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THE ANIMAL - Solo Extract 1. approx s 3 10.16 20-19 “pininien 70 + Dmg Ex 13. THE AUDIENCE IS LISTENING - Clean Intro ; i : § (0) (C adds) eae fed J = eos 3 oe on | 0.00 5 25h D5C5 GDR Cmai7 D eemoan al Style @ LICKS Ex 15 THE ATTITUDE SONG +122 approx uw 214 4 12 be ob == early || I 4 4 4134 ae ee ee oe ee 6 Pick serape| Ex 16a HOT DOG AND A SHAKE 8 ‘aioe . e @ A ® ro | nH pop i? 4 HH POPO PO) At] Bh WAAR Haar, ea ee eePUR LD Cee m cre music - be must be Pee aE ee eo Pen ee Tar Rea ce Le ede a ced Parea © Oo og © A Hporg Pp Hh Po PG “AY yy MW pete te ear a Helen heer yp hPa ia > 7 a7 77 HHEQPQ S$ POF poPO POPO POPO Oe == AA AA PoPO Ss Ex {6b HOT DOG AND A SHAKE Harmony Line for the Last Four BarsPhotos: James Cumpsty STEVE Glance down Steve Vai’s CV and you'll find the names of some of Rockville’s most important residents leaping out at you. Graeme Marshall pins down the slippery genius in Los Angeles. aught by Joe Satiani, employed and nurtured by T Frank Zappa, the pertect pariner for Dave Lee Rath and a significant contributor to Whitesnake's ‘Sip OF “The Tongue’ album ane tour, Val is head and shoulders above the vast majority of hose accorded the guitar hero' tag. His solo work, {tom Flexable’ to Sex And Religion’ has always challenged and seventh heaven atthe prospect product later this year ' had about 27 or so songs writen" explains Stovo, “and they were taking diferent shapes, a lot of them were epic ‘Passion Ane Warfare’ type Inctrumentals, others were ust guitar, bass and stuf and some has | decided it would bo a good idea to o records because '3 80 much diferent ‘material | decided that to release an LP and then an EP wth all the simpleFriend ‘guitar gongs on it would take me a long ime, so | wanted todo the EP frst Ast stande I'm stil working on the EP; ithas about sic or fight songs on it, al instrumentals, and they're real simple; one track of ‘utr, bass, drums and keyboards. Some ofits real hheavy and some of ts kinda tender. We're hopefully shooting fora March release ff and I think it's going to be a treat for guitar players \ With weird kid vocalist Devin Townsend's rgerultment for the ‘Sex ‘And Religion’ album, is he to be found in front of the mike again? “ityou'e siting down, lel you that m probably going to attampt singing the songs myself" Steve laughs. “i's very hard for a quy like me to find a singer, simply because when I get into the studio | want to do things a certain way and | don't want ta have to tel them everything. | need. somevody that's really on the same wavelength i vas to work with another singer | would need to find someone | couls realy gel with just haven't found them and I don't care to spend alot of time and energy doing so. Maybe I tse background singers and tty to sing somo ot the stu! myself. [know that's risky for ‘a guitar hero because a) nobody wants to hear me sing because frm a guitar nero and b) | dont hhave a very geod voice. But Im ‘eccentric enough not to car ‘about either of those reasons, Eccentric he may be, but Steve is still in full possession of his faculties, to the extent that we are unlikely to ever find him playing Fusion in his old age. ‘Oh God, | hope not!” he winces. but my idaa of Fusion i lot Aiferont to what Fusion actually is. When I start hearing myseit sounding lke that | star to got a litle nauseous. As faras Jaze (9088, |llke elements oft, but | Would never go in that direction because it just doesn't appeal to it's hard to say how my playing will evolve trom here but Fm always going to be tying diferent 1 played a lot of Fusion at colege things: I've got a lot of differant plates Inthe oven, 50 to speak The new LP wil be like Passion ‘And Warfare’ meets ‘Sex And Fligion’. But then after that is an ‘orchestra project; Im stl chipping away al wing the scores and that’s coming up in the summer. But the main direction tor me is. always going o be coloured by heavy guitar because that's what Im into {Are we likely to enjoy Vai live in the UK once the album is released? Unfortunately not, and tm stating to really feel empty because I haven't been there for ‘awhilo,” Stove admits.“ don’ ‘know why, but | must have been born in England in a past ife or something, because | relly ove it there and! would realy like to go again. twas the highlight of my entire music career when | played there with my band because was a really receptive audience. | actually sold out the Hammersmith Apollo, which was really exciting In addition to being quite a ‘good guitarist, Steve also had a hhand in designing the acclaimed Ibanez RG series guitars in the late ’80s, and ‘subsequently the seven string Universe, use the seven string a lot." he nods. “AS a matter of fact Iu Used it on a hilarious song called (phonetically) The Yayo Gak i's ‘what my son used to sing when hho was two or three years old: ne would sing yayo gak’ and | would record iton DAT. | always wanted to make a song of itso recently | went back and edited through a year's worth of DATs and ve got this two-and.a halt minute track of bim singing \yayo gak’ against thie really heavy drum beat and heavy guitar par | use the seven string and i's in the Koy of 8 so i's really neavy 5 And nilaroust” Famed for his extensive knowledge of theory and compositional techniques, how does Steve approach the writing process? “Wellit varies.” he muses. “You're blessed withthe inspiration ofthe moment; you might be waking down the street and the churning fof a sweeper truck just ‘gives you the rhythm. Something lke Yayo Gak knew immediately what the hole arrangement should be. But sometimes | hear someting on the racio and it's realy beautiful and inapitea me to go write @ s0ng in that vein. | have this (ally great song that's ‘going tobe on the LP; | don't have a te frit yet but tas inspired by Black Hole Sun. That song just wowed me when | heard it its s0 beautiful and so xyptic and it's what | always wanted to hearin ‘my chord changes and melody [My song doesn't sound anything Fike it, butts sit part of being inspired by something, | den' have anything to hide, so I can tell you that maybe 75% of what | dois rellection of what I've hheard and 25% is my own, ‘Are Mr Vai's taxing 10 hour practice schedules of old stil part of his daily routine?“Wel, | don't relly practise now,” thing though. ‘ego goes crazy and can'treally much concentration involved rmvaiom A lGeroai®! peli aek my weanere Burabeugisa goreamng geet. Then tnunaege indy’. havetolarmyatlgoedon at panes om hse ccmnnpinaryowtgerls hesnithytemreyoureaiopattuamrent goer sage’ sna ehagioy, seta suena ey mycnian_ wt yen (WVigpny plete semper 0. Dene Rvs att e) weseimer peeesretay ueteeery eae ay Weriarean) re tall oy ain ccreoltcusbomusthags” Khlpesnrtipaytiswaycr naondclraclyand eaves right aller uncut ccraytngsivenincase coterGurotsletmss, benmenaWieniwismt Ste sheshsheat 9 nvr muse wees Tucingmoneratventein Prrczapatsacindonmy _gaboatuitWimsretacr tis oot erence thane tet gc aiymog asin ‘et mused ng oe tmmromuntbecatainite "Ferme arse Cowap tre guy ano worsouhe nesta Stevecoudgues crops tneu went el ee ae eee dpe mh Maeva he ear commen‘he fn dy matty oe tm Baereascetan gat tite wah nets sce Tee ey Deremance oy a player. We allknow that these are and tho scales, exercises, playing through chemistry 4s siting down and geting ‘extremely creativa, it's not ‘chord enanges ete. You can is right {going to happen in those become very technical this way, between bands. But | had other avenues but there's very few lines of the todo that. True, at times it felt teaching that really force a players that t would be nice to do an person to explore thelr personal But when improvised solo, but that sound and their personal there's \would be uncomfortable creativities. Don't get me wrong, | more because that's not would never say don't practise people what the technique. because having the my ‘audience is chops allows you to pul off things really intrested that you wouldnt otherwise be ier hearing fable to pull off and which help Those kind of you to express yourself better But there are certain mental ‘exercises which help to create ‘more of a personality in your playing than any techaical prowess, “The one thing you should aim for isto diseover your ‘own uniqueness, oF Indivicuality, which takes ‘courage. | know it sounds weird but you have to be wiling to sacritice peer pressure and all that stu ~ why aren't you playing the new Pearl Jam record or why aren't you playing lk this guy or that {94y? YoU know it takes alot of courage 10 say, I don't really care ‘about that, | care more about ling this audiences just want to hear a hit song" @ Steve acknowledges that offing your cap to your Influences is no bad