SAVATAGE
Interview with Johnny Middleton
1. What were the reasons for the departure of Al Pitrelli and Zak Stevens?
Zak left due to the fact that his wife has a kid and he wasn’t comfortable leaving her eleven months , he had a problem traveling around the world and leaving her alone. He doesn’t live in an apartment but in a farm and when he was only with his wife there wasn’t a problem but now the baby is involved and she needs his help. That is the reason that he left and not that he didn’t want to sing for us anymore. Al left for a larger paycheck , when he came we knew that as soon as someone would come with a larger paycheck –he’s gone!
2. Are all the poets madmen?
We came with the idea of the title of the record because John was gonna sing the half of the CD and he was gonna be the madman – Zak was gonna be the poet !Zak left but we decided to keep the title because it was so cool, great title for a CD. Now Paul Neil is the poet and John is the madman !
3. You ?
I’m just a bass player! There is a thin line between poets and madmen , everybody is capable of murder and everybody is capable of love and if you can balance your life and keep it in the middle , that is alright. That is the kind of a poet and a madman is , inside in your brain there is rage and murder but the other half has love and tenderness .
4. Ok, now tell me about your new album ……
It’s round it’s got twelve songs on it , basically it’s the kind of the CD that we would release after “Streets”, it’s the same style. We have taken little pieces from all the records that we have done and the difference from the latest CD is that John sings all the vocals .The songs mix the keyboards of “Gutter Bullet” era with the big vocals of “Wake of Magellan” , it ‘s the heaviest thing that we have done since probably Streets.
5. How are you going to promote this CD ?
I’ve been in different airplanes for the past two weeks and I am traveling all over Europe doing press interviews. We also have big plans for touring , this summer we have festivals and we’re trying as hell to get to this festival that you’ve got here in Greece .We will concentrate in the markets that we hadn’t target in the past , Portugal – Spain – France –Greece .These are the target-markets , Germany ,Belgium and Holland we’re doing very well over there .That was the reason that we changed record label , we wanted to have a label that has better distribution out of Germany.
6. What about Transiberian Orchestra ?
When I’ ll go home I go to Universal to work in Beethoven’s last night CD and see if it works as good as the Christmas stuff .Our Christmas shows sell out every year , we have TV Shows in America , we’re doing very well in America but is mainly in the Christmas season. We’re gonna work for this CD , then we’re gonna tour for four weeks there and in the summer we are coming in Europe for festivals .
7. Do you think that Transiberian Orchestra increases the fame of Savatage and make them known at mainstream music ears ?
I don’t think so because Transiberian Orchestra’s audience is different , it’s a Christmas show. In the audience there are 84 years old ladies , there are old men. Savatage has younger audience , we also have audience from 40’s and 50’s , but mainly is the smaller demographical group but people who find out about Savatage and like the heavy kind of music , we grabbing them ! Note that many of Transiberian Orhestra fans are the Savatage fans , it’s weird !
8. You’ve been in this job for so many years , what must musicians have to survive in the music scene ?
To probably have another job, that’s one thing, and the other is a very rich girlfriend !It’s really hard to make a living from music , it took us 10 years to make a living out of it .We were eating pizzas , butter and jelly sandwiches and we were living in horrible hotels .The entertainment business is very hard with rude people that making money out of it , the best advice I can give to anyone is having something else to support you and your family when you are not making money from music . I own my business at home , I don’t have to be in this band to make money , I have an air conditioning company ,I have people working for me when I am here and I don’t have to worry about the band.
9. Tell me your worst experience from the music industry…
Oh God ,there are a lot of those ! When I first joined the band on “Fight for the rock” we did a show in Finland and we made a lot of money. These managers we had , showed up , they collected the money and they flew at home .They left us in London with no money to pay the hotel rooms but enough money to go to the airport , get the plane and fly home . We had to put the luggage in the middle of the night and in cars from friends and in the morning we told the hotel people that we would go for breakfast and then come back so not to hold us before we go to the airport. In the meantime the guys flew back in America with our money , we fired them but they fucked us!
10. Napster and Artists , who is the good and who the bad guy?
I think that Napster sucks! Napster is great for a band that doesn’t have a record deal but bad for a group that wants to get its music at many people , they just get money from the professional’s pockets ! I wouldn’t be here if I found out that my CDS are given away , it’s bad for me , why I have to travel all over the world for nothing ? I would do something else to pay my bills , it will kill the fucking music industry .It is good only if they offer samples of the CD , maybe one minute, –not the whole CD ,this is a great idea. This is a great promotion tool , it can work out and it will work out . But if they offer the whole CD, the record companies won’t put money for this because they can’t get money from this , so if this will continue for ten years you will listen music ten years old because nothing will be released anymore.
