J: Actually, I don’t really listen to much stuff…aah, I think one of the only new bands I’ve been listening to is Pagan’s Mind. I like them a lot. There’s a couple of Elvenking’s that I’ve liked a lot. I really don’t get a chance to listen much stuff because I’m always working. So when I do get the chance to listen to something it’s more along the classics like Queen, Sabbath, Zeppelin. But there’s some good stuff out there.

J: Well, it was basically formed because of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. TSO basically was Savatage as Savatage kind of morphed into the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This left a big opening of stuff that I wanted to do that wasn’t getting done, so since I wasn’t going to have Savatage around that I was going to put my own thing together and just continue down the road that I was going on with Savatage. It’s basically my outlet to do what I want to do and say what I want to say and get out some of the unreleased music that my brother Criss and I worked on and was never finished for the people to hear.

- So far it has gone really good. Every album has been progressively better. Since I started to work with these guys, you know, they were all new to me, so I figured our first album was like a pre-season practise record, getting to know each other and the last one was more of a band effort. This new record was even more of a band effort so it’s turned into something that I’m really quite proud of. I really like what we’re doing and think this is going to be a long career with these guys.

J: Actually, that was a mistake. Our first album was supposed to be called Pain and the band was going to be called Tage Mahal. But then I got into some legal hassles with some old blues guitar player named Taj Mahal. They threatened to sue me if I used the name Tage Mahal for the band. So at the last second I just switched the two around because I couldn’t think of anything. What we have done now is taken Jon Oliva’s Pain and just changed it to JOP. It’s just three letters like ELP, ELO or TSO. That’s what we are trying to push now because it’s a lot easier for people to remember.

J: Yeah, I agree. I feel Global Warning is more bombastic in a way than the last two records. It’s just a progression and you keep it going. I’ve got a lot of tapes of my brother’s material that people haven’t heard, incorporating itself into the music. Savatage fans should be loving that, because they get to hear some of music that he wrote that would not have been heard if there wasn’t a JOP. I think you can definitely hear the progression on these three albums, as they have just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. I think the first three numbers on this new album run together really well in a big way. I think it is my favourite opening on any album that I’ve been a part of.

J: Well, it is a very versatile record. A lot of different styles in there because this band can play a lot of different styles. I was always a big fan of bands like Queen and The Beatles, you know, a band like Queen that could do a song like Death On Two Legs and then turn around and do a song like Love Of My Life. I was always infatuated with versatility. On this album, I really wanted to push the envelope and make it to be kind of like a movie. I ran a lot of the songs together. You know, when you listen to the record, there’s not a lot of empty spaces in between songs. They run together kind of like a movie on a disc. I didn’t want to have those 10 second silences between songs, but more of like a performance, in a way. Have it go through the heavy metal, the Queen, The Beatles, all my influences. Keep it interesting for the listener, so that you never know what kind of song will come next. Is it going to be a heavy song? A weird song? That keeps people excited about it.

J: That was what we called our “fun song”. I had never done anything with tape loops before in my life. So we started to make loops of these different sounds. We did everything. I mean, we hit washing machines with baseball bats, kicked glasses across the floor, kitchen sinks, anything we could hit to make a noise. I had a train pass us by with the whistle blowing and we recorded that. We made loops of all these weird noises. Then I wrote the music around them.

- I wanted the song to be robotic, because it’s about a possessed computer. I have so many friends that spend days and hours upon hours in front of computers. So it’s making fun of them, I’m like: “he runs your life, the computer runs your life”. The whole idea of that song is about a computer that is taking over you. We had a really good time doing that one. I mean, we used fuzz basses, vocoders, any kind of weird thing you could use is on that track.

J: *laughs* Actually, my afro went straight on me. But no, that song is an open tuning song. I was watching some documentary on Led Zeppelin, where they were talking about Jimmy Page using a lot of open tunings on Zeppelin songs. It intrigued me and I wanted to try an open tuning that wasn’t used a lot, so I picked open C, because it makes the bottom string of the guitar very, very low. I’ll tell you what, it was the hardest song on the album to record, because we had a hell of a time keeping all the instruments in tune, because they were tuned so low.

- But it was also a very different style for me. It has a kind of a funky groove to it. The bass line that Kevin came up with, I think really makes the song come together. It was definitely a labour to get it done the way it came out - a pain in the neck - but we were very happy with it when it was finally done. It’s one of my favourites off the album, because it’s different. It’s something I haven’t done before, in that style.

J: Well, sure. There’s a theme behind the album, it deals with a lot of reality-based things that are going on today. There’s a song on the album about soldiers, there are songs like Look At The World, Global Warning and Adding The Cost – those three songs run together almost like a mini-concept, because it’s saying: hey, look at the world around you, look what’s going on. It’s costing everybody – mostly us, the citizens – billions of dollars. You know, instead of feeding our hungry children who are living out on the streets, we are spending billions on the war in Iraq, which isn’t solving any issues anyway.

- I have nephews that are in Iraq right now. I was talking to them, and they were the influence for the song Firefly, which is about young soldiers. No sides, just both the same, both equal, both scared, both out there in the battlefield, both would rather be home, both saying in the song “live and let live”. You know, can’t we just all get along?

- So the album touches a lot of things. The thing about the computer, you see it every day – people who are just so wrapped up with the computer that they never do anything. You know, The Ride is again a song that is about “what’s left”. You know, what’s out there? How many places can I still go to? What’s going on? We are all just on this ride – what life is, just a ride. And in another song, I sing how life is just a game that we all must play. Wherever you are from, we are born into this world and we die, and in the middle we all play this game. Each one of us might take different courses in there, but we all start and end in the same spot. To me, that makes everybody equal. Whatever colour you are, whatever you believe in, whatever you do, we all still experience those same two things.

- I figured writing about these kind of real-life things this time around would mean more to people then writing about dungeons and dragons. It’s something that concerns everybody. I’m concerned because I have kids, who are going to have kids and I don’t want my grandchildren walking around with gas masks, you know, that would suck, it’s not fair. Maybe I’m just trying to get a point across without sounding preachy because I don’t want to preach to anybody, but rather just saying: “this is what I’m seeing, does anybody agree with me”? That’s what I say in the last song on the album, “Someone”, that I hope I’ve touched someone, now it’s time for me to go. In the end, it’s a pretty deep record.

J: Right, right, just think and look at the world come down around you. Are we really doing all we can do? You know, am I really doing all I can? Probably not. But through the music, I’m probably trying to make other people aware of the things that I’m aware of. It’s a weird thing, because these words just started coming out. I’m influenced by what I see, like on the TV, in the papers, or what I see on my travels. I do travel a lot to some pretty crazy places where I’ve seen some scary things. Like in South America, where I’ve seen families living in cardboard boxes on the side of the road. You know, it’s sad and why things have to be that way. It baffles me.

J: Ahh, I was thinking about maybe doing one. I don’t want to make it a recurring thing with JOP, because everything that we do with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra – which is actually Savatage with a different name – is all concept records. But I was thinking of maybe doing one of them with some kind of horror-driven story, because I’m an old horror-buff. I was thinking of doing something like that because I’ve already touched on the world issues. Maybe on the next one I’ll be getting a little bit artsy and try to do something with a story. I haven’t decided yet, but I’ll have to see what comes up.

J: I love King, he’s a great guy. Well, you never know what could happen in this business. Sometimes stuff like that just pops up. You turn around and you’re doing a record with somebody. *laughs*

J: I love Operation Mindcrime. I think that’s a brilliant piece of work. Quadrophenia and Tommy from The Who, I think are brilliant as well. I like Pink Floyd’s The Wall a lot. You know, concept records are hard. You have to have a great story, which is also understandable. In my opinion, Queensrÿche did one of the best jobs at keeping the story understandable without having to really, really get into it. And King did one, Abigail, which is brilliant too.

- In our genre of music, it’s even harder to do those things, because you’ve got to work the heavy sounds and music around a storyline. It’s a toil. I mean, I had a lot of difficulties with Poets And Madmen, Wake Of Magellan, you know, to fit the music with the mood of where the story was going. But it’s also very challenging and when you get it done and listen back to it, you can go “wow, it worked!” It’s like a hundred pound weight lifted off your shoulder, because you get really into it. And it’s all good, it’s just different degrees of work. You have to be prepared to elbow songs out, that would work great on a regular record, but because you’re doing a concept, it doesn’t fit in with what’s going on. You’ve got to hold something for another record and that gets hard to do.

J: Oh boy. *laughs* I let Paul O’ Neill (long-time Savatage and TSO producer and co-writer -ed. note- ) decide. Paul, it’s your turn, pick one!

J: Well, in six weeks we are heading out for Europe for the first part of the tour, which is just a quick run of 20 shows, I believe. We come back to America in the middle of May. Then in the summer, I think we’re going to South America, and in October - November, we’ll come to Europe again for more extensive touring.

J: I took breathing lessons. I never took a singing lesson in my life, which is why I ended up losing my voice in the early 90s. I just burnt myself out, because I never took any lessons on how to breathe correctly. When you sing, you have to breathe correctly, and I was just screaming my lungs out. Half the time, I was left of my lung on the stage. So after my brother passed away, I started taking lessons on breathing techniques. Ever since then, my voice has gotten stronger and stronger until now I feel it’s better than it has ever been in my career. It’s great because it has opened so many doors to me and I don’t have to hock up a lung on the way. Anyone out there who is a singer, I strongly recommend you learn how to breathe, because it prolongs your voice and takes care of it.

J: *laughs and sings “burritooos”* Actually, I just go to my teachers: Freddie Mercury, John Lennon and vocalists like that, who, when you hear singing a song, you know it’s coming from their soul. I’ve studied their singing and music for many years. I think you have to have passion in your voice. In singing, you can’t just go through the motions and be what people would consider a great singer. You have to live it and sweat it and…you have to get the passion and emotion across, because that’s what people are really looking for, even though they don’t know it. Some of the greatest songs ever recorded have such passionate vocals that you know that person means what they’re saying. I try and keep that thing in what I do. I want people to know that I really mean what I’m singing. There’s a lot of heavier music out there where it’s hard to do that, because…you know, like when you’re listening to thrash or death metal, there’s not really much emotion in the singing, because there is just *makes a loud roaring noise* and the power thing.

- Well, I do both. There are songs where I have to get all raspy, powerful and nasty. But I also love that fact that I can turn that switch off sing something like, on this new album, O to G, or a song like Souls, where it doesn’t even sound like it’s the same person even though it is.

J: Country and Western *laughs*. Well, dance music kind of aggravates me, you know, because it’s just *makes monotonous rhythmic noises*, it never does anything except get people to jump around and beat each other senseless. Dance music, I’m not a big fan of that, techno-type, computerized, synthesized music with the fake drums and, well, everything there is fake. There are no real instruments used on any of that stuff. It’s all basically programmed. I can’t listen to that stuff. It drives me nuts. And country, well, I think they should all be hung *laughs*.

J: Night Castle is about 8 weeks away from being finished. I was actually in the studio with them last night and will be there tonight as well. It really is a brilliant record, probably the best offering from TSO. Again, it’s a very versatile record. I think people are going to be surprised when they hear it. It’s going to have some brilliant pieces of music on it. Yeah, it has taken us a while to do it, because Paul O’Neill is a perfectionist. Like he says, It’s not done until it’s done. And I’m like, “OK, Paul, well, we’re not getting any younger, so let’s get done.” *laughs* We are on the final stages of that now. We’ve got about four to five weeks of recording left, after which it’s to the mix-down mode and hopefully the record should be wound up by May, so that it will be out in the stores by Christmas.

J: To be honest with you, I have been spending so much time with the music on this one that I haven’t paid any attention to the story and stuff, because we haven’t gotten to that stage yet, where he’s doing the final vocal things. He’s still experimenting with those a bit. You know, I don’t really even know what the story is about. There is a part of the album that is a concept and then there are a lot of instrumental things that we are doing. There are a lot of classical pieces that we are writing music into. That’s something I’ve been doing for the last month and a half or so, taking classical pieces of Mozart and Beethoven and writing music into their music, with a heavier edge.

- That, for someone like me who doesn’t read music, is something I have to do by ear. So after that, I’m like, “You know what, I don’t care what you write this thing about. Leave me alone with Mozart and Beethoven and I’ll call you in a month.” *laughs* So I’m working on all that stuff and Paul has got, he brought a book in that had to be about a thousand pages of lyrics. So he’s on a roll, and when he gets like that I just let him go do his thing. He knows I’m doing my thing. We both take care of our end of things, but oh my God, a thousand pages, I mean…*laughs*…”Now I know what you’ve been doing for the last two years.”

J: Yeah, I sang two songs on Beethoven’s Last Night and I think I will sing a song on this new one. I’m involved in all the backup singing on the TSO albums. They are mostly done by the TSO male choir, which is basically me and Bob Kinkel, sometimes Zak Stevens comes to help us out, Rob Evans and a couple of other guys that we work with. There are usually four or five of us. That is all painstaking work, because the things Paul wants done are very hard. You can’t tell him that something is impossible to do, because if you say that to him, he will go “Nonono, do it anyway.” *laughs* It’s a lot of fun though.

J: Yes, we are aware of that *laughs*. You know, we just have our way of doing it. For some reason, it’s caught on here in America to the point where we’re selling out multiple shows in 20.000-seat sports arenas. It’s amazing. I watch it happen every year and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. But I mean, the thing is, we have no competition really, because no one else is doing the thing we are at the same level. The show we put together is second to none. We have the biggest indoor lightshow in the world. We also keep the ticket prices affordable so a family of four can come and see the show for under 200 dollars. Lot of these other Christmas shows are something like 150 dollars for one ticket alone. A lot of people don’t have that kind of money. You know, we give a lot of money to charity and children, the homeless, the Toys for Tots. One dollar from every ticket that we sell goes to charity. It’s a good message, it’s made everybody here happy, the guys from Savatage are doing well and it’s all good.

J: Wow…the power. It’s the power. It’s a conviction in the music, that in my mind is only rivalled by the conviction in big, bombastic classical music, that launches that big, undeniable power. That’s what got me first into heavy rock, hearing Black Sabbath and going “Hoooooly shit, listen to that!” It’s that kind of bigger than life-experience.

J: Thank you so much, we hope to see you soon. God bless and enjoy the new album!