Interview: Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Paul O'Neill

One of the blessings of the season for Trans-Siberian Orchestra founder Paul O’Neill may be the fact that he doesn’t have to answer questions about when the group’s new album, "Night Castle," is coming out. The double album, which has been promised for at least five years, hit shelves on Oct. 27 and has already gone gold.

"When (Guns ‘n’ Roses’ long-awaited album) ‘Chinese Democracy’ came out, we kind of lost our cover," O’Neill joked. "Luckily our fans have been very patient, and the album’s selling better than we could have ever imagined."

"Night Castle" was originally intended to be a stand-alone 10-song record with no theme, but TSO co-founder and Savatage frontman Jon Oliva convinced O’Neill that it had to be more.

"Jon told me that TSO is not like any other band, and fans expect a story," O’Neill said. "It’s a little bit of role reversal because when we were working on Savatage, I was always the one wanting to do a concept record. The first half of the record is the ‘Night Castle’ story, and the second half pays homage to our past and looks forward to the future."

Savatage fans will find a couple of treats here as a reworking of "Prelude to Madness," the band’s take on Grieg’s "In the Hall of the Mountain King," shows up as "The Mountain," and the second disc features a cover of "Believe" from the "Streets" album. The latter is a preview of a Broadway musical called "Gutter Ballet" (also the name of the second record O’Neill did with Savatage) that O’Neill and Oliva hope to get to the stage in the next two years. It’s the culmination of a work that O’Neill began in the 1970s. Many of the songs have already had rock versions recorded by Savatage, but will return to their roots for the Broadway show.

"We want to take it back to the original blues, gospel, Motown sound," he said. "For Savatage, you’ve got to metal it up. Jon and I are kind of psyched to be doing it because Broadway is something we’ve always wanted to take on."

The second disc also includes a cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s "Nutrocker" that features Greg Lake on bass. It’s a song that obviously had a profound influence on O’Neill and TSO, who are known for blending rock and classical for Christmas.

"That song brings it full circle," he said. "It’s us paying tribute to Emerson, Lake and Palmer, paying tribute to Tchaikovsky."

The new album also means a new experience for the Christmas tour that fans have come to view as a tradition over the past few years. The first half of the concert will be the expected Christmas show, while the second set will focus more heavily on material from "Night Castle." Not to worry, though, the band will still follow its motto: "Fog it, light it, blow it up."

"We spend more on pyro in two months than most of the rock world does in an entire year," O’Neill said with a laugh. "Our first duty is to the fans, to give them the best show for their dollar. We realize that entertainment is not a necessity of life, but human beings need moments of joy, or at least moments that are stress free. When you’re not worrying about what’s outside the arena, the body gets to recharge its batteries. The underlying story is about hope."

When O’Neill started TSO, he never expected it to become a Christmas staple. His idea was to do a Christmas trilogy, six rock operas and a couple of regular albums. With the release of "Christmas Eve and Other Stories" and the holiday hit "Christmas Eve Sarajevo" (also originally recorded by Savatage) in 1996, the band did what O’Neill describes as "lucking into a Tchaikovsky," a reference to the composer’s "Nutcracker" ballet which became a Christmas classic.

"‘The Nutcracker’ was just another ballet, and it never dawned on him that it would become so intertwined with the holidays," O’Neill said. "When we wrote the Christmas trilogy, we hoped it would be successful, but we never dreamed it would become as big as it did. The fans wanted to see it every year, and we didn’t want to let them down."

Now, it’s a sold-out holiday tour with two companies that keeps growing and keeps O’Neill going non-stop from October through January. There’s still plenty to keep O’Neill occupied after the holidays, too. There are currently plans for a spring tour to focus on the band’s two non-Christmas albums, "Beethoven’s Last Night" and "Night Castle." Work continues on the Broadway show. There are some Savatage projects in the offering, including a best-of compilation, a re-release of the band’s last record "Poets and Madmen" on Atlantic, and possibly a new album. And then, there are, of course, those future Trans-Siberian Orchestra records. O’Neill’s not ready to make any predictions on those yet, though.

"Whatever I say, I know it’s going to be later," he joked. "I’m just glad I’m in rock ‘n’ roll and not in charge of getting ammunition to some war front in World War I."

Read my review of "Night Castle."

Review: Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Night Castle"

For the past five years, I've talked with either Trans-Siberian Orchestra founder Paul O'Neill or guitarist Al Pitrelli. Every year the story has been the same: "Night Castle" will be here in the spring or soon after. This year, I didn't have to ask the question. It finally arrived -- as a double album, no less -- and I can safely say that, while I don't want the next record to take quite as long, it was worth the wait.

As with all things TSO and Paul O'Neill, "Night Castle," through the first 21 songs, follows a fairly elaborate story line. I'll leave the finer details to the listener to discover, since that's part of the magic of a TSO record, but the story involves a seven-year-old girl who meets a strange man building a magical sandcastle on a beach and a U.S. Army lieutenant about to be deployed on a Special Forces mission to Cambodia who drunkenly stumbles into a magical castle of his own. The story visits a variety of times and places before it reaches its ultimate conclusion.

The music here is also as varied as you'd expect from a TSO record. There are some heavy operatic pieces, some of the band's patented blending of rock and classical pieces, and some straight up hard rockers.

The record opens big with "Night Enchanted," originally released as a single during the holidays last year. It's a magical piece that blends bits of Verdi and Delibes with some rock courtesy of O'Neill. A heavy vocal piece follows with "Childhood Dreams," which showcases the huge voice of Jay Pierce, who reminds me a bit of Guy LeMonnier, the original big voice from TSO's debut, "Christmas Eve and Other Stories." I'd love to hear him get a crack at "An Angel Came Down," but unfortunately, he's with the other troupe this year. He's not the only huge voice here, though, as fans will hear when Rob Evan gets cranked up for "There Was a Life." (Alas, he's also on the other leg of the tour.)

After two heavy classical pieces, the band throws a straight up hard rocker at us with "Sparks," which O'Neill tells me was originally from his Broadway show "Gutter Ballet," which hopefully will hit stages in the next couple of years. The show also provided some familiar Savatage tunes from the record of the same name and the "Streets" rock opera.

Savatage fans also have another treat coming with "The Mountain," which fans will recognize as a slightly altered version of "Prelude to Madness," the band's take on Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the "Hall of the Mountain King" record. There are some minor changes here and there, but it's pretty much note for note.

The title track brings the first appearance from another rock vocal icon, Jeff Scott Soto. It's an intense number that's very much in the vein of Savatage. Soto also turns in a stellar performance on the record's most metallic number, "Another Way You Can Die," which is a personal favorite of mine. He shows off his more operatic range on the moving "Time Floats On" on the second disc, as well. To be honest, this record gives me a new appreciation for Soto, and, luckily, he's on our leg of the tour.

"Tocatta - Carpimus Noctem" brings another top-notch blending of classical and rock, as the band takes on Bach. Mozart's in there, too, with "Mozart and Memories." Beethoven and Chopin get their turn at the TSO treatment to start the second disc with the frantic, mysterious and powerful "Moonlight and Madness." While all of the band's work is top notch, they truly shine on these instrumental blends, and the ones on "Night Castle" are no different. The story portion of the record ends on a reflective note with the acoustic instrumental piece "Embers."

The record closes with five pieces that pay tribute to some of O'Neill's influences, tip the hat to the past and look to the future. Most recognizable to TSO fans will be the band's dark take on Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana," which has been a fiery fixture in the live show for several years now. It loses a little power in the translation to record, but is still a solid performance. Another treat for Savatage fans comes in the cover of one of my favorite 'Tage tunes, "Believe" from the "Streets" record. This version is a little closer to the planned Broadway version of the song with soulful vocals from Tim Hockenberry (who also sings on "Sparks"). As much as I like this version, to be honest the Jon Oliva version will always be the version for me, though.

One of the group's more obvious influence comes to play on the cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Nutrocker." The rocked out take on Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" was obviously the prototype for much of what O'Neill and TSO have done, and it features a guest appearance by Greg Lake. There's another Delibes piece with "Child of the Night," which would fit well with the "Night Castle" story. The record ends with a look forward on the rocking instrumental "Tracers," written by O'Neill, Pitrelli and Pitrelli's wife, Jane Mangini. It's perhaps the most straightforward piece on the record, but that doesn't make it any less solid.

As always, O'Neill has rounded up an outstanding cast of singers and musicians for this record and worked it to as near perfection as you can get. It's often the case that double albums feature only really one good album's worth of songs, but "Night Castle" is a definite exception to that rule. I've only just gotten this record, and I can't wait to hear what the next one will sound like. (After we get a new Savatage record, of course ... hint, hint.)

Get "Night Castle."