JON OLIVA Interviewed By 'The Musician's Voice' (Audio)

Mark Uricheck of The Musician's Voice blog recently conducted an interview with JON OLIVA'S PAIN and SAVATAGE mastermind Jon Oliva. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

Having released albums with SAVATAGE first and JON OLIVA'S PAIN later, this first Oliva solo album was about to become different: "Raise The Curtain" combines Jon's early music influences of '70s prog rock with the sound he cultivated with SAVATAGE and JON OLIVA'S PAIN. The result is a high-class, thrilling musical journey, something all lovers from rock to metal shouldn't miss.

The road to "Raise The Curtain":

Oliva: "After the passing of my dear friend Matt LaPorte, I felt very confused about the future of JON OLIVA'S PAIN. A week or so after Matt's service, I was speaking to my friend Dan Fasciano about what I wanted to do. He suggested that I come by his home where he has a full studio and we just hang out and record whatever I had that I wanted to demo. Unknown to me at the time, Dan also had tons of unfinished music that he wanted to do something with. It was very strange because he had tons of stuff and so did I. I don't remember how we actually started writing together but it just happened."

Working on new material:

Oliva: "Then it became almost like a competition. I would show up at his house at 9 a.m. and we just started combining what we both had and somehow it was magic. He would say on the phone I hope you got something because I do. We recorded over 60 songs in a very short period of time. I was amazed at the fact that his music and mine were very similar and easy to join together. I knew that this CD was going to be different and I wanted to play as much of it myself as I could. This was something I had to do for me and for Criss [late SAVATAGE guitarist and Jon's brother, Criss Oliva]."

Helping hands:

Oliva: "Dan and Chris Kinder's (JON OLIVA'S PAIN drummer) help was crucial to this CD coming out the way it did. The work of Tom and Jim Morris and Wayne Le'fleur was also crucial."

Last music of Criss Oliva:

Oliva: "The fact that this is the last of Criss's music (who died 20 years ago in a car accident),makes me sad but I'm also happy that I got all his music out to the fans because that's what he would have wanted. Everyone who pushed me to do this album: I thank you, your support is crucial to me. I so much loved recording this CD and I got to fulfill my deepest musical fantasy. At the same time I got the rest of the Criss's music out. It was a labor of love, I'm very proud of thank you all for listening."

"Raise The Curtain" was released on June 21 in Europe and will be made available on July 2 in North America via AFM Records. The 11-song CD, which contains ideas collected over the course of the last four or five years, was tracked this past winter at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida with producer Tom Morris, with Jon handling laying down nearly all the instrument tracks and vocals himself as well as playing drums on three songs.

"Raise The Curtain" will be released simply under the banner OLIVA and you can expect a mixture of Jon's early influences and the material he wrote and recorded throughout his whole career.

"Raise The Curtain" track listing:

01. Raise The Curtain
02. Soul Chaser
03. Ten Years
04. Father Time
05. I Know
06. Big Brother
07. Armageddon
08. Soldier
09. Stalker
10. The Witch
11. Can't Get Away
12. The Truth (bonus track)

"Raise The Curtain" was made available as a CD digipak (first pressing) and two-LP vinyl (gatefold, limited to 800 copies worldwide).

Interview (audio):

"Raise The Curtain" trailer:

"Father Time" lyric video: