Picture by Carl Begai

JON OLIVA'S PAIN drummer Chris Kinder has issued the following studio update:

"A very good day to you all....and thanks for the enthusiasm for JOP 3!

Here's a recap now that I have finally gotten a few hours of meaningful sleep.

Last Monday we arrived at the world famous Morrissound Studio's to begin loading in drums and bass. The atmosphere here is relaxed and inspiring....and we needed as much of that as humanly possible. After about 3 hours of setting up and checking tones, we began the process of recording 14 songs for the new album. Most of them will make it on the actual CD and other's are bonus tracks required for different regions of the world and releases ( We know, that sucks!). Tom Morris, our most patient and competent engineer, dialed in my drums and Kevin's bass tones in no time flat. Honestly, the drums and bass have the biggest, fatest, warm and punchiest tones yet. Alot of that is due to the fact that we will be recording in High Definition CD quality....a huge jump from the process used on Maniacal Renderings. And as this is the foundation for the rest of the CD, it was a relief to hear such pleasant and exciting sounds coming from the studio speakers.....Crushing and mammoth would be an understatement and the smile on Tom's face said it all! We managed to get 2 songs down to tape on day one....and planned to spread the rest of remaining 12 songs over the next 2 days.

Tuesday and Wednesday began much the same. I spent about 20 minutes warming up and re-tuning my kit while we waited for Kevin to arrive and get his bass rig up and running. We mixed up most of the tracking with heavy and epic songs so as not to burn ourselves out. We were working 12 hour days....only breaking for lunch and dinner. It is incredibly exhausting work, both physically and mentally mainly because we are on a deadline to produce the CD by the end of the year. And as with any JOP Cd it seems even more tiring as we tend to write most of our parts in the studio. Arrangement's are always completed prior to beginning any CD, but something always get's in the way of us being able to spend enough time rehearsing.....this year it was the loss of our dear freind and producer, Greg "Super G" Marchak.

We managed to get most of tracking finished on Weds. but decided that we needed one more day to review all our tracks for errors and/or changes. That proved to be a good idea, but we only needed to repair 2 small parts. We always walk away from the final mix hearing how we would have played some things differently....but that's just the musicians in us and it is our nature to disect everything to the endth degree!....We will leave that up to all of you.

Now that we have left Morrisound, we will begin guitar tracks early next week at our own studio. Protools allows us to flawlessly transfer our work to Morrissound when we return in a few weeks. We don't value "editing" as it is jus the lame way of fixing a part that you know you could have performed better but are just to lazy to do it. So we will strive for 98% keeper tracks right from the start.

It is important to note how much Greg is missed. We find ourselves constantly questioning what he would do in certain situations, and while we are embracing everything that Tom Morris bring's to the table, we are also committed to what all of us, especially Greg, brings to the JOP sound and production. Special thanks to everyone at Morrissound for being so understanding and really getting into the vision that Oliva and the band are trying to preserve....and expand!

Oh, and there are some really kick-ass tunes on this record. You thought MR had flavor.....this one is going to open ears and really make you think!

Cheers to you all and we will talk again soon!"

Chris