INTRO INTERVIEW
With a ‘new’ album filled with vibrant and uplifting rock songs, Steve Vai talks to Jason Sidwell about classic rock influences, his songwriting and the art of guitar playing and recording.
GT: It’s an astounding and uplifting story about Gash and your involvement with him within the biker culture. Had you had any impression of his singing ability before asking him to the studio?
SV: Thanks, it is a compelling story. But the only idea that I had regarding John as a singer was a video tape he made for his dad of him singing a Frank Sinatra song. He could sound just like Sinatra. He had a smooth crooner type voice, but then every now and then I would hear him belt something out with a rock and roll edge and that’s when I started to think about getting him in the studio. I didn’t realise his rock and roll voice until I got him into the studio.
GT: From a timeline perspective, do you hear considerable similarities and differences between this and Sex And Religion as they’re both vocal driven albums?
SV: To me they are very different records with not much similarity - with perhaps the exception of the energy that they both create. The Gash record is very straight ahead with no pops and whistles, no filler, no dense compositional moments, no quirky and challenging solos. Sex And Religion had a lot of that stuff but this record is straight ahead.
GT:The strong energy here is reminiscent of your enthused two album work with Dave Lee Roth in the 80s. From a creative point of view, what do enjoy about music making and guitar arranging when focused on a vocal album? SV: If it’s a rock record with vocals then usually the focus is more on the rhythm playing and guitar solos. I get enthusiastic whenever I approach these things, but I might arrange things a bit differently on an instrumental album to leave space in the mix.
GT: Did you change amps to alter the level of grain/pixellation tion in your distorted tone?
SV: I used one amp and pretty much one sound for all the rhythm and lead parts. I actually don’t remember what amp I used, but that might be discovered later. I first approached the songs as demos so it went very quickly. I just put up the latest, boldest guitar tone I could dig up and most things were just one take. I think it took two weeks to make the whole record. It was a brisk pace but we captured a lot of magic.
GT:The closing Flowers Of Fire features acoustic guitar and distorted electric. How do you view theacoustic inrockmusic, andthechallenges of performing and mixing the two?
SV: I always feel as though the song will tell you what kind of guitar to use. Flowers Of Fire sounded as though it needed acoustic guitar for the sentiment of the track, so the track tells you what it needs. Recording and mixing acoustic guitars is very differ
