KF: I assume Tommy would have been around during this time as well. How about Peter Criss? Would he have been around during this stage?

MO: No, Peter wasn’t around at all during post-production. Tommy was around a lot because he was our contact. In the end, we had to get involved in the video side as well, because the video guys were sending us pictures that weren’t what we needed. They were sending us pictures with shots from Dallas and other shows like that, and we said, “No way. No way. We can’t do that. We can only use pictures that we’ve got. It won’t work.” So in the end we took a big hand in how the video was put together as well. That’s why we get such a big credit, if you watch the DVD, we come straight away after the band and Doc. In the end, we had to get involved in the vision as well. Because music is king and that’s the thing that we had to keep putting across to the video people that video is very, very important and vision is very much part of a KISS show when you go to see it, very much part of the spectacular, but in the end the music has to be king. The vision has to follow the music. Again, we know what the KISS Army is like and their fan base, and there’s no band in the world that treats their fans better than KISS. There is just not. The just really are so conscious of their fan base.

KF: I want to go back to Peter. Given he was struggling with carpal tunnel at the time, how do you rate his performance on the album?

MO: Well, I rate his performance really well. Because he was soft hitting, there was a bit of enhancement on the drum sound to get a bit more power into it. But it was his playing, I just had to use his good hits and when you had a really good hit, I would use that snare sound underneath his other softer hit. But I used all of his sounds to make [it] work. But it did mean I had to bring in when he was hitting harder, I’d use his soft hits, because it was hard for him to hit, so I’d have to enforce his own sounds by just doubling up on them and things like that.

KF: Was a click track at all considered, or would that have been too difficult given the symphony aspect and that there was a conductor?

MO: Too difficult, far too difficult, because of the symphony component. Just getting him to sing was hard. When he was doing “Beth” and stuff like that I had to help him out with that in the studio, just sticking him into time here and there, where he sort of fell out of time. I said, “Look, just let me do what I do.” And then I played it back to him, and he started crying.

KF: I believe that was a big moment for him. “Beth” was obviously a big hit for KISS and Peter always sang along with a tape at concerts. This was the first time he actually sang it with an orchestra.

MO: Yeah. Once I got in there and fixed any little technical difficulties he had, and played it back to him in the studio, he just started crying. That was a pretty big compliment. We got to know the boys really well and built up a huge respect for each other. It was one of the most interesting projects — if not the most interesting project — that I’ve ever been on. Not just the length of it, but because of the people. I was struck by the intelligence of people like Paul and Gene, they’re just two of the smartest guys I’ve ever met. Particularly, Paul. I said to him, “Why did you take the makeup off?” And he said, “So we could put it back on.” And I thought that’s the smartest answer I’ve ever heard in the music business. To take [the makeup] off and then put it back on. It’s genius. Just genius.

Also, the way that they grew up. Paul driving cabs in New York City, knowing that one day he was going to be in the biggest band in the land, and hooking up with Gene, freshly emigrated from Israel with his mom, living dirt poor and stuff like that — all they had was this burning desire. I mean, I got all the stories, as you can imagine. In that position, I’m sure 1,000 fans would like to be where they can sit down with these guys, once you’ve got their respect, you can talk to them one-on-one, face-to-face. That was very interesting, just the conversations we had.

KF: Indeed. One other question on the drum front. Eric Singer had played drums for KISS’ Farewell Tour shows in Australia. I think at that point, Paul and Gene likely would have favored Eric’s playing, especially for such an intricate show. And there is a rumor that for this project KISS were required to have at least three original KISS members for this concert. Do you remember any discussion about Eric and Paul and Gene’s preference to have him play the show?

MO: You know, I have no idea. To me, I thought that they would have tried to make it as original as possible. The fact that Ace wasn’t there was probably Ace’s decision, I imagine. Because Paul and Gene, as you know, they run the band, no question. But I know that they wanted it to be as original as possible. [But] they didn’t lose anything by having Tommy Thayer there, that’s for sure. I mean Tommy is an unbelievable guitar player. Not only that, he’s a great organizer inside the band, keeping everyone on track, because of his tour managing experience beforehand, [and] he’d played in KISS cover bands. He’s done all that. And to top it off, he’s one of the nicest guys in the world. And, as you know, he does the annual golf charity event, which is just fantastic.

But Gene and Paul and Tommy, and so is Peter and Doc, they’re really nice people. They’re a really, really good team. And they’re just so conscious of looking after their fans, it’s ridiculous.

KF: Looking at the second act, with the smaller ensemble, is there a track that stands out as the gem of the bunch?

MO: Yeah, they pretty much all do. Rattle me off the set list.

KF: There’s “Beth,” “Goin’ Blind,” “Sure Know Something,” “Forever,” and “Shandi.”

MO: Well, they were all excellent. “Beth,” because it was emotionally important. But “Shandi” (pauses) … they were all good. Because we had a smaller orchestra, and we had an acoustic set up, it was easy to control it a lot better. I thought every song was bloody good. I really did. They just nailed it. It just showed you what all those years can do. Not only that, it showed you how much passion they still have for what they do.

KF: If I were forced to pick, I’d say that Act II is my favorite part of the concert. I really enjoy the performances and the added elements of the smaller ensemble.

MO: Yeah, I tend to agree with that because it was different for KISS, I mean that was the first taste of the orchestra, and it was the most controllable part, so they were able to hear each other a lot better and combine with the orchestra a lot better. The second act was absolutely brilliant. Like you, I’d have to say the second act is probably my favorite. But that’s really hard to say because the finale was pretty good as well.

KF: In terms of the third act, that’s where everything but the kitchen sink came into the fold. Again, is there a particular song that stands out like, “Wow, that took the song to a whole new level”?

MO: Yeah, I thought “Black Diamond” was pretty good like that. What else? Obviously, “Rock And Roll All Night” being the big finish … that worked really well. “Love Gun” was pretty good. Again, because you’re working so hard on something, it’s really hard to pick a favorite because I’m trying to make everything the same standard all the way through as much as possible. For instance, I’d be in L.A., and it’d be three o’ clock in the morning, and I’d be saying, “Hmmm, I reckon we can make Paul’s guitar sound a little bit better. I just think there’s a bit of a tone missing from that.” And my assistant would look at me and go, “Oh!” and start crying. (laughs) And the reason he’d start crying is because the sessions were so big it would take one and a half hours to open the session just so I could get to that guitar.

KF: That’d be in Pro Tools?

MO: Yeah, in Pro Tools. Exactly. It’d take him an hour and a half to open it just so I could get to that one guitar.

KF: About how many tracks are we talking about?

MO: Gee … (laughs) we’re running into the hundreds. We had to because it was a 64-piece orchestra, and then you have all the audience mics, and all the band mics, and all that sort of stuff, and then all the backup stuff. And then the effects and stuff like that. So they were very big files to open up and get into. The band wouldn’t be around, it would just be me and my assistant, but we would still manage to have a belly laugh a day. Which is the important thing. And as I said, KISS’ people were just fantastic to us. They were just amazing to us. You have to remember, we were dealing with 5.1 as well as stereo so it was a big job. In terms of technical application, it’s the hugest technical job I’ve ever done. And to get the quality though, that’s the thing. We could have easily just sat there and mixed it off as it was and gone, “Yeah, that’s it. See you later. Goodbye.” But we’re not that kind of people.

KF: From your description, it seems it would be an understatement to say a lot care was put into this project.

MO: Absolutely. If you know all the work that had to go into it, and all the areas that we had to fix because the orchestra is not being able to hear, and the timing, and the fireworks are going off, and how do you keep the fireworks under control, without losing too much of the sound, and keeping the audience, when they’re singing and clapping along, in time. There are so many aspects. It’s a massive, massive job. Not only that, then prepare it for [the different formats]. And they all require different elements when you’re doing that. At the same time, somehow we’ve got to keep our ears fresh. I can tell you that when we got to Los Angeles, I took my assistant up to Hamburger Hamlet the first night before we started working, and I bought him a beer and I said, “This is the last beer you’ll have until we leave this place because we need to be on the ball.”

KF: So we can say that you run a tight ship, Mark?

MO: Well, it’s more of running a professional ship because these people are paying us to do a good job and these people are charging people to buy their record [and] DVD. We have a responsibility to the fans — if you’re charging people something — you have a responsibility to the people that are buying it to make it as good as fucking possible. And that’s one of our mantras. A lot of people might say, “Oh it’s too hard. This will do.” But that’s not how we work. It won’t do until it’s as good as we can get it.

KF: Can you provide a specific technical example of something that was done differently for one of the formats? For example, what did you do differently on the album as opposed to the DVD?

MO: TV and CDs are mostly stereo with the TV stuff slightly less wide and the DVD is 5.1 and stereo.

KF: “KISS Symphony” was also released on vinyl. I assume you also oversaw this component as well?

MO: Yeah, I went to the mastering. We did the mastering … I’m trying to remember … with …

KF: Bernie Grundman.

MO: Yeah, Bernie Grundman. We sat with him a lot because also when we were doing the 5.1 [mix] he was one of the few people — you know, we have our own theories about 5.1, how to do 5.1. And reading all of our research on it, we thought, “Well, hang on. Our theory is different than everyone else’s theory. How can ours be right?” And I was reading something that Bernie had written about 5.1 and he hinted at something that we already did and so I went and had a long chat with him about it. And I said, “This is the way we do it.” And he said, “You know what. That’s exactly what I think too.” It’s a process in the mixing area, and again it takes time. It sounds like the opposite way. But when we spoke to him and his theory related to our theory, technically, we knew we were on the right track. So we used him in an advisory capacity, not just mastering, but in other things as well.

KF: In some ways, David Campbell could be considered the MVP of the album, given he was the one who constructed the arrangements and conducted the orchestra. What was your experience like working with him?

MO: David was great. Obviously, I worked with him very early on to make sure everything was OK. I did just orchestra mixes only, no band, originally — this was even before we left Australia. I did a whole bunch of orchestra mixes for him so he could hear what was wrong with the orchestra, the timing areas and all that stuff. And I’d say, “This is what I’m gonna do to fix it.” So we got on really well. Then when I got to L.A., I was still sending him stuff. After a while, he just trusted me so much. He was great, he just let me get on with what I was doing. Which is pretty good, coming from an Academy Award winner. And I think that if you ever talk to Paul and Gene about our contribution, they’re very happy with it [too].

KF: So once you got the mix in tip-yop shape, what was the process in terms of the final approval? Do Paul, Gene and Tommy come in and take a listen and give the final green light?

MO: Only after I’ve done it. They didn’t come in while I was doing it. They trusted me, pretty much in that 52-day period, for the last two or three weeks of that they knew that my team [was] going to nail it. They knew that. By the time I did finish the mixes, they approved them straight away. They came in and listened to the whole lot. Well, they listened to them at home, they didn’t come to the control room, because that’s not the place to listen to them. The best place is to go and listen in your car, what you’re used to, at home on your own system. So I made copies for everyone in the band and the management. They all listened to them separately, and they all came back and said, “This is fantastic.” But again, I think that we had their trust surely locked up, and their respect. Which you have to do, you have to get their respect. And it’s all in that initial preparation period that goes on, getting everything right in the first place. And not taking any chances and just having respect for what they do. As I say, good luck is where preparation meets opportunity. You know, we were lucky but we put a lot of preparation into that opportunity.

KF: Mark, we touched upon KISS’ live album legacy. How do you feel “KISS Symphony” measures up?

MO: Well, I think “Alive!,” technically it was as good as it could have been in those days. And today, well 10 years ago, we were at a whole different technical level. Sure, it might not be the old vinyl, scratchy sound of like a black-and-white film. But the way this one turned out was like a really good color film. So I would say, “Alive!” was a great black-and-white film. If you look at that way, this one was in Technicolor. As I love to say, if Edison, when he invented the wax cylinder, could have put video on it, he would have. Do you know what I mean?

KF: Sure.

MO: So in today’s terms, we used today’s technology as good as we could. When you get a band like KISS, they’ve crossed all technologies, from the LP to the CD to iTunes. It was a big job, but a throughly enjoyable job to do and satisfying.

KF: You had an intimate view into the inner circle of KISS. Given your unique perspective, what did you notice in terms of the hierarchy of KISS? Did Paul and Gene have equal input? Or did Paul have more of a say?

MO: No, it was an equal partnership. This is just my opinion, and I have to qualify that. And that is that Paul looks after the musical side of the band and Gene looks after the big picture side of the band. And it’s an equality. And they both cross over. Sometimes, Gene crosses over into the musical side, big time, and Paul will cross over into the big picture side, big time. It’s a blend between both. But I find that Paul usually initiates the musical side. And Gene very much initiates the big picture side. But they both cross over. I’m not going to say one does one and one does the other. But iI there was that sort of a balance, that’s where it would be. Make sense?

KF: Absolutely. I think you hit the nail on the head. Case in point, the band has released two studio albums in the past three years and Paul has been adamant that he was going to produce the albums and have creative control. On the other side, Gene stays active on more business-minded projects. There’s the dichotomy.

MO: Yeah, yeah. I’d like them to ring me up and say, “Can you do one of our normal albums as well?” (laughs)

KF: Who knows, you may get that call. Mark, you’ve worked with bands like AC/DC, Divinyls and INXS, among others. It seems your KISS experience was a very favorable one, but where does it rank in terms of your career?

MO: Well, the only similar project I’ve done is INXS live at Wembley, which was a stadium, it was massive. I’ve worked with Ray Charles, I worked with Bob Dylan on the Academy Awards. I’ve worked with lots of people. But I’ve never worked on a job as far-reaching and as wide as this. And as technically demanding. So, it’s right up there. Every job I work on, I try and give it my best shot always. When you’re working with KISS on a project like this, they certainly ask a lot of you, and so they should. And you give as much you can because of the kind of people they are. It’s something that, in my lifetime, I’ll be lucky enough to say, “I did that.”

(KissFAQ thanks Mark Opitz for reflecting on “KISS Symphony.” Learn more about Mark at his official website,http://www.markopitz.com. Aspiring musicians and audio professionals can check out Mark’s “Guide To Recording” app.)