By: Chris Peary

(Music that is referenced in this review is hyperlinked to Amazon.com for your purchasing convenience. If a product is not hyperlinked, Amazon.com did not offer it at the time of publication.)

I’ve had the opportunity on several occasions to see Joe Satriani perform live, and it’s always an unforgettable event. But nothing can top the brutally hot summer night I saw him, Steve Vai and Kenny Wayne Sheppard perform at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory on the 1998 G3 tour.

As a fellow musician, I’ve also observed him grow and mature as an artist through the years. His new album Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock, his 12th solo record, is emotionally charged with interesting melodies and furious technique. I briefly checked in with Satriani via e-mail during the European leg of his current tour, which treks through South America and Mexico in July and August, then returns to North America in October. It seems that the guitarist known for surfing with the alien is starting to turn his eye to another sci-fi character: robots.

I’ve enjoyed the mix of influences you’ve culminated over the years, from your techno sounds on Engines of Creation to your straight-forward rocking on Strange Beautiful Music. It sounds like you’re reaching into the funkadelic sounds of the ’70s with this album. Will you elaborate why you decided to go for such a sound?

Joe Satriani: I wanted to have a fatter, in-the-pocket feel to the record. I wanted a warm and dynamic sound that would get bigger as you turned it up. And, I wanted it to swing and not be stiff. These elements make up an important part of what makes me happy when I’m playing music, and it’s the bedrock of modern music.

TKW: You envisioned this album only being a recording of 10 songs. Was it hard to stick to this format?

Satriani: Not really, because it allowed each of the 10 songs to be more uniquely developed and different from each other. That made the process more exciting for me.

TKW: The song Revelation is very inspiring, and I understand that it originally started as a composition in honor of a friend’s father [guitarist Steve Morrison], but then you realized it was turning into a dedication to your own father. Would you describe how that transition occurred?

Satriani: It just happened as I worked on the song, and it hit me in the form of a revelation, that I was writing about my experience and not entirely my friend’s.

TKW: Which song on the new album is really being well received by critics and fans alike?

Satriani: It appears the new song Andalusia, with the acoustic intro, is currently a fan favorite, both live and on the CD.

TKW: On your song I Just Wanna Rock you invited over three dozen friends and family members to record the chorus. What was the atmosphere like in the studio?

Satriani: As you can see from the bonus DVD that came with the special release of the new album, we had fun with the whole idea of the song itself. I dressed up as a robot, with aluminum foil, and kept it all loose. [The song is about a robot hitting a rock concert.—Ed.]

TKW: On your official Web site you stated that there was a scheduling difficulty with your longtime bass player, Matt Bissonette, being on the tour. Though you’ve collaborated with Stu Hamm in the past, were there any challenges bringing him up to speed on the new material?

Satriani: Stu is a pro, he can play anything, and he brings a tremendous amount of energy to the group.

TKW: Will Matt be joining you any time during the tour?

Satriani: Matt is no longer interested in extensive tours that leave the U.S.A. and we tour the world. So, there you go.

TKW: I know you’re a big fan of conceptual music, and you’ve explored ideas ranging from aliens to robots. With the advent of downloading only select songs from an artist via the Internet to iPods and MP3 players, is the art form of a concept album dying?

Satriani: The art form hasn’t died, just the appreciation of it.

TKW: The modern composer John Adams once stated, “We are in a post-stylistic era, where we find a combination of styles,” such as hip-hop violin or punk/jazz. What are your thoughts on today’s music related to this topic?

Satriani: I think much could be said about any era.

TKW: Violinist Jean-Luc Ponty has recorded Frank Zappa material, and Al DiMeola has recorded the music of the great tango composer Astor Piazzola. Are there any artists that you might want to collaborate with in the future to create a new sound?

Satriani: Ron Wood.

TKW: While in England, you toured with Paul Gilbert. What is it like to have him on this part of the tour?

Satriani: Paul and his band are great fun onstage and off. They play great individually and together. Not many people can match Paul’s expertise on the guitar.

TKW: As a student in the ’70s, what instrumental songs influenced your initial style?

Satriani: It was actually Jimi Hendrix’s Third Stone From the Sun in ’67 that influenced me the most. It’s an amazing instrumental song and performance.

TKW: What was your first instrument? And how did you acquire it?

Satriani: A small Ludwig drum set, purchased one piece at a time over a period of two years when I was 9 years old.

TKW: What was your initial learning experience with written music notation?

Satriani: Drum lessons at 9, music instruction at Carle Place Public High School, in N.Y., and, starting in 11th grade, music theory. My theory teacher, Bill Westcott, was a genius.

TKW: You’ve written in various music publications about your concept of modal cycling in a song structure. Is there any particular piece of music that really hits the mark for being a descriptive example of this technique?

Satriani: Not of This Earth and With Jupiter in Mind rely on the pitch axis theory most heavily, as do the songs A Piece of Liquid and Lords of Karma.

TKW: Have you been teaching your son ZZ these ideas? Or are you waiting to see what he’ll develop on his own?

Satriani: He’s pretty busy teaching himself at the moment . . . and doing quite well.

TKW: And last but not least, the new Vox Satchurator distortion pedal is poised to be a best seller once it reaches the market. What’s the next frontier in manufacturing you’ll take on?

Satriani: I’m interested in robotics.

http://www.satriani.com

Chris Peary is a longtime music instructor/independent artist who works in New Jersey.

By: Christa Titus

(Music that is referenced in this review is hyperlinked to Amazon.com for your purchasing convenience. If a product is not hyperlinked, Amazon.com did not offer it at the time of publication.)

To recap the intro to this article’s sister feature, Queensrÿche made a rock’n’roll fantasy for some very lucky fans come true this winter and hosted a contest that let them sing onstage with the quintet. The promotion for the band’s Take Cover album landed grand-prize winner Vincent Solano of Florham Park, N.J., an appearance on QR’s next studio record and lifetime bragging privileges.

Queensrÿche is getting down to business on studio effort before touring Europe this June. When the band wrapped the U.S. leg of its Hits and Rarities tour in Seattle a few weeks ago, Seattle Times writer Patrick MacDonald mistakenly reported that former member Kelly Gray was onstage instead of guitarist Mike Stone. According to a QR MySpace bulletin, an “overwhelming response” from the ‘Rÿche’s friends list quickly righted the wrong. The outpouring underlines fans’ admiration for Stone, who’s weathered being the new kid on the block with laid-back grace since joining in 2003. (Gratuitous self-promotion ahead: To read Christa Titus’ most recent concert review of Queensrÿche for Metal Edge, click here.

Stone suggested the Jesus Christ Superstar song Heaven on Their Minds for the Take Cover sessions, and it’s one of the album’s best experiments. Hunkering down with Michael “Whip” Wilton at Wilton’s own Watershed Studios and riding a caffeine buzz, the two guitarists dashed off their tracks, sometimes almost on a whim, so they could finish on time. Here, Stone recounts the thought process behind selecting material for the record and why he’s tickled to have turned a Broadway classic into a rock jam.

The Killing Words: You brought Heaven on Their Minds to the plate. Where did that come from?
Mike Stone: I just always loved that record. A long-term goal of mine is to be in that show like on Broadway one day, at least in some production of it. I just love that record. It’s been a huge influence on me as a songwriter, as an arranger. What it’s saying in that whole concept of that whole album, it just sucked me in when I was young and I’ve always loved it, I don’t know why. It’s not like I’m a religious person by any stretch, you know? [laughs]

TKW: It is a rock’n’roll play.
Stone: I always thought that song [if it had a] rock, heavier treatment it would be cool. What’d you think of it?

TKW: I liked it. I could hear the Broadway influence in it. That was one of ‘em where I was like, “They’re doing what?” But then with U2 and Peter Gabriel and of course Pink Floyd, I thought they sound really natural . . . The Pink Floyd song [Welcome to the Machine], I asked Michael [“Whip” Wilton] if, lyrically, does that song really resonate with you guys, having been musicians for so long.
Stone: You know, it’s funny that you mention it because I’ve been familiar with that song for years. And until we actually started recording it, I never really listened to all the lyrics. [laughs] And I thought about that when I listened to it, I’m like, “I get it.” [laughs again] And I understand what they’re trying to say there.

Mike Stone.
Feb. 8, 2008, at Nokia Theater in New York, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

TKW: Innuendo, because that happens to be a favorite song of mine from that Queen album, and of course Geoff is a Queen fan, I thought that was a really interesting interpretation that you guys did.
Stone: Yeah, I thought that one came out great. I think Michael did a great job on that one too.

TKW: What are some of the songs that you suggested?
Stone: I suggested a bunch. A number I suggested were [David] Bowie songs that we couldn’t get approval on or something, but Jesus Christ Superstar was one . . . The O’Jays tune [For the Love of Money], Geoff kind of threw that out there originally and I kind of said, “Yeah, that would be cool, ‘cuz no one would see that one comin’.” And then everyone’s familiar with the Bullet the Blue Sky; I said, “We could just do this a totally different way.” I guess that was like kind of one of my choices.

TKW: You and Whip, you sounded like you really had fun with the guitar.
Stone: We had a blast. I mean, we recorded all the guitars over at Michael’s studio. And you know, we’d get up early and walk in there with our coffee and just start diggin’ into it. We were really under the gun. We started from scratch and we had literally like 12 or 13 days to literally do like everything. So, it was cool in the sense that we didn’t have time to overthink anything. We just went in there and what felt right to us, it was one of the funnest recording experiences I’ve ever had . . . because you don’t have to write the song, some of the pressure’s off, you just get your guitar creative hat on. And it was cool. We both really enjoyed it.

TKW: With Bullet the Blue Sky, that was recorded live. What was up with Geoff that night, with that rant he was doing?
Stone: I honestly can’t answer that, because that was an old track from before I was in the band . . . It’s Kelly [Gray] on there, I believe, not me . . . That’s from ‘99 or 2000, at least. Like a little before my time, so I have no idea.

TKW: I’ve never heard him quite that vocal.
Stone: I will say that I’ve enjoyed listening to it. Changing certain words around occasionally and laughing really hard. He was just spellin’ it. He was feelin’ it and went on his rant, and God bless.

TKW: Were there any songs where you thought, “Wow, it’d be cool to do it, but from an artistic standpoint, we’re not even gonna touch that one.”
Stone: No. I think it’s obvious we weren’t afraid of that. [laughs] Actually, we wanted that. We wanted to go in directions that people wouldn’t expect us to. You’d think we’d do this, these different various metal covers, or this’n’that. And we just decided, “Let’s do what’d be fun and different and fun to dig into.” So yeah, there was nothing too taboo to bring to the table.

TKW: Out of the songs, the “youngest” is the U2 one. The other ones, they’re more like in the ‘80s or earlier. Was there any reason you refrained from more recent material?
Stone: We just kind of dug into stuff we liked. The older music’s where everyone got a lot of their influences and fell in love with music, and I think that’s why it ended up like that. There was never any conscious thing to go after any period and that’s just where we ended up.

TKW: When I talked to [Twisted Sister’s] J.J. French about the Monster Ballads Christmas album that you guys contributed to, I asked him, “What songs do you think really came together well?” And he said, “Queensrÿche’s White Christmas is awesome.” He really sung your praises on it. [French co-produced the album.] What did you guys do with that one?
Stone: It was Bing Crosby’s version, and I was staying at Ed Bass’ house, and that evening I just kind of put an arrangement together and kind of back-engineered it, and then I sat there with Eddie and I threw down a scratch acoustic to a click [track], and then we built it all around that.

TKW: Is Geoff doing the crooning kind of thing?
Stone: No, he’s beltin’ it. It’s pretty much the exact same arrangement as the Bing Crosby. I worked out all the chords, there’s little bit different chord changes, then you got with Michael and then we put the rest of the guitars together.

From left, Eddie Jackson, Michael Wilton, Mike Stone and Geoff Tate.
Feb. 8, 2008, at Nokia Theater in New York, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

TKW: You guys have been doing an evening with Queensrÿche for the past couple of years because of the Mindcrime material. How are you with not playing that night after night now, having done it for so long?
Stone: I’m just fine with it. [laughs] The whole Mindcrime show is definitely a head space, and it was very different than just playing a normal rock show, and I enjoyed it immensely. If we were gonna do it again, I’m cool with it. It’s always fun to do things a little different.

TKW: It was a break for you guys: 40 minutes and out.
Stone: It was. It definitely was. Wow, I don’t even have to wash my clothes this week.

TKW: How’s it going with the new record?
Stone: Everyone’s been in a really great creative place for the last year, and we’re just compiling lots and lots of things . . . It’s gonna be a concept album of sorts, it’s not going to have anything to do with Nikki or Doctor X. [laughs] Whole new moves. It’s in its formative stages, but we have a ton of material like up and running we’re kind of sorting through and deciding what’s gonna go where.

TKW: Do you have an idea when you are going to start actually recording?
Stone: There’s a lot of demo things floating around right now . . . I think probably in March we’ll actually sit down full-blown and just bang it out. I think it’s gonna be very hard-hitting. I think it’ll be cool.

TKW: Of course, it’s gonna be cool. [laughing]
Stone: [joining in] Another chapter in the Queensrÿche saga.

TKW: Anything you want to add?
Stone: Take Cover is cool in a sense and different for a Queensrÿche record, ‘cuz I think it’s like the only Queensrÿche record that, for a lack of a better term, is kind of fun, ya know? It’s like, “Wow, they did this.” It’s more of a fun listen, where most Queensrÿche is very dark and serious and it’s a lot more ominous in vibe. And with this, it’s just rock-me tunes. So I think from a consumer or buyer or fan perspective it’s different in the sense that it has that kind of fun layer to it and then it was just also a lot of fun makin’ it. And as always, it’s an honor to be jammin’ with the Rÿche.

Queensryche.com

To read sister feature Time Crunch Fuels Michael Wilton’s Creative Fire On ‘Take Cover,’ click here.

To read Fantasy A&R: If Queensrÿche Wants To Do Covers, We’ve Got Suggestions, click here.

To read The Killing Words’ review of Take Cover, click here.

To read Christa Titus’ review of Welcome to the Machine for Billboard, click here.

By: Christa Titus

(Music that is referenced in this review is hyperlinked to Amazon.com for your purchasing convenience. If a product is not hyperlinked, Amazon.com did not offer it at the time of publication.)

Twenty years ago, if someone had told us Queensrÿche was doing an album of covers and hosting a promotion that gave you a chance to sing onstage with them, we would have said that the crack you were smoking was definitely giving you your money’s worth.

But back then, metal was the music industry’s golden child, and anarchy would have ensured if an arena act hosted such a competition. As the Internet repeatedly teaches us, different eras call for new methods of promotion. In 1988 the idea of the nation texting its pick for the next “American Idol” was as remote a concept as rehab being the place you went to salvage your reputation instead of tarnishing it. Queensrÿche put its twist on “AI” by offering a shot at replacing Geoff Tate for a few precious minutes and singing a tune from its Take Cover album during the U.S. leg of its Hits and Rarities tour. Then QR sweetened the pot by rewarding the grand-prize winner a performance slot on the band’s next album. Vincent Solano of Florham Park, N.J., now gets to forever brag that he recorded with Queensrÿche. To show our pride in a fellow Garden Stater making good, we are bitterly sobbing into our hands for quitting music lessons back in college.

During a break from the road before its summer European tour, Queensrÿche is working on the aforementioned album that will have Solano as a guest. In the meantime, its version of Welcome to the Machine has been getting airtime on rock radio. When The Killing Words chatted with guitarist Michael “Whip” Wilton about the covers project, he admitted that QR handled the Pink Floyd classic with care. In this Q&A, Wilton divulges how massive amounts of coffee fueled the on-the-fly sessions for Take Cover, as well as how it feels to be finished the marathon live dates of Operation: Mindcrime and what’s cooking on the next Queensrÿche record.

The Killing Words: Your tours have pretty much been an evening with Queensrÿche for a while. [For the first time in years, the band brought a supporting act, Don Dokken, with it as a guest.]
Michael Wilton: Right. Well, as you know, we’ve been hammering out both Mindcrime one and two, and there was basically no need for an opening act, and in the past, we’ve done that. In Europe we do it, let the promoter put an opening band, his favorite band, that kind of thing, do favors. And so [on the 2007 Alice Cooper/Heaven and Hell tour we didn’t] do a three-hour show. [laughs]

TKW: Is that a relief?
Wilton: Kind of, yeah. I think doing that tour, I think it aged me a bit. [laughs again]

TKW: It’s a lot of work.
Wilton: It was. It’s a lot of brain power, and playing ’specially Mindcrime one, it’s so guitar-intensive-orchestrated, you gotta have your ‘A’ game every night, and it just goes, “Bam bam bam, song song song”; there’s not too much room for breaks in that thing.

From left, Eddie Jackson, Michael Wilton and Mike Stone.
Feb. 8, 2008, at Nokia Theater in New York, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

TKW: And I guess after playing it for almost 20 years, you’re like, “Yeah, here were are again.”
Wilton: Yeah. It was very interesting, because you get used to just playing a three-hour set with a little break in between the middle, and [on] the Heaven and Hell/Alice Cooper/Queensrÿche tour [we played] 40 minutes. We haven’t done that since the early ’80s.

TKW: Did it feel like a break to still go out and play but not have to do that whole night?
Wilton: Yeah. For me, it was so much fun. We’re hittin’ ’em with the hard, heavy hits, and seeing all the fans for those other two bands, and they recognize our tunes; it was a great experience. Kids dressed up in the front row like Alice Cooper and rockin’ to Queensrÿche, that’s a great opportunity. We got that every night. “Oh, you guys were so great—but your set was too short.”

TKW: Did you do Neon Knights at all while you were on the road with Heaven and Hell?
Wilton: We’d sound-check on it, mess with it, but I don’t think that would go over with Tony [Iommi] and Ronnie [James Dio] if they heard that, so we were very professional on that, didn’t want to step on any toes in that aspect.

TKW: Who came up with the idea of doing this record? I was chatting with someone who pointed out that Poison also did a covers album, and Def Leppard put out a covers record. We were wondering if there was a trend in the rock world to put these out again.
Wilton: Well, there might be in the rock world, but basically our main fella at Rhino came to our sound check, and we’re always messin’ with other people’s songs because we get bored playing our own, and he goes, “Oh, you guys should put out a record like that.” “What, covers?” So that’s how the seed was planted: Someone at the record company heard us playing other people’s songs just jokin’ around . . . And then, lo and behold, there’s an offer on the table. “Let’s put this out in the interim before we put out the next Queensrÿche opus.”

TKW: Was it easier than doing an original album since you’ve already got a framework, or in a sense was it harder because you’re trying to figure out a way to redo the songs?
Wilton: Well, the main issue that was difficult was a time-based issue. We went to Japan when we got the idea, and when we got back, we had basically a month to learn the songs and try to rewrite ’em and get ’em ready, and it didn’t take a month, it took a couple, but the whole issue, I think time was the crusher. So some of the tunes are our own rendition, kind of a staying close and respectful to the original but maybe shifting the arrangement a little bit to make it a little more ours. And then some of ’em, for instance, you mentioned Neon Knights. I mean, that’s such a classic; what are ya gonna do different about that? It just rocks. You have songs that are completely our interpretation, then you have songs that are just super-charged Queensrÿche versions of the original.

TKW: In listening to the guitars, it sounds like you and [guitarist Mike] Stone were just really having fun with it.
Wilton: This was recorded at Watershed Studios, which was my personal studio here in Seattle, and Stone was staying at my house, and literally we had two weeks to get all the guitars done. I think we ingested so much coffee, it was 15-hour days of just goin’ through and getting everything ready; we were totally under the gun.

TKW: I understand you brought in Innuendo by Queen.
Wilton: Yeah, Innuendo and Neon Knights, and [drummer] Scott [Rockenfield], he’s got a heavy, early influence of Stuart Copeland, so we’ve got Synchronicity II and Red Rain. I picked Innuendo just because I loved listening to the song and I thought, “Gosh, kind of an homage to Freddy Mercury.” I understand that that was one of his last songs that he wrote, and it’s an epiphany of where his state of mind was at that point. It wasn’t the traditional Bohemian Rhapsody, although the song has kind of a crazy middle part that is very muso, and I’m kind of a muso guy myself, personally, so that’s why I dig that tune.

Michael Wilton, foreground, and Eddie Jackson.
Feb. 8, 2008, at Nokia Theater in New York, N.Y. Photo © 2008/Christa Titus.

TKW: What made you decide to take an opera song [Odissea] and go rock with it?
Wilton: That was 100% Geoff’s pick. [laughs] Geoff obviously is heavily influenced by operatic music. His style of singing and delivery is that of more of a classically operatic, the way he sings. He’s not a screamo guy, he’s melodic and pulls influences from opera. I’ve heard him listening to certain works of opera on the road, he likes to listen to that on his free time to ease his mind and stuff.

TKW: They say when people are learning how to sing in Spanish, they have people teach them how to speak it and where to put the emphasis on the words so people who speak the language, it’s making sense to them.
Wilton: Yeah. And the truth will be told when our Italian fans get a hold of that and they’ll say, “Brilliant!” or they’ll say, you know how we say “broken English”? It’s broken Italian.

TKW: Were there any songs that you guys thought, “No way are we gonna touch that one”?
Wilton: We did this really fast, and looking back, it’s like, “God, why didn’t I think of this song? Damn! Why didn’t I think of that song?” I think the main idea, because we knew that certain bands had done cover albums, [we thought], “Let’s make ours a little more interesting and unusual, and let’s not make it a copy of all metal tunes. Let’s just make this unpredictable.” That was the main focal point.

TKW: When you did Welcome to the Machine, considering how long you’ve been in the music business, was the lyrical content appealing?
Wilton: You know, everything about that song is appealing to me. It’s one of my all-time classic songs that I love to listen to.

TKW: How is it going with the new Queensrÿche album?
Wilton: We’ve been doing so much touring that we’ve been a little bit fragmented in our writing. There’s been songs written on the road, songs written, certain breaks. Basically, we’ve got about 40 ideas that we’re just tryin’ to trim down and just trying to get the arrangements right now. So I guess we’re in a giant preproduction right now, between these tours. And so it’s a lotta work. And talking to Geoff, he’s heading in a thematic, conceptual way, which is always exciting, because that’s his forte, in my opinion, and we’ve got the vibe, you know, the feel of what we’re going [for] and it’s just a matter, it’s like you’re kind of halfway there, but you can’t say, “We’re doin’ this!” or “We’re doin’ that!” It’s kind of gettin’ it together. A lot of stuff, you know. It’s like an artist. We got a lotta colors on our thing and we’re just throwin’ ’em at the wall and waitin’ to see when the art happens.

Queensryche.com

To read sister feature After Waiting A Lifetime, Mike Stone Gets To Rock ‘Heaven,’ click here.

To read Fantasy A&R: If Queensrÿche Wants To Do Covers, We’ve Got Suggestions, click here.

To read The Killing Words’ review of Take Cover, click here.

To read Christa Titus’ review of Welcome to the Machine for Billboard, click here.