“I’ve been keeping busy, interestingly enough, as things were closing down, my partners at SceneFour Art Collective had made a connection with Christian O’Mahony the owner of the Wentworth Gallery chain and they commissioned me to do a whole bunch of paintings. I did 11 guitars and over one hundred canvases and I’m working on another 30 that I have to finish in about a week-and-a-half before I head back to L.A. to do another music video. So, that’s been really great that I’ve had these two ultra-creative things that I can immerse myself into while I’ve been going stir crazy and not traveling the world with my guitar strapped on.”
“Keeping busy,” for most people is a polite response to questions like; how are you? What’s been happening? However, if you’re one of the world’s most respected guitar virtuosos like Joe Satriani; it’s just another day at the office.
Recently, Joe gave some in-depth thoughts on his upcoming March 12 fine art show, Joe Satriani: “Beyond Reality” taking place at the Wentworth Gallery at the mall in Short Hills, NJ, the process behind its symbolism, how he “Accidentally” got into painting and oh yeah, his soon to be released new studio album called, “The Elephants of Mars.”
“I’ve been seriously painting with canvas and brushes for probably about six to eight years. I grew up in a family that painted, my two older sisters have degrees in Art and Fine Art and there was stuff around that they would hand me just to get me out of their hair; here, go sit in the corner and paint Joey,” he said with a large laugh. “I remember my brother and I drawing and painting when we were very young, I met my wife when she was getting her degree in Graphic Arts here in San Francisco, our son wound up getting a degree in Studio Art and Film Production; so, I’ve been surrounded by not only artists but these materials. So, about eight years ago, I made the transition from sketching and computer art which I had applied to my guitar straps, tour tee-shirts, CD booklets and things like that; I finally turned to my wife and said; can you teach me everything there is to know about how to deal with brushes, paints, canvas and solvents and how to make this stuff work?”
Talk about a quick study; some artists toil for years to learn technique and find happiness in their work and/or creativity but Satriani seems to have adapted rather nicely in adding another weapon to his artistic arsenal; even if it was not the original plan.
“So, it has been a really nice journey that by accident has turned into this full-blown art career and it was mainly because I was approached by these two guys at SceneFour Art Collective; Cory and Ravi down in L.A. to take part in their series where they do timelapse photography of musicians playing their instruments in the dark wearing gloves with LED lights on them. Ravi manipulates these photos in the computer and creates these prints that are really stunningly beautiful and at the heart is the motion and energy of the musician. I think they had done about 30 drummers before they got to testing me out as the first guitarist to see if it could happen and it wound up being a great success and while we were there doing the shoot, I happened to mention that I was dabbling in painting. I showed them a bunch of the paintings that I had done and they were really excited about doing some mixed media stuff and combining the painting with the photography. We actually did that and those have been manufactured and selling really well through the SceneFour website (http://scenefourart.com/) and they made the introduction to Christian at Wentworth Gallery. They said, “If you’re really into this, you should meet Christian because there are only one or two chain galleries left in the United States and he really knows what he is doing and his support of the artists is quite unique” and I’m thrilled that I’ve got this commission going and they like what I’m doing. We seem to see eye to eye on what would be fun to do art-wise and what I’m itching to portray on canvas; it has really turned into a fortuitous thing for me.”
One might think that a talent such as Joe would be used to the accolades and good fortunes that are bestowed upon someone in the creative spotlight but not so says he; it’s rather quite the opposite.
“What’s really interesting is that I did two shows in Miami a few weeks ago and I had never done that before in my life and I’d never seen my paintings hanging on the wall of a gallery. I’m telling you, it’s like hearing your music on the radio for the first time, it just totally blows your mind and you can’t believe it’s happening and you think; how is that happening? How did the music that was just in my head, then on a tape-recorder and then on a CD; how is it now beaming out on the airwaves where millions of people can hear it? It’s a surreal experience and it never goes away; it’s always a thrill when I hear my music being broadcast especially by a real DJ on a real radio station; there is something really great about that and the gallery experience was very much like that and it just blew me away. So, I’m looking forward to doing a number of those over the year and as much as I can; as much as my schedule will allow.”
A fan of the Sci-fi realm, Satriani often uses images of aliens in his art and at times in his music, leaving us to wonder; why?
“Oh, it’s so funny, it’s not a clear-cut thing,” he once again said with a chuckle. “I often think it would be great if I can say I was visited by an alien when I was young and that would be very easy for a journalist to explain to their readers but in fact, because of my age, I grew up watching TV in the ‘60s when they had all of those funny “Outer Limits” and “Twilight Zone” tongue in cheek sci-fi kind of stuff. I have never seen an alien and if they exist I really don’t think they look anything like what the world’s anxiety has produced as the image of an alien (laughs). So, in a way, it sort of represents the neurosis of society over time, sort of like how it used to be fairies or gremlins or leprechauns; through different ages, societies and moments in civilization, people’s fears have produced this evil, fictitious thing that comes in and messes up their lives. In our millennia so to speak; it started with World War ll really, it seems like this “Little green men” kind of thing, this strange three-fingered, neutered looking, big head thing is what everyone is fearing. I really do think that if there is life out there that we probably can’t even sense it; our eyes, our ears, our nose and sense of taste probably are not enough to detect what this thing is and all you have to do as an example is look at life around the globe. What is underneath the ocean bears no resemblance to what we think might be an alien and yet they have been thriving there for millions or maybe hundreds of millions of years and if you took one of those creatures from the depths of one of the deepest trenches in the ocean and tried to explain the internet to it or how to drive a moped; there is zero connection and if you took a human and brought it to those depths of course they would be crushed. So; why would people think that an alien who somehow figured out how to get millions of light years over to here has arms, legs, fingers and they can talk? It is pure fantasy. So, in a way, it’s my way of saying, like you, I have the general fear of the unknown and we have collectively decided that this image is both us making fun of ourselves but us also agreeing that by our very nature we are skeptical and afraid of things we don’t understand and as you go deeper; I think politically we all become the alien at some point to somebody which is really an interesting thing. A new person moves in on the block; they are the new alien. You get a new guy in the band and he’s the alien until he proves himself as being a worthwhile member. Countries constantly distrust each other because they speak a different language or because they are on the other side of the hill or they look different; it’s kind of silly but it makes you stop and pause and go; why is human nature like that? Why is that? So, I was kind of playing with the fact that if you take things like the American flag and work in an alien it really touches your thoughts about; what is an alien? Why are we fixating on it? That is the question that I’d like people to think about; are you worried that an alien is really going to visit Earth and come directly to The United States? Why wouldn’t it go to Burma or Canada (laughs)? It’s really funny; does it represent the immigrant that you’re not ready for yet even though we’ve all come here from somewhere else unless you’re Native American? So, it unlocks this crazy Pandora’s Box of contradictory feelings and thoughts where you don’t even want to admit to yourself that you may have a little alien neurosis going on in some part of your life. Like in music, it’s best to hit these things head on and deal with it; if you’re sad you write a sad song and you tell people yeah, I wrote this because a friend of mine died and I had to put it to music or I was feeling great one day and I decided to write a light frivolous song about feeling good; there should be no shame in simply telling the truth through your art.”
The Wentworth Gallery showing on March 12 runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and the creator himself is scheduled to attend. Once again, this is something he enjoys immensely because for Joe; it’s all about “Connection.”
“I guess every artist can define how they like to do these shows, it’s very much like the VIP experience that we do when on a music tour. You meet people, you spend an hour talking with them, spend an hour or more just answering questions about the individual paintings. You do some really strong face-time with the people who are buying the paintings, you’re dedicating them on the back; some people want an extra signature on the front and whatever it is that they want it really doesn’t matter because you are making a connection with this person or persons who are deciding to bring your art, your strange vision into their home where they are going to look at it every day (laughs). A lot of artists don’t think about it but when you release a piece of music and people make it the soundtrack of their life; you become part of that mosaic. People carry with them maybe a few hundred songs that they always relate times in their life to or that they use when they are happy or sad or whatever it might be; you become part of them and it’s a very human to human relationship and with the artwork it is the same thing. It really blew me away in Miami spending time with the patrons who came and bought the artwork and explaining to them what I was trying to achieve or what I was thinking when I did that alien or that guitar because again, they are going to bring it into their home and hang it on a wall somewhere and it’s great for them I think, to have that experience of having met the artist and get some insight to it because it’s more than just an image that is going to hang on the wall; it has a story to it and they are part of it.”
Satriani isn’t stopping at art shows, “The Elephants of Mars,” his nineteenth studio album is scheduled to be released on the eighth of April via earMusic, his new label.
“It’s good to be busy,” he continued with that now familiar laugh. “I’m very excited about this record. I’m always crazy about my albums but this one is certainly pretty unique and I’m dying to get the world to hear the whole thing. There is a whole story behind it; it got its start in a very innocent musical moment where I created this short song that had this really strange; what would you call it? An electronic elephant menacing noise that I had somehow created and the track itself was something that I was thinking I’d write for my “Crystal Planet” sci-fi series in case we were ever picked up to do an animated TV show; some sort of musical cues; in my free time I make these musical cues. I came up with this thing and I thought, oh, this is bigger than that and I sent it off to my producer Eric to listen to and see if he thought that we could somehow develop it into a full song and as that process was going, I imagined this whole sci-fi epic around the whole idea of this elephant. So, I came up with this crazy idea; are you ready for this (laughs)? This is a crazy story; in the future, the humans have terraformed the planet Mars into a lush garden planet and unbeknownst to the scientists who did the whole thing, they created, in a hidden part of Mars, this race of giant, completely sentient elephants and they thrive as well as a human colonist who was sent there to mine the terraformed planet for the humans of Earth. So, of course, the evil corporations of Earth are just pretty much destroying this beautiful planet that they had just terraformed. So, the elephants and one of the guitar playing revolutionary colonists; of course he plays guitar (laughs) get together and pose a revolution to take back Mars and save it and keep it as a brand new thriving eco-system. So, there is the whole epic struggle right there and I was able to finish the song now that I had the attitude of it and what these elephants would sound like when they join forces with the guitar player and their plan to take back the planet. That was how the whole thing laid out and that gave me the inspiration to finish the track; it was pretty funny telling everybody in the band what the song was about (laughs).”
Whoa, wait Joe. So, you told the band but just curious; what did your drummer think of the guitar player being the hero?
“Kenny Aronoff is my drummer and a great musician and he is used to me that’s for sure! We were in Chickenfoot together for a tour and in 2019 we toured together with the “Experience Hendrix” tour and we made a record together; “Shapeshifting.” So, I think he’s used to my special brand of artistic insanity so, I don’t think it fazed him in the least (laughs).”
With the release date only weeks away; are there any special plans or approaches being implemented in the process and what brought about the change after a lengthy relationship with your previous label?
“We started with a video for the first song “Sahara” and the way my label is working bringing out the record to the fans is that they want to have a main single with a video and then two other singles out before the second main single which will be the title track and that will come out on April 8 to coincide with the release of the album. I believe they are doing the audio release of a song called “Faceless” and “Sahara” came out a few weeks ago.”
“It’s really interesting, he continued, “the almost comical take on my association with Sony is that the record contract dated back to 1989; they are still wonderful curators of my catalog and that association was just really fruitful and really great. However, I was in the world of option periods for at least the last eight albums. People may not know this but when you sign a record deal, you sign for a certain amount of albums; let’s say five albums and then the label says, we have the option of asking for two more; if everybody is happy. So, I had this long record deal which started in ’89 and went all the way to last year; so, I’ve been sort of living off of this option period for quite a few albums and by the time the option was coming up, this would’ve been the last album and everybody that I knew, including the presidents of Epic and Sony; they were all gone. They had all moved on to greener pastures, retired or whatever and so, all of the people that I had been working with were gone and there were no A & R people left; it’s just the way that the modern labels are working these days. So, it seemed like a good time to say well, I guess we’ve moved on. I started a relationship with Max Vaccaro at earMusic a little over 10 years ago when he became Chickenfoot’s A & R guy and label representative with earMusic; they are a label owned by Edel and they are the largest independent outside of the U.S. and they are located in Hamburg, Germany. I met Max and we really got along and he has been handling all of the Chickenfoot stuff really well; fantastic company in how they service artist’s fans. It is so important these days that a label can find the fans of the artist, know what it is they are craving and help the artist deliver that and that is really important. There are a couple of things about the internet that changed everything about how a musician or a band interacts with their audience. One thing is for sure; you have to find your audience and find out what it is that you do that they really want and perhaps you were never told or you weren’t aligned with a company that can help you deliver that thing or whatever it might be; it might just be special packaging or personal appearances, it might be release schedules, options on how to release the audio formats; some labels don’t care, they just want to put out a CD or make it available for streaming and then they drop the ball. Max and the guys at earMusic are really conscientious about that, they really help make that connection between artist and fans and that’s a really great thing. I always thought that if I ever signed with another label, it’ll be with Max and earMusic and hopefully we can bring a higher quality of everything that I do to the fans. This is a great first step, we are putting out a double-album with colored vinyl and a CD package with original art inside and the music just sounding amazing.”
Although the demand for 33 RPM records has surged in recent years, a double-album with colored vinyl is definitely a different approach. When told that putting out such a product is unique and possibly even risky in today’s music climate due to the expense; he concurred and spoke of the challenges it presented.
“The issue goes deeper than that,” he started slowly. “When I was a 12-year-old walking through a record store on Long Island, there were thousands of choices that were made by hundreds of vinyl producers and people who pressed records; that was the technology of the day, like how easy it is to go out and get a cell phone today. These days, there are only a few companies left that actually make the vinyl and will be able to press the vinyl; in some countries they don’t even have any, they have to send it out to a foreign country to get the actual product made. That’s a real problem and it became a problem; recording tape is the same way. We used to record all of our albums on two-inch tape and then as the switch to digital came, those companies slowly went out of business and now there is only one company that makes tape. So, if you’re going to do a tape project, you better stock up because if you buy 10 reels of tape; very often two of them will be bad and it’s not like you can just go around the block to a different store and just buy it because it’s an old technology. Tape is beautiful, it’s full bandwidth when you’re there; your fans will never hear it of course because most people listen to streamed music on the internet so it gets digitized before it ever reaches a human’s ear; it’s not a bad thing, it’s just a thing but if you’re lucky enough to be the musician or the engineer working in the studio; that is the mountaintop of the audio experience. You are at the top of the world while you’re there so enjoy it while you can! Drums coming off of a two-inch reel of tape; boy, there is nothing like it, whoa, my God there is nothing like it.”
So, after the Wentworth Gallery exhibition and the release of the new record; will there be a tour?
“We’ve had a crew, a tour and a band sitting and waiting since early 2020 and we keep getting the tour bumped and I’m guessing that this April, May, June tour of Europe is probably going to get bumped again; I’m waiting for phone calls all week so I can tell my people a definitive. This is a big problem for us because we do a bus tour of nine weeks straight and we can’t afford to have stoppages. Traversing 17 countries, doing 50 shows and crossing all of those borders, nobody wants to get stuck nursing a two-week quarantine; that would destroy the whole economy of the tour. So, we’re waiting for that moment where everybody feels safe and they can run around like crazy rock ‘n’ roll people (laughs) without a mask on and just have a good time. We’ve struggled with this tour because it’s always in the late spring and there is always these flare-ups of the virus and we keep getting bumped. I wish we had booked a summer tour because now it seems like this coming summer is looking like the real opening of venues. We are booked for the fall in the U.S and that will be happening and we’ve got Kenny Aronoff on drums, Bryan Beller on bass, Rai Thistlehwayte on keyboards and we are really looking forward to it. I can’t tell you how stir-crazy we are; we really want to get out there and perform.”
To discover more about the Wentworth Gallery, please visit https://wentworthgallery.com/ and to discover more about the amazingly talented Joe Satriani, his schedule and the new record; go to http://www.satriani.com/about/ .
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
