole spiel starting with like you said that “Father Time” song. That’s the first riff that Criss Oliva wrote in his entire life. He wrote that when he was fourteen years old and I had that riff and we made it into that song. So stories like that and talking about the Savatage stuff, all the things we went through. Playing all through versions of songs from the Savatage catalog and other catalogs and the JOP stuff as well, that people have never heard before. So I think it’ll be a lot of fun.
KE: What about another record? Would you like to do this kind of project again?
Jon: Well, as far as the solo record goes, I want to do another one but I want to take a break. The next thing we’re working on right now is the new JOP album. And the goal for that album is to do the heaviest album I’ve ever done in my career. I’m going to try and out top things. Anything heavy I’ve ever done, I want to make it look silly. We’re in the writing process of that and we hope to have that out right after the holidays.
KE: Nice! I know you come from a musical background. Your father played piano. How important was that to you and your brother Criss growing up and how did that lead to your careers in the music industry?
Jon: Well, my dad always had a piano. Wherever we lived, we always had a piano in the house and usually an organ as well. Music for us started young. For me, when I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. I think I was like five years old and I wanted to be Ringo Starr. I wanted a drum set and my dad bought me a drum set like that week and I started playing with my dad in the living room. He played piano and I would play drums with brushes, wire brushes and stuff. So that was like my first introduction to music was playing drums. Then Criss and I used to run around the family room with tennis rackets and make believe they were guitars. Then my older brother played guitar so there were guitars around so we started picking up that. My dad tried to give me piano lessons but that only lasted about an hour. He got so frustrated because he wanted to teach me “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and I wanted to play “I Am the Walrus.” So we kind of clashed and I kind of went off on my own and taught myself with electrical tape and a whole lot of Beatles’ albums. (Laughter)
KE: Who were some of your other musical influences besides the Beatles?
Jon: Well, I mean the Beatles were my teachers mainly. Then when I got a little older, my first exposure to heavy music was Black Sabbath and they were my heavy metal teachers, my hard rock teachers. Them and Deep Purple, they were very influential. The band Rush. I was very into Rush when their first three albums came out, UFO. Criss and I loved UFO. Criss was a big Michael Schenker fan. Those were the bands that we kind of grew up with. But the Beatles were the mainstay. They taught me songwriting and stuff like that. I learned how to write songs and sing to Beatles’ albums. Learning how to write songs like how they would go from minors to majors and 7ths and stuff like that. It was very interesting. Queen was also a big influence on me, more so me than my brother. I think in every JOP album you can hear the Queen stuff. You can hear those influences all over the place. Now on this solo record I touch base on everybody. I stole from everybody Kris, I’m not ashamed of that. (Laughter)
KE: Now that we’ve touched on the early days. How exactly did Savatage transition into Trans-Siberian Orchestra?
Jon: Well, TSO really started right after Criss passed away. Criss passed away and we were doing the “Handful of Rain” album and it was just really me and Paul O’Neill. Paul started talking about this idea, wouldn’t it be great if we could do this and that and then we wrote the song “Chance.” That really was the first TSO song ever written. You know we got the guys, we got Al Pitrelli and Chris Caffery and kept Savatage going. But the next record we did had the song “Sarajevo 12/24” on it which was the first hit for Trans-Siberian Orchestra. So really Savatage after Criss Oliva passed away was really Trans-Siberian Orchestra in training. I mean we kept Savatage together for a few more years and toured but that was basically it. We just morphed into Trans-Siberian Orchestra. That song became so big and the whole thing took off. And it never took off under the name Savatage so we just said look we know this is a number one hit so let’s change the name. We changed the name and sold nine million albums. So go figure that one out right. (Laughter)
KE: I saw with the TSO tour dates coming out that it’s being advertised as the final performance of “The Lost Christmas Eve.” I hope that doesn’t mean the end of the traditional holiday TSO tours.
Jon: Absolutely not. It’s just the last time we’re gonna do this particular story. But no, that’s gonna keep going on. As long as people keep buying tickets for it, we’re gonna keep doing it. It’s become like a tradition, kind of spooky actually.
KE: In my own family, it’s become a holiday tradition. My three sons enjoy going to the show every year. It is always an incredible show.
Jon: Cool, I’m so happy to hear that. Thank you.
KE: Are there any new albums in the works for TSO?
Jon: Yeah, we’re working on three right now to save time because one wasn’t enough for him so he decided to really fuck with us and have us do three at the same time. Which one comes out first? Your guess is as good as mine. It changes on a daily basis so working with Paul O’Neill is quite the experience, kind of like playing Password with Rainman. (Laughter)
KE: You’ve worked with so many talented people over the years. If you could pick just one artist to work with, who would it be?
Jon: Alive or dead?
KE: Either one.
Jon: My brother. Followed by John Lennon. Maybe Criss could talk him into coming down with him.
KE: That would be awesome! Thanks again for taking the time to talk with us here today.
Jon: Thank you Kris!
We would like to thank Dustin Hardman from Frontiers Records US for setting up the interview with Pat. For more information on Jon including his new CD “Raise the Curtain,” please go to: Jon Oliva.
