Interview with Jon oliva of Savatage
(June 18th -2001)
Interview with Jon oliva of Savatage
(June 18th -2001)
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In 1981 As Avatar, brothers Jon and Criss Oliva, drummer Steve Wacholz and bassist Keith Collins build an underground following in the band's home state, Florida. Avatar recorded two tracks for a compilation LP by Florida radio station WYNF. Avatar then released the City Beneath The Surface EP, now a collector's item. For legal reasons, Avatar changes its name to Savatage and releases its debut album, Sirens. In 1984 The Dungeons Are Calling is released. Savatage then signs to Atlantic Records. In 1985 Power of the Night, Savatage's Atlantic debut, is released. The band embarks on its first tour. Bassist Johnny Lee Middleton joins the group. Fight For The Rock is released. In addition to the U.S., the band tours Europe for the first time, opening for Motorhead. At one show, producer Paul O'Neill is in attendance. 1987 Atlantic hires O'Neill to produce Savatage's new record, beginning a long-term relationship. Hall of the Mountain King, which includes the group's first symphonic instrumental, "Prelude to Madness," is released. A music video - the group's first - is filmed for the title track. 1988 Savatage tours American arenas with Dio and Megadeth. Rhythm guitarist Chris Caffery joins the band as a touring member. A video for "24 Hours Ago" is filmed. The band guest-hosts MTV's "Headbanger's Ball." 1989 Caffery officially joins Savatage. Gutter Ballet, Savatage's sixth album, is issued. 1990 Savatage embarks on a nine-month world tour, headlining and supporting artists such as Testament and King Diamond. At tour's end, Caffery leaves the band. Two videos - "Gutter Ballet" and "When The Crowds Are Gone" - are filmed. 1991 With O'Neill, Savatage - again a quartet - writes and records its first rock opera, Streets. Videos for "Jesus Saves" and "New York City Don't Mean Nothing" are filmed, but only "Jesus Saves" is ever released. Another world tour begins. 1992 Due to increasing vocal problems, Jon Oliva steps down as lead singer of Savatage, although he continues to write and record with the band. Zachary Stevens becomes the group's new vocalist. 1993 Savatage's eighth album, Edge of Thorns, is released. A world tour commences, but Wacholz and Jon Oliva decide not participate. Music videos for "Edge of Thorns" and "Sleep" are filmed. In October, Criss Oliva is killed by a drunk driver; the last song he records is "Shotgun Innocence." 1994 Deciding that continuing the band is the best way to keep Criss' memory alive, Jon Oliva and O'Neill write and record Handful of Rain, with additional contributions from Stevens (vocals) and Alex Skolnick (lead guitars). A video for the title track is filmed. Another song on the album, "Chance," sees the group experiment with counterpoint vocals for the first time. Although he does not perform on the album, Wacholz officially leaves the band after its release and is replaced by Jeff Plate. Oliva then joins Plate, Skolnick, Middleton and Stevens on a two-month tour. A show in Tokyo is filmed for a live album and video. Meanwhile, the debut album from Doctor Butcher, a side project of Jon Oliva and Caffery, is released in Europe. 1995 With Skolnick pursuing other interests, Caffery and guitarist Al Pitrelli join the group. Savatage's second rock opera, Dead Winter Dead, is released. A video for "One Child" is shot. The instrumental "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" becomes an unexpected radio hit. Also, the live album Final Bell - later released elsewhere as Ghost In The Ruins - is issued in Japan. 1996 Savatage tours Europe and Japan. Instead of touring America, the group's members - inspired by the success of "Christmas Eve" - write and record the first Trans-Siberian Orchestra album, Christmas Eve & Other Stories. A "Christmas Eve" video is shot; it's re-released as a TSO song. 1997 Christmas Eve & Other Stories goes gold. Meanwhile, Savatage's The Wake of Magellan is released in Europe and debuts at #11 on the German pop charts. A European tour commences. 1998 The Wake of Magellan is released in America. Savatage tours in the U.S., Europe and South America. Also, TSO writes and releases its second album, The Christmas Attic. 1999 TSO writes and records its first non-Christmas album, Beethoven's Last Night, and embarks on its first tour, which features Caffery, Pitrelli, Plate and Middleton. A TSO television special, "The Ghosts of Christmas Eve," is filmed and is broadcast nationally. 2000 Beethoven's Last Night is released. For its second tour, TSO splits into two touring companies. On the Savatage front, Pitrelli and Stevens leave the band. With O'Neill, Savatage records a new album as a quartet. The group amicably parts ways with Atlantic Records and signs with Nuclear Blast America. 2001 Poets & Madmen, featuring Jon Oliva's return as lead vocalist, is released worldwide; it debuts at #7 on the German pop charts. A world tour commences with additional touring members Damond Jiniya (vocals) and Jack Frost (guitars).
Line-up: Jeff Plate drums, Chris Caffery guitars, Jon Oliva vocals, keyboards, Damond Jiniya vocals, Johnny Lee Middleton bass piano, Jack Frost guitars Discography: (Latest First) Poets And Madmen, Believe, The Wake Of Magellan, The Best And The Rest, From The Gutter To The Stage, Final Bell / Ghost In The Ruins, Dead Winter Dead, Japan Live '94 / Live In Japan, Handful Of Rain, Edge Of Thorns, Streets, Gutter Ballet, Hall Of The Mountain King, Fight For The Rock, Power Of The Night, The Dungeons Are Calling, Sirens Singles: One Child, Commissar, Other: Avatar (pre-Savatage) Derek:
How did the band get together ? I started playing the drums from that Christmas, that Christmas I got a drumset and started playing drums to The Beatles songs, and I just kept on going and then I moved to Piano and then guitar, and my little brother you know, we used to play Batman and Robin together, and he also started getting into it at a very young age, and that's how we started. We both had miserable high school experiences, we didn't want to be there I quit school when I was fifteen, and was playing professionally in clubs when I was sixteen, I was making more money in 1976 than my principal of the school was, playing in the bars and loving in, it was a good gig man, and my brother followed shortly after, and at that time we were just playing covers. We played everybody, and just played 6 nights a week, four sets a night till 3.a.m. every morning and that was it, we started writing music around that time and this was the beginning of what was to become Savatage. And when we were ready we drifted off from the cover thing, we met Steve Wacholz, the drummer, he lived right up the street from us, and he showed up at our house in a baseball uniform and said " I play the drums" and we said "Sure you do". But he came round with this huge drum set, and we said my god this is great, he didn't play very well, but I liked him because he played with broom sticks, we could never hear any of the other drummers we played with because we were so loud, so he played with broom sticks and we could hear him so that's how Savatage started. The first songs we started working on together, there was the 3 of us, me, my brother did the writing, which Steve was on, stuff like Sirens. The stuff like that of the first album, that whole group of songs, those first two records were conceived at the beginning, was started as a 3 piece, I was singing and playing bass and a little keyboards, the Geddy Lee thing and I was like ah, ah, hold on we need a singer, cos I didn't want to be the only singer , and we got a guy, a bass player, a singer and another guitar player along with Steve and it was chaos, so we got out of that, so it was back to the 3 of us, and we said lets just get a bass player. We got a bass player ad then that's when it all started, I was the singer, cos no one else could sing, I always wanted to play keyboards, a little guitar and sing, I wanted to sing some stuff, but I was always into the Beatles thing, I didn't want one voice all the time. Then we got a deal from an independent guy, who came and saw us play at a store, out in the parking lot and it was about 190 degrees and he said "You guys, do you wanna do a record" and we were like "Right" and that's how it all started. Derek: What kind of music do you listen too when your not playing ? Jon: I listen to a lot of Classic Rock stuff. I listen to a lot of classical at night , when I'm mellowing out, especially after playing. I like Mozart a lot, Beethoven I had to get into because of the Tran-Siberian thing, I had to get into him, but he's a bit too insane at times. I like Mozart, he's a bit more melodic, Beethoven's a bit more heavy at times. I like some of the new stuff like Coldplay, I listen to them all the time, I love that record Parachutes, its brilliant, no one likes it in America, you know, I thing the guys are great songwriters and its one of the best records to come out in the last 10 years. Derek: What do you do to relax ? Jon: Relax, ( door opens) I try to keep people out of the room, when I'm doing an interview, I play golf a little bit, wife plays too and I have an eighteen year old son who like to play too. That's something we can do together, he's a great golfer, I used to play when I was younger and I am just getting back into it and it fun, I like to do that. You know I just like to go out for a drive , I rarely get to drive an automobile when I spend most of my time on a tour bus, so I just bought a new car, and have had the luxury of driving 3 times in it so far. Derek: Do you still live in New York ? Jon: No, I live in Florida, and New York, I have a place in Florida and the band have a place in New York and my wife, son and I live in Tampa Derek: What words would best describe you as an individual ? Jon: (laughs) (laughs) Ooohhh, best describe as an individual, Unpredictable, yeah very unpredictable, mellow, I'm very laid back, it might not seem that way on stage, but it like kick back, I'm in no hurry, you only live once, take it easy and have some fun. Very friendly, very open, I'm very like that, there's no bullshit with us, the whole bands like that, that's been our thing, its something the bands comment a lot about. The other night in London, after our show, I went out with about 50 people from the gig to a pub across the street and we sat there drinking pints all night and there were people from all over, brazil, Greece and they were like What are you doing and we were like we're having a beer, why Well no one else would do this and we said well that because they have a lot of hang-ups and I don't have an hang-ups Derek: If you had the chance to play with any other band, who would that be ? Jon: Black Sabbath, I'd have to sing War Pigs with Tony Iommi before I die, that's a must. I have always been a Sabbath fan, a huge Sabbath fan. Derek: What the best thing that's ever happened to you ? Jon: The best thing, probably when my kid was born that was pretty amazing, its the one thing that sticks in your head Derek: What's the worst ? Jon: My brother dying, that was a nightmare. Still is a nightmare. But you know, birth and death it's a part of life, we're all gonna go through it. We all gonna go thru birth and the other thing, so when your numbers up, your numbers up. Have fun now and enjoy life when you can. Derek: Where do you get your inspiration from ? Jon: For the stories and things that we do, it comes from what's going on around the world, CNN or Sky news. Paul's (O'Neill) very into that, he brings a lot of that to my attention. Paul's very into current affairs, he reads every magazine, he comes to the studio and he can't get through the door cos he's carrying so much sometimes. Yeah, a lot of our inspiration comes from that. I mean I don't know where it comes from, it comes from here (points to his heart). I don't like listening to anything then goingoff to write something, normally I hear something in my head and now if I have something in m head and i just grab a piece of paper and joy it down, as normally it happens just before you fall asleep. You'll be laying there and you'll have something going on, I have probably written my best songs, right before I fall asleep. Derek: Which are your favourite songs and why ? Jon: Well probably 'Believe' is the deepest song, you know the song we wrote for Chris, its very personal. The ballads, you know there's some great heavy metal songs 'The Mountain King', 'The Power Of The Night', I love all them, but the songs that really touch me or have that lasting impression are the song's where the lyrics say something to me. ' If I go Away' is a song from' Streets' that we do in the set which I dedicate to my brother and that's a song that was written before he died and you listen to the lyrics know and its me singing about my brother, it's so weird, we played ot the other day and we had 2000 people there and they were all crying and it was like wow, so its like those types of songs seem to effect me more, but i have to say believe, go away and when the crowds gone, I love the song of the new album " Got to get back to a reason" the ballad, I like that a lot. Some songs just seem to stick with me. I'm a softy (laughs) Derek: Who though up the bands name and how did you choose it ? Jon: Well the bands name was called Avatar, the night before they were supposed to press the record covers, this guy calls us from London. There's a band called Avatar and we have copyright, so you can't use the name Avatar, we're gonna sue you and we're thinking fuckin great so were siting at the kitchen table, my wife me, my brother Chris and his wife, with Avatar written out, we looked at and the first thing my brother said was put a kiss S in front of it and just call it Savatar, so we put a big kiss S in front of it and we were looking at it Savatar and we said it sound like a Transformer or something, then my wife said why don't you call the bad Taj Mahal, and i said thats the stupidist fuckin name I ever heard in my life. But one of them wrote it out and we had Taj Mahal and Savatar and then we were thinkin why not Taj, cos at this time wew ere only about 19 years old and the taj thing the mystique thing and sava for savage and we put the two together, then my brothers wife said make the T a hachet and we looked at her and said thats great Savatage and thats what is was just playing with letters. Derek: What is your view of the music scene in the U.S. ? Jon: It's terrible, for musicians. It's a good scene there if you're into dancing. All of this stuff, it's really programmed music, it's not really people playing, it's a shame. Although we did really well, we went on this headline tou and we were told we would be lucky to get 100 people a night and we were playing some big rooms, The House Of Blues, theres a chain of them, with 1000 -1200 seats, we sold out the one's in Chicago, Orlando, we did 1000 people in Cleveland on a wednesday night, 1500 people in Detriot on a Thursday night, we had a couple of shows which were dogs in Wichita or something, but i was very suprised. I thing metal in america is making a resurgence. I thing people in america are getting tired of watching 4 guys on stage singing ' I love you baby, yes, i do (jon's acting out the boy band thing here and laughing at the same time). It's just like all those fads, real muisc and good musicains, cos muisc is in everybodies haert and it means something. And it will always withstand all this technical crap and all this technical fads that happen. thing the scene is way betterin Europe Derek: What bands would you say have had most influence on you ? Jon: The Beatles, Queen and Sabbath, they are the main stay, those are the bands i am always listeing too. I like everyone of their records, there is not one song by The Beatles, Queen or Sabbath that i won't listen too, they are all good songs. Derek: With 20 years in the business and 17 albums under your collar, where do Savatage go from here. ? Jon: The Mental Institution. (laughs) I don't know you know, we got Transiberian Orchestra going on in America and thats doing really well and Savatage can go on for as long as Savatage wants to go on. I guess were growing in Europe in leaps and bounds, our record went to the top 10 in Germany and in Greece theyre frothing at the bit for us down there. I dont know, we just singed a new deal for 5 more records, with this i just take it day by day, if i wake up and say fuck this i don't wanna do this anymore, then that'll be it, but to me it like this is all i know, what am i going to do i'm only middle aged (laughs) and i look at guys like Lemmy who are still playing. I talked to lemmy last week, we did a show the gods of metal festival with them and he's still enjoying it every night and i have a very great respect for him and i was thinking hey, this guys cool, this guy is metal, he'll be doing it till he dies, and if hes going to do it i might as well follow him Derek: With so many albums, how dificult is it to choose a setlist ? Jon: it's a nightmare. We usually take all of the songs and put them on a pice of aper, throw them in a bowl, stir them all up and just pick like 20 of them out. Actually it's really hard man, it's really really hardespecially doing the Judas Priest thing, we haven't been in an opening slot since 1989, the last band we opened up for was King Diamond, It's really hard, we've got 45 minutes and wqe've got 17 years to cover, so what we have done is for 45 minues, the setlist covers everything the band has done, we only do one song of the new album, and we go through all the different phases of the band doing as many title tracks as we can and it seems to be working, everyone likes the set. Derek: The new album has some similarities with Streets, was that intentional ? Jon: Not intentional, but i can hear songs of this album of Streets like 'Stay with me a while', probably cos it's me singing everthing on this, and streets was the last album i sang everything on, i have had that comparison alot. Streets is still my favourite Savatage album, so an comparison with that i will tale as a thumbs up. Derek: On 'Streets' there was a character called Jesus and on the new one there a refence to jesus, is this the same guy. Jon: The character on the new album god rest his soul was a real person and what we did pauls version of the story the personthe guy doesn't die, this guy Kevin Carter a photographer ended up committing suicide in a mental institution. Our story instead of people committing suicide, the mental institution has a fire and he gets away and hides in the basement, he never leaves there and the place becomes abandoned then these 3 guys come to find him there, thats how it is in our version. Streets is totally fiction, this is based on a real story. The song 'Morphine Child' is about the picture that the guy took, that ended up driving him mad, you know when i first swa the picture it was like wow! Paul this may be a bit too heavy, this is one heavy picture. But then when you hear the story, the way he did it, I liked it, it was easy and people got the message. But I like doing that you know, its more intersting than just writing, anyone can write things like ' I love you, i wanna screw you tomorrow and the day after and the day after that (laughs) till you leave me and break my heart and i want to kill myself and god knows they've written so many songs about he devil. The poor devil must be down ther going "Alright, stop already ok" (laughs) So it gives us our little spot out there , no one's doing stuff ilke we do, no one sings about the stuff we sing about or dos it the way we do, i think it gives us a little bit of uniqueness in a really crowded genre. Derek: I know its been quite sometime since your brother Chris die, how did it affect the group at the time ? Jon: Oh, it was tragic, the group was done and if it wasn't for the handful of rain record, i wouldn't be here right now. That was my therapy, Paul knew I needed to do something, it was too soon after Chris passed away for he rest off the band, so Handful Of Rain is basically a Jon Oliva solo record with Zak singing and Alex Skolnick playing guitar solo's, cos no one else played on the record. No one showed up at the studio, johnny came one night and Chris's guitar was there, that was the guitar i was using and he turned round and that walked out and was the last i saw of him for 4 months. It wasn't until the last week, Zak agreed to do the vocals, him and Alex came in and did the solos, I had done everything else. No one else wanted to ever play again, and I knew that was something Chris wouldn't have wanted, so after a while , Handful of Rain, that period was so confusing, the Dead Winter Dead period was when we finally, well we'll never get over it, but we were starting to deal with it. He wouldn't have wanted us to sack it all away. What are we going to do, Chris Caffery, I had started talking with Chris , Chris had locked himself away in his house for almost a year,he didn't do anything, chris and johnny were affectedjust as much as the family Derek: Hows the tour going with Judas Priest ? Jon: Great, yeah, we get on really great with the Judas Priest guys, they have been really good to us. Derek: I am a bit suprised after all these years that tour acting as supporting band for this tour ? Jon: Well, we're not really supporting, we are opening for them, but we are not the supporting band. We were asked to open for Judas Priest as we have just done a festival recently and we have another one to do next week, and rather than fly home and have to come back a week later, the record company, as we are both on the same record label, thought it would be a good idea to tour together. Derek: Do you feel as though you get enough support from the British Fans Jon: Yeah, its been really good, we've gone done really well at all of the gigs we have done so far Derek: The Tran-Siberian thing, is that something that going to continue ? Jon. Yeah, we're working on a new album, we also have some new songs written for Doctor Butcher, and when we get time we'll get together for that. We are also working towards anew Savatage album and hoping to have that ready for the spring next year with a tour probably coming back to the UK arond September 2002
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