Utter Trash--Trans Siberian Orchestra

Deck the Concert Halls

An interview with Bob Kinkel of Trans-Siberian Orchestra

By Bob Ignizio

How do you describe Trans-Siberian Orchestra to someone who hasn’t heard them? In the words of composer, keyboardist, and co-producer Bob Kinkel, “It’s symphonic rock, combining a full rock band and a full orchestra sound as well. All the CDs are rock operas, they all tell a story. Some of the music is rock, some is classical, and some is mixed together. You have the drama of Broadway, and you have some blues and gospel thrown in as well. It kind of covers the whole musical spectrum, which allows us to cover a whole story with more depth. You can have bigger emotional highs and lows. It kind of takes you on an emotional journey as well as being kind of fun.” It should also probably be mentioned that TSO is from America, not Russia.

Bob’s own journey with TSO began while working with the heavy metal band Savatage, starting in 1986. He says, “I worked at Record Plant [a recording studio – ed.] in the early eighties and Paul O’Neil was producing Savatage’s ‘Hall of the Mountain King’ album there. He was looking for someone who could come in and do arranging and orchestrating, and play all kinds of crazy keyboard stuff. The engineer who was working on the project was a friend of mine, and he told Paul to call me. We did the song “Prelude to Madness”, I did all the keyboards on that and a bunch of other things on the record.” Bob continued to work as a studio musician on subsequent Savatage albums, but with the band’s own Jon Oliva playing piano himself, Bob’s contributions were often in the background.

In the early nineties, Bob, Paul, and Jon started writing together and eventually completed a Broadway play. Then on the 1995 Savatage album ‘Dead Winter Dead’, the trio collaborated on the song ‘Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24’. The record company liked what they heard and asked for more. The musicians were happy to oblige, and the first TSO album, ‘Christmas Eve and Other Stories’, was ready for release in time for the 1996 holiday season. Bob says, “That was a perfect opportunity to be able to expand our musical horizons and take things in another direction. In a rock band you have maybe one or two vocalists that sing all the songs. With TSO we could take each song and make the singer fit whatever role there was. So we had a greater range of voices, and being able to touch on the different musical genres and weave it all together with a story gave us a lot more freedom to try a lot of different things. It worked out very well.”

The TSO project worked out so well, in fact, that the band followed up ‘Christmas Eve...’ with another holiday themed album, 1998’s ‘The Christmas Attic’. In 2000 the band took a break from all that Christmas cheer to record the rock opera ‘Beethoven’s Last Night’. While the album was a thematic departure from their previous efforts, it nonetheless proved popular with TSO fans. Bob says, “It’s nice that people have embraced the holiday stuff so much, but a lot of people love ‘Beethoven’, also. We get so many comments on the website about how much they like the CD and never take it out of their player.” While TSO fans will be treated to a few numbers from ‘Beethoven’ on the current holiday tour, Bob says they can look forward to a full live show based on the album sometime in 2005.

So, other than Bob, Paul O’Neil, and Jon Oliva, just who are the members of TSO? Since TSO is not exactly your garden variety rock band, that’s a little harder to nail down than usual. To list every single musician involved would take up even more space than I’m about to. Suffice it to say that on album, the core of the band is Chris Caffery (guitar), Johnny Lee Middleton (bass), Al Pitrelli (guitar), and Jeff Plate (drums). Bob and Jon, in addition to their composing duties, also play keyboards and piano. Paul is sort of the driving force, composing, playing some rhythm guitar, and producing the whole affair (with Bob co-producing). Then there are the orchestral musicians and various vocalists, each picked to bring something special to the songs they sing.

Due to the high demand for TSO during the holiday season, the band has split into two touring companies. Bob says, “I travel with the East company, and Al Pitrelli is the musical director for the West. Chris Caffery is out with us again this year, and Jeff Plate is playing drums. They’d probably be the most known from the rock world. If anyone saw the show a couple years ago, Rob Evan is joining us again. He starred in ‘Jeckyl and Hyde’ and ‘Les Mis’ on Broadway. He’s always fun to have with us. Once again it’s a great band.” If fan response to previous tours is any indication, it should be a great show whichever company you happen to see.

If you’re a TSO fan in Ohio, there’s just no excuse for not catching the band live. The band will be playing multiple dates in Cleveland and Akron, as well as making stops in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Youngstown. In case you’re wondering, there’s a reason TSO has such a special affinity for the Buckeye state. Bob says, “Bill Louis at WNCX kind of embraced our music early. The very first show we put on sale four years ago was in Cleveland. We had no idea if anyone would come to see us, and that show sold out in about 45 minutes. We were completely blown away. We put two more shows on sale, and those sold out even faster. That was the start of the whole thing. The Cleveland area became the center for us. Ohio in general has just become the center. I think we still have a huge percentage of our shows in Ohio. One night Chris Caffery said we should be called TSOhio (laughs). The fans in your area are just so amazing, we’re very thankful.”

So what can fans expect from the TSO show this time around? Bob says, “We’re doing a few new songs in the back half of the show. The first half of the show, as we’ve been doing every year and has become a tradition, will be ‘Christmas Eve and Other Stories’ in its entirety, with narration. In the second half we’ve added a few more songs form ‘The Christmas Attic’ to the show. We also do some of the Beethoven album. We do ‘Beethoven’, ‘Mozart’, ‘Requeim’, and ‘A Last Illusion’. You’ll definitely get the whole flavor of the band.” You’ll also get a bigger stage show than in the past. Bob says, “We added a truckload of production to the show. This year it’s going to be bigger than ever. We’re adding to the spectacle all the time.”

In addition to touring, TSO has also been working on a pair of new albums. Bob says, “We’re a little more than halfway done with a new Christmas album that will be out next year. We also have a fifth CD that we started on as well, so you’ll be seeing a couple of releases coming out. The Christmas one will obviously be out for Christmas next year, and there will be another CD after that which will be a non-holiday CD.”

For now, check out this year’s tour. TSO is one of the few holiday entertainments that can really back up its claim to being “fun for the whole family.” Bob says, “We’re so looking forward to coming back. Anybody who’s seen the show knows it’s a show everybody can come to. I’m always amazed at the different ages of people and the different walks of life. It’s so rare to see three generations of people, the grandparents, the parents and the kids, at a show and they’re all enjoying it. You’ll see real metal people next to symphony people. It’s fun to see someone with a torn up T-shirt sitting next to someone in a suit and tie, and they’re both having a good time and they’re both into the music. Sometimes people who have only been into rock get exposed to the classical world and vice versa. It’s just great to bring that many people together, it’s a great feeling.” Only a complete Grinch could argue with that..