You know, there are some artists who shake people, somewhere between two worlds, they write the accumulated sounds of culture in the history of music with their fingers.
Steve Vai is one of them, yet he is absolutely an artist rather than just a guy who can play the guitar. Vai is someone who expresses the expression and production style of art in a way that has never been said before and brings the soul of the guitar to the audience. He is a master who constructs another world with a modern understanding without turning his back on many traditions, yet not clashing the new with the old, not allowing the previous world to collapse – but changing it.
His virtuoso identity is hard to classify. The name of his works, the identity of his compositions, usage areas, the style of his compositions, and even his instrument preferences can give a lot of information about this, but what really means is his spirit for this work.
“For me, the guitar is the most expressive instrument in the world. It bends, wails, whispers, cries, and will make a different sound every single time you touch it. This makes it very malleable to the intention of the player. You can tell it all your secrets and it will express them in a melodious audible atmosphere that can capture the listener,” he elaborated.
''The guitar is so perfect for this, and many do it in their own way. I just like to exaggerate it because it satiates my soul," he added.
He identifies himself with all the musical instruments he has. His singularity, more of an individuality, goes beyond himself and reaches the historical universality of the guitar. We witnessed the moments when he brought his inner limits together with his independent artistic nature in the act of art-making. That's why we can easily understand his emotional volume and the structure of the harmonic motion he builds whenever we listen to him.
The ultimate goal here is beyond giving the sense of the object visible on the stage as the visible thing, to differentiate objects, to make the form incomprehensible, and to increase the difficulty and duration of perception. The act of perceiving his art is therefore an end in itself. For this man who wreaks havoc on the stage, what has happened before is of no importance. If you think you can learn everything about him after this interview, you are wrong. Artists like him were revolutionaries for the rock music world. And people like them will never come again.
Considering that the technical knowledge of the instrument makes the emotion transfers stronger when talking about it, it does not seem possible to draw any boundaries and to define and describe it. Although he may seem like an overly technical artist from the outside, Steve is someone who pours emotion out of everything he does. ''It took many years for me to put my academic approach on the guitar more in the background, and to honor my emotional investment in my performance,'' he said.
In other words, his music appeals to both the emotions and the brain and provides the magnificent balance that emerges from this imbalance. ''I appreciate the depth and insight into your questions. I am usually not asked such personally expressive questions. Your questions are much appreciated. I believe you are correct in that technique goes so far, but without a personal emotional investment in a performance, that performance can lose a vital dimension. Having said that, I feel that anybody that picks up a guitar to enjoy playing it is a winner,'' he explained.
When it comes to the performing arts, a skilled artist is not just a selfish creature stuck in their own individual passions. In this direction, the artist wants to tell and be understood and likes to have their own feelings spread and infected with each new performance. Of course, society and people with advanced levels and aesthetic understanding can grasp the meanings and values that the artist wants to convey. And it can show the ability to notice the storm, the dynamic drama in the soul of the artist. For Steve, the focus is on merging his being with the notes emanating from it and freeing his physical expression to transform into the notes. He uses a very deep expression to express the creative processes of many of his works, which we know to be the best compositions:
''I listen to it in my mind's ear and do my best to manifest it in the world. And being present while performing it and becoming the note you are playing,'' he said.
There is absolutely no shortcut to introducing the virtuoso soul to the guitar and making it a part or even the whole of the guitar. Because this is one of his greatest achievements. ''There is nothing that should be done, but there is something that is necessary, and that's desire. To become a virtuoso, you just must decide that's what you want. If your decision is authentic, you will find yourself navigating toward it. It will happen organically. If it's just a pipe dream fantasy that so many young guitar players have, they will find themselves uninspired to practice and then in some cases, they can start blaming the world for their lack of success,'' he added.
Rock music in the 1960s and beyond would not be the same. Following these years, we can talk about two revolutionary inventions – overdrive and distortion pedals. The wattage increase in amplifiers should not be overlooked. Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Santana, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore and many more important electric guitar virtuosos began to be influential all over the world in this period.
After this dominance of the 1960s, the heavy metal movement continued in the 1970s with names such as Rainbow, Whitesnake and Judas Priest. Led by names such as Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Joe Satriani, this trend has brought all the young people in the world closer to electric guitar-based music. It is an undoubted fact that Vai, who was discovered by Frank Zappa and made excellent works with David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, will remain one of the best guitar heroes in the universe, starting from the 80s until the end of times.
Working professionally with Frank Zappa at the age of 18 is one of the most important details that make the Vai music we listen to today very rich in terms of harmony, orchestration, and composition. “It was surreal to work for Frank at such a young age. I was naive and innocent and watched and listened to him very carefully. Frank was a free thinker and I learned that if you want to accomplish something, don't expect anybody else to do it for you and don't make excuses, just do it.’’
Perceiving an idea in an object requires an artist's perspective and awareness of the external environment. Steve strives to understand the philosophy of the human soul, allowing him to continually exceed expectations. He is also someone who tries to grasp the idea of everything, does not dwell on the relation of things to other things, and often forgets to consider his own life while trying to grasp the idea. For ordinary people, knowledge is the lamp that illuminates their path, while for those with artistic personalities, knowledge is the sun that reveals the world. That's why he always manages to do his best and always raises the bar higher. That's why the album "Alien Love Secrets" is quite remarkable to me.
“Anything will represent anything to anyone. We all give things the meaning they have for ourselves only. Since I was perhaps 20 years old, I started seeking truth. Throughout my life, this has been reflected in my work and that yearning is in the DNA of my music. There's a lot of it on "Alien Love Secrets." I was developing psychologically and metaphysically and studying things like reincarnation and Eastern philosophies. But it wasn't until later in life when I discovered the fact of the nothingness of the body," he said.
While he observes his own work objectively, he has created many diverse and versatile albums that emerge from a self-challenged environment. What is interesting for Vai, who pushes the limits of creativity a lot, is that it is as relaxing as anything else. It's about offering us a great balance between creating something exciting and doing something very relaxing at the same time.
''I always enjoy it when my bar raises. That was an accident, I swear! (he laughs) In reality, all of us are only competing with ourselves to raise our own bar. It can produce inspired results when it evolves organically, which is void of stress. Those around us who are exceptional at what we are trying to do, and blow us away at it, can be seen as inspirations for us to raise our own bar in our own way,'' he added.
He also states that as we continue to give it our full attention, our bar will automatically continue to rise: ''And if you're a musician, it helps if you're attracted to melody above all else. Looking through this lens to my own career, everything that came to me in my career, including this interview, emerged from my continued attraction for expressing melody on the guitar in ways that felt natural to me."
Coming out of the complex cultural atmospheres and declaring freedom, Steve was always in front of us with his virtuosity, which played an important role in his artistic skill. He actually defied risks from the very beginning. Whatever was behind the note, Steve called it. He opposed normality patterns and dogmas by opening the doors of another realm. It is not an easy thing to introduce a virtuoso soul to the guitar and to make it a part of the guitar, maybe the whole.
He also gave the electric guitar a different sound. Those are the voices that have never been heard.
He released a piece in praise of Jimi Hendrix, who brought an important instrument such as the electric guitar, which represents the world of rock and roll, to the stage by keeping it out of class polarization; "The Boy From Seattle." Steve tried many guitars to find a suitable tone for this song. Many of them were old and very expensive, but he saved money to get one. He finally finds a very cheap Japanese-made Strat that sounds and feels the best.
''I always loved Stratocasters but they didn't fit my playing style. For that double single coil tube-like tone, a good Strat is required. When I wrote 'The Boy From Seattle' it was a tribute to the style of rhythm playing Hendrix. I needed a Strat that had just the right sound. I called all the big and antique vintage guitar shops on Hollywood Boulevard and had them bring me their best Strats,’’ he said.
Artists, who make masterpieces that are remembered for centuries, need to shed real blood, sweat, and tears for this state of creation. It is therefore no coincidence that the songs of the Whitesnake group led by David Coverdale, such as "Here I Go Again" and "Is This Love," conquered the whole world. Whitesnake, which emerged as an English hard rock band founded by vocalist David Coverdale after leaving Deep Purple in 1978, was perhaps one of the most notable bands of the period. Following these years, Steve engraved his name in gold letters on the rock and roll scenes with David Coverdale.
“David called and asked if I would join the band. I liked the music and especially his voice. It was easy and fun working with the band. They are just great guys, like a family. David was always a gentleman, very respectful, totally amazing onstage, and had a great sense of humor. He has a rock royalty personality and has been at the top of his game his whole career. The best time with Whitesnake was after the shows on the bus hanging out and laughing. I don't think of the worst time,'' he said.
Many years of purposeful, planned practice is most essential to skill. Being a virtuoso means always being intertwined with dynamism. These artists think with rhythms, melodies, and sounds and cannot clear their minds from music. That's what makes guitar virtuosos addicted to getting better all the time. Steve is still investing hours of practice and improving his skills. Even after reaching the level of guitar virtuoso, he never ceases to improve himself in every field of guitar playing. He actually never confines himself to a particular genre. A versatile guitarist who can play any musical style. This also helped him find his own unique style of playing the guitar. He appears to be a man of a very noisy world from the outside, but in his soul, the inspirations are in a state of complete silence. His deep-rooted respect for art and his instrument brought Steve and his virtuoso side together in the same dimension.
''Inspiration comes to us in many ways, but for me, the most effective way is when an inspired idea to do something just pops into my head. I do not know where it comes from. Probably from the same place it comes from in anybody, that well of infinite creativity that we all have access to," he explained.
There are thoughts that positively affect the process of "being competent" and creative. In the creative process of an artist like Steve, he is brave and wants perfection, but at the same time does not get stuck, the details that make it different are the fact that it has a spirit world that is open to experimentation, seeking different connections, inquiring, questioning, self-critical and able to form metaphors.
''The only perfection you can strive for in the arts is based on creating something as you see it in its completion in your own mind. Otherwise, there is no such thing as perfection. In the arts, when it's perfect to the creator of the art, then that's the closest you will get to perfection,'' he said.
The joint replacement technique is based on an idea that Steve has had in mind for years. Playing the guitar in a very different way was a visual in his imagination. ''It's sort of like if you were having a dream and you were playing the guitar and then all of a sudden your fingers started moving in all different directions and independently bending, releasing, pulling, tapping all sorts of notes along the neck to create a sound that is just otherworldly," he elaborated.
I attempted to bring just a tiny bit of this dream into reality with the song “Candle Power” and I only did it in a few spots. What I did in that song just scratches the surface of a technique I envision would take another whole lifetime to perfect. I'm hoping that some younger fingers with more time on their hands come along and see the amazing potential in my surface scratching of this joint shifting technique and take it to another whole level,'' he added.
"When I saw Steve Vai in high school, I realized that his fingertips are way more talented than mine, I had to get better at not ruining it up. We grew up with Steve. We bumped together in the hallways of the same high school.”
“These meaningful sentences by Joe Satriani reveal that the deep relationship between Steve Vai and his wife is deeply connected. If we go to the beginning of the story; Steve first met the guitar when he was 6 years old and everything is shaped when he sees a 9-year-old boy playing the guitar in his school's auditorium. The way it hangs on his body, the way he touches it, and the sound that comes out of it, completely takes over his own voice. But after he turned 12 and listened to Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker," that's when he decided to play the guitar. When a friend introduced him to Joe Satriani in 1973, he had already laid the foundations of his professional music career.
"It's always a great pleasure to work with Joe. He has always represented to me something excellent. I never stopped being inspired by Joe since I was 12 years old. He was my guitar teacher from perhaps 12-16 years old. He taught me everything. Joe was always solid, had amazing ears, and is just a first-class act, and he was like that when I was 12 and he was 16. He taught freely and gave all. Every time he put his hands on the guitar what came out sounded like music.
Joe and I have been very close friends our whole lives basically. I cannot imagine how my life would have been without him in it. If you wanted to know what my emotional journey with him has been, just imagine the feeling of deep appreciation and that would be it," he said.
