{"id":7441,"date":"2012-11-12T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T00:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=7441"},"modified":"2012-12-25T22:27:19","modified_gmt":"2012-12-25T22:27:19","slug":"feature-steve-vai-11-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-steve-vai-11-12\/","title":{"rendered":"STEVE VAI – Vai The Revelator (November 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

STEVE VAI – Vai The Revelator<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nNovember 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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Virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai issued sixth studio full-length Real Illusions: Reflections<\/em> in February 2005, the first in a planned series of albums collectively chronicling a central tale. The series will form a trilogy at least, but perhaps as much as a quadrilogy. A gap of seven years separated the respective issues of Real Illusions: Reflections<\/em> and its successor The Story Of Light<\/em><\/a>, The Story Of Light<\/em> arriving in August 2012 to be exact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking to do a concept record, but maybe something a little unorthodox and contrary to typical concept records,\u201d Steve remembers. \u201cI had this story which is very kind of esoteric and in-depth. I thought \u2018Why don\u2019t I express the story over a series of records, like three records?\u2019 In doing so, I decided to make the songs indicative of personalities, characters, and elements in the story. I didn\u2019t want to give the story away though, so the songs are not in a particular order through the unfolding of the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to figure out elements of the story, you need to read the liner notes and listen to some of the lyrics. It\u2019s the kind of thing though where I\u2019m not clobbering people over the head with the esoteric story when really all they wanna do is hear the music. After I release three records that are more or less installments of these songs for this story, I thought maybe perhaps at some point I would do a package of four records. I would take the three records that I would\u2019ve previously released, and put the songs in the proper order. I\u2019d maybe put some lyrics on the melodic songs, and release it with another record\u2019s worth of narrative and maybe some additional songs. This way you can kind of listen to the story from the beginning to the end in a very linear fashion, and it would be completely different than the kind of instrumental records I usually make.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story in question concerns an individual \u201cwho goes through some horrific experiences. As such he goes mad, so we see the story through his eyes. He lives in this town, and in the town are people. Each person has an intricate story to their life, stories that you can\u2019t even imagine. You can\u2019t even write movies that have these types of stories, and at some point this shaman of sorts comes to the town. The people from the town go to this place; when they go into this place it\u2019s like a big church, but it\u2019s not a conventional kind of church. There\u2019s this reflecting pond, and when a person looks into the reflecting pond what they see first is their identity. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey see their reflection, and if they keep looking they start to see different layers of themselves. First, they identify with their identity. It\u2019d be sort of looking at a mirror for a really long period of time, and what happens then is they start seeing how they\u2019ve created their own identity. They start basically seeing how their identities were created by experiences in their life that they have a particular perspective of, and how their identities were an illusion in a sense. When they look deeper they see how these experiences in their life shaped their life, and how it affected the people around them in both good, bad, funny and all these different ways. They then even see deeper, and see how these actions of theirs have affected the world. You then start seeing the character development and stories that take place in this town that are pretty extraordinary. When they then look even deeper they start seeing into various past life experiences, and how they\u2019re related to the kind of decisions that they\u2019ve made in this particular life. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey then look even deeper, and what eventually happens is they get to a point where they see that everything is basically an illusion \u2013 a form that changes \u2013 and underneath all of this form is pure consciousness. There\u2019s only one of it, and it expresses itself in the physical in infinite forms. When Captain Drake Mason looks into the pond \u2013 the main character \u2013 he doesn\u2019t see anything, or it seems like he doesn\u2019t see anything. What he does is he leaves, and writes a book. At the end of the whole story is a scene where he presents this book to the town\u2019s people, and the name of the book is Under It All. The first chapter is called The Story Of Light<\/em>, and that\u2019s how the story begins.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Title cut and opening number \u2018The Story Of Light\u2019 includes Russian lyrics. \u201cI had the track, and I had the lyrics which were the first chapter for The Story Of Light<\/em>,\u201d the axeman explains. \u201cI didn\u2019t wanna have it sung; there is a melody that works with the vocals, but I thought of having it recited. English just didn\u2019t work \u2013 languages have different dynamics. I thought of Italian, but Italian is a very romantic language. It sounds like music, and something like French is very romantic sounding as well. German has a lot of sharp edges, but I tried to think of a language that would fit really well. I\u2019ve always been attracted to the Russian language because it has a softness, but it has edges. I just thought that it would work really well. I did it, and I thought it worked really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018John The Revelator\u2019, meanwhile, can trace its origins in the 1930 composition of the same name by American blues artist Blind Willie Johnson. \u201cI have this collection of records called The Anthology Of American Folk Music<\/em> (1952), which is all these very early Americana recordings,\u201d Steve discloses. \u201cI don\u2019t go any place without them. There\u2019s this one artist on there called Blind Willie Johnson doing this version of \u2018John The Revelator\u2019, and I was totally captivated by it. I studied this guy, and got all of his music. Whenever I would listen to his version of \u2018John The Revelator\u2019, I would hear it with all of these grandiose guitars and a really powerful lead singer. The song that follows it is called \u2018Book Of The Seven Seals\u2019. They were actually one piece of music, and it was all \u2018John The Revelator\u2019. I was just seeing this scene in the story almost theatrically, and I was juxtaposing together these different textures of gospel, but not real gospel. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe second part of the song \u2013 \u2018Book Of The Seven Seals\u2019 \u2013 has this huge choir on it, like an 80-piece choir, and the arrangement is very hokey sounding. I was hearing this in my head, and so I built the track. When it came time to do the lead vocal, I was thinking of singing it myself. I know my limitations, and I probably would\u2019ve destroyed the song. The next day though, I was at the Grammy Foundation\u2019s 14th Annual Music Preservation Project (on February 9th, 2012) and Beverly McLellan took to the stage. I saw her sing for the first time, and I was completely blown away. I was astounded by this connection she has for soul. I said \u2018That\u2019s my singer for \u2018John The Revelator\u2019,\u2019 and I was lucky enough that she accepted the invitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signalling The Story Of Light<\/em>\u2019s most emotional piece (as is customary on all Steve Vai full-length records), track seven happens to be a rendition of the old Celtic lullaby \u2018Mullach A\u2019tSi\u2019. \u201cI really like Celtic music,\u201d the musician enthuses. \u201cI have this one record called Celtic Lullaby<\/em> (1998), and one of the tracks on there is \u2018Mullach A\u2019tSi\u2019 by the singer Padraigin Ni Uallachain. When you listen to cultural music, the people that create it are absorbed in their culture. As a result, they approach music very differently than Western musicians. There are all these nuances of timing and articulation and dynamics and harmonic structures that are very different. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a musician my ear can pick up on these parameters, and the way she was singing had beautiful little nuances in it of phrasing that I wanted to do on the guitar. It was really hard; it was almost like re-learning how to play, but it was a glorious project for me. I had to focus really hard on each phrase \u2013 there are really specific nuances. Most people may not hear them, but somebody that\u2019s really interested in guitar phraseology might get a kick out of it. So, that\u2019s what I did. It\u2019s a great way to expand your vocabulary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018No More Amsterdam\u2019 was co-penned with singer-songwriter Aimee Mann. \u201cI was going to Berklee College Of Music, and so was Aimee \u2013 we actually went to school at the same time,\u201d Steve recalls. \u201cWe even lived in the same apartment building, just a couple of doors away from each other. My girlfriend (Pia Maiocco) at the time \u2013 who\u2019s now my wife \u2013 was Aimee\u2019s best friend, so through the years I always had Aimee\u2019s music in the house. Whenever she released something, I really liked it. I had this song called \u2018Innerness\u2019, and it was this beautiful kind of acoustic track. I wanted it to depict in the story as being sung by two people, a man and a woman. What it is is one guy looking at the reflecting pond, and he sees this guardian angel so to speak, the voice of better judgement. He has a conversation with them. I wrote the first line, and I just got this writer\u2019s block. That told me I needed to do something else. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI told my wife Pia about it, and she said \u2018Why don\u2019t you call Aimee?\u2019 At first I thought \u2018Steve Vai and Aimee Mann? That\u2019s pretty contrasting music.\u2019 I love what she does though. She\u2019s like a poet, and her voice is always so powerfully confident. The song was sweet enough that I thought maybe she would take an interest, so I reached out to her and she really liked it. It was such a beautiful experience to work with her; I very, very rarely collaborate, but that was a beautiful collaboration. She came over, and we talked about it. She wrote all of the lyrics, and she named it \u2018No More Amsterdam\u2019. It all resonates very well with the story, because I explained to her what the story was about. She decided she would sing it, and it was really sweet. It turned out really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as the concept\u2019s third installment is concerned, no concrete plans exist at the time of writing. \u201cI have music written and I have certain storylines structured, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s gonna be my next studio record,\u201d the guitarist admits. \u201cThere are some other projects I wanna do, and I wanna evolve my own awareness of things that I\u2019m interested in in life before I really tackle it. If it\u2019s in my cards to live long enough, I hope to get to it (laughs). The final project is actually a quadrilogy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Live performances are scheduled in support of The Story Of Light<\/em>, a United Kingdom trek beginning on December 1st at Portsmouth\u2019s Guildhall. A date at Manchester\u2019s Apollo on December 7th will conclude Steve\u2019s visit to British shores. \u201cIt\u2019s got a different dynamic than my other tours,\u201d he reckons. \u201cI always like to switch up the band a bit to give it a different feel. In my last band I had two violinists which works very well, and with this band I\u2019m thinking of adding something different. I came across this electric harpist named Deborah Henson-Conant, and she plays this electric harp. It\u2019s quite a sight to see. We can process the sound, and do some very interesting things with it. In my mind I thought it would work, but I didn\u2019t think it was gonna work as good as it does (laughs). It\u2019s really beautiful. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I put a show together, I really see myself as trying to be the best entertainer I can be. People spend their money and time to come to see a show, and I want to give them something as fulfilling as I can muster. As a result, the show has a flow to it that I think has a lot of different dynamics. There are really intense, dense, complex pieces, and very simple, stripped down pieces. At times it\u2019s very heavy, and at times it\u2019s very, very intimate and delicate. We do an acoustic set that has a nice feel to it. I don\u2019t like to take myself too seriously, so there\u2019s some comic relief here and there. Ultimately though, I also want people to feel that they sense great musicianship, so everybody in the band is very competent. My goal is to put on the best show that I can so that when people leave, they feel really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Story Of Light<\/em> was released as an exclusive covermount CD via Classic Rock magazine on August 14th, 2012, and subsequently on September 11th through Favored Nations Entertainment.<\/p>\n

Interview published in November 2012<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEVE VAI – Vai The Revelator Anthony Morgan November 2012 Steve Vai Virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai issued sixth studio full-length Real Illusions: Reflections in February 2005, the first in a planned series of albums collectively chronicling a central tale. The series will form a trilogy at least, but perhaps as much as a quadrilogy. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-steve-vai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7441"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7456,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7441\/revisions\/7456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}