Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
True pioneers of experimental guitar work, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani teamed up some years ago for their first full length studio album with a new project band, SatchVai. We at Chaoszine got a great privilege to interview one of the maestros, Mr. Vai in the very beginning of November 2026. Let’s get to know some more about his thoughts on the project and more. First of all there were slight adjustments of interview schedule we managed to start.
Hi Steve and welcome to Chaoszine interview
Steve Vai: Hi! and thank you for accomodating because I am on tour and I’ve got one hour and there’s different time zones. It’s easy to get mixed, and (laughing).
I understand, nevermind, that’s alright! Last year I attended your (SatchVai Band’s) Concert at Tampere, which was a very entertaining concert experience. How has the year 2026 been for you and SatchVai.
Steve Vai: You know, It’s funny, because everything from 2022 to 2026 has been sort of a blur. Because there has been so much going on at the same time, you know, and in 2026 we moved into a new home with my family. So, after living in Los Angeles for 46 years and basically living in a state for 30 years we just got up and left, so that ended up itself as a heavy lift. And within all that I was juggling with all of these projects and tours.
So that the various things I was engaged in was recording with Joe, working on this record, moving my house, touring with BEAT (a King Crimson -tribute-band with Tony Carey / Terry Bozzio, Tony Levin and Adrian Belew). And all other things that has happened this year. It has been a great year, um… but I’m looking forward to get home in December and putting a period to all of that touring because I need to get back to the studio and that kind of a thing.
You seem to have a lot going on at the same time. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the Beat concert last summer in Helsinki, but my friends said you were terrific and you just killed it. But let’s talk a little bit about SatchVai, because you’ve got a debut album coming out. Do you got any touring plans for you to tour with SatchVai or is it time for new projects for the next?
Steve Vai: Well, the odd thing was the way we made the record. Because conventionally, you make a record and then you tour. But this record crapped up on us in a sense of that we didn’t know we were making it until we were making it. And we both (Steve and Joe) had bot these different satellite things going on we had to deal with. So we were exchanging files, you know. And then getting together and recording with a drummer and Glenn Hughes (Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Dead Daisies, Black Country Communion etc.) the singer on one track.
And of course, we wanted to complete the record before the tour, and it was completed before the tour, and there may have been enough time to get it released before the tour, but in this stage of age, vinyl is so big. So the label wanted to release everything (CD, Vinyl, digital) at once. So it pushed things.. the release past the tour. But we had three singles out. And usually for the new record, we play like three to five new songs from that (new) record. So we had three new songs. So the tour did have the parts of the record in it but not the whole record. And it’s kind of interesting because the tour acted promotion for the record.
And… I’ve done a lot of interviews in my life, and you can get the feeling what the journalist is actually feeling about your work regardless what you are saying.(laughter) And one of the things I discovered doing press for this record is sincere and authentic from the journals. It’s so nice because we didn’t know… We thought we were working on great stuff, that our fans would like or at least be interested in. But I think, we got a little tiger by the tail. We got a ten-star-review on Guitar World, and that isn’t easy (to achieve).
So there must have happened something I quite didn’t expect. (laughter) I don’t know if Joe or I ever expected it. Our song “Mayhem“, that was the fourth single went up to number one Rock Radio in America. That has never happened to me! Maybe back in David Lee Roth or Whitesnake -days (it could have), but…. An instrumental track! Number one!? And the record wasn’t even out back then. So something´s happening.
.. And it is quite extraordinary as well. In the days of my youth in the change of ’90’s, I remember starting to listen to your and Joe’s, solo material. Around “Passion And Warfare” and “Sex And Religion” -albums’ era. It was kind of mysterious, as you were our true guitar heroes already back then, on top of all those top guitarists with your skills, kind of creativity what comes to pushing the envelope in a sense of what you are able to do with guitar sounds with help of music technology.
So that being said, now I listened to “The Sea of Emotion”, and I truly can understand why it has has been such appreciated record. There’s such a beautiful songs on the album. Of course I still appreciate your older stuff, but this is more melodic, including solid rockers, latino rhythms and stuff in all it’s diversity. So, I find the record very entertaining in many ways.
Steve Vai: Yeah, (laughing). You know, the fans haven’t really heard it yet, and I’m so eager for them to hear it. You know, artists when they are able to creater their music based on their true musical DNA, their real interests. They wanna share it. It’s built into everybody. You wanna share gifts. You wanna offer something that brings other people enjoyment and relief, escape. You know, the music is tremendous escape from the madness in your own mind, you know. (laughing)
So it’s one of the things you like about when I hear someone inspired by music. It just pulls you in, and then you are in not anyplace else but there… you know… And this is a beautiful thing. Especially the music has that. So Joe and are so fortunate. We have built our audience for forty years, you know. And of course audience and popularity varies by time, but there’s always the loyal fans who are with you. They found you and they respond to what you do. That’s your audience. And it’s an honor and privilege to be able to serve them.
And it goes the same for both us. Actually Joe sells a bit more (record’s) usually . (laughing) But we bring our own stuff together. The fame doesn’t suddenly go up like this (lifting hands up fast), but more steadily in medium, you know what I mean? That’s enough for us.
But it is terrific . You are still kind of vital musicians writing fresh music that is still on one hand entertaining and on another innovating new generations of guitarists all over the world.
Steve Vai: Legend on a secret. (laughing)
But wat was the actual starting point of SatchVai Band?
Steve Vai: Well, it started out basically with a G3 Anniversary Tour with myself, Joe and Eric Johnson. And it was something that came together by the fact that Joe’s son, ZZ wanted to make sort a film out of the whole G3 kind of a brand. And we did this tour, but we couldn’t really do that many dates because Eric had commitments. So, Joe and I wanted to continue. So, we continued doing the tour of The North America, but it was two bands, it was like like “G2“, but it was two bands, you know… I would come out with my band and do my songs, and then Joe does his, and then we would jam on the classic songs at the end of the set.
And we thought: “Maybe we can go to Europe, we can do it!” But management suggested, maybe you guys should record a new song together, so you have something to jam with, you know, at the end of the night. So there’s not just a classic rock song where you’re trading guitar solos but something integrated. Well, the next thing I know was Joe sent those two tracks: “The Sea of Emotion, Part 1 and Part 2“. And that immediately inspired me to kind of create “Part 3”. So the songs were crafted in very different ways. Some of them were full tracks like Joe would send the full tracks of the first parts of “The Sea of Emotion“, and basically my contribution on those was…
You know, I did the rhythm parts, I doubled the melody, I put the harmony, I put the solo you know, and this kind of thing. There wasn’t much editing or stuff like that for my part. And the songs that I contributed are like that. But then there’s songs that are really piece milled together by trading files back and forth (with Joe) and adding this and editing this and changing this, so there’s everything from virtually completed songs to things that I just built from scratch together. Then it just happened. Everything made sense. One band with two of us in it. And the tours were great.
How did you end up choosing Kenny Arnoff, Marco Mendoza and Pete Thorn as a rhythm section for SatchVai?
Steve Vai: When we were making the record we didn’t have a band. So it gave us an opportunity to craft the band or to choose a musician that would be the best suited for the particular song. So there’s all sorts of different musicians on the record. But when putting the band together, you know, we just thought, maybe it’s probably a good idea not to have any of our past band members, you know.
But if Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, Lady Gaga etc.) is available, you just get him. So we got Kenny. Then the search was on for the other players. I just feel so fortunate that we found those guys because all three of those are just absolutely perfect support band. They´re creative in their own right and professionals, you know…
Did the new album “The Sea of Emotion” surprise you somehow? If it did, can you explain how?
Steve Vai: Yes. It’s really hard to explain how, because there’s a history in it. The record was 55 years in the making.. in a sense… you know… (laughing) And when you are going through (the process of) making a record, you’re not really thinking what’s gonna happen, when it’s released or something but… Your whole attention is on the quality of the melody, the quality of your playing. Am I introducing something fresh and new, what does it sound like, should this bar go here or there? Everybody that makes music makes anything understands that as you’re doing it, there’s a particular type of focus and it’s a critical one.
But then it comes to the point where… this happens all through the process. You’re mixing, you go back and forth with mixes that: “No, we gotta raise this (track volume) little bit, now we gotta bring this down… This doesn’t work, chop this out. OK, there! That’s good!” …You know, all this kind of things before it finally goes to mastering. And it is the same thing: “Well, I don’t know if it’s a song that needs… to change the order. Let’s try this and …oh, this song has got too much of a bottom end…” There’s a focus, a production focus that’s pretty critical.
But then, once it’s done and you can’t touch it anymore, you listen your record with different ears. Because you can’t analyse it anymore. It’s technical aspects. Because it’s too late, it’s done. And for me the real shock came…. it was a month and a half or so after the record was put to bed: It was mastered and finished. And then we started to send it to various people, the label and everything, and then, you know we get this letter back from the label, and they’re just going: “Holy sh*t! Did you guys really do this!?” And that’s when I took the completed record and listened it from top to bottom. As a music listener, as a guitar fan I was supposed to be the critic. Constantly tweeking things.
And I was stopped at my tracks, because it was the combination of 55 years – Everything we’ve been through together (with Joe). And it was done, so I couldn’t touch it, and it was so… I don’t care if anybody feels this way, man. I know how I feel, and I just can’t be more appreciated to the Universe for this gift with my friend, my mentor. You, we bring our notes together, feeling that energy, and feeling that those are really good songs, you know, the kind of thing that we do. And how it all happened. I don’t know how to put that feeling, it’s awesome. It’s a feeling of awesomeness, actually. It’s almost overwhelming that it all happened. OK. Here’s a word I can apply from my perspective: It’s a miracle.
Do you have any kind of idea what were the main factors that made this miracle possible?
Steve Vai: Mutual respect. (smiling)
As simply as that?
Steve Vai: … You just have to have that. Joe and I don’t fight, you know. I know what his gifts are and he knows what his gifts are, and we know how to mix them together to get something neither of us would have done (alone). His personality has been rock solid since I was 12 years old, you know. He has always been like a Grand Canyon. He is big, he is solid and he is forever. And he stays solid through the growth of stardom, you know like that kind of thing. I was all over the place, you know what I mean… (laughing)
Did Joe surprise you as a co-writer, co-musician or long-time-friend during the SatchVai-album sessions?
Steve Vai: Well, I’m expecting myself to be surprised whenever Joe sends me something, whenever I listen to some of his new records, anything like that, but the real surprise comes when you work with somebody and you’re working around each other. How you fit in? That happened very beautifully and very organically. I was just waiting it to happen. Joe’s solos that he would send me, I was expected to be surprised. At times I was stunned… you know. You listen to a solo what he did on “Zoot Suit Riot” or “The Sea of Emotion, Pt.2 ” or etc… you know…
But one other things that emerged even greater it has in the past was the sense of humour.Because when you are working with somebody and you’re working kind of close, there’s certain things that you just discover. You know, being friends and living away from each other, meeting up now and then, you know, or doing tours or something together, they don’t reveal. And maybe people know that he has got an incredible sense of humour. It wasn’t surprised, you look for the quality in a relationship: Are you happy? Are you laughing? Can you even make fun of each other and get a kick out of it? – And we can!
And one can easily hear, that you have enjoyed when making this record. It is truly full of joy.
Steve Vai: Yeah!
As you said earlier, you wish to get back to the studio as soon as you get home back from the tour, would you reveal something about your future plans, your next musical projects?
Steve Vai: Yeah, I can reveal certain things, but they may or may not happen. When the pandemic hit, and we were all on lockdown, I created a trajectory of projects that I wanted to do. “Inviolate”, my latest studio record, that was my first one. And back then I started working on a solo acoustic vocal record… Can you imagine that? (laughing)
Yes I can actually imagine that. (laughing)
Steve Vai: That’s just my acoustic guitar and one voice (pointing his throat, smiling). I love it but haven’t finished yet. This is like a guilty pleasure. Things come up… And I needed to put the acoustic project on halt, because I didn’t want SatchVai -project to slip away because of it. Another thing that I worked on was a heavy lift. I recorded three hours of my orchestra music. I spent three weeks in Holland with the Metropol Orchestra in studio and two weeks at Tampere, Finland recording with Tampere Filharmonia.
I did that back in 2023 and 2024. So I’ve got all that on the shelf. So I had to keep it as they stay on the shelf. Because then Beat came up. And BEAT was a great opportunity and I wanted to do that, and then SatchVai. You know I have this other stuff I am hoping to get complete and finished after this BEAT-tour. And one of the other things that I have coming out or which just came out is… Er… I’m not comfortable trying to sell things to somebody. You know… “Hey! Buy my new record! (yawn yawn…)”. Everytime I have to do that it’s a little bit of a battle because you have to start bullshiting.
But something came out from my camp that is the most extraordinary offering I’ve ever had to come out of my camp. t’s “The Wire And Wood”: The Guitars of Steve Vai -book that Mike Mesker crafted. This man, Michael Mesker, – we have had a long time co-working partnership in my coureer. He’s an illustrator of the highest order. He has got impecable taste. He has done so much on my album artwork. He knows more… much more about my guitars than I do in regard of the history of them. And he wanted to do this book, because he was approached by a publisher. And he is a forensic photographer. He started it, and it took years to make this book. I think it was like five years.
And many of my guitars were scattered around the world and very hard to locate. And he would either go there to shoot them or ask the owners those to be sent for the photographic sessions for the book. You know Hard Rock Cafe’s had them around the world, They sent them, so mike can shoot them and then to be sent back. People that I’ve sold guitars too… Those turned out to be some of my most historic guitars. You, the first 7-string (Ibanez Universe) and the first floating tram.
And I just gave them away to friends and co-workers for a great job you know “Take this first 7-string swirl that I played the solo for “For The Love of God” on …” And I had to find out later where they were, and now everything’s fine. Mike tracked all of these guitars down and photographed them. And the way that he photographed them was that he set them up at a little theatre in my house… And it was miraculous. And the detailed stories about each guitar…
And when he started to do this, i said: “Mike, wait! Why? Why me?” … you know… I don’t really collect authentic vintage guitars. I’m not that guy. I don’t have that expensive guitar collection of vintage instruments. I don’t play vintage instruments. I’m a fan! Romantic! I like them. But I don’t really own any of that stuff because I prefer the instruments I play, you know. I work with a company that make exactly what I want.
And what I do has nothing to do with the vintage instruments. And I don’t want to play them because I can’t play them very well, because my whole approach is so Jem and PA. That’s my machinery. If I’m not on that I’m on an alien craft. You know these guys that can pick up any guitar and make notes with it. But I said to Mike that why me, because there’s still A-level artists alive like Eric Clapton or (back still then) Jeff Beck?
And then he said to me straight: “No, You Steve, You don’t understand that you have the most unique guitar collection in the world! You design something. 40 years ago we shaped guitar manufacturing. And you then continued and designed the 7-string, you designed the Jem (Steve’s signature Ibanez-guitar).”
You know, I’m not doubting Michael, to do anything… and I don’t mind if it inspires somebody else. I want to inspire others. That’s how the World works. You get an idea, somebody takes it and evolves it. There were so many unique ideas in The Jem. It changed the way modern guitars were built… If you take a look at the history, you would see. I didn’t really recognize that so much because I didn’t care, I was just moving forward. I wanted guitar does this…you know… I want “The Hydra” (Vai’s three-neck-signature-beast-of-a-guitar), I wanted (to develope it).
So this collection just occurred, organically happened to be a very different kind of a guitar collection. And after laid into me, he said: “No, there is no a guitar collection like yours, there never will be, can’t be!” .. this is him telling me this. And then I scratched my hair I said: “I get it.” And then he made this f*cking book! And I’m gonna tell you right now, I’m not trying to sell anything, but go look at that book! It is out now! You can go on my website and stuff.
It is a big book, it has 1000 pages! And now I am speaking from a perspective of a guy that loves the guitars, you know. And the fotos! It is remarkable! It is a miracle, and there it is. I just can’t believe. It is extraordinary as a SatchVai -album.
Thank you so much Steve for your precious time. All the best to you Steve! I’m really looking forward to those albums released and unreleased yet and also the book! All the best in the future encounters, Steve!
Steve Vai: Thank you so much, Mikko!
