The Interview This interview was originally posted on Ace's Steve Vai Web Site. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: By far the most asked question is the CD-ROM. People want all the details. A: I'm working on 2 CD-ROMs. The main one is an educational guitar CD-ROM. In the past, I've never done educational videos because I always thought they were somewhat stale and lackluster. But, with the advent of interactivity, I've found the means to display every guitar secret I know on the instrument. The CD-ROM will focus on a player's individuality on the instrument, learning how to identify with it and develop it through a series of exercises that challenge the player to really delve into the imagination. You can be a complete beginner or an expert and I believe you'll find this to be inspiring. If all you want to do is learn to play the guitar, it can take you through that. If you want to learn how to be a completely educated musical person, it will go through myriads of theory and ear training. It takes you through step by step how to read music, compose and orchestrate for most ensembles, but, most of all, it will be a gas. It's still in the prototype stages and is being written in script X, a very powerful yet complex computer language. The second CD-ROM I'm working on is sort of a folio for Alien Love Secrets. It has all the video footage I shot for the Alien Love Secrets video that's available now. It will have the tabulature so you can play along with the music and the ability to loop certain sections of the music to listen to it or to play over it. It will also give the option to play your guitar, or any instrument, against the naked tracks of the Alien Love Secrets album, that is the tracks without the lead guitar on them. Q: When is the new album do and what can we expect? A: I'm not quite sure when it's going to be done, but when it's done, then it's done. I'm shooting to have it out early next year. It's turning into quite a menagerie of sound. I'm recording about 24 or more songs, half vocal and half instrumental. I'm hoping to make it a double CD, but that may not be feasible. The tentative working title for the record is "Fire Coma" and it's based loosely around a screen play that I wrote. The concept should span the next two to three records. Parts of the record are very aggressive and heavy, but very musical. The instrumental portion of the record is more along the lines of "Passion & Warfare" than it is of "Alien Love Secrets". I hope you all like it. I'm trying my best. Q: Tell us more about the video tape. A: After I finish a record, I usually videotape myself playing through the songs so the transcriptionist will have something to go by when he writes the tabulature and notation for the music book. When I was watching myself on video performing the music from "Alien Love Secrets", I thought it would be interesting to make a full blown video of all the songs, pretty straight ahead where you can kind of see me playing without too much theatrics and "wankage". So I went to work and got a trio together with Robbie Harrington on bass and Chris Frazier on drums and we played to the music of "Alien Love Secrets". We did all the songs in one day on a sound stage and it took about a week to edit the video, and I think those out there who like "Alien Love Secrets" will really find a treat in the video. Q: What was it like to work with Ozzy? What happened? Why did your guitar parts get scrapped? A: My guitar parts never got scrapped because they never got recorded. Ozzy had finished the record with his band, but then the band broke up and the record company wanted some more songs. So, he worked with a whole bunch of writers and I was one of them. We wrote so much material together that we thought it would be an interesting idea to just make a record ourselves, but then there were obstacles in the way of that. It would have been very timely and expensive and on top of that, the record company didn't like the direction we were going in. I was writing very heavy music. I mean I was tuned down a whole step and I used an octave divider for every song. I hope I can still have children after those sessions. But, some great stuff came out of it. Ozzy is using one of the songs I wrote on his record and we have a whole shelf of material that we hope to record some day together. As far as working with him, I don't think I ever had so much fun working with someone in my life. He's a total riot. He is so funny. Most of the time, he just told stories-unbelievable stories. Quite an interesting guy, he's Ozzy-the walking prince, godfather of heavy metal. The man is Rock 'N 'Roll poetry in motion, I must tell you. Q: Steve Vai has a weird kind of public image. Are you a religious fanatic or something? A: I'm not really sure what my public image is because I'm me and I just don't really look st myself like an outsider, and sometimes that causes me to do some pretty extreme things. But as far as being a religious fanatic, no, I'm not a fanatic, but I do have very deep spiritual roots and feelings. I don't feel drawn to any one religion, but I do feel that at the basis of every religion are fundamental truths and that is what I try to build my moral fiber around and subscribe my life to. There is a very wonderful philosophy called San Mat that I am very interested in. It basically speaks of just higher truths of living and that within each and every creature is a spark of divinity. Q: Do you partake of any drugs, including marijuana? A: No, when I was a kid I smoked some pot. I drank alcohol through high school and through the big rock bands I was in, but as of these days, I don't drink any alcohol whatsoever and I don't do any drugs at all. I very rarely even take prescription drugs. I don't eat meat, including fish, chicken or eggs. But, I don't mind if anyone else eats meat or cares to do drugs or alcohol, as long as they don't drive a car or sit me in a room all night and talk bullshit until it comes out off their ass. I have been known to do some outside things while under the influence, but more of that some other time. Q: Would you consider shaving your head? A: Yes. I dream of shaving my head, who doesn't? How liberating to not have to worry about all this silly stuff that goes along with having hair. One of the greatest things I ever did was cut those miserable dred locks off my head and finally have short hair. I know a lot of my fans don't like it, but I AM SORRY, I love it. And I will, I will, I will shave my head some day. Q: What is your favorite Zappa album or song? A: Come on now, you know that that's a real hard one to answer. I can't even begin. All I can say is that if you haven't heard Frank's music, I highly recommend it. It is a treasure among treasures. Q: Comment on the current grunge garbage. A: Well, like anything else, I think some of it's good and some of it's awful. As long as it's got good melody and a good beat, I kind of like it, but just like anything else, most of it's the rampant stolen meanderings of somebody else's genius. My taste in music is a little more eclectic. I like to see musicians who work on their instrument to achieve goals of virtuosity and then mix that with elements of inspiration to create melodies and performance that really touches me. Sometimes when I'm playing the guitar I look down at my hands and see them flying all over the place and screaming out notes long and hard and sometimes I'm actually kind of amazed at how my fingers so carelessly fly up and down the neck. It seems so easy sometimes, and so expressive. And I'm not gonna stop doing that just because some guy is sitting in a garage and wearing Doc Martins and a flannel shirt and selling millions of records. God bless them. Q: What about a dream band? Whom would you include in a trio? A quartet? A: Most of the people I'd like to have in A band are dead. I'd like to have John Bonham as a drummer, Freddie Mercury as a singer and Billy Sheehan as a bass player. What a band, huh? Q: How much does it affect you to have people still consider you to be more of a speed demon than a creative musician? A: People will think what they will and I'll do what I will. I don't mean to sound arrogant about that, but it really doesn't affect me that much. (Or maybe I do mean to sound arrogant, oh well.) Q: What was your state of mind when penning "Sex & Religion"... A: My state of mind was in a bit of turmoil. I wanted to create a band and I wanted to have a powerful rock record with some beautiful songs and some very aggressive songs with a very killer band. Some things turned out that way and some things didn't. Q: Your 5 favorite Steve Vai solo songs. A: I like "Burning Down The Mountain" off Flex-Able Leftovers, "Love Secrets" off Passion & Warfare", "Bledsoe Blvd" off the CD version of Flex-Able, "The Road To Mt. Calvary" off Sex & Religion, and a new song that I just finished for Fire Coma called "All About Eve". It's hard to really say what my favorites are, though. Q: Did you purposely write Sex & Religion to make a mockery of your 'from outer space' image? A: Oh, Lord, where did that one come from. I purposely wrote Sex & Religion to purposely make a purposely great record on purpose. Q: What does Siro mean? A: It was my grandfather's name. It's an Italian name. My father gave it to me as a middle name. When I was a kid I used to hate it because my brother used to say to me "You're nothing, you're zero." And I would cry "I'm not zero, I'm Siro." Before I joined Frank Zappa, I was going to change my name to just plain Siro instead of Steve Vai. Q: What ever became of the Passion & Warfare novel? A: It's about 3/4 of the way done. It needed to be finished with a terrific amount of editing. As things stand now, I'm siphoning most of it down into a novel called FIRE COMA that's being transformed from a screenplay into a novel. I hesitate to say these things because you know what happens--one things leads to another and I'm off tom another project and I don't get the funds or the time to complete the previous one and then Voila, you talk about things that never happen. Oh, well, like they say, life is too short. Q: Are you ever going to release "Eyes Are Windows of the Soul" or "The Lights Are On" or do "Classified"? A: That's funny you should mention. I have a lot of recordings from the Classified days and I hope to put them out on a full length record. They just need a little spiffing up. "Eyes Are Windows of the Soul", "Lights Are On", "No Pockets", "Pink and Blows Over", "Mighty Messengers", "Midway Creatures", "Fast Note People", "Upanishads"- these are all working titles for the songs that I was working on for that project. Q: Just before the cat orgasms in "The Riddle" there seems to be voices saying something. What? A: Those are two French people I stuck in a room and had them make believe they were making love in French, enchante, oui, oui, oui. Q: Your work on the PIL album really clicks with Johnny Rotten. What was it like to work with him? Strangely, nothing much is ever said about that album. A: That was really a great record. I enjoyed making it a lot. I worked 2 days on it and did all the guitar parts. Some of the solos I didn't even hear after I played them, nor did anybody else until the record was mixed. Some of them, I didn't even hear the tracks and I just recorded whatever came out. I had a great time hanging with Lydon, the little bit of time I spent with him. He's quite a unique character. He has this really great habit, no matter where he is, whether he's in an elevator or a restaurant, he blows snot out of his nose. Now there's a real punk for ya. Q: There's a rumor that Trent Resnor did his quiet sounding song "Hurt" after hearing an off-hand remark from you that he should do an acoustic song to mix things up. Is that true? A: You got me on that one. I don't know, but I did mention that it would be interesting if he shaved his head, tattooed flowers all over his face and sang acoustic love songs about the beauties of the world, with a flute, of course. Well, let's see what happens. Q: Your melodies are great. Do you consciously structure them? Are they mainly jams or just a spontaneous thing? I mean the repeating-type melodies like "Liberty" and "Bad Horsie". A: Sometimes they're spontaneous, but mostly the good ones I just hear in my head. If you listen carefully when you play, the melodies will just tell you what they should be. Some of the stuff comes straight from my libido, a la "Bad Horsie". Q: Are you ever going to release previously unreleased material? A: Yes, when my popularity dies down a bit and the idea of having to have some commercial record of sorts is not as meaningful, as it is now. Better hold on to your hats cause I've got some wild stuff in the can. Q: Why did you cut your hair? A: See previous question, number 7. Q: One person is having a problem with sudden lack of inspiration-all his compositions sounded like cliches of his past compositions. What would you recommend to help? A: Sometimes we all go into ruts and inspiration seems rare. I believe that happens to all except true geniuses. Inspiration is like an ice cream cone in the sense that you have to eat it all up before it's gone, and when you don't have it and you want it, you'll go to any length to try and find it. Pick up my CD-ROM when it comes out. I'm sure it can help inspire. Q: Any chance of you and Joe Satriani getting together to record some stuff? [I had suggested that he and Joe do a version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia, with Steve reprising his 'Satan' role - I think it would be very cool. - Ace] A: There's no Joe and Steve collaboration in the very near future, although we toy with the idea. But if I'm the Devil, who's Joe - no angel. Q: Who else would you like to work with? A: I'd like to work with James Cameron. He's a really wild film producer and I bet he'd produce a very interesting music track. Or I'd like to work with a real introspective character like William Burrows. It would be interesting to have him produce a track. These people know nothing about music recording, but they certainly fly by the seat of their pants and go for the cullonies. (That's Italian slang for Balls). Q: When's he going to stop playing so much Eventide? Sometimes it's hard to tell whether he's playing it or it's playing him. A: If I didn't need all, those effects to help me play, I might have a career. Q: Do you still plan to release a book based on the extracts from your dream journals? A: That was the book "Passion & Warfare" . See question 16. Q: What are some mental exercises that you use to improve your musicality? A: I don't think about it. Q: You are world famous for your music and your way of writing music. Given the fact that you write down the music on paper first and then record it, the next question came to mind. What would happen to you if you ever, for some reason, would go deaf? A: Don't think I haven't thought about that. Believe me, after the "Eat 'Em & Smile" Tour, I'm lucky I can still hear a thing. If I went deaf, I would still pound away at writing music. I can hear stuff in my head and I know instinctively what things are going to sound like. I doubt I would be another Beethoven, but then again, he never had blue hair, did he? Q: Any tour plans after the new album is released? A: I'm planning on going on tour for as long as the world will have me. Q: What does the number 777 mean to you? What about the pyramid/eye symbol? A: It's a bunch of metaphysical brouhaha. Q: How old is Julian? A: Julian is 6 and will be 7 on March 1st. My other son, Fire, will be 4 on March 1st. They have the same birthday, born 3 years and 3 hours apart. Synchronicity, eh? Q: Would you consider yourself to be one of the best guitar players in the world? A: Not a chance. I'm my favorite guitar player, but I'm by far not the best. ut, I would rather play like me than anyone else. How's that for humility and arrogance all in the same breath? Q: Do you think that the guitar and gear that a guitarist uses contributes significantly to their overall sound? A: I think it has somewhat to do with their sound, but the most important aspect of a guitarists tone comes from his fingers and his head. Q: Will you ever do another album like SEX & RELIGION? A: I'm sure I'll have something out there like that. I thought it was a very powerful record. I would go about it a little differently, though. Q: Will you ever be working with Devin, T.M. or Terry Bozio again? A: I hope to have TM sing on some record some time, and I have tons of tapes of Terry just blazing away on them. Devin, well, it's a small world and I try to keep all my doors and option open. Q: Is "Sisters" recorded on a Universe or a Jem? Being a Universe owner myself, I find it particularly hard to play the section directly after the first 5/8 bar, especially when I try to reach the F on the low e-string with my thumb. A: Actually, that that was one of the few songs on Passion & Warfare that was recorded with a 6-string. Q: Are you going to release TAB for ALIEN LOVE SECRETS? A: Yes, it's out there and it's in the "Alien Love Secrets" songbook. Q: As an incoming student at Berklee, what classes and/or extracurricular activities would you recommend my devoting my time to and what shouldn't I devote my time to? A: What I found really great at Berklee was being in the presence of so many other musicians who were willing to play and share musical ideas. That's what I think you're gonna get the most out of Berklee. Jam as much as you can. We used to wait on line at 6:00 in the morning to get E Rooms to jam. Just play with as many guys as you can and write as much music as you can, and get it played because in the real world it's really, really, really hard to get your music played. I enjoyed Berklee and I hope you do, too. I would tell you to be careful with the food, and if you go to the back of the dining room, and look at the roof, I bet you'll still see some food and butter tabs that I threw up there. I was in room 849, I think. Q: What is your philosophy on speed playing? What are some exercises you use to increase your speed? A: If you really want to be a really fast player, start really slow and if you make one teeny-tiny mistake, stop and do everything again until you have it absolutely perfect. Don't give up and don't stop. Then, slowly increase your speed until you're playing flawlessly and incredibly fast. This can be boring, I warn you. And, it's not the be- all and -all on the instrument. It is a very useful tool when you're trying to express certain ideas, but it could be a rough neighborhood. Q: What gauge strings do you use A: They vary, but usually 9 to 42. 7th string=54 (Sometimes 53) Q: What kind of picks do you use? A: Anything I can get my fingers on. Q: What blues guitarist influenced you the most? A: John Lee Hooker and Roy Buchanan. Q: Do you know if you can play faster than Joe Satriani? A: We never raced. Q: Why won't Ibanez offer the Jem in Loch Ness green anymore? A: It's a mystery, just like the monster. Q: Have you tried playing a slide through a Roland GR-1? A: No, but I'll give it a try. Thank you for the idea. Q: Do you think Berklee was worth it? A: Yes, very much. Q: What happened to the fretboard you designed with the stepped frets that played a higher interval scale? A: I don't understand that one. Sorry. Q: What do you look for when you purchase a guitar (off the shelf from a guitar store)? If I went to a guitar shop to buy a guitar what should I look for (assume a heavy metal/instrumental playing style)? A: You've got to kind of feel it out. Guitars are very different and personal to each person. Some people like their action high with cable-like strings, so they have to fight the instrument. Some people like to be able to whisk across the strings without any effort. So, you must try it out and find out which guitar you have the most intimate relationship with, and then walk it along the beach and take it to dinner. It's rape time. Q: What was your first reaction when you learned that Frank had passed away? A: I had known that it was coming, but we're never really prepared for those types of things. On one hand, I was relieved because I knew that his suffering had ended and on the other hand, it felt like somebody had cut off my right arm. But, I'm far from over it.