OSI - Office of Strategic Influence

Excerpt from a BraveWords interview with Jim Matheos

"But even with so much on his plate, the New Hampshire-based guitarist was clearly most enthused about OSI, whose debut album, Office Of Strategic Influence, will be released by InsideOut on February 18th. BW&BK #67 will have a full feature on the record, but here are some teasers excerpted from Matheos' interview:

On Portnoy: "We're great friends. On a professional level, he's just an amazing drummer. I love everything he does. Watching him live 40 or 50 times and listening to him on record a million times is a completely different experience than watching him in the studio. I was blown away by him. This was something we wanted to do for a long time, and it was a really great experience."

On Moore, with whom he collaborated on the last two Fates Warning albums: "I can't say enough good things about Kevin. I'm a huge fan of his, and I think the guy's a genius. Any time I can work with him, it's great. I'm in awe of his talent."

On PORCUPINE TREE vocalist Steven Wilson, who guests on one OSI track: "This was kind of my wish-list of people who I admire and who I'd like to work with. I first started talking to Steven about a year and a half ago, when I approached him to maybe produce the next Fates record. Things just didn't work out schedule-wise, but I knew I'd want to work with him sometime in the future. When (OSI) came up, he was one of the first people that I thought of. I sent Steven some of the material; he liked it; he had a hole in his schedule; and that's pretty much the end of the story."