Vocalist Jon Oliva (JON OLIVA'S PAIN, SAVATAGE) recently spoke with Lisa Sharken at KNAC.com. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

KNAC.com: What do you enjoy most and dislike most about the different environments of live performance and working in the studio?

Oliva: "I love the studio. I’m definitely a studio freak. I like playing live, but not as much as I used to, and mainly because of the traveling and everything that goes along with it. It’s a pain in the ass except for the actual performance, where you’re playing for the people. That makes it all worth it. But I’m just burnt out on the airports and the shitty buses going here and there. All that stuff just takes away from the enjoyment because you feel like you’re wasting a lot of time just sitting around while waiting to play for that one hour or hour and a half at night, even though I truly do love to play for people. But I kind of feel that when I’m on tour I’m wasting time and I should be in the studio creating new stuff. At this point in my career, the studio is everything to me because that’s where I get to create the stuff that lasts forever. The concert goes by and two days later you don’t remember if it was great or if it sounded bad. It’s all "of the moment" and you’re just playing stuff that you’ve already recorded. You’re not really doing anything new. So for those reasons, it kind of weighs on me a little bit. I don’t mind touring for two or three weeks, but by the third or fourth week into the tour, I’m all ready to go home and get back into the studio."

KNAC.com: Now with all the technology we have available today, you have the ability to record on laptop computer while you’re touring. Is that something you take advantage of while you’re on the road?

Oliva: "I do have all that stuff with me, but it’s still not the same as actually being in a real studio. You can’t recreate certain aspects of being in a real studio. I need that. And when I’m in the studio, I know I’m going to work. So I have a different mindset when I’m going into a studio to work than I do if I’m just flipping my laptop open and throwing some ideas down in Garage Band. I mean, I think it’s a great tool for writing purposes. It’s made writing a lot cooler because I can demo up a song in 15 minutes. All I need is a keyboard that has drums, strings and multiple types of sounds on it. But it’s still not the same as going into a real studio, actually starting from scratch with the writing, tracking different instruments and parts, and then having a finished song."

Go to this location for the complete in-depth interview.

During a recent interview for BW&BK; (found here), KAMELOT guitarist Thomas Youngblood revealed how the band ended up bringing Oliva on board for the song 'The Zodiac, featuring on Kamelot's new record Poetry For The Poisoned:

“We sent the text to Jon with the basic melody and he put his signature style on the phrasing. He’s such a cool guy. Having him on that song is surreal for me because I grew up watching Avatar, which of course became Savatage. We actually did a festival not too long ago with Jon Oliva’s Pain and we were headlining, which was weird (laughs). But that’s just the way the business part of this goes.”
“It’s very cool having Jon on the album, and it was actually a last minute thing where I thought ‘Hey, maybe I should ask Jon Oliva to do this…’ because the melody in the second verse just reminded me so much of Savatage. On the other hand, Roy didn’t grow up with Savatage as a kid – I think he was more of a Queensryche / A-Ha kind of guy as a kid – so it really was a fit of inspiration.”

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