Beat a Go Go

Joe is already here and the TV houses have started with interviews. The press conference for all the rest will follow after that. So, we are sitting on the staircase smoking and waiting....At once comes the Croatian promoter to us and by a miracle (or rather as a consequence of the hard work of the Slovenian press promoter Bojan) I got a chance to talk with Joe in person for few minutes, for this short interview, two days before his fiftieth birthday.

The first thing you notice about Joe are his eyes in the color of the summer sky and his modest, relaxed, friendly energy... which on the stage transforms into something completely different, and sends you on a journey through the space and back with the power of his wonderful, beautiful music.

Taisija interviewing Joe Satriani - photo by Armando Sturman

Taisija: How do you feel on this tour ?

Joe:  Oh, we're having a very wonderful time on tour.  It has been very successful and we're playing good music, so we're very happy.

Taisija: What is the difference between American and European audiences?

Joe:  I think the biggest difference is Europeans have a longer musical culture ,that it is reflected in how they react , how they sing along with the music ...So, we get a lot more melodic singing from the audience. All of Europe -I would say, from Central to Southern Europe is more lively, than from Central to Northern Europe.  (laughter)

Taisija: So, Super Colossal is your tenth studio album.

Joe: Yes.

Taisija:  What would you say about this album and your first stuff you were doing when you were playing  the first things like Surfing With the Alien, Flying In a Blue Dream...

Joe: Yeah, it's something that  I'm reflecting a part of now and then... I get to really hear it during the live performances because we are playing songs from all the records.  And so, what I hope the audiences hear is the care that is taken to transfer the intense inspiration that goes into the writing of this music and into performing it ....You know every night we perform wild ...So, I also hope they can hear a little bit more finesse, and the solos, I keep working on them, so, I hope they are hearing that I am getting better (laughter)....

Taisija: Oh, yes...

Joe:  Yeah...

Taisija: I think that in your music - you have a really special language, because I can always recognize without reading the title what are you talking about.

Joe: Oh, that's great, that's great.

Taisija: How did you make/compose/create all this melodies?  A really special melody comes from somewhere...always.

Joe: Yeah, I spend probably most of my time on those songs like A Love Eternal from the new album, making sure that the phrasing is absolutely perfect.  And you know, I've played a few notes over and over for hours and hours, 'til I think that I have it right.  Because the phrasing of the melody is just like a phrase in any language and I am trying to convey the right story and ...the difficult part is that... I want to communicate in any language, not just English like when I speak - but I want to be universal. And most of the songs are the most typical to play as well.

Taisija: Yes, so, music - has this special language which is different, for example from literature ...or other arts.

Joe: Yes, yes... I think so, and that is illustrated to us, as a whole band, every time, over and over again on tour wherever we go to different countries.  Last year we finished our tour in India.  And it is wonderful to watch a crowd of 20,000 people singing these melodies that I've written.  It brings us to believe that music is a universal language and the people do get the message .

Taisija: Do you have another plan for G3 and who will play with you this time ?

Joe: Yes, in October we are in South America with G3 and I'm bringing along Erick Johnson and John Petrucci..

Taisija: Ja.

Joe: In December I will be in Australia and I am bringing along Steve Vai and John Petrucci.  And we have another one for February and March - I don't know who is coming there.  I hope we will coming back here in Europe in one year with G3 , but I don't know who the other two will be.

Taisija:  So, everything is in development, this is really nice.

Joe: Thank you.

Taisija: Will you play again in Slovenia? Will you finally have your solo concert there?

Joe: Yes I hope so, I mean I would hope that we can string together more shows that are closer together.  It is a difficult thing, a tour, to put together.  It is like ...it's not really a holiday, you know, it's a lot of work and we still have to get from one place to another, it can't be too far away.  So, it's a lot of traveling - we only spend maybe sixteen hours in each city, the rest of the time we're traveling. So if it's too far away then we have to skip it.  So, we have to skip Slovenia this time even if it's so close, but we couldn't get Milano, Rome or Spain and squeeze in Slovenia, so we hope to do it next year. [laughter]

I was totally absorbed in our conversation.  When I look around I notice that the room is full of people watching and listening to us.  I realize that the press conference will start in a few seconds.  So, we have to say goodbye to each other.

The concert starts at nine o'clock, with the great Scottish guitarist Adrian Legg. I always had a wish to see him once. He is playing a very special-shaped guitar and his music poetry stylel is great. Of course, the audience, full of enthusiastic-crazy guitar fans, accepts him with obvious admiration.

The lights on the stage turn on dark blue when Joe Satriani and his band takes the stage. Joe comes to the stage and falls down on his knees, starting to pulling out unbelievable sounds from his guitar already from the very first moment.  

The impression of the sounds that he gets from guitar is impossible to describe with words.  It is something that every admirer of his music has to see once in live performance.  Excellent technique, virtuoso playing and unique style.  Every piece of his music has its own dramaturgy, groove and rhythm, all this together make the integrity of each song.  He puts all his feelings, passion and personality into the playing - along with wild energy...all this elements together give his music its own life.  

Tonight he is in a really special good mood...coming to the edge of the stage performing with finesse and wildness, communicating with the audience without words, only with the sounds from his guitar....the crowd is one with him following each single tone - enthusiastically screaming and singing along.  For me, it is really incredibly fascinating, every time, again and again, to hear people singing the melody of a piece of instrumental music.  I believe for many of them their life's dream of music is becoming a truth with this concert.  All of us who are trying to catch the magical moments were under the stage with our cameras or try to load it in our memories somehow forever - we are trying to keep the songs and scene powerful in our minds, never to fade away....

All the energy and attention from the crowd is on Joe's virtuoso playing of guitar with every riff, with every solo, or double fingertapping or even playing guitar with his tongue.

The band is Dave LaRue on bass, Gaylan Henson on rhythm guitar and of course his long-time companion on drums (since 1979), Jeff Campitelli.  They play old and new songs from Flying In A Blue Dream, Cool #9, Crystal Planet, Circles, Summer Song, Surfing With The Alien, Mystical Potato Head, Super Colossal, Always With Me Always With You, to Crowd Chant - where the audience is really into the singing exactly as you can hear this song recorded on the Super Colossal album.  It is without sense to count here all the songs, but each of his songs get something extra in life performance compared with the excellent producing from cds.  There is always something special added to them- some special effects or some extra brilliant solos or whatever it is - playing guitar with mouth or screaming and singing along, thousands of people....It is just fantastic to see all the skills Satriani possess - how he is really "one with the guitar" -how he is playing all these complicated parts with such an elegant easiness and passion.  He has the ability to take you out of time and place to some other space where only music exists.  This is what happens in his concerts.

This is the third time that I have seen him playing live. Once in Munich nearly ten years ago, with G3 in Ljubljana and now.  This time he isn't singing or doing any acoustic songs like Baroque or Tears In The Rain....The concert was just pure energetic guitar rock performance with a special message understandable in each language, as Joe said during the interview at the afternoon.  Incredible!!!

Two and a half hours later, I am sitting at the beach with friends drinking beer and chatting.  The sea is like a mirror shining in mysterious moonlight.  We remember Satriani's wonderful reflecting of the life-emotions and a long journey in the sound-message of his guitar.

I am thinking, writing about music is writing about echoes.  Of course, we have to consider the facts like encyclopedia-type knowledge and music education.  There are some rules, but the most important is what particular change the art causes in our soul - what kind of transformation happens in us, when we are listening to music.  If I can suggest what happens, perhaps it is in the area of solar plexus, somehow - analysis and syntheses based in echoes of what we hear.

I can hardly wait for Joe's next rock guitar magical journey... So, see you there....