“I put Jon Oliva’s Pain together to carry on the Savatage torch and to get rid of the rest of the music, so people can hear it.”

The iconic co-founder and former leader of Savatage, Jon Oliva, returns with a new album by his current project Jon Oliva's Pain, premonitorily entitled "Global Warning"...

Vassil Varbanov: Good evening, Mr. Oliva. How are you doing?

Jon Oliva: Good evening. I’m doing fine. Yourself?

V. V.: It’s good to have you with us, especially talking about this forthcoming album of yours, “Global Warning”. What is the feeling inside your heart about this album?

J. O.:  Ah, I’m very, very fond of it. You know we worked really, really hard on this album. And, you know, it’s one of my favourite albums I’ve ever done, to be honest with you. I’d put it right up to any of the Savatge records that I’ve done and any Trans Siberian Orchestra I’ve done… It shows off a side of what I do.  I think for the first time on an album I’d got to explore, you know, all different angles of my songwriting and stuff, without anybody being worried about it. I was like, you know, I told everybody last year that I was going to experiment a little bit this year and I did, so I hope everybody enjoys it… I’m very fond of it.

V. V.: In what terms are you experimenting?

J. O.: I was just trying some different things. I used a couple of instruments on the album that I’ve never used before. A hammer dulcimer is one instrument we used on the song called “The Ride”. It’s kinda sounds like a harps-accord played with sticks…

V. V.: Yeah, it’s like “The Dulcimer Stomp” of Led Zeppelin…

J. O.: Yeah, yeah, so you know, I used it for the first time. I used on another song called “The Master”… It was the first time I experimented with tape loops-sound effect loops. We came up with this sound effect loop and we built the song around it, which is something I’ve never done before. Um, you know, these are things that I did and I have never done before. I’ve never really done a solo song with just acoustic guitar and a little string chord tap, but I did that on a song called “Souls”, which is the very last song on the album that comes in out of the fade out of the song called “Someone”. It’s just a lot of things like that on the album- things I’ve never done before. Electric guitars I was playing through Leslie speaker Cabinet, which you know, has been done before, but I’ve never done it. You know, on this album I just said I’m gonna have fun with this and throw caution to the wind and see what happens.

V. V.: What is the reason behind this willing to experiment? Mid-life crisis or what?

J. O.: Old age. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha… You know what it is? It’s like it comes to a point in your life or career, you know… I’ve done a lot of records and I’ve done a lot of things and it just comes to the point when you’ve got to challenge yourself a little bit and try to push yourself a little bit further that what you’ve done in the past. You know, a lot of people will just keep repeating what they have done on the records before over and over and over and over and over… You know, my thing is I don’t want you to know what to expect when you put on one of my CDs. From song to song I want you guessing. I don’t want you to know- “Oh, it’s gonna be all heavy!” or “Oh, it’s gonna be all this…” I want to bring you on a ride. I want you to hear different things and different styles and… Because it keeps you from getting bored, you know?
No matter how good a record is, if it’s the same thing going over and over again, eventually you’re going to get tired of it. And it becomes a little bit stale. Oh, he has done this already. Yeah, yeah, we know, oh, yeah, it’s great, but it sounds a lot like the last album and the first album and… With this album I wanted people to say “Whoa! What’s going to come up next?” You know, you have a song like “Global Warning”, which is the opening song and it goes into the song  “Look At The World”, which is a song that my brother Chris and I wrote back in 1979 after we went to see Queen in concert. That was our first attempt writing a song and we considered it styled after Queen. You know, and then you’ve got other stuff like “O To G” which is just me on the piano and an orchestra, a string orchestra. And, you know, I did it, nothing else, you know? So, you know, that’s the thing I like to do. I like to pull some surprises and stuff and… I’ m a fan of all kinds of music, so, you know, I want to do what makes me happy.

V. V.: Do you put yourself the record again and again. I mean, because now, when it’s ready, do you keep on listening to it? Do you find places where you think you should have done better?

J. O.: You always do. You know an artist or a writer or a musician is never satisfied. You always listen to it afterwards and you’re like: “Goddamn it! I should have done this or I should have…” But I’ve got to be honest with you. Of all the records I’ve done in my career, this record I’ve listened to more after it’s been finished than any of the records I’ve ever done.

V. V.: What’s the reason for that?

J. O.: It’s probably 30-40 times over the last month or so, you know? And I like it very much. Mostly other records I listen to once or twice after they are finished and I never listen to them again. But on this record there’s something going on. It’s got an atmosphere about it and every time I listen to it, I hear little things that I missed the first time- little sounds and things like that… So it’s definitely a record you’ve got to listen to a few times, because it grows on you. Once you get it, once you listen to it three or four times, you are into it.

V. V.: To what extent then, because listening to it you discover little things here and there, some little things, and little pieces of treasure can occur by simple chance while doing this? Because not everything like the chemistry between instruments, arrangements and stuff… Sometimes it’s a matter of luck. But to what extent you open the door for such good things to happen?

J. O.: Yeah, you know, you’re right. A lot of times things happen by mistake- it’s not something you plan on doing, it’s just something you are messing around, looking for an idea and it happens just accidentally. It happens to me a lot when I play guitar, ‘cause I’m not really an accomplished guitar player. I’m a good rhythm guitar player, but I will give you an example: On the song “Firefly” on the album there’s a clean electric guitar with a bending note. It just keeps bending like w-r-a-a-a-a-a… And now it’s me just experimenting, trying to find something to play and I could not think of anything, so I just kept taking this one note and kept bending it, saying: “Oh, shit, I’ll figure it out later”. I’ll just put it here, so everyone knows I’m putting something else later. And then after we put some other stuff on it, I went back looking on it and I was like: “What I did was perfect! I didn’t even know what I was doing. I just, you know, I mean, it just came out that way. So such things happen. You know it’s good. That’s what music is all about. Music is supposed to come from within you, you know? Come from the soul. A lot of times things come out like that when you’re just like experimenting and looking for ideas. Sometimes without even knowing it. You hit on something and then when you turn around, you end up using it, because it wasn’t though about, it’s something that came naturally.
So, a lot of this happens. On this album not as much. Only a few things. This album was very thought out and rehearsed. I kind of went back to the old days of Savatage method of recording like we did with “Power Of the Night”, when we spent 6 months in a barn, you know? Rehearsing the songs and playing the songs every day and trying different drumbeats and different bass lines and different vocal parts. That’s what we did with this album and that’s why I think it came out so cool, because we really thoroughly worked over every song and made sure we were very happy with it before we actually did the real taping. But that’s what the music is all about, man. It supposed to be spontaneous and it is supposed to come from the soul. And believe me, my music comes from the soul, ‘cause I don’t know the way the fuck out it comes from.

V. V.: You said you were experimenting with instruments… Did you put any room for experiments in terms of musicians?

J. O.:  Not really. I’m very happy with the musicians I’ve got right now. They are hand- picked. They are very talented and they play a lot of different styles of music and that’s opened the door for me to do whatever I want to do songwriting-wise. I don’t really have to worry about it. Not taking anything away from the guys in Savatage. They are great band, but Savatage was very two-dimensional band. All the guys in the band are hard rock musicians and you know? We either play a heavy metal song or we play a ballad. So, it’s very two-dimensional. This band differs in the aspect that they play a bunch more different styles of music. These guys that I’m playing with right now play everything from jazz to pop to heavy metal to hard rock to progressive. They can really basically play anything. That makes it easier for the songwriter, because you don’t have any limitations. You are like: “Oh, I can do this song, because these guys can play that style very well, you know? Rather than putting something on the shelf, because, you know, the guys can’t handle it and the feel isn’t right. That’s not taking anything away from anybody’s musicianship. Certain guys play a certain style well, because that’s what they play. And these guys just happen to be schooled through the bar scene. For many years they only played the club scenes here, in America for 10-15 years playing various styles of music- you know everything from Black Sabbath to Prince. That’s what attracted me to them, because it’s a group of guys with whom I can do anything I want.

V. V.: Yes, but still we heard that you had this amazing guitar player Ralph Santolla on board.

J. O.: From Obituary. Yes. He came in to play 2 songs for us. He played two solos on “Adding The Cost” and “You Never Know”. And then we had Tom McDyne, who came and played the solo on the “The Ride”. He’s actually coming out on tour with us. I’m producing his band… He’s in a band called Doctrine, that I’m producing.  He’s coming out on the road with us to help us out to fill the sound out. So I’ looking forward to do that. Those were the two guests and we had a guy who played the hammer dulcimer, but I can'’ remember his name. We just called him “the hippie dude”, because he looked like an old hippie from the 60s with tie-dyed shirt and symbols, big long beard and everything. But he came in and jammed and it was pretty cool.

V. V.: You mentioned Queen quite awhile ago. Paul Rogers is an amazing singer. Are you curious to see what studio work is going to come out of it?

J. O.: Yeah, I am. I mean, just like Savatage, Queen will never be the same without Freddy. Just like Savatage will never be the same without Chris Oliva. But I’m happy that Brian May and Roger Taylor are playing and are trying to put something together and keep going, because they are very talented musicians and great writers. I’m curious to see… I saw something on VH 1 of them. I think it was the rock awards where they came out with Paul Rogers and I thought it was pretty good. I thought Paul Rogers did a great job, you know? He played with us this year with the Trans Siberian Orchestra. He came out and did some songs with us. I don’t know, I think it was in Cleveland… He’s a great guy, a really sweet guy and I’m a big fan of him.

V. V.: Does it mean that you are not particularly fond of John Deacon?

J. O.: I don’t know why he is not playing with them. Is he still alive?

V. V.: Yeas, he is.

J. O.: Yeah, I don’t know why. I think they’ve got to… I don’t think he’s playing with them, is he? I really don’t know why. I wish I knew, but I don’t. He was a great bass player too.

V. V.: You mentioned Chris. It is an amazing, incomparable tragedy that happened to you… To what extent you still have him with you? Basically it happened almost 15 years ago.

J. O.: On the last album we used some lost Chris Oliva’s riffs that I found. Actually my wife found a box of tapes that dated back all the way to the late 70’s. On the last album I used some parts and some pieces that I found. On this album I found some more expensive ideas of his and some more thought out ideas. Chris’s music is actually a bigger part of this album than it was on the last album. He’s got songwriting credits on 6 songs out of 13, so for half of the album Chris wrote with me. Even if he’s not here, his music is here, you know? That’s very special to me, because it keeps him a part of what I’m doing. I think Savatage fans, I mean they should be foaming at the mouth right now waiting to get their hands on this records, because there’s like 3 or 4 almost complete songs, that were written by Chris. I just changed the lyrics and just kind of polished it up a little bit and re-recorded it. Even Chris is not with us and rests in peace, he’s a big part of what JOP is doing.

V. V.: Is it basically… It could be probably very obvious, so if it’s a stupid question, sorry for that… Is it like actually Chris, the fact that he’s not sitting with you physically is your pain? That fact is your pain…

J. O. It could be. You could look at it like that but I don’t… Everything that I do with that is a good feeling. I’ve got a good vibe from it. And I know I’m doing him justice. I know that before I’m throwing the towel and decide to move on, I want to make sure that all that stuff that he worked on when we were younger and we never got to do with Savatage, people get to hear it… And that’s one of the reasons I put JOP together. I had all this other music and other ideas and things that I wanted to do. Seeing that Savatage wasn’t really going to be doing anything because they turned into The Trans Siberian Orchestra, I was like: “Whoa! I have to do something to do this.” So I put this band together basically to carry on the Savatage torch really and to get rid of the rest of the music, so people can hear it.

V. V.: OK, so tell us briefly about the forthcoming tour.

J. O. Well, it’s gonna be in 3 pieces. First part of it is in the end of April into May. We will be coming over and are doing 15 or 16 shows throughout Europe. And then we come back to America. We are doing some stuff in America. We may be going to South America and then we’re going to come back to Europe in October and do some more extensive touring through October and November.

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock