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Multi-platinum rock group the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been pushing musical boundaries for nearly three decades, bringing their distinctive blend of classical music and hard rock around the globe, introducing generations of fans to the 'multi-dimensional art form' known as the rock opera. The group is hitting the road once again this holiday season with the The Ghosts of Christmas Eve: The Best of TSO and More , bringing their signature sound, stunning pyrotechnics, and elaborate storytelling to more than 60 cities across North America. It's a theatrical spectacle you won't want to miss. We were joined by writer, guitarist, and musical director Al Pitrelli and keyboardist Mee Eun Kim, who told us all about it and more. To find tickets go to trans-siberian.com .
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00:00Hi, I'm Al Petrolli.
00:02I'm Mian Kim.
00:03And you are watching Life Minute TV.
00:05Happy holidays, guys.
00:07This winter, experience the ultimate rock Christmas tradition.
00:11Trans-Siberian Orchestra, live in concert.
00:16Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been pushing musical boundaries
00:19for nearly three decades,
00:21bringing their distinctive blend of classical music
00:23and hard rock around the globe,
00:25introducing generations of fans
00:27to the multidimensional art form known as the rock opera.
00:31The group is hitting the road once again this holiday season
00:34with the Ghost of Christmas Eve tour,
00:36bringing their signature sound, stunning pyrotechnics,
00:40and elaborate storytelling to more than 60 cities across North America.
00:45It's a theatrical spectacular you won't want to miss.
00:48We're joined today by writer-guitarist and musical director Al Petrolli
00:52and keyboardist Mi-Yoon Kim to tell us all about it.
00:55So tell us the story behind The Ghost of Christmas Eve
00:58and how it inspired this tour.
01:00Well, The Ghost of Christmas Eve is a movie we shot back in 1998.
01:03The gentleman who started this whole thing, Mr. Paul O'Neil,
01:05we had recorded two really, really good records prior to that.
01:08It was Christmas Eve and Other Stories and The Christmas Attic.
01:11Paul decided he wanted to make a movie,
01:13so he took songs from the first two records,
01:15combined them into a brand-new story,
01:17which became The Ghost of Christmas Eve.
01:19And when it was released almost overnight,
01:21it became everybody's new favorite Christmas movie,
01:23like when I was a kid with Charlie Brown,
01:25or whatever you watch, you know,
01:26in your feety pajamas when you're little, you know?
01:28And then somebody put him to the test and say,
01:31well, I dare you to do a tour,
01:33which you don't dare our boss to do anything, all right?
01:36So here we are.
01:37You fast-forward, I don't know,
01:3831 years since this whole thing began,
01:4026 years of touring,
01:42and we've decided to bring out The Ghost of Christmas Eve
01:44in its entirety as a piece,
01:46but with all the brand-new technology available
01:48to our crew and department heads now.
01:50How's it going to be different this year,
01:52and what can fans expect?
01:54Oh, that's a good question.
01:55How is it going to be different this time?
01:57We have no idea yet.
01:58Yeah, yeah, we don't know.
01:59We're still waiting to find out.
02:00We're just starting the production rehearsal.
02:02They're setting up.
02:03It's like the arena is filled with medals and hanging stuff.
02:07Like, we're going to be surprised ourselves.
02:10So I wish I could tell you more, but...
02:13But what I promise you is that there's a group of people,
02:16especially in your community,
02:17that come to see us year after year after year,
02:19and we effectually refer to them as the repeat offenders.
02:22Now, they've been coming to see us 24, 25 years since we started touring,
02:27and then they came with their kids.
02:29Now they're bringing their grandchildren, you know?
02:31And it's become just a multi-generational celebration,
02:34and we have a responsibility not only to our boss, Paul O'Neill,
02:38and to the repeat offenders, but to ourselves as artists,
02:41to every year make it bigger and better.
02:43And this year in particular, we've changed everything.
02:45Oh, yeah.
02:46So when the curtain goes up,
02:47first-timers don't know what to expect anyway, so it doesn't matter.
02:49They're just going to be like, oh, my God.
02:51Yeah.
02:52But it's the people who've been coming back for decades
02:54that we wanted to put them on their heels and show them,
02:56no, no, no, we take this very seriously.
02:58You've made us part of your holiday tradition,
03:00and that's a wonderful compliment and an enormous responsibility.
03:03So across the board, like me and Seth,
03:05we don't really know production-wise yet.
03:07We've seen drawings and computer ideas.
03:09So when we get out of here after we're done with you,
03:11we're going to go in there and try to peek through the curtain
03:12and see what's up.
03:13Yep.
03:14To be honest, even if we knew what's going to be different
03:16or what's going to be the surprise,
03:18it will be very difficult for us to describe it in words.
03:21My mother asks me very often,
03:22so how is it going to be this year?
03:24I say, oh, Mom, it's really difficult to describe.
03:26And we never get to see it.
03:27Exactly.
03:28We're on the other side.
03:30What's different about a trans-Siberian orchestra show
03:33compared to your average rock show?
03:36Oh, it is absolutely very different
03:38because it's not just a rock show.
03:40First of all, we have a beautiful story that Paul O'Neill wrote
03:43that's really relatable to every single person,
03:46but we also have the element of rock music,
03:49the classical music, the blues, the Broadway singing.
03:53It's just everything.
03:54The fire, the laser, so it's not an ordinary rock show for sure.
03:58And you guys are known really for extensive charity work,
04:01and there's a charity aspect to the tour as well, right?
04:04Can you tell us about it?
04:05Well, again, going back to Paul O'Neill, that was his idea.
04:08We did our first show at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia,
04:10I think, in 1999.
04:12And Paul wanted to do something special for the holidays.
04:14You know, growing up, he and I as kids in the 60s and 70s on Long Island,
04:18when you went to the grocery store around Christmas,
04:20Santa Claus was ringing the bell and he had the big black pot,
04:22and you'd throw your change in, you know?
04:25A quarter, dime, whatever you had at the time, you know?
04:27But it added up at the end of the day.
04:29Paul said the same thing.
04:30Every time we sell a ticket, every ticket sold forever,
04:33he would put one dollar back into that particular community.
04:36Now, last year, we clocked it at almost 21 million tickets.
04:40So, you know, a dollar doesn't seem like much, you know?
04:43But you've got to say, that's who Paul is.
04:45We walk around New York City together from studio to pizza place to a club to whatever,
04:49and I'd be on 38th Street, I'd turn him over my shoulder, he's back on 34th Street,
04:53handing somebody whatever he had in his pocket.
04:55Exactly.
04:56You know?
04:57Yeah.
04:58But he didn't talk about it, and that's what I loved about him.
04:59He didn't say he wanted to do it, he just did it.
05:01You know?
05:02And I admire him for that, and we're very honored to carry on that tradition.
05:05What is it about the Trans-Siberian Orchestra that resonates with so many people?
05:10For me personally, it resonates with me because each song carries different emotional story,
05:15and everybody can relate it in a different situation.
05:19There's always something for everybody, from ballads to rock on show moments, to story, to bluesy moments.
05:26We have everything, so.
05:28There was a terrific quote a while back from Leonard Bernstein regarding Beethoven,
05:34and he said that great art should always be accessible, but never ordinary.
05:38And when I heard that, I had to take a step back for a minute and really think about that, you know?
05:43And when you think about Paul O'Neill's art form, it's very, very, very accessible, and nothing about it's ordinary.
05:49That's true.
05:50Because if you listen to the poetry, if you listen to the lyrics that the characters are bringing to life throughout the story, I live that.
05:57I've been in this scenario.
05:58I miss somebody.
06:00You know, me misses somebody.
06:01Everybody misses somebody.
06:02That's the central element of the story, you know?
06:05And you think about the holidays, I've become so much more magnified because there's always that empty chair at the dining room table,
06:10and you can't help it, you know?
06:12And when you understand that, okay, I relate to this story, but so do the other 14,000 people in the room,
06:17it doesn't fill the hole in your heart, really, but at least you're not alone.
06:21And there's some sort of solace, I think, communally that we can take from that.
06:32And you guys are a holiday favorite for so many people around the globe.
06:35What's a favorite holiday memory of yours?
06:37For me, it's every show, to be honest with you.
06:39Because when you shut the lights and the curtain comes up, it doesn't matter where you are, what you're doing.
06:43It's Christmas Eve in whatever city.
06:44You know, we can just shake the world off our shoulders for the couple hours, you know?
06:48And, you know, what we were saying before, we feel like teenagers when we do this every day.
06:51Absolutely.
06:52Every time.
06:53Every time.
06:56How would you guys say you hone your craft to be the best musicians you can be?
06:59It's not like we just come back and do this after 10 months.
07:02All throughout the year, everyone is working on different projects and different styles of music and field.
07:08So people come back all, like, fit and ready to do this.
07:12I don't do anything all year.
07:14It's not true!
07:15I just think about this all year long, you know?
07:18He spends so many months preparing for this on top of everything else he does, so.
07:23That's not true.
07:24How did you know you wanted to get into music? Were you self-taught?
07:27For me, I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964.
07:30You know, I have very little recollection of it, obviously, but my mom took a Polaroid with me in my feetie pajamas,
07:36and my granddaddy's acoustic guitar in the corner, and I just watched the TV and would strum the guitar,
07:41and that was it for me.
07:42Much to my parents' chagrin, you know?
07:44So I'm formally trained, but mainly self-taught, and I know you have a similar background.
07:50Well, I started playing the piano since I was five.
07:53My mother ran a music school, my dad is a singer, so it was very natural for me.
07:57I grew up in church, so when we started doing the Christmas music, it was very familiar.
08:02But my main instrument is piano.
08:04I sing, I play the little cello, but coming into this, I feel like I'm playing multiple different kinds of keyboards,
08:11because it's not just a normal piano playing, but I have to deal with orchestration and different instrumentation,
08:18different genres of music, so I actually grew a lot.
08:22Musically, being a part of this wonderful group, working with Al, and then working with other musicians coming from different backgrounds,
08:30it's a big challenge every year, and it's a many number of members in the band, and to really play in harmony,
08:36not getting in the way of everybody, that's an art.
08:39And since this is Life Minute, what's your best piece of life advice?
08:43Follow your dream. There's that old saying, like, what would you say to your 12-year-old self if you could?
08:48Don't listen to anybody. Follow your dream. Follow your heart.
08:51That's so great. Okay, where can fans go to find tickets?
08:54Go to www.trans-sivarian.com, and you will find all the information.
09:01We can't wait to see you. Thanks for joining us. Happy holidays.
09:04Happy holidays, guys.
09:06To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast, Life Minute TV on iTunes, and all streaming podcast platforms.
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