The Captain Meets Steve Vai

hey guys it's the captain here you're watching Anderson's TV thanks for tuning in my guest today is none other than Steve by guitar master in the UK touring sold-out shows it's a massive honor to meet you thank you and as I was kind of saying before I like these kind of interviews to just be like two guys that are just going hey what are just two guys to blow know exactly so take take it you know I know you've bought up in New York Italian family yeah and interestingly not a not a massively musical family no no how has this musical creative genius kind of been born out of that environment wait you know that's you'd probably have to ask somebody else about that but it is kind of interesting that nobody in my entire family on either side yeah all the way as far back as we can kind of trace was a musician Mike my great great grandfather on my mother's side played the violin and he had size 13 feet in really large hands just like me it's the closest we could find you know that's mad so but were they into music - you remember growing up in your household always having the radio on and hearing well stuff yeah you know I was so fortunate because I have two brothers and two sisters and three of them are older than me and they were always kind of that's how I heard that's how you hear yeah you know it's what your your siblings are listening to and my folks did have a record collection but it was like they had these comedy records and these like polka records with like an accordion and stuff so like all good long island Italian boys and I was a little kid I played accordion you know but there was one record that they had that really captured me very very deeply and that was the original soundtrack from West Side Story okay that really hit hard because the movie itself was incredible yeah and it had all this drama it had a story and it had historical music I mean the melody Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim and when you're a kid and you're watching that the music is so beautiful you know that's when I decided I wanted to be a composer we have write music yeah and I studied that but then my sister came home with Led Zeppelin when I was 12 years old she came home with Led Zeppelin - yes and that was it as soon as I heard that you know it's like haha Rico yeah attention and that's when I said I'm not gonna play the guitar I said so now of course you've got one of those like one a million kind of paths cross where you know by the time you're in your teens you're getting lessons from Joe Satriani I mean it's just like well not before I was a teenager really so I started when I was 12 right you know Joe lived in the Saint we live in the same town basically went the same school and he was about four years older than me and he was always great I mean his thing he was always great and who taught him then I was like this he's a natural no Joe Joe was just naturally musical from head to foot right and he he took lessons but not necessarily guitar lessons yeah I took lessons from like Lennie Tristano and okay people like that but he was just a natural you know one of the things that and I took lessons from him for like three years yeah he's not like four years older than me but when you're 12 yes okay that's 15 or 16 is like a god yeah especially if they can play Led Zeppelin and Joe completely could play anything you know but one of the great advantages that both he and I had was a very inspired music teacher in our high school right so we learn music theory and I he and he taught me how to compose and I was writing for the high school orchestra yeah but I didn't I wasn't really applying it to the guitar I didn't really make that connection until I started taking lessons from Joe yeah and when I started with Joe I didn't know how to play the guitar at all oh really yeah no so that's not because I know I had strings and a guitar and I didn't even know how to put the string I thought he was like taking you from a level and no zero man and so I mean I always loved just what was your first guitar you know dear my life man it was a Tesco Dell raid you remember though yes I think just great they they like the very expensive-looking cheapest guitar and why does they have like these little there was a little body and they had like three pickups yeah you see something with three pickups and you're like and all these switches yes and but they not a whammy bar man and that was like it as soon as I saw that I say yes but that's gonna be my arm with you laughs I might end up to maximum and that's right well what I did back then I didn't have an amplifier I figured out a way to hook up my sister's power amp this power amplifier from her stereo yeah two speakers and I just kept blowing them I've been work for like three days and it all suddenly and just when they were burning out is when they really sounded good to you let me use that technique on a like met like a van Halen start you know what the sound we need for this reckless my sister's old high five just as it's about to get blown up and it never sounded bad enough to be good so what was the what was the light bulb moment or the offer when you thought I'm gonna make a career out this was it the was it the the zapper moment or had you sort of prior to that was it quite clear in your mind that this was how your life was going to be guitar player well I think when you're that age you're not thinking about the rest of your life you know what I mean you're just thinking about what is exciting to me right now yeah and I I've been asked that question and I've searched myself for a particular time when I thought I made a decision but I never did right I never made a decision to be a musician I always just felt I like this I really like this other things were interesting but this this was like lightning you know just listening to music the way it made me feel and playing it and and the guitar was just such a mmm delicious instrument you know and every time I would pick it up and I couldn't play something and then I'd practice it and all of a sudden I could play it mm-hmm this is like it was addictive yeah you know it's the feeling of accomplishment of you know it didn't matter if you were well-known in your town or liked or if you were considered a geek or whatever anybody may have thought when you know and I I had a lot you know I was friends I had a lot of friends and stuff but when I was playing the guitar and I was achieving little little things every every little achievement was like this feeling of just appreciation and and just excitement so that becomes addictive and that became I became very myopic matted you know everything else just went away I guess it's akin to like maybe kids these days that get addicted to video games yeah you know it's kind of like it's time you my daughter my little five-year-old daughter she has a game on an iPad and it's very very quick and easy for her to get like the five stars in a game and it worries me slightly that I know a musical instrument will never give that gratification that fast she will never get she will never be able to like three minutes into a video game go down you have five stars and I what I do worry that there's a that we as a generation growing up now that just that just will not have the the willpower to I don't know if you even you know I don't know if you've seen because you need well yeah I mean I imagine that two boys yeah and they're Millennials basically and I wouldn't worry because in many ways and this is just my perspective that my kids are a lot smarter than me they're sharper they think quicker they move quicker their peripheral is there just don't you know they're aware and of course there's certain things that you just don't you can't embrace until you have life experience but they there's just different brain muscles that develop in every generation and we always think that it's getting worse but it just lasts human nature because yeah we always like back fir yeah glory days of our youth in it yeah like for me they'll never be a band as good as queen or Led Zeppelin you know a nice play though yeah that's true I'm sorry young people but yeah just true that's true sorry you'll never know and when I play that stuff my my kids they're like you know I remember but when they were young yeah because they're like 26 and yeah 29 now and when they were young I would like can't wait them might well my kids are like young I'm gonna get all the I bought all the write all the favorite my favorite records when I was a kidding the Ziggy Stardust billion dollar babies Oh cold Queen Led Zeppelin deep purple you know jethro tull all this stuff and I'm playing it for them and they're like yeah dad it sounds okay but it sounds old I mean and then the interesting thing is yeah my son they have great taste of music in a sense and very discerning yeah you know and they I started getting educated through them because then they were bringing home all the music it wasn't my parents anymore that I was or my sisters or you know it was my kids and that's how I kept I was able to keep up with what was relevant in the metal fields because my one son Julian is like I did like this heavy heavy music you know and Fire is into like serious techno and they they're very good and I listened to this stuff and they're very discerning you know so that's it's kind of like the times tables changed that's cool man now obviously it's fair to say you lived through you know an unbelievable period of like excess guitar hair rock metal you know that they really Rock the white snake which you know now I I've been watching interviews of you over the last couple of days just kind of let's try and work this guy out and you always seem to be the one that was a bit more serious in though you know you always come across as the kind of slightly more serious one in those interviews do you did you feel even back then I don't know if this is where I'm gonna be fulfilled doing this kind of stuff do I need to just be more I don't know serious about the craft or no I I experienced the excess when it was appropriate to experience it and then I moved on from it but I tell you I mean there was nothing I mean I don't know what how people tour now and rock bands you know may seem serious right you know back then man it like what Dave Roth there's nothing like it I mean I can't I can tell you I tell people some people and and it sounds unbelievable what went on I mean it was just fantastic I was more of an observer right though you know I mean I never you know when you're in a situation like that you're selling out arenas around the world and you're virtually famous overnight you know and selling tons of Records and and people change around you you know and that's okay you know I get it but you you have access to money drugs all kinds of sex anything you're interested in you can it's just there and on tour with Dave it was there in like exponentially I mean I can't so you can say that in the yeah so it has attendant but I saw as I was going through it I knew that it was a fun game so to speak yeah I never I wasn't I didn't do drugs I did I was I was in a relationship and you know I didn't I wasn't promiscuous in that way really and and I didn't really I liked I liked the money yeah but I don't I don't it never had a never bought fancy cars or stuff like that you know and so it was really great yeah because I didn't get sucked into it yeah it was like a colourful fly on the wall and I knew instinctually that it was gonna pass yeah what are you gonna do it look if it passes you know so I really embraced it and loved it but there was also a particular type of music that I knew was in me that was eventually going to have to come out yeah and so that's when after the day of rock thing and I did passion and warfare and you know because was that a I don't get the sense that that was about you saying I want to be center stage here I just got the sense it was a creative stylistic thing was just saying I need I need to do this kind of music rather than yeah just you know be the crazy you know stamp man on stage with David Lee Roth or yeah so is that I really enjoyed all that stuff you know like with Dave Roth and Whitesnake and Alcatraz and Frank Zappa all these kinds of things I did in the Crossroads movie walls they were great gigs yeah but there was an instinctual kind of music that I knew was inside of me that I it's not uncommon you know people have visions but a lot of times those visions for their creative potential is cut off because of their own thoughts basically you know that's the one thing that will kind of steer them away but when I the interesting thing when I sat down to do well even my first solo record flexible which very quirky kind of peculiar record I had no expectations I I wasn't I didn't think like you know this I have to be successful at this or who's my audience is this radio-friendly what who's what are people gonna think about it there was none of that yeah because I just thought having a career in the music business was just off of my radar I just wanted to be a musician I just loved playing the guitar and recording and listening to this crazy music that that was the the the gist you know and everything came from that you know everything I kind of it's weird you know it's like my whole career is just seems to continue to be handed to me on a silver platter I don't have to do anything except what I'm what I like what I really love of course it's challenge you know stuff like that but then when it came time to do passion and warfare I I actually thought that was the end of my career because I just I just got finished of like four years of intense touring and recording with Roth and Whitesnake and selling out arenas and stadiums around the world and being on the cover of all the magazines winning all the awards and I thought I'm not gonna chase that because it's a part of me but it's not really hmm Who I am musically it sparked an enjoyable part so when I sat down to do passion warfare I didn't think there'd be any real audience for this kind of music but the creative impulse was so strong that it trumped any fears of you know failing or not being accepted or I had no expectations for it I actually made the caught conscious thought that okay you're leaving all of the big rock star stuff it was great and it was fun and but it's not it's kind of I didn't want to have to sustain that you know I just wanted to do this and surprise surprise well it's I think that yeah I found it quite I've never realized I'd never realized how much sort of I don't want to call it life coaching but sort of you know you you have quite an inspirational attitude nothing to do musically just about really understanding in life what is it that that flicks your switch and makes you excited and fulfills some inner satisfaction fulfillment and to try to make that your sort of life goal to try and yeah feel as much of your life with that as possible well I I feel that everybody has the potential to do that you know because everybody you're your biggest obstacle is your own ego you know it since its insidious you don't really even know that it's what it's doing because there's so many things that people do that they enjoy that they're like for instance almost everybody has something that they do that when they're doing it they just really they enjoy it there's no fear in it there's no fear of failure or being judged there's no concerns about how they're gonna do it or it's just this free-flowing they see it and and it and it feels natural to them and and it could be the simplest thing simplest little thing maybe it's maybe it's playing a guitar maybe it's cooking maybe it's organizing things maybe it's numbers but it could be anything and if you ask yourself what that is you'll start to see it and if you can find a way to make a living out of it which you is absolutely possible you'll have a happy life you know because you'll be doing what you really enjoy and the success is a consequence of doing what you enjoy so that's a the thing that a lot of I meet a lot of young musicians and they kind of feel that they have a goal to be successful and until they have the you know all of the successful COO Tremont's the millions of dollars the fame the adulation the Grammys the magazine you know they then they'll then they'll be happy you know but really I don't know I I don't know anybody that has really had a substantial impact or career in any business that didn't find a great enjoyment in what they did and if they were the the miserable son of a that some people can be then they fought the whole way and you know to get to a particular point and marched over anything in the way and when they got there they're more miserable than ever because it's not satisfying do you do you think that youth particularly had to deal with that cuz I know you you you've said on record before that you know you've had depression sort of issues as such do you think it's been particularly important for you to understand that I come from a family my father suffers with depression as well and him that cost him marriage and all kinds of stuff you know back in a time when it wasn't diagnosed and he was just beautiful yeah and everyone say what are you got this successful business you've got money you got kids why and none of that matters come on snap out of it snap out of it yeah and and we all know now that but uncertainly lifestyle physical fitness healthy living has yeah has helped massively more than drugs or yeah yeah I thought I mean you know recreation I mean as in fun yeah sure so but I can imagine if it is a if it is a state of mind it must have been quite helpful for you quite therapeutic for you to be able to just be able to pick your life apart and go I understand what I need to surround myself with to just be happy yeah well you're close right and at least this is my experience you know I mean suffering mental anguish is your best spiritual teacher because I was fortunate because when I was this happened when I was young like 20 between the ages of 21 and 20 to 20 and I had a great gig I was playing with Frank and you know what's happened everything was going great but you you can't it's inexplicable men you know that kind of mental depression and it's that at that time in 1982 it I didn't know anything about it I didn't know what what it meant or I thought I was losing my mind and that's not uncommon especially at that age when your because I was intense man you know really just intense kind of a person you know perfectionist oh well just did you think or just just nothing's ever good enough probably probably all ego yeah nothing's good I'm not good enough you know and everything so you create this you know all's that depression is is the quality of the thoughts in your own head that's what it is people say it's a medical condition I don't know but I know for me what when I started to start looking into myself I started to well there was this metaphysical bookstore in Hollywood called the Bodhi tree and they had these books on spirituality and have everything you know mmm mmm and I remember I found this book on what's called the magic in your mind and it was the first thing time that I ever read anything that pointed to the fact that it's you it's it's the thoughts you're choosing to think and you had said surrounding yourself with things that will be calming it doesn't really work that way you know whatever you're surrounding yourself with whatever you see yourself surrounded by is actually a reflection of what's going on inside of you in a sense but I was very fortunate because I started to find things that brought me to an understanding that what stress is and what depression is it's it's the thoughts in your head that you're choosing to focus on because you believe that they're true just not they're just thoughts in your head right and the deliberate action of just changing your perspective little by little yeah and you can't that's the thing is you just you say to somebody snap out of it it doesn't mean anything of them when they're in that state because you can't snap out of it but you can you can find other ways other thoughts to think about to focus on that then change your perspective a little bit and that that's what helped me musically what how did it affect you know if we look at your catalogue of work yeah there must be albums that you've done during periods where you went in a great place and their albums that you've done when assuming presumably you are feeling in a great place what is it what does it do to the sort of create is it like both work because they both inspire something to come out whether it's anger or sadness or happiness and joy you know just does it still yeah and make you make good music if that makes it well like I say an artistic person goes through changes in their in their life in their personal life and that's reflected in their work you know before I made my first record and I was writing a lot of music and ricourt starting to record and learn how to read Kord this one I was going through a dark stage and the music was incredibly dark not dark heavy like apple yeah I mean dark dark you know and one of the things I realized is whatever you focus on you create more of it's so simple there's no debating that you're not exercising your demons by entertaining them you're inviting them into your life more so I just started going deeper and deeper into this darkness because the and and using the music as an excuse to prove my pain so silly yeah I say it's silly but not if it's something if you're going through that it's part of the process it's fine yeah but whatever you focus on you create more of it's so simple so the more I was getting darker and darker the darker and darker until finally it just becomes so painful and so heavy that something has to give there has there's a crack that the ego has a built-in self-destruct mechanism and it's called intense suffering and then it's funny that I'm sitting here tempted like surrounded by guitars and stuff and I'm talking about this stuff but it's fine maybe it'll be helpful so what happened was I started to make that because then when you're at the bottom you're desperate yeah and you're looking for any little bit of light you know that's what's when you know true humility you know and you have to be like completely open and and being at the bottom sometimes for a lot of people finally they surrender it's about surrendering and saying I don't know anything I need help what and it's an inner request it has to be a sincere alignment of a wanting help in some you know you have to ask for help inside of yourself yeah and then it just starts showing up it just starts showing that's the way I think things work and I believe and then I started to write the music for flexible now if you've ever heard flex my first record it's like it sounds like a little kid wrote it you know it's like completely innocent and it has this naivete in it and it's quirky and I mean it was my cathartic process because then I was focusing on this music that was more uplifting so you asked me what about the rest of my career like I've never been back there oh well that's great no no I mean I I know yeah because it it I mean of course there's times where you know you get frustrated or you get and and then there'll be little periods of depression but not you know not like like that and I don't strive to play emotionally right I strive to play connected it's much deeper than emotionally much more effective much more powerful because its basis is joy you know it's it's an outpouring of joy in a sense you know and when you're connected to something that you do you can see it but sports players if you watch the Olympics those people are just connected they're present intensely present and that that's what I work on now you know what when and that's what I meant about I have a tendency to go on and on you know I've got I wanted to sort of you always like to try and get to know the person and we can talk about you know what are your favorite plectrums and everything so many interviews right yeah and it's it's cool and I'm sure you know it's fine fine I'll talk about anything I did think when you're trying to you know you've written what would you say like 80 90 percent of your your work is instrumental and then their this vocal maybe but you know 67 so do you find it I guess you know if you want to convey an emotion within a song with lyrics yeah you just write down whatever that however you're feeling and you express it words but you're you know when you're writing it do you already know sort of at the beginning of the process right this one's going to be an instrumental or no this one's probably going to have a vocal on it and and when you are going sort of full instrumental what is it that you're you know III I find it amazing how people are sort of translating what what am I thinking like even the simplest thing about naming a song that's an instrumental because it's yeah you know most songs are named after a line that's in the yeah result sure in it so how do you well I don't think there's any wrong way you know and sometimes this sometimes I know immediately if it's if I if it's gonna be an instrumental or if it's gonna be a vocal song and sometimes I don't there's this point where I'll get to where I try to let the song tell me what it is and sometimes I don't know until it's finished so I'm like because there's the melody is so nice I may want to put vocals to it or I may want like to do it on the guitar so I don't allow myself to think that anything is right or wrong it just is and that's so much easier when you're working it's just this is the way and and that when you when you're connected your instincts know you're in stand everybody has instincts and your instincts can never they will never deceive you if you have access to them and the only thing that obscures your instincts is your ego so if I can find a moment of stillness when I listen to a piece of music it tells me what it needs it tells me everything it'll tell you the melody what the melody is you know it'll tell you the name and there's so there's no rules because you can it's it's there's just no rules you can write a song about anything you can somebody can you can find inspiration in a phrase that somebody says or a dream you had or you know what you ate for breakfast I know it could be anything let's go most of the time it's about relationships you know well yeah some form of emotion isn't it and so the the the album when you did the collaboration with them in town was that you know this car for me thinks in the back you know are you going you know what if I just did a album where this singing on every tune it'll just be more what mainstream and successful and if I stay instrumental or or was that just you know he's a super cool dude and it was just a fun opportunity to do you know well maybe there was some of that in there after I had finished passion and warfare and it was an instrumental record I I couldn't really see how I could go out and tour on that and if I really wanted to be a frontman you know like standing in the front I like kind of being on the side and having somebody in the front so end plus there was a movement happening there was this heavy heavy metal like you know that kind of really aggressive kind of thing was starting to happen and when I met Devon he was really submerged in that stuff and so a lot of the heaviness came from his influence too but yeah there was something that was also saying you'll probably have more success if you have a lead singer and you have a band so that that was the that it never really registered it was more of an agenda mm-hmm than something like passion and warfare having said that I liked do it I liked the record people think I don't like that record that's great right no matter of fact is one of my best-selling back catalogue right it was kind of it was before a lot of that heavy you know the metal movement that that dark that deep that yeah intense metals but it was it had a twist the quirky yeah musical kind of twist that I put on things but no it was it was just one of those phases yeah but then after it I just wanted to take a different direction you know I didn't I just didn't I wasn't so focused on song oriented commercial kind of things just that there's the critical acclaim or reaction you know the whether it's negative or positivity does that affect you heavily or are you quite able to just you know as long as you're happy with the record it's sort of water off a duck's back let people think well it's my perspective on that has changed through the years you know when you're young anything that anybody says well at least for me it it has an effect on you especially when the internet came out and people could now you know write what they're thinking and you know you could work a year and a half on a record and give it your best shot and feel really good about it and put it out there and all of a sudden you know welcome to our world yeah yeah and then you've got somebody this is this is the worst piece of I've ever heard in my life you know and you believe it you're like what are they talking about it's like some fifteen-year-old kid in the Midwest that jerks off to internet porn seven times a day then you know has that has an opinion yeah that has an also a god complex and you're taking it seriously yeah you know so and plus I've probably been the most criticized guitar player in the world because I was at the you know at the pinnacle of that shred movement when it first kind of really came out me and my peers so to speak and then when the 90s came and grunge hit like all of it all the rock stars just decapitated yeah so anything that was everything that was wrong about playing the guitar they'd point that's a bad that's a bad you know because it was a different thing it did get by the end of the 80s I learned to play a guitar in the 80s I guess I'm just trying to work on my own age now to mid 80s onwards and it's quite it was quite daunting this idea that you you would go write I love to play the guitar it's like who's out there well it's just a tree audience devian and there's Mark Knopfler and then there's you know and it's and the list time was was you know there was a quite a few guitar heroes at that yeah and you're going I've just learnt my first chord and you're going I am so yeah people is away from being this people go were just fatigued with the idea of how to be able to play like that to be considered yeah I totally get it so in a way when when whether it was Nirvana or Oasis or whatever you know came along it was just like oh okay actually I can I don't have to be able to do that yeah I get it so Mike one thing that you might have noticed also was there's this there's this evolutionary impulse in the human spirit to continue to evolve all you know in any field so there's a there was a whole slew during the nineties when all that grunge was happening there was also this underground movement of players that still wanted to play the hell out of their instrument yeah so they they were and they were coming into the world and seeing guys like Yngwie and of course you know and Edward and Joe and myself and and saying okay that's where I have to start yeah you know that's where I start which is the way it works you know we all stand on the shoulders of those that come before us anyway and then Bay now they took it to a different level and then people take I mean I see players now that like that shred and I'm just like I mean I know what they're doing but it's not very appealing to me yeah it's fascinating and I treat you know I can respect it but no no I like men with eye I'm loving the other one of it one of the questions that I I wrote down is because I I would love to know honestly during the whole g3 honestly now he wants me to be honest during the g3 thing how competitive did it get you know you're on stage and I don't know whether you're gonna you know you're gonna go 2nd or 3rd or whatever like that and listen if to anybody if anybody ever tells you that they don't compete or you know they're wrong or they they're just not able to see they there's always something even if it's you know if there's this much space there's this much even if there's that much because sometimes there's that much in people you know what I mean but with g3 it's it was it's kind of different because Joe's like my father and it's you know like my mentor my buddy yeah and I've always looked up to him but still in me there was the feeling that you got to keep up here by you know you got to make sure that you're delivering yeah the best you can because the serious business you know what I think I mean it wasn't but it was you know but the thing that I noticed was more prevalent in my focus was when you're surrounded by these mountains yeah you know these musical Giants who are at the top of their game and the reason they're on that stage is because they have something unique to offer yeah you don't compete with them because it's foolish you don't compete with Yngwie Malmsteen to try to play faster or whatever you know you don't compete with joe satriani to try to be what joe is you know and that's not what you're there for but what you do compete what you do find yourself competing with is your own potential okay because they push you they push you to be yeah the very best that you can be you have to and you have to be able to rise to that occasion and that's the great thing about you know a g3 tour or generation ax tour that is a very diplomatic answer and when we get in by mounting on here I will ask him the same thing [Laughter] consciousness let me tell you something go on in Baker could care less about what anybody's do I mean as far as competing I I mean I've read mine yeah we do the generation ax tour and we have so much fun yeah so much fun and we play together we do this section of the show where would you know we trade on Blackstar and he is perhaps the most confident guitar player I know more is more yeah and more as I'm conscious on time because I know we've got it we've got a super exciting sold-out clinic to go do tonight we've got again soundcheck so I got a couple more I do want to do a quick kind of like you know okay I have as much time as you say that one of my other sort of you know dilemma questions I suppose is there was an article written last year I think it was George Grune wrote the article about the guitar is dead and I kind of I think I kicked back on that and I could kind of see a little bit why someone like George would write that you know he's been in the round a long time and you know he's perhaps seeing it from a different perspective but there is a you know I think you can look at the guitar and go well it's a finite number of notes with you know it isn't the you know with potentially a generation of people coming into it that may not you know we have so many other distractions as they're growing under they may not fail in they want to input the time to master it and I guess life says things change anyway you know I mean it's like nothing else really sustains itself forever in terms of thank God exactly so I guess my quite you know do you have you ever thought perhaps doesn't bother you but you know I wondered it do you think about you know do you think the guitar it's kind of had its heyday do you think it's or do you think there's still a tons of new and exciting things to explore something found me yet well the correct answer is I don't know of course but when I look back at history it's very obvious to see that there's always these evolutions evolution and consciousness evolution and that that just spreads itself out into evolution and technology and business and I mean there's kids now they can't remember what it was like without a cell phone you know and it's gonna happen on the guitar it's just gonna be different than before do you know what I mean it'll just be different and those who were there when it happened before will think it'll never be as good but there's kids being born into the world now that have refined tools there's paradigm shifts that happen you know on the planet where things just you know hook and then there's a different perspective and a different set of tools for instance you your very own London Jacob Collier do you know this kid yeah you mentioned Jacob I'm dead anything I check it is absolutely monster plastic yeah absolute phenomenon amazing to watch it's there's a connection now is he like a virtuoso guitar player not like you would expect if I say check him out you you're not gonna go see somebody he just is completely musical from head to foot in a way that I have you don't you just don't see yeah and his joyous outpouring of music is simple and and powerful and its unique but it's not like anybody would have expected before you see then there's people like that that are starting to come into the world and there's their tools are just different it's just natural evolution and they're using technology in ways that we just can't imagine so all bets are off on what's gonna happen that you might think would happen a particular way yeah but there will absolutely I believe there will absolutely be an evolution yeah that's quite a except one person to come along yeah and that's the it's the who knows it I guess people were probably sitting around in in the 1950s and then Elvis Presley came along more people that were Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin Jimi Hendrix you know or in all different fields you know Stevie Wonder you know and and and Jacob Collier well there you go Jacob no pressure that we just lifted up and others too you know I'm sure well it so sports and things like that okay sorry let's do gear let's lick all right let's do gear now it's kind of weird isn't it because because this isn't new is it as such 32 years old brother I mean well they get the design is old yes yes but and I mean that is this is so part of the guitar establishment now yeah that I think that people actually forget that you as a young guitar player I went to Ibanez and said I've got some ideas and yeah I mean what was back in the day I mean to dive in it were I've been it's like yeah cool let's work together on where they like who Steve who no no no what happened was I had when I had joined Dave's band I wanted to real it Dave Roth I wanted to have a guitar that was more specific to some of the idiosyncrasies of the way I play you know yeah so I I just took you know I took a hunk of wood now what does this music store well I I mean I didn't take a hunk of wood they had some bodies and I reshaped it a bit and there was just some simple things that were interesting to me that I just weren't available at the time the one thing that was available was when Edward put the humbucker on a strat style that was like the first real super strat mhm and of course there's gonna be people that see them say no there was a I don't know this is what I remember yeah okay yeah so you've been on youtube before haven't you yeah okay and you know what sometimes I'll say something I'll be wrong and somebody will research it I'll read it oh okay now I know yeah but most of the time is you know anyway so that there was a couple of things I wanted like I love the way I do I have a whammy bar you don't have a whammy bar on this we've got whammy bar and I wanted 24 frets very rare at the time you know and I you know as if by magic see that on your father's ears we like that it's out a different guitars alright so 550 so should be the same well it's enough for them it's an image of things okay so you've got these scalloped frets that idea actually came from billy sham okay you know cuz you get off these things i didn't claim that won them before you did you did he frets was were common oh really yeah he got it i applied in a way I think from Ritchie Blackmore who played their whole neck and as Yngwie says you know when you have a when you have a scalloped neck man you could really grab the note by the balls one of the things I noticed when you play a strata or a Les Paul was or any guitar most guitars they would give you these high frets but you could never reach them because they the body was in the way yeah I'm like duh what is that you know it's just not practical yeah so I made the cut away so it perfectly fits my hand and then the body shape you know I did I wanted I liked the week this the sexiness of women to our looks and strats always looked a little pedestrian this is more sexy it's a great way at first yeah this is better you know you they're like utilitarian like this is like this is like a porno nice round shape so then I the pickup configuration was unique at the time - yeah because I wanted the double coils humbuckers or the you know the real fat sound cuz single coils um tonight hated that sound scratchy thin yeah but I did like that sound when you had two single coil pickups yeah so we designed this trick up selector to split the coil when you're in the middle position this the the in-between pickups so you get two single coils that was unique that was a unique design yeah that's what they tell me for me it was just like this makes sense yeah you know and I couldn't understand why when you vibrated a note that was about as high as you're gonna get you know and I'm like I want this I want to go you know you know I want that note Bend so I was just looking at the guitar and I saw that the wood that was in the way was what was stopping the bridge from so I took the hammer and a screwdriver just as a check splinters all over me on this 59 strap or something that's really I didn't care about any of that stuff either and next thing you know you know you know and you can do that you know they couldn't know guitars to do that back then that met was because of the Floyd yeah but I believe it was the first real serious floating yeah and a couple other little things like you know the input Jack if you look at like strats and yeah I suppose they just don't make sense because you step on the cable and they pull out so I just it's just a stupid simple design yeah you know and now you you won't have it fall out and when I had designed this guitar it was already done you know I I had had this little shop in Hollywood make me these guitars and then when I joined Dave's been a lot of the companies wanted to endorse you they they wanted me to endorse them so and I didn't really wasn't crazy about the idea of an endorsement so I sent the guitar out to all the people that were interested and inevitably I got back their guitar with my name on it which I hadn't understand except for Ibanez they gave me the perfect instrument and in three weeks and incredible quality and I just thought this is fantastic you know and then they said well we want to we want to make it for other people and I thought well it's kind of odd because I don't know if any everybody would want these little things you know it's all mr. Steve oh I think you're wrong and I thought okay but you know what they are pretty innovative in a sense some of the designs so I wanted to do at least one thing that I knew nobody would would copy yeah because there's two quirky and weird and I just did because when when I went to I but I was so I was so pretentious you know at that period I was starting to get into this it we were talking about like the depression and yeah it's coming out of that mental of a suddenly you're famous and the comes in the back door and you're starting to think you're the chosen one and you know and I start at least that was for me the ego started getting a little out of control so I forgot where I was going with this but so then at some point oh I know at some point I decided to just put the seventh string on it of course you know and they would they the the RG they were making the rgo I know huh Ibanez and I said I want to introduce these guitars in these dayglo colors and I want to put a monkey grip in it and they would just like this guy's crazy they thought that guitar was gonna just fail and so did I I didn't you know who's gonna want you know and surprise surprise but the RG is it's a gem basically without the handle and it it it's staggering you know it's like the second or third best-selling guitar it's the shape isn't it I mean it's that once you go fast it's it's I mean what's rock you know it's got a edge yeah but even that's changing these days you know with contemporary guitar designs and that's fine and we have I don't I can't really mention it yet well I mean it's interesting that you're sort of alluding that that you know of course in the last maybe five years a guitar that the conventional guitar design has been challenged greatly by brands like Stromberg and that's Hosanna bass these new sort of you know vibe where all of a sudden you go and well there's no headstock and there's the the it's much less economic not oh yeah very much let's go some really cool is changing yeah I think again I think everybody grows up with it but for me for me I would be lying to myself and I probably did spend at least two or three years as a guitar player lying to myself about what really drove me to want to own a certain guitar and I'm very very comfortable now with this idea that it's like 90% what it looks like and 10% as long as it kind of roughly yesterday right line of cool with and for you know for a long time you know yeah for good two or three years I was like no no I'm not going to admit that's myself but it's all nationality in it and then you know I'm just I just accept I'm vain yeah well the cool thing about a guitar is you could make it a personal choice and you could decorate in a particular way and do all these weird things and I I have to say I really like some of the new designs like for instance the John Petrucci earning more guitar oh that that's like a beautiful machine you know and one that I saw recently I was doing a gig with Devin Devin Townsend and he has a a signature guitar that is just yeah badass and it does it can make something like like this looked dated but how can it not didn't yeah one day everything is gonna look dated in a sense these things do but this is all they don't they they ya know this is like it's at this point it's classic yeah cuz it's I think they say when something's 25 years old it becomes clay this is like it's selling more now than ever crazy it's crazy it's kind of crazy I look at my royalties in the last quarter of two quarters ago it was the largest sale in the history of the guitar and it's it's the gift that keeps giving holiday about it's like I mean in the same way you know I got the chance to have to talk to John Petrucci on the you know in here last year and there's a you reminded me a bit of him when you're talking about this because because so many artists guitars are the artist is very flattered to be able to ask to do something and they go well I kind of already like this existing model but if you do it in my color and like you know maybe yes the pickup then that's what I do but again John very much a little bit like you is no no I you know the guitar has to do this and performance wise has to do this and I don't like the way it dices it so that that majesty model of his is the same it's perhaps it's gonna have to be around for another 20 years before it feels kind of as sort of part of the establishment and the sort of Vanina isn't as new or more looking as the gym does but it's amazing yes the one thing that you notice can happen if something is too trendy hmm then it really looks it really looks trendy in the future yeah it's like a fashion fashions have a tendency to be exaggerated and then they look old it was kind of like the story we were talking about where you had guitar players like me that were really blasting away and then all of a sudden Lee when the new thing came it's like enough but but something like this this like when you look at this with the day glow paint yeah and everything that was that's a very eighties thing you know and we we made these as the 30th anniversary in honor of that but there's so many different gems you you kept that you've kept the gem yeah contemporary over 30 years by doing I mean the floral ones how cool yeah they were so great you know and I remember seeing like a burnt floral one looked amazing and the Tree of Life thing was you know again even that Tree of Life it was amazing at the time maybe now it's not such a cool thing you know maybe people are more simplistic with their inlays but you do you just go look as an instrument as an instrument right instrument yeah and it's got goodie box exactly yeah can the fashion vehicle Tremont's are just aesthetics that you can play exactly yeah yeah but if a guitar comes along that's just looks like it's trying too hard then eventually it'll it'll probably look like it was trying too hard and very passe oh yeah so but I'm so grateful and appreciative that this guitar and you know what's funny I haven't ice to this day I have no desire to play any other guitar I mean well of course I have I love strats yeah you know I have I have probably one of everything oh I'll take one down and I'll start playing it you know I'll maybe start recording something I'm like that just can't do it I mean just even for me to sit and play a Les Paul I just it's it's hard right so my spit of a state of flux this year you you know is a you in a position to say anything yet or is it just so well she's pretty I was so fortunate to have the relationship with carbon that I had for so many years and I'm kind of that kind of guy you know I when I find a good relationship it I stick with it you know I mean the people that work with me have been there for decades I've been with the same woman for 38 years and and this guitar has been you know all the companies it's usually the same way and it was a carven was so great because they made exactly what I want we worked hard on that the legacy and as a result we had a very high quality amp for a very reasonable price because of their infrastructure you know they have their mom-and-pop kind of you know store and when they closed their doors they stopped making those amplifiers but they still make the legacy stomp okay you know the legacy preamp pedal but when that happened it was a surprise and every amplifier come well not every but many companies are interested in having me all the stones at least yeah and you know the thing is I did I don't play those amps those carving amps because I'm endorsed by them ya know that that's my sound it's like I cannot find another amp that's is a suiting to me it's like this guitar I just can't why don't you make volumes then why don't want it with love how can we know I've done all that kind of stuff you know then you're in the amp business that's all right I can hook you up well maybe when I maybe when I was your age I do it you know but at some point I did you know I just I mean iíve started record companies film things so many companies yeah and it's it takes your focus away from being yeah you know doing what I really want to do now which is just get as much music out and play as much as I can well that leads me beautifully then to my final question which is but if you know any companies that could animate something like a legacy I absolutely I wouldn't be and we've exchanged contact details after this I will I will see what we can call to our manufacturers to give i/o by legacy and I'm happy it for me I still I still use the Stompa yeah on the on the board that soundcheck so it'll be cool to see it because tonight we're gonna be using a couple of jcm800 but with the carbon legacy preamp pedal and yeah sounds great well I'm not a fan of these at all oh it was on your rider I know but if you have orange that I would prefer that I don't know if you have any of those the return I'll use whatever as long as I have my legacy you've got that yes and and you know we were talking about this this is the dope bomb this is people that don't know this is a power soak yeah and it it's used for when you don't want to use your speaker cabinets and you want to but you want to use the head and this is you a audio and Bill Putnam is just one of the most specific artistic audio manipulators in the world and that's a great studio tool it's the best it's the best I've looked for power soaks since day one yep day one when I was with Alcatraz could never find a good power so that's the one I'm yeah I'm with I think the best ever and I've played some power soaks some reactive low-power soaks where you can get the amp volume down forty or fifty percent you still go this is sounding still like it does loud yeah less than that waste of time but and that this you can have them completely off completely on yeah and and that the this the might put you know the speaker emulation software any I mean oh man we've sat and we've sat with that for a long time just gone oh this is just the best sounds we've ever had yeah you know anyway so my last and final question okay Oh anybody who has tuned in to watch this and thought you know I'm not massively familiar with Steve's music mm-hmm if someone had could listen to one Steve Vai tune and judge you basically on that one tune what would you say that's the one oh go and listen to that one because that's that's the proudest thing well that's that's that's hard because this one well it's according to what you like if you like you know over the top kind of guitar playing their songs like the windows to the soul for the love of God any seventh song on any of my record okay you know but then I have kind of simple acoustic vocal songs you know something like I'm your secrets what if you could only ever listen to one Steve vais song ever again the answer would change every time you ask me the one that came to mind right now is the riddle well you heard it the riddle look it's been an hour thank you later so you got a really nice iron yeah Thank You Man and got a great setup here man and we're going have some fun tonight soundcheck in literally five minutes so we better go and thank you guys for watching subscribe if you like what we do and we'll see you on Anderson's TV next time Joe thanks a lot no problem man thank you hey everybody thanks for watching the Anderson's guitar YouTube channel if you're a drummer or a keyboard player or interested in music technology you might find one of our other channels interesting and I'll put details of those in the description below if you want to find out more about the products we've just featured please click here if you'd like to buy a t-shirt like this please click here if you want to watch another video on our guitar channel click down here and to subscribe to our guitar channel click here thanks again for watching and we'll see you next time

Channel: Andertons Music Co

Views: 895,927

Rating: 4.9545279 out of 5

Keywords: Andertons, Andertons Music, Andertons TV, Ibanez, Ibanez Jem, Steve Vai, Captain Anderton, Lee Anderton, Captain Meets, Guitar legends, Interview, Steve Vai interview

Id: l1DIFfHvcqo

Length: 63min 12sec (3792 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 31 2018