Joe Satriani crosses paths with Steve Vai once again to shape The Sea of Emotion, a project born from a friendship that goes back decades and has now become a new musical chapter. We talk to the legendary guitarist about the making of the album, the recording process, his concerts, his guitars and everything the future may hold
David Aresté
M.S: Hello, Joe. How are you? How are you feeling today? It’s a pleasure to have you back on our website. How are you feeling with the release of The Sea of Emotion just around the corner? Are you happy with the result?
J.S: I’m thrilled. It’s wonderful that Steve and I have finally had the opportunity to record an album together, write music together and bring new musical ideas into the world. It’s fantastic. I can’t believe we managed to do it.
I’m very happy with the final result.
M.S: This album has perhaps come together in a slightly unusual way compared to your previous releases. You went on tour first and then released the album. Is that simply how things worked out, or did you already know when you went on tour that you were going to record an album?
J.S: Well, the idea of making an album came about somewhat on its own, without us really planning it. It came from the fact that, after the G3 reunion, we wanted to keep touring together, and we realised that we needed to release music to support the idea of the two of us going on tour.
And that became the first steps towards recording an album together. The problem we had to face was that we had already committed the following year and a half: Steve playing with Beat and me playing with Sammy Hagar. On top of that, we had to continue with our European tour with the SatchVai Band.
So it became pretty obvious that we weren’t going to have time to finish the album before the tours, which is completely the opposite of how things normally work. And we felt a little bad about it. We wanted to apologise to the fans, but there simply was no way to complete the album before the tour.
So we did everything backwards. But in the end, having this album come out in November is a really beautiful thing. And I think everything ended up falling into place in the right way.
M.S: We didn’t get to see you in Spain. How did the SatchVai concerts in Europe go?
J.S: We had a great time. Having a single band backing Steve and me while we played our new material together, each other’s songs, and then allowing us to leave the stage to watch the other perform some of their greatest hits was fantastic.
It’s something we’d never done before. We’d never put on a show in that way. So it became both a vehicle for our performances and, probably, the best seats one could imagine for watching us play with each other.
It was really great. And of course, having Marco Mendoza, Pete Thorne and Kenny Aronoff in the band was a real luxury, because they’re incredible musicians.
M.S: Many friends have contributed on drums and bass to the new album, including Jeremy Colson, Kenny Aronoff and Billy Sheehan. How did you manage to coordinate so many different schedules?
J.S: It was very difficult. We decided from the beginning that it wouldn’t be practical to use Steve’s band or mine as the rhythm section for the entire album, because everyone was somewhere else or working with us when we needed to record the basic tracks.
So we came up with the idea that, if we weren’t available, our producer, Eric Kodya, would find the right people for the appropriate songs and record them while we were on tour.
That’s basically what happened. We ended up with tracks where almost all of them were recorded without us being present. We recorded our guitar parts separately in our home studio throughout the year. Eric gradually put together sessions with the Bissonnette brothers or Matt Chamberlain.
We already had some performances recorded for songs that Steve had started. Jeremy Colson, Phil Bino, Mike Mangini, Mike Keneally, Brian Beller… took part in them. And we had a lot of interesting people involved.
I think the only session where we were all together was one in which we didn’t play at all. We were recording Glenn Hughes’s vocals for I Want to Play My Guitar. It was quite unusual, but it just happened that we were all in Los Angeles at the same time.
M.S: Considering all the musicians involved, would you say this is an album for people who enjoy the more mathematical side of guitar playing, or is it something for listeners of all ages?
J.S: Without a doubt, it’s music for people of all ages. Yes, I’d say it’s the opposite of mathematical guitar.
I think younger musicians are doing incredible things with their guitars, their fingers and music. I’m fascinated by it. And this is probably, without a doubt, the best time for guitarists, because the younger generations — and I say generations because there are so many behind me or ahead of me, depending on how you look at it — those between eight and fourteen, fifteen and twenty-five, twenty-five and forty… They’re all taking the art of playing guitar to new heights.
It’s truly fascinating. And I’ve always tried to be myself. So I play what comes naturally to me.
I’m not interested in jumping on someone else’s bandwagon. So I’ll leave mathematical guitar to the younger generations, who are so good at it and have the technique required to pull it off.
M.S: With almost 30 albums released and 40 years of career behind you, what has it been like recording an album with your friend and former student?
J.S: Well, it’s always great. I’ve been incredibly lucky because, on practically every album I’ve made, I’ve been surrounded by my best friends. And I think that’s been a fantastic benefit to the success of my albums.
There’s no point recording with people you don’t like.
So it’s been a pleasure, and this recent project with Steve is a good example of that. I worked with Steve as a guitar teacher when I was very young and he was only twelve years old and just starting out. So we’ve known each other for a very long time.
We’ve done many tours together, G3 tours and others where we both went out with our own bands. We’ve also appeared on other artists’ albums. So I think this is a natural extension of our lifelong collaboration.
And everything feels very natural. It was also fantastic to have Eric Kodya involved, because I’ve been working with Eric since 1996. He’s a fantastic musician, guitarist and producer. He’s been an editor, producer and co-producer.
He’s also been the keyboard player in my live band and a rhythm guitarist during tours. We’ve done many different things together, and he’s taken on many different roles. He’s a musical genius, on the same level as Steve.
So this album has been an absolute pleasure.
M.S: With almost 30 albums released and 40 years of career, where do you find the imagination to keep coming up with titles for instrumental songs?
J.S: (Laughs) That’s easy. That’s the easy part. (Laughs)
I think the difficult part is getting up in the morning to do interviews.
No, there’s no problem. I mean, I’m lucky to have a very prolific imagination.
And I suppose you have to edit yourself, show people the good stuff. If you can, don’t show them the bad ideas.
M.S: And does Bronco Freight Train exist? (Laughs)
J.S: I don’t know. (Laughs)
Steve had sent me the original version of that song, which only had the main riff, a sort of version of the chorus riff and then a kind of breakdown section. But it wasn’t really a song. It was simply a demo that I didn’t know what to do with.
And in fact, he didn’t think it was worth working on. I told him he was crazy. I said, “This is one of my favourite Steve Vai riffs.”
So I said, “Let me give it more substance. Let me write a verse, adjust the chorus and expand the middle section for the solo.”
So I more or less reworked the song and sent it to him. He said, “Oh, I like it. Let me rework a few parts here and there.”
Then I came up with a very strange chorus using a Whammy pedal. And then Steve created a melody for the verse that I thought was so good that I said, “I’m not going to play on it.”
I said, “I’m just going to do the rhythm guitars.”
So I ended up being the rhythm guitarist for the main structure of the song. I just joined in with the melody in the choruses and eventually ended up playing slide guitar in the solo section, something we hadn’t even planned.
That’s why this song can really exemplify the fact that the album is a true collaboration, where the two of us keep passing ideas back and forth, as if we’d been in a room together trying to develop the structure of a song and showing each other ideas that might or might not work.
So it’s been a very natural collaborative process.
M.S: The press release says that the entire album grew out of the song The Sea of Emotion, which has three parts. Can you tell us a little more about it?
J.S: The songs The Sea of Emotion, Part One, Two and Three are based on our childhood experiences, when we were growing up together in the small town of Carle Place and attending Carle Place public schools.
The title refers to a place on the school grounds where we used to gather late into the night to get into trouble, smoke, drink and do other things. Eventually, we’d end up sharing some of our most private thoughts.
It became a fantastic place for us teenagers to try to understand where our lives were heading, sharing our concerns while mixing them with parties.
And I suppose I was the one who got the album’s songwriting underway by writing the first and second parts, recording them and sending them to Steve, saying, “This is my idea.”
I needed to have an emotional starting point that justified us making an album together. And I settled on The Sea of Emotion.
It’s a place that goes back to the past, where I took Steve when he was a younger teenager and told him, “You should come here when you’re having problems. This is what my friends and I do. We meet here and talk about our stuff. Maybe it’ll help you too.”
And he completely understood it.
It was a way for us to connect and stop thinking about what’s going on in the modern world today, to really delve deep inside ourselves and write music from the heart.
M.S: Was this project something you had always intended to do as a single album, or could we see more albums in the future?
J.S: Well, there’s always the possibility that we might record more. I hope so.
There were quite a few songs that we didn’t finish and that we thought would be part of the album. So there’s always that possibility.
M.S: I suppose you’ll be returning to Europe to promote the album, but you still don’t know whether you’ll make it to Spain.
J.S: Exactly. Yes, honestly, I don’t know.
We don’t have anything planned for next year involving the SatchVai band, so we’ll have to wait and see.
M.S: As for G3, last year you celebrated the 25th anniversary, including an album. I suppose G3 will return again, right?
J.S: I hope so. We’ll have to wait and see.
Actually, it’s a matter of scheduling. Organising G3 requires taking people away from the bands they normally work with and finding out whether they have the time and space to go on a solo tour.
In my case, it’s easy because I’m primarily a solo artist. But most of the other guitarists play in other bands.
And that’s always the problem. That’s why it takes approximately a year or more to plan it.
M.S: Perhaps with these plans in mind, but it seems a little strange that you went on tour without having an album and now that you have one, there are no tour plans, right?
J.S: Yes, we did everything backwards and we felt really bad about it, but there was no other way to fulfil our commitments with Beat and Sammy Hagar, make the album and tour at the same time.
That’s how things happened. It’s not the first time a band has had to do things this way, but there’s no other alternative.
And perhaps in the end it will turn out to be something positive, because on the one hand, you want to support an album, but on the other hand, a tour can sometimes distract from the album as an artistic statement, since you end up playing only a few songs from the album live.
Because if you’re an established artist like me, you have fan favourites and hits that you have to play during a concert.
And I was thinking about it and I said to myself, “This is really interesting, because now that the album is coming out, people won’t be distracted by a tour where we only play the single. They’ll be able to listen to the entire album, from beginning to end, and engage with it as a unique musical work of art.”
M.S: The last time I interviewed you, you told me you had 200 guitars. Do you still have them all? Or do you have more? (Laughs)
J.S: I have fewer. (Laughs)
Over the next few years, I’m focusing on this. I’m trying to sell, trade or donate the amount of equipment I have that I really don’t need.
So yes, I have a little fewer than 200. (Laughs)
M.S: All right, we’ll make a note of that for the next interview. Well, we’ve reached the end. If there’s anything you’d like to say, this is the moment to close the interview.
J.S: I want to express my gratitude to the fans for their continued support and apologise that we don’t always manage to reach wherever they are.
Every time we have the opportunity to tour, it’s very difficult nowadays. Touring is very expensive, so we have to make difficult decisions about the places we can go.
But rest assured that we’re going to do everything we can to bring our show to as many fans as possible in the future.
And thank you very much.
M.S: And don’t forget about Spain, please… with whatever project you do.
J.S: That would be impossible. I could never forget Spain. We love playing there. We adore our Spanish fans.
Without a doubt, Spain will be on the itinerary the next time we go on tour.