Jon Oliva
Jon Oliva's Pain
This is the reason why I like being a part of a Metal webzine; to get the chance to meet wonderful people like Jon Oliva. Believe guys he is the most down-to-earth persons you will ever know despite his enormous music reputation. On top of that he is nice to have a nice discuss. And this is exactly what we had that hot and humid evening at 'Graspop Metal Meeting' a most interesting discussion where many news surfaced up. So, let's see what the Mountain King had to say…
By Maria Voutiriadou, Dimitris Kontogeorgakos
•
September 8, 2010
Hey Jon how are you and how are you dealing with this heat?
Hi guys, what heat? I am from Florida so this weather is simply fine for me (laughs). So, guys, what do you got?
Fine weather hugh? Alright let us start. You have done a lot of acoustic shows; have you ever thought of doing a full acoustic album?
Yes, basically I just did; with all these bonus tracks I recorded for the SAVATAGE catalog. It's going to be on the re-releases of all the old albums, re-mastered and I did record two bonus tracks for each one of them, acoustic versions of "One Child", "The Wake Of Magellan", "Summer's Rain", "Castles Burning", "Handful Of Rain". Just me; I played all the instruments, all acoustic guitars, the bass everything and I did all by myself, so I guess, I did an acoustic album (laughs) after all.
Are these albums are going to be released as CDs or can we expect vinyl editions too?
You know, nowadays things are going back on vinyl, so, I don't know, maybe will do it on vinyl; I have to ask about it, I would love it on vinyl!
"Festival" was released on vinyl.
Yeah, I have one (laughs)!
What about "Festival"? What about the lyrics?
It's all based on a nightmare, a dream I had, it was really the whole thing I had when I lived in a hotel in Central Europe. Actually I spent a lot of time in hotels, there I was here in Belgium -if I remember correctly-, or in maybe in Holland. Nevertheless, I went to bed with the windows open and I woke up in the middle of the night freezing having forgotten that it gets cold in Europe. So, I closed the window and went back to bed into a weird dream. It was something like this place, a festival site, with big gates and there was a guy craving people in, but when you walked around, you could see people with no heads, jars with arms in them, people walked around with no eyes and there was a big exit on the back and I wanted to get to it, checking out from my dream. When I was trying to walk to get to it, I only could see twisted, freaking shit around with hatchets and no foreheads and then I woke up sweating to death because in some point in the night I must turned the heat on and closed the windows and I woke up. It was like having a shower. And I sat in my room's desk and wrote all these down and I was like 'welcome to the Festival…' (sings). That's exactly what happened. I wrote the whole song in twenty minutes.
Wow! You have a vivid imagination.
Especially when I'm sleeping! It makes sleeping interesting.
That's nice. So, do you have anything to do with the artwork?
Yeah, I described the dream to an artist from the record company, because I'm useless in drawing, I simply can't draw! And he made the main ground plan of the album cover and I loved it. So, you can see this wheel and all this horrible stuff that happened to my dream. It's a really good album.
Yes, it is! Let's go back to the tour; you have planned to film the show in Holland.
Yeah, we're going to film a DVD there, on October 15th I think. I'm still working on the show. But I want to do a little acoustic thing. It's going to be a 2 ½ live show with a lot of the SAVATAGE history and the history of this album too. And I'll throw the dice and see what happens. I've got nothing to lose (laughs)! Help me, Jesus (laughs)!
So, you mentioned SAVATAGE…
(interrupting) If you're gonna ask me what is going to be with SAVATAGE, I'll throw you out of the window (laughs)!
Ok, I will take my chances; what about SAVATAGE?
To me SAVATAGE is three faces: there is Criss Oliva face one, after Criss Oliva face two and JOP is face three. That's the base line, because all those other guys are also full time members of TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA. It's not just a band touring in November and December anymore; it's now a full time. If there was any chance of a SAVATAGE reunion of the band of the 90s, it would have happened already, before TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA had decided to become a full time band. Now, it's totally fucking impossible and the people have got to understand this, this is stuff I'm doing! The only difference between this JOP and SAVATAGE is that I've got different guys playing the instruments. It's still me writing the songs, it's still me singing, I don't know what else I have to tell them. I could call this SAVATAGE, what would it matter? I'm the only original guy from the band of the 90s anyway, to me is like what the fucking difference does it make? It's Jon Oliva's music and his brother's music… I can't bring them back from the dead! I would have done it already (laughs)!
Actually, some guys in a lot of shows are asking of more JOP.
Yeah, today I'm playing for an hour and I'm playing four songs from the 10-track album. In one hour set, you know. And I've got my SAVATAGE stuff. I don't know, it will be an interesting show.
Yeah, it's very short for you.
It's short but we have not played for a while, so, we are a little nervous today. I am a little on edge today. By the way, I'll dedicate "Believe" to Ronnie James Dio today.
Back in the interview we did in Greece before the acoustic show, I asked you about the artists that are very important and nowadays we don't see so many important personas in the Metal scene. And now, we have important Metal figures that they are leaving, like Ronnie James Dio you mentioned before. What's next about Metal scene?
I don't know, you know? My situation to the whole thing is I never really classified myself as being in a Heavy Metal band or anyway. I don't think AEROSMITH is a Heavy Metal band or KISS, ok? If you ask me, SLAYER is a Heavy Metal band, absolutely! MOTORHEAD even to me isn't a heavy Metal band. SAVATAGE is a more into rock. Do we have heavy Metal songs? Of course we have, but "Believe" isn't a heavy Metal song. So, as long we have new bands coming and do their stuff, everything will be fun because this type of music, heavy rock-the whole thing in one basket; is basically heavy rock- since its inception in the way of 60s or early 70s, is never got a straight line. It hits, it's having a little a down way and comes back up again and the history has its ups and its lows. It's been doing that forever.
What about the tour? You have two bands with you, one is NEED and the other is NEVERLAND. Did you have anything to do on choosing the supporting bands or no?
I don't think so; I don't really handle this. I have enough fucking problems (laughs)! I don't do that stuff, so…
Ok, fair enough. What about the guest appearances? You have done with AVANTASIA and with SOULSPELL for example; how do you get convinced to do a guest appearance?
Chris Kinder convinces me to do all this stuff; it is all his fault (laughs) Seriously now, they usually send me files and their thoughts of what they want the song to be like. And by the way I really loved doing that for AVANTASIA. I really liked that song.
Have you ever thought doing your own album and invite guest singers?
Yes, I have thought of that and maybe it is something that I'll do in the very near future. I'm going steal your idea, Tobias. You should tell this to him (laughs).
What about your biography? Have you ever thought of writing something?
I've been working on some stuff and it's really fine. I'm going to put something out about the whole thing from day one. But it has to be funny and believe me, in SAVATAGE we had a lot of funny things to share. Since I am not that good in writing I will have help from someone who is a friend of mine and does this for a living. So, I have in front of me 2-3 years to work on this and the story will begin around '79 when we started writing "Sirens", that's when all get started.
When could we expect this bio?
Probably in 2-3 years from now. There will be still funny things happening by then.
We are done here; please feel free to add anything you'd like to close this most pleasure conversation.
Just hello everyone, have fun! Enjoy the show!
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