Author: Jernej Vene
Interview date: 12.11.1995
Whenever a guitar master visits somewhere near us, I just can’t help going to the show. Usually that means making it at least to Munich, but the trip always pays off with an exceptional musical experience. Mid-November 1995 was no different, when I got to enjoy a performance by the guitar god, wizard, saint and apostle Joe Satriani. Sometimes luck smiles on me in the form of an interview, and this was one of those times. You’ll read that Joe Satriani is a perfectly ordinary mortal who looks after himself, his family and his fans.
Vene: After the huge success of your previous records, the new one, titled Joe Satriani, has a very different sound. There are lots of different styles on it. How come?
Satriani: I always wanted to have a big record collection, both my own and other people’s. My favorite musicians are all over the map in terms of style. Among them you’ll find jazz players, metalheads, the Beatles and the Stones. It all shows how wide my taste is. When you grow up with them, it’s really interesting, because you see how you change along with them. It comes through even more at the shows. It’s the same with me and the guys I work with. At our shows we play songs from Not Of This Earth, Surfing With The Alien, Dreaming Number 11, Flying In A Blue Dream, Extremist, Time Machine and the new Joe Satriani, which makes the show a lot more fun for the audience and for us. The music is different, and the guys in the band like playing it more too, because the variety keeps them interested. If we always played just one kind of music, we’d lose all our creativity on stage. There are plenty of differences between my records too, and the new one sort of fits into my development. It’s 1995 now, not 1988, say, so the music fits the time.
Vene: Do you have to evolve musically on every record, or is it an unintentional process?
Satriani: It’s an artistic challenge I set for myself. It takes a lot of discipline. I don’t like calling it hard labor, because being a musician is a tough job, but it isn’t physically hard work. It’s not like going to a regular job. Plenty of people around the world really slog away, whereas for me it’s more a mental strain, getting to new sounds and new approaches in my music. I’m happy with that, and with my job, of course. People always sense that I’ve put a lot of effort and hard work into the music. They also appreciate my earlier work, which they know well, and they know I’m not copying it just to get cheesy or too commercial. Those are the main reasons the new record turned out the way it did. We didn’t set out to make it like this, it’s just the result of our spontaneous work.
Vene: When you’re in the composing phase, you’re in a special state of mind. Where do you find the inspiration for your melodies? Is it a moment in your life or something going on around you over a longer period?
Satriani: Sometimes I write a song in an instant, and that’s a flash of inspiration for me. I just get an idea and already know how the instruments will sound. Everything unfolds really fast. I don’t know exactly where that inspiration comes from, but I do know that when it’s close, I have to follow it and obey it, because it’s precious. Then there are cases where the seed of a song starts in different corners of my brain, and I play little bits of the ideas separately, then together again… Sometimes I can’t put those pieces together even the next day. It can take a year, ten years, who knows… It’s not a matter of talent. I write songs on different instruments, in my head, and I wake up in the morning with ideas that came out of countless possible situations.
Vene: What’s your working day like when you’re at home?
Satriani: I have a three-year-old son, so I get up really early, around half past six in the morning. He usually comes to wake me up and we play for a bit. Then we feed him and take him to school (private daycare, author’s note). After that I try to play or write music for an hour or two. In recent years I’ve been trying to break my playing up into several parts. So now I play in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. At different times I play different things. Sometimes I practice theory, other times I go through half-finished songs, other times I listen to demo recordings, sometimes I play along with records or with friends. Some days I play twelve hours, the next day only fifteen minutes. Of course I don’t just enjoy home life with my wife and son, because my music business takes up a lot of time. I have my own label, then a touring agency, I have meetings with the accountant and managers, I answer offers, and I spend a lot of time on the phone or in the office.
Vene: Before you head out on a long tour, you surely prepare well for it. What does your mental and physical preparation look like?
Satriani: First I like to settle the song order for the first part of the tour, then I play through the whole set at least once every night. At home, and without breaks, like at a show. I put my son to bed, put on headphones and focus on playing. For physical fitness I do sports and get as much rest as I can. I like running and playing tennis, but since my fingers are so important, I avoid contact sports. I also play with my son and teach him all kinds of kids’ games. We play soccer, basketball, baseball and other sports together.
Vene: Have you ever had problems with tendinitis (inflammation of the tendons in the wrist and hands, a fairly common problem among guitarists, author’s note)?
Satriani: No, luckily! Sometimes I feel a bit of tension in my left arm. Warming up before you start playing is really important. You have to start slowly, and on tour you shouldn’t overdo the playing, because your body gets very tired, mostly because you’re not sleeping properly or you’re not resting enough.
Vene: What drives you in your work? Is it some inner force telling you that you have to satisfy your fans?
Satriani: If you don’t put in the effort, you won’t be good at what you do. And if you’re not good, in our business you can quickly lose the financial backing of your record label. I’m here today because the label lent me the money to record an album. They’ll keep doing that as long as I keep giving them good songs, good playing and going out on tour. It’s a kind of friendly relationship, we help each other, and that way we both reach our goals. I fulfill my artistic goal, and the label sells records and earns money, so of course we’re all happy.
