Interview: Joe Satriani - return of the Guitar Wizard

triplew.me's Luke Oram interviews guitar legend Joe Satriani ahead of the release of his latest album, Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, on October 4.

When the Roman poet Juvenal first coined the phrase ‘Black Swan’, it was assumed that no such animal existed – the term became synonymous with unbelievable historic events; the kind that would likely change the course of history.  Lebanese Essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb would later conclude that World War 1, the arrival of the computer and September 11 were Black Swan moments.

It might seem lofty to hear guitar legend Joe Satriani adding his music to this equation, but it goes a long way to explaining how the man feels about studio album number 14; Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards.

”Some of these songs are so different to anything from my previous albums that they will be unexpected” Satriani channels down the phoneline at his San Francisco home, “They’re songs that are game changers - the term ‘Black Swans’ is actually apropos to this album”

Satriani wrote the new album earlier in this year; carving 50 songs down to 14 in his home studio, before handing the demos to his band. Not all the songs are new though; Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards brings to light a few pieces from the vault – including ‘Wind in the Trees’ -  a piece that had been haunting Satriani’s journals for decades.

“For the last 20 years, every now and then I would bring up that piece of paper in my book and think ‘maybe I can try it on this album’ but it never really materialized - on this record, for some reason I just really felt like I had a handle on the idea.”

‘Wind in the Trees’ plays on the inventive drive of the virtuoso’s playing too; inspired by a conversation with his manager about auto-tune dominating the top ten charts, Satriani promptly went home and composed the song’s main melody using auto-tune as a guitar pedal; “I got my guitar plugged in and got the program running and I realized that if I played like someone who was a really drunken, lousy guitar player then I could get that thing sounding really unique” he laughs. For the record, it’s very hard for Satriani to pretend to be a lousy guitarist.

The guitar God, it seemed was not only touched by the past, but by the subconscious when it came to material for the new album; Satriani claims the keyboard-tinged funk of ‘Dream Song’ was written in his sleep; “As soon as I woke up I had the whole song in my head; the arrangement, how I wanted to play it – I ran down to my studio and within about two and a half hours I had the whole demo mapped out.”

It’s easy to imagine Satriani’s creativity seeping into his sleep – he doesn’t have many free waking hours in the first place. This year has been a prolific one for him; Black Swans was written alongside new material for Chickenfoot; the supergroup which sees the axeman teaming up with Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar from Van Halen and Red Hot Chilli Peppers sticksman Chad Smith. “We have these ridiculous schedules that prevent us from being together most of the time, but somehow we figure out how to do it” says Satriani of the rock n’ roll gentlemen’s club initiated by Hagar in 2008.

Inspired by a jam in Vegas, the band affords the guitarist the rare luxury of a frontman – and not just any frontman; the incomparable Sammy Hagar. “There is some chemistry there that took us by surprise” Satriani says of the combo, “from that night on we promised that we’d try and turn it into a band – Sammy and I got together to do some writing and we realized we were very compatible as writing partners”

Armed with Satriani’s demos, the band will hit the studio in January to start work on their sophomore album, which promises a slice of rock and roll soul, including some “hyper, Keith Moon style drumming” from Smith.

Satriani also took the earlier part of the year out to join the Experience Hendrix festival, a gig he says was particularly sacred “I started playing guitar because of Jimi Hendrix…It made me feel closer to his legacy, and it made me understand just how amazing Jimi was as a writer and a performer – because its not easy playing those songs – you just can’t play them like he did. You can imitate a couple of parts, you can play with your teeth, but you can never get to that part of him that was unique.”

When I suggest to Satriani that people may be saying the same things about him when he’s gone, he laughs down the phoneline; “I have no idea, that’s your department!” There’s one thing Satriani is sure of though; after decades spanning every inch of the fretboard, he’s still got plenty to offer; with album 14 under his belt, the great Satch is still very, very far from his final swansong.

Joe Satriani's album Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards is available in all retailers across the Middle East on October 4 via Sony Music Entertainment.

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