Steve Vai Interview “Use Your Creativity with Courage and No Excuses”

hey everybody amber piatto on today's everything music I have my interview with Steve Vai from NAMM 2020 I interviewed Steve once via Skype on this channel very early on it as a matter of fact he was the first person I ever interviewed in my series entitled sounding off you should go check out that video so let's get right to it here's my interview with Steve I hear I'm so honored to be with mr. Steve Vai I've interviewed Steve before but only via Skype and we've met before one time at NAMM Lester just for two seconds and it's such a pleasure to get to sit with you in person here it's nice to see you too I've watched your site grow and I you first I think you're a brilliant musician thank you you know you've got incredible ears and you've got great insight into the kinds of things you're watching and a great radar for extraordinary talent and that's nice and your offering you know as that technology has evolved it makes learning so much more accessible to this but you got to have the right stuff delivered in an easy-to-understand applicable effective way and you're doing such a great job of that thank you and things like YouTube and and Wikipedia yes you know it's like you want to know about somebody you just go to Wikipedia this has made it so much easier for young musicians who are creative yep who can use their creativity with courage and no excuses and use the internet and things like YouTube to their advantage it's a it's a magnificent marketing tool I mean it takes the power out of out of the people who can wield massive magazines or marketing and it allows the artist to actually have the paladin to do it for free you make money you make money right that's really and I think of it that I was one of the when monetizing first came out it was very simple yeah and YouTube was generous enough to allow people to actually make its little bits here in there but I mean for me i we are monetized accounts I don't do anything and that's a couple of grand a month yeah don't do anything so as a musician these days you have to be very creative and look at all of your economic opportunities because that's they add up but the economic opportunity you got to find the balance between that and the creative opportunist because sometimes they don't actually walk hand in hand right whereas most people some people may believe that I'm gonna make a lot of money doing this yeah but the content has to be inspired it has to be something that is interesting and creative so you're still left to the one device regardless of where technology goes you're always going to be left to the one thing that is has been a constant and I don't believe will change I don't know how it could change but it's your own creativity right yeah Steve we've talked a little bit about this about where young players are now and that idea of kind of the possibilities of the guitar are really being explored things that you did you know back at the beginning of your and and how you imagine the evolution of the guitar and me and all the advancements that you made on the guitar just with even with your guitar designs everything about that which I should be showing us signature guitar that we're releasing live is it's called the Piazza and the jam is still in you know production until a production that's going anywhere and this is sort of like an evolution of the gem so tell me about this well I wanted to change the grip okay because uh why why because I can okay you know and I mean you can still pick it out that's different it's not as you know but it's it's a different design the monkey grip useful more kind of like 25 year old Steve I yeah you know quirky and you know and this is still quirky but it's got a little more of an elegance to it I think and this that I'm using a sustainiac here but it comes with another gold okay yeah and it's it's primarily a gem with the you know the edges are a little softened and softened in various areas in the back next Ricola way here yeah and this in combination with this new synergy module these are like the preamp sections of all the classic amps and there's no modeling I couldn't believe it for someone like myself when I saw that what synergy offers would be opportunity to have these modules that are authentic yeah real sounding and switchable I just thought really cuz skip the new gear comes along all the time you know and that I just thought that is it because now instead of having one amp they have many I'm not exactly sure how many they have so far but they're constantly coming out with new ones and licensing yes technology from others and the modules are so easy to switch out it takes two seconds there's just the two little thumb screws on yeah there's ice and they've got the tubes and yeah it's just fantastic so I'm in a really good place in that I get to work with all these incredible companies that are interested in you know kind of making stuff that suits my ear and I'm lucky enough that there's some other people that enjoy it how long did it take for you to to develop the modules Steve were you how many different prototypes did you go through well this went a little quicker because then like in the past and like when I was working with Carvin yeah you know we we started from Ground Zero and I studied amp electronics and you know I worked with their great designers and we came up with the legacy one which is perfect yeah I wanted to do it and then you know you continue to evolve you know and I like what I have but a little more yeah each time funny about it and so then we had the legacy 2 in the legacy 3 and you know when Carvin started to slow down I I wanted to develop something new yeah because it's just in your nature to do this yes see this module is the preamps yeah and but you have to have a power and I'm using this this is their synergy so all the stuff and this is my fractal so I've got all these amplifiers here preamps yeah and they go into they come out and they go into the axe effects which is that this is the axe - yep I have the axe three but this is my touring rig so I this is still in there yeah and then it comes out stereo and goes into the power amp and then you've got your stereo spread and then the front of the amp goes to pedal boards yeah if you want to do any stomp boxes and you're doing and you're using this for your effects the fractal I only use it for effects yeah I don't do mine yeah I use it I used to modeling in the studio occasionally - someone in your philosophy on that tell me about that why don't you do why don't use model I mean the first and foremost I can't get past the ladies you know I don't understand how anybody could make anything with latency in it right how that works because even if it's I can feel like a millisecond yeah and and it you just feel disconnected it's guy talking but now the words don't direct you know it's kind of like that it's weird yeah so I never could get past it but even when I have you never read for me throughout my career I'm you never really know what something sounds like until you take it to war you know what I mean when you get on the battlefield yeah meaning the stage there's so many other aspects of what's going on that you need to contend with like let's just talk about the room you know every room is different there's kickback so you've got all this buildup of sound that can back at you what the floor is made out of you know if it's wood or stone or rubber all of these things or carpet all these things change and sound drastically the PA the side fills and you're competing with what with what the guys are playing and if you've got someone like Jeremy Carlson is a drummer and you're anywhere between 30 feet of the kit you won't hear anything else right you know and so you know you've got all these cymbals and then you've got the bass frequencies and when you get on when you're sitting in your studio at home and you're playing around with you know modeled stuff this is what I have discovered and there's some great stuff yeah and and you know that sounds great you know it sounds kind of strong and powerful sort of you know but it sounds great okay so you bring it into rehearsal and you start playing well you get it on the stage actually and it just goes away yeah it does not it can't compete with the massive overtones of the rest of what's going on that's one of the things I've noticed and it always sounds a move it doesn't sound as robust like these are tombs and there's just a a breath because any piece of gear has a kind of personality in it so if I if I'm playing something that's very dynamic you know amplifiers are going to pick it up a certain way yeah you know and those dynamics can get really flattened out and freeze-dried when it goes through the digital process yeah you know and I think that might have to do with you know what I'm hearing but having said that there's companies that are still continuing and working really hard and making great strides in developing yeah better converters you know so who knows it might you know maybe one day everybody's throwing out their turntables right so I'm not I'm not rigid yeah you know I'm like whatever comes along that feels and sounds right and a lot of that comes to me from like Thomas my guitar tack up you know he's constantly bringing me stuff you know and that's how I know the outside world yeah so Thomas and my kids you know as you know that's how you hear a lot of that amazing news that's right you know so I'm not opposed to anything that comes along and I would never want to you know dishearten somebody that's into digital gear and sitting on the fence yeah you have to find what's right here for some people that that's engineer that's remodeling sound might be just perfect yep this sort of teardrop it's called a pilgrim okay you know and it's got it's also like the yin and yang yeah you would not believe how long it took me how crazy I went just trying to find the exact perfect angle and relationship between these two things oh I believe I got the illustration programs and and then you know what it's like the one you when your nail oh yeah it's just like there it is yeah there it is and I don't know what it is about this guitar to me it's just so gorgeous to get it's like I keep it it's in this thing I've got the there's the green there's gold there's pink and then there's white and the colored ones are just for this year and we still you know they still have the gem yes that's good but every time I walk past this in my house I just I just sit in the studio and I just look at what is it about that guitar how long we've been working on that just um probably about a month now okay oh you mean like no in the end in development three years three years okay but it's you know it's a taste you know I'm not I've never been one for like you know they like the blood and the crossbones yeah skull isn't stuff like that it's fine I've got some jackets and stuff like that but I just I don't know why but I've always been into more the romantic kind of thing you know and this is a kind of an away it's a romantic kind of looking instrument Steve this is really an honor I really appreciate it yes for me too thank you so much for for everything and yeah you're doing great stuff thank you thank you really appreciate it that's all for now I'd like to thank Steve for being my guest today remember to subscribe here to my everything music YouTube channel if you're first-time viewer don't forget to ring the bell for justed in the Beato book or anything in my store that's how i support the channel go to my website at www.tanahoy.com and you watch the introduction video and if you want to support the channel even more think about becoming a member of the Beato club thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 306,572

Keywords: rick beato, everything music, rick, beato, music, music theory, music production, education, steve vai, music business, guitar craft, steve vai (musical artist), steve vai pia, steve vai interview, steve vai namm 2020, music business 2020, independent artist marketing, independent artist how to promote your music, Music Business, Creativity, Music Promotion, music promotion channels on youtube, steve vai synergy amps, ibanez steve vai, ibanez jem, ibanez pia

Id: KsXuZai5NPI

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 21 2020