ISSUE #42 MMUSICMAG.COM Q&A Larry DiMarzio

JOE SATRIANI One of guitar’s greatest instrumentalists unleashes his inner extrovert

PLAYING GUITAR WITH HIS TEETH chops with a soaring sense of melody. allow me to make creative decisions song by during the fi nal performance of his previous Various side projects—like the acclaimed song,” he says, “exploring unique moods and tour, Joe Satriani had an epiphany. “I thought, supergroup Chickenfoot—have punctuated feelings as they relate to this central character. ‘What am I doing? What part of me rears Satriani’s career, but his solo work remains In that way, it’s both loose and free-form, its head and starts doing stuff like this?’” his top priority. The recipient of 15 Grammy but there’s an overall tone, one of rebirth.” he recalls. “Normally I’m a shy, retiring nominations, he’s also the best-selling rock type of musician, but when I get onstage, guitar instrumentalist of all time. Elaborate on the album’s theme. I fi nd myself feeling like that type of thing is Satriani’s 15th solo studio album, When I perform, it’s like someone else takes perfectly normal.” Shockwave Supernova, ratchets up the over. I felt the songs I was writing represented While Satriani may ponder the adventurous spirit. Seizing on his onstage the different attitudes and memories and motivation behind his showmanship, fans alter ego, the guitarist pumps up his aspirations of not only me, but also perhaps have been dazzled by the musician’s fl amboyant side, embracing the onstage this other character. I thought, “What if the virtuosity for roughly 30 years. With his extrovert. Satriani stops short of calling album was about that guy? What if he goes classic sophomore album, 1987’s Surfi ng the record a concept album, but the idea from being a star through all these different With the Alien, Satriani set a new standard of portraying an extravagant protagonist changes, and fi nally gets to the end and for instrumental guitar music, unveiling a provided a unifying premise. realizes he’s going to evolve into something distinctive style that combined a shredder’s “The real reason for the concept was to better?” There’s a bit of melancholy—a fear

‘We wanted to make a super-dynamic record where the volume shifts the way it does in real life.’

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of the unknown—but eventually he goes with in my teens, learning where everything was— my musicianship forward. Maybe I’ve got it and becomes reborn. My version of that is every scale and every chord—and came out it backward. Maybe I should be public with in the last song, where the minor-key verses a better man for it. Now, when I look at the the stuff I’ve been keeping private—and take represent him trying to rail for the last time. guitar, I see those things, because I put in this public work I’ve been doing and put it And then the song has a breakdown, and those many hours. Physically, however, it’s aside.” So I quit the Squares and started you hear this high-pitched guitar. That’s him a different story. I’m not the sort of gifted trying to show people the avant-garde side being reborn into something better. player who can pick up a guitar and play of my musicianship. anything technical. It still feels like a struggle. Did that storyline inform the music? Whenever there’s a tour coming up, I Where are today’s interesting guitarists Absolutely. It was an artistic device, to let give myself six weeks to practice the show, emerging from? ideas fl ourish and be inclusive of a variety twice a day. I need that to feel comfortable Probably from progressive hardcore. Bands of material. But one thing I didn’t want was when I walk onstage for the fi rst show. like Periphery, Animals as Leaders, and to require the audience to embrace the I prove to myself twice a day that I can Meshuggah are using the guitar like no one’s concept. I love the story behind Who’s Next, pull this off while still feeling relaxed. I’ve used it before. You have to give those guys how Pete Townshend ultimately relinquished been playing more than 40 years and it’s credit for blazing this new trail. Meanwhile the idea of a concept album and just used still hard for me. pop, country and hip-hop are sharing the the best songs. Glyn Johns, the producer, told him, “This storyline is crazy, but you have these amazing songs. Why don’t we just make a great album, without burdening the audience with a concept?” My thinking was the same. This album can be viewed simply as 15 very unusual songs.

Did you have specifi c sonic goals? I did. I told [co-producer] John Cuniberti, “Let’s forget about preparing the album for radio, TV or video games. Let’s let fans hear what it sounds like to us in the studio.” The short story is, if you want to sell a track for a video game, for instance, then basically all the dynamic range is eliminated. In terms of dynamic range, it goes somewhere between 1db and 0. That’s a useful device when JOE SATRIANI music is played at low volume, but I know

Denis Balibouse/Reuters/Landov my fans like to be able to turn the music One of guitar’s greatest instrumentalists unleashes his inner extrovert up and feel it—and you can’t do that with music that’s been heavily limited, because distortion creeps in. We wanted to make Onstage in Montreux, Switzerland, 2009 a super-dynamic record where the volume shifts the way it does in real life. The idea was that even with all the distorted guitars I Why instrumental ‘When I perform, it’s like use, we would make a very open, clear album music? with lots of depth. Part of it was the someone else takes over.’ realization I was working What guitars did you use? on the wrong thing. In I mostly alternated between the Ibanez the early ’80s I was in a band called the spotlight, with EDM mixed in there as well. JS2410 MCO and the MCP. And I probably Squares. We tried hard to be industrious There’s not a whole lot of room in those played a regular Ibanez JS2400. I also and professional, and got nowhere. It was areas for guitar expression. During the last used my Ibanez Signature Acoustic on one demoralizing. And it was the second time 10 years, the most popular forms of music or two songs. And electric 12-strings—a I had been through that. In my late teens I have used electric guitar as a caricature. 1966 Fender and an Epiphone Les Paul had been in a disco band, touring the East that I play slide on. Both those are kind of Coast, and I remember thinking, “This is the Are you discouraged by that? funky, but they had the tone we were looking most demoralizing gig, ever.” So I quit that It doesn’t impact my life at all. There’s always for. There are also a couple of songs where band and moved to California. Meanwhile, I great playing—you just have to seek it out. I’m playing one of my Ibanez guitars with an was teaching in a music store, working with When I watch an awards show, for instance, EverTune bridge on it. great young players like Charlie Hunter, I’ll look for the live musicians playing in the Kirk Hammett and Larry LaLonde. And they background and listen to how good they are. Still practice? were totally into their generation’s music. They aren’t the focus of attention, but there I no longer do scales and exercises. I I starting thinking, “I go home and play all are always players out there doing great work. went through that tortuous hell when I was this instrumental music, mainly to move –Russell Hall

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