{"id":16387,"date":"2013-04-30T07:45:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T21:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=16387"},"modified":"2013-04-28T13:00:18","modified_gmt":"2013-04-28T03:00:18","slug":"joe-satriani-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2013\/04\/joe-satriani-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Satriani"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"\"
\n<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s funny, when I sit down and play guitar I remember the feeling when I was fourteen, struggling on the instrument, and to some degree I still struggle, but I\u2019m just at a different level, but I\u2019ve had plenty of opportunity to quit *laughs* you know what I mean? You ask yourself, well why didn\u2019t you quit? Then I realized that I\u2019ve just had that sort of momentum, so it\u2019s just a celebration of that realization.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a guitarist and don\u2019t know who Joe Satriani is, well then I suggest you stop playing immediately. I kid\u2026 but a player like Joe Satriani really is an inspiration to many players and musicians around the world, his style and technique are unmistakable, so it\u2019s always exciting when a new album of material from him gets created. Here we have his newest album coming May 7th<\/sup>, titled \u2018Unstoppable Momentum\u2019 and trust me, it\u2019s out of this world!<\/p>\n

We once again caught up with the guitar genius that is Joe Satriani to discuss his forthcoming album \u2018Unstoppable Momentum\u2019 and how it was all put together, as well as his touring plans for the next year or so and what it\u2019s like playing with competition winners at his guitar clincs\u2026<\/p>\n

Welcome back to Australia Joe, it\u2019s always nice to have you here\u2026<\/strong>
\nWell thank you, every time we come here it reminds me of what a great place this is, people are friendly and the vibe is always very inspiring musically, I always feel inspired whether I\u2019m doing shows or this time doing clinics, the first time I\u2019ve done a real clinic tour. I just always get a great feeling here, so hopefully there will be some Australian inspired songs in my future.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the idea behind calling the album \u2018Unstoppable Momentum\u2019?<\/strong>
\nWell it\u2019s sort of a title that reflects basically how I\u2019m feeling about this sort of drive I\u2019ve had since I\u2019ve been a little kid. Just to create new music and put myself into new musical situations and luckily it\u2019s been increasing as I move on in my career, I still feel increasingly inspired and energetic in creating new music, and one day I was sitting down playing some chords and I thought \u2018wow, this sounds like the soundtrack to that very unusual realization that I\u2019m having.\u2019 It\u2019s funny, when I sit down and play guitar I remember the feeling when I was fourteen, struggling on the instrument, and to some degree I still struggle, but I\u2019m just at a different level, but I\u2019ve had plenty of opportunity to quit *laughs* you know what I mean? You ask yourself, well why didn\u2019t you quit? Then I realized that I\u2019ve just had that sort of momentum, so it\u2019s just a celebration of that realization.<\/p>\n

This is your fourteenth studio album, how do you find ways to keep them fresh and different every time?<\/strong>
\nWell I take a cue from the art world, which is you react to what\u2019s happening in your life, you write about your personal experiences, you write about what you observe and when you adopt that as the way that you operate then there\u2019s no end for inspiration, because life is wonderful and horrible and confusing and it\u2019s just always coming at you full force, so there\u2019s plenty of material to write about, whether you\u2019re observing or going through it yourself.<\/p>\n

Is it hard to in essence create something new when you may have thought you\u2019ve already done it before?<\/strong>
\nI think western music doesn\u2019t use a whole lot of notes *laughs* just twelve notes we use, and the general public has sort of a bit of a guide rule, they don\u2019t like you to go too far outside the norm.\u00a0 So inevitably musicians will recognize that hey, I\u2019ve done a song like this before or this borrows a little bit from Beethoven and a little bit from Metallica and I\u2019ve mixed it up with a little bit of Rolling Stones *laughs*and so I think we all do that, we all echo each other\u2019s musical directions a little bit and certainly if you\u2019re in a musical situation where you have to provide a certain kind of music, then you actual have to borrow.\u00a0 If you\u2019re making a blues album, you have to kind of sound like other blues people otherwise your audience won\u2019t know that you\u2019re playing the blues. If you\u2019re doing a dance record, almost certainly going to be playing in tempos that everybody else has covered as people like to dance at a certain tempo, that\u2019s just part of the reality of being a musician, but within those parameters there\u2019s a world of creativity that\u2019s available to you and there\u2019s plenty of fertile ground to be original.<\/p>\n

\u2018Three Sheets To The Wind\u2019 is one I wanted to ask you about as it, besides the great title, it feels like musically about 30 different genres in one song, does a song like that just flow when writing or is it a structure where you put it together like a jigsaw?<\/strong>
\nYeah well it\u2019s more like the later, I was perplexed and very excited about that melody when I wrote it the first time, I was playing a vintage guitar through a vintage amp and I realized that the melody was too strong to be relegated to just some vintage instrument kind of theme. I thought wow, I\u2019ve got something very unique here and now I\u2019ve got to figure out what I\u2019ve done. I started making demos where I would play the song only on organ or only on piano and then I tried six guitars then eight guitars then one guitar, then I tried some strings and then eventually I got around to the horn and honkytonk piano and then I thought OK, well what if you could put them all together? *laughs* So it was like holding on to the tail of a tiger I\u2019m telling you, it took a lot of intense work not to get discouraged by all my wrong turns, but to eventually bring it to the studio and tell the guys \u2018ok, get ready for this one\u2019 *laughs* I\u2019m going to ask you to play this kind of swing here and that kind of swing there, then I want you to rock out, then I want you to stop, but the guys in the band all thought the song was a lot of fun and they were encouraged by the quirkiness of its arrangement. I kept thinking if it was the late sixties and ‘Sgt Pepper’s’ had been released, all of us would be thinking like this, we wouldn\u2019t be having those boundaries that we may feel placed upon us here in 2013, so I was trying to embrace that period of the late sixties where rock music really did borrow from any musical genre it wanted to, to get the point across.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Which has always had me wondering, how do you name these songs?<\/strong>
\nWell some of them, like \u2018Three Sheets To The Wind\u2019 I benefited from having this little movie in my head about a young man dressed up really well, stepping out of his urban apartment in a great part of town, you know, hat and tails, champagne glass in hand and walking into a night of misadventure. Somehow emerging unscathed at the crack of dawn back at his doorstep, still with a drink in his hand, and so that was my inspiration to break down any kind of barrier I had put down in front of me in terms of what I could achieve with the arrangement. That\u2019s on the light hearted side, sometimes I\u2019m writing songs that are specifically about concepts that are purely based on a visceral feeling, about having fun, or feeling awkward, or songs that are heavy subjects, metaphysical subjects, songs that you write about love or longing or trying to remember a lost one.\u00a0 So I just try to keep it simple to tell you the truth, I just try to write from strength which is where you try to write truthful stories from your experience and then that sort of guarantees that it\u2019s going to have the right kind of weight to it.<\/p>\n

In listening to the new album, I honestly just shake my head at some of what you can do, I mean, do you amaze yourself sometimes with some of the things you create?<\/strong>
\n*laughs* ah no, it would be easier if it did I suppose, but usually I\u2019m the one who is anxiety ridden about how I\u2019d really like another year or two to work on it, I\u2019m in the studio and I\u2019m asking the guys, that one note\u2019s driving me crazy, can you please let me play it again? They\u2019re saying, no that\u2019s it, go away *laughs* but I depend on my comrades there in the studio to let me know when I\u2019ve done it and when I haven\u2019t because it\u2019s really hard to tell yourself, you really can\u2019t, you really need to depend on your co-producer, your engineer, your best friend to let you know if you\u2019re doing something worthwhile.<\/p>\n

Did you purposefully or consciously do anything different this time around compared to previous albums?<\/strong>
\nWell I think the biggest thing I did was to invite some people to play that I hadn\u2019t played with before, so Vinnie Colaiuta and Chris Chaney on bass, two guys I\u2019ve had limited playing experience with, I think I gig just one show with Vinnie once several years ago, but I sort of rolled the dice that those two guys, with the addition of Mike Keneally would create a very interesting rhythm section that would do things that I hadn\u2019t thought of and they came through with flying colours. Every day we would try and new song, they would just listen to it for about a half an hour, they would go and tweak their gear and then we\u2019d start recording versions of it and every time we played a version they\u2019d give me something different, and after about five, six or seven takes we were all so happy with what they were bringing to the sessions. That I think was the ultimate risk that these guys would be the right guys for the material, but you never know until you get into the studio.<\/p>\n

I believe they\u2019re not touring with you though\u2026<\/strong>
\nMike Keneally is, I was able to get him away from Dethklok just enough to play, it\u2019s odd because Mike plays guitar with Dethklok and he plays keyboards with me, he\u2019s so talented, we always kid him that we\u2019re going to have to kill him because he\u2019s so good, he makes the rest of us look terrible you know?\u00a0 So Mikes in the band, and I knew I wasn\u2019t going to be able to get Chris or Vinnie, because Vinnie is playing with Sting and Chris plays with Jane\u2019s Addiction, so I just had them for ten days basically, but we\u2019ve got Marco Minnemann on drums and he\u2019s absolutely a monster, I can\u2019t wait to play with him on tour. Then the incredible Bryan Beller on bass guitar, another monster bass player who can just inhabit any style, and they\u2019ve all played with Mike Keneally quite a bit, they\u2019ve all been in Mike Keneally\u2019s band, so I feel like I\u2019ve already got a built in chemistry that I\u2019m going to be able to harness for the tours.<\/p>\n

Hold on, did you say you did the album in ten days?<\/strong>
\nI think we did it in about seven or eight days with the band and then of course I stuck around for another three weeks and messed around with it *laughs* because there\u2019s generally one drum performance and one bass performance, Mike Keneally stayed another two days but in this case for the guitar, there\u2019s so many guitars on these songs that it does take a little longer to get through all my responsibilities.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re here for some master class shows right now, but can we expect to see you back in Australia soon to showcase these new tracks for us?<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely, it\u2019ll have to be next year, this year so far I\u2019ll be in Europe for two months starting in mid-May and then we\u2019re doing all of North America for two months starting in late August, so if we did get back here it wouldn\u2019t be until November \/ December, there\u2019s always that chance that we might turn around and come back that quickly but we have to wait and see what our invitations are from the rest of Asia and the Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

In Melbourne you jammed with a guy named Peter, he wanted to know what it was like for you to be up there playing with him?<\/strong>
\n*laughs* You know the experience of playing with those contest winners is really fascinating, because number one I can\u2019t believe how brave they are that they would walk on stage cold, pick up a guitar they\u2019ve never played before, plug into an amp, stand in front of an audience, but not just any audience, every single one of them guitar players, do you know how cruel guitar players are to each other? *laughs* These guys like Peter would come up and just play and that alone they deserve some kind of medal for that, but they came with such good cheer and to me that is an Australian quality you just don\u2019t find it anywhere else in the world, but there\u2019s a positive attitude at trying your best at the drop of a hat and making a good time of it that I equate with the Australian personality that I love, so each clinic that we\u2019ve done we\u2019ve had players just like Peter come up and they just throw themselves at it and I wonder at that. They\u2019re playing ability varies, some of them are young kids that have just been playing a year, others are guys that have been playing for twenty years, but they all get leveled by once they step stage and pick up a strange guitar. So it\u2019s that strength of character that always impresses me.<\/p>\n

I asked you last year and I\u2019ll ask again, when are Chickenfoot coming to tour Australia? Ha ha<\/strong>
\nYes, it\u2019s sort of like a personal quest that I will bring Chickenfoot to Australia, I can\u2019t imagine a more perfect match for that band and this audience here, but it\u2019s not an easy task because Sammy Hagar is a busy man, so is Chad Smith so Mike Anthony and I who generally are the ones who try and scheme to get these guys out on tour more are always at work to try and get these guys to be a little more productive with the Chickenfoot touring schedule. I know it will have to wait until 2014.<\/p>\n

I saw that you\u2019re heading out on tour with Steve Morse as support on tour, now he was on your last G3 tour, are there plans to resurge that anytime soon or is that on hold for a little while?<\/strong>
\nYeah I think we did three of them last year which is more than we\u2019ve ever done in one year, period. So I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to do a G3 for at least another year, so I\u2019m not sure about that, right now I\u2019m focused on the release of the solo album and trying to bring the new music to as many spots around the word as possible. Just overall looking at the release schedule, the touring schedule, you get caught up in a tornado of activity and excitement and I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m just really looking forward to the whole thing.<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> San Francisco, CA, USA<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>\u00a0Joe Satriani<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.satriani.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Forthcoming release:<\/strong> Unstoppable Momentum (May 7, 2013 \u2013 Sony Music Australia)<\/p>\n\n

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