INTRO INTERVIEW
STEVE VAI
With a ‘new’ album filled with vibrant and uplifting rock songs, Steve Vai talks to Jason Sidwell about classic rock influences, his songwriting and the art of guitar playing and recording.
A ‘new’ album unleashes the biker rocker in Steve Vai
JOHN HAREL
GT: It’s an astounding and uplifting story about Gash and your involvement with him within the biker culture. Had you had any impression of his singing ability before asking him to the studio?
SV: Thanks, it is a compelling story. But the only idea that I had regarding John as a singer was a video tape he made for his dad of him singing a Frank Sinatra song. He could sound just like Sinatra. He had a smooth crooner type voice, but then every now and then I would hear him belt something out with a rock and roll edge and that’s when I started to think about getting him in the studio. I didn’t realise his rock and roll voice until I got him into the studio.
GT:
From a timeline perspective, do you hear considerable similarities and differences between this and Sex And Religion as they’re both vocal driven albums?
SV: To me they are very different records with not much similarity - with perhaps the exception of the energy that they both create. The Gash record is very straight ahead with no pops and whistles, no filler, no dense compositional moments, no quirky and challenging solos. Sex And Religion had a lot of that stuff but this record is straight ahead.