David Fleming speaks with Steve Vai about his newest release, “Inviolate.” We’ll also hear about a few tracks from the cd/album – “Zeus in Chains,” “Little Pretty,” and “Teeth of the Hydra.” The latter is titled as it is because it’s played ON The Hydra – a monster guitar with three necks - a (four-string) bass, a seven-string guitar, and a twelve-string guitar. Some of the areas are fretless, with a variety of pickups. There’s also a small harp-string section, and midi plug ins to accommodate synthesized sound FX. With “Zeus in Chains,” this is yet another “riff or run captured on an unplugged guitar connected to an iphone next to the bed late at night” moments. He has a lot of those. And it was in listening to it as he progressed… the song TOLD him it would be called “Zeus in Chains.” The conversation starts talking about a jam Vai enjoyed for a long, long time before realizing it came from Steve Lukather. It became the roadmap (for a number of wonderful reasons) to creating a solo - which was the perfect way to begin a conversation about an instrumental album.
We’ll hear about some approaches to things which come across as much deeper than one might expect. Or at the very least, we’ll hear about things approached in a unique fashion or unique reason. I enjoyed this one at SO many levels!
