Hi this is Chris Wickett for musicradar.com live at LIMS 2009, I'm here with Steve Vai, Steve
thanks very much for chatting with us. Steve you're mainly a LIMS for your Alien Guitar
Secrets is it a show, is it a workshop what kind of thing can people expect from it?
>>Well it's more of a workshop, well a seminar and what I do is, I've always been interested
in teaching and speaking, very different than doing a show, but through the years when I
look back at my 30 year career, I notice certain moments where maybe I made some discoveries
about playing and how I've evolved musically and some of the things that have really made
sense to me about music and playing the instrument. And these are the things that I like to discuss,
even talk about the music business because I know a lot about the music business and
you know certain things that musicians I think need to hear that they just don't find everywhere,
how to protect yourself in the music business. Basically you can find out all the academics
of music and playing the guitar, music theory and stuff like that in a good book, or on
the internet or from a teacher but the things I talk about maybe they're a little more esoteric.
>>Ok, I was going to ask about, I've heard that, without wanting to give too much away
obviously, kind of essential strains, trying to find your musical identity on the instrument,
is there kind of like one central thing, idea that's most important you think throughout
that, that you'll be teaching people? >>Well yeah, there's various components, but
the first, the primary thing is that you have to want to do that I mean a lot of people
aren't concerned with being a unique instrumental player, or a unique singer or any of that
stuff they are more interested in just playing the stuff that they like or just stuff that sounds
like blues or jazz or whatever, you have to want to be able to be an individual or to
find your own, because everyone's individual, but you have to first have the desire to say
you know what I don't want to play like everybody, I want to play uniquely, I want to do things
that nobody's doing really and you have to make a conscious decision to want to do that.
And for some people that's their only decision theren't no other choice, there's no choice,
if there was a choice there'd be an option and they don't even have an option they're
just unique. But some people don't even allow their minds to venture into that.
>>Yeah, I was also going to, you mentioned talking about events that you think, experiences
where you've learnt things, I was going to mention the Martian Love Secrets thing that
you wrote about 20 years ago I think now for Guitar World I was wondering if your teachings
have changed over the years if you can? >>Well they haven't changed much in the sense
that things I'm approaching in Martian Love Secrets is alien to conventional guitar playing
you know? I mean you go to a teacher and they're like this is a scale and this is what it means
and this is whatever and you know when you're jamming or soloing you go here and you go
there the Martian Love Secrets was just like, what does the colour red sound like to you?
What it meant if you played the guitar and you were really angry, what would it mean, how would
you make the guitar sound if you were crying and many more. And those still apply because
they're more of an esoteric approach towards making musical expression and I can talk about those things
in the Alien Guitar Secrets class. >>I was going to ask about sound theroies
which was your last studio release in 2007 >>It was a live release.
>>Live release ok, and you played that with the metropol orchestra I was wondering what
kind of things you've got coming up release wise?
>>Well that was the last thing I did and that was a very thrilling project for me because
I got to work with an orchestra. I just finished editing and mixing a DVD that was captured
on my last tour with this rock band that I had that had 2 violin players in it, it was
very interesting because my music is kind of challenging sometimes and very layered but
it's accessible and fun. Bringing these violin players in really added a dimension and these
people, well every loves to see somebody play an instrument that's completely in control,
elite virtuosos that play music and that's what this video, this DVD has on it. I know
I'm known for being a shredder or something like that and at times I do that but there's reasons
why it was a sold out 3000 seater venue. >>Yeah sure and did you find you had to adapt
your guitar playing style to fit with an orchestra or was it the same whether they're backing or...?
>>Playing with an orchestra and a guitar it's not like even apples and oranges it's like
beef yoghurt, it's like really 2 different worlds, a guitar speaks as, an orchestra has
all these organic instruments that are created from wood and strings and a mallet hitting
a skin and a guitar is just like hairy and balls to the wall and all that sort of stuff and getting
those 2 worlds to work is very difficult but because I understand both worlds I do
my best and I understand how the timbers work and how it hits the air and how the frequencies
respond with each other which is why I do my best to orchestrate it so that it's as organic
as I can make it sound so it's more like bubblegum and yoghurt.
>>Better match. I was also going to ask you about another release that you've got, the
Naked Tracks I jsut wondered what the idea of that was to let people solo along to your
music. Are we going to hearing any of the products of this with people sending things
back to you? >>yeah sure, I hope so, I've already heard
a lot. Most of the time when I do something, it's not unlike a lot of other artists who
you think, gee I would really like to do this, maybe other people would like it? That's when
I designed the gem guitar, the 22 year old signature guitar, it was really based on things
that I liked and I thought you know I wonder if anyone else would like this? So when I
was doing the Naked Tracks, throughout my whole career I would mix my songs without
the lead guitar so that I can play to them, so it's fine, it's great it's really letting
go at the end of the day, or I would create loops and I would just solo endlessly within
these loops and it's so liberating you know so I thought hey, maybe other people
would enjoy this. So I took all of these and, do you have it around? Put it on display!
So really what it is is it's actually all of my records and actually more mixed without
the lead guitar so if you're into this kind of stuff, even if you're not into it, you
know my music, this is a great way to have something to play to that's more interesting than just
a drum beat and a groove, it has depth and serious arranging and stuff and it's fun.
>>And I guess it can take you out of your comfort zone if you're a player because normally
you're soloing along to your own stuff and your backing is your own style and you're
used to playing over it. >>Yeah and with these you can put your own
creative feel to it, you don't have to play what I play, although I've been seeing a lot
of Youtube videos of kids that do that, they play my songs over my tracks, it's very touching
and sometimes it's really great but that's one way to approach it. Another way is to
just throw out anything I did and see what you come up with and I've seen some of that stuff and that's
really good too. >>Well thank you Steve for talking with us
and have a fantastic show, workshop thing tomorrow, cheers.