Steve Vai, one of the world’s premier virtuoso guitarists recently released a new live album/DVD in the form of Where The Wild Things Are (out now through Riot!), which was recorded at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota as part of the Sound Theories world tour. This release features songs from throughout his entire career. Brendan Crabb caught up with the legendary and very humble axeman to discuss the new releases, the Guitar Hero phenomenon and being an inspiration to other guitarists.

Q: Hey Steve, how are things?

A: Well, I’m doing press and I released my DVD, so I’m kind of in the process of trying to let people know it’s out there! (laughs) This new DVD comes with a CD and the CD is live tracks culled from the DVD and it really is for me an accumulation of my entire career up to a particular point and I’m very happy with it. As a matter of fact coming out of the box it’s doing very well. I’m also playing my guitar, I’m training for a triathlon, I’m working with my son trying to help him find a job and I’m doing the things we all do in life.

Q: Great stuff. Are you an active triathlete?

A: Well, I’m kind of like my own triathlete you know, in the sense that I study the sport, I enjoy it and once a year when I’m not on tour I’ll pull like a 16-week program together and I’ll build up to like half an ironman. But I don’t enter a proper race, because I don’t really like competing and also when you do a triathlon you have to swim in open water and I just haven’t had enough time to train for swimming in open water! (laughs) But yesterday I rode my bicycle 75 miles and last week I ran 23 miles and swam two miles. And I train about six days a week. Then once I finish the triathlon then I’ll just stop and get into something else, but it’s only a small part of the day.

Q: That’s impressive. I’m sure it keeps you in great shape for when you go on tour!

A: Well, that’s one of the reasons I do it. ‘Cause the kind of tours I do are intense and I want to be in the best shape I can when I get on-stage and I notice that when I’m off tour and I’m doing real intense physical training, it just makes me bulletproof when I’m on tour. I become a machine! (laughs)

Q: (laughs) You mentioned the new CD/DVD Where The Wild Things Are, which I’ve been watching during the past week and is highly entertaining. Was that show as much fun to play as it is for us to watch?

A: Oh yeah, I mean it’s definitely a gas to play that stuff. It ranges between being very tender and subtle and simple to sheer terrifying to try and play, you know? And we really enjoy it, the band as a whole, we worked very hard, we did 30 days, 30 12-15 hour days preparing for this. So by that time, we’d been rehearsing stuff so much that it’s second nature and we’re really able to have that other side of our psyche kind of kick in, which is the emotional contribution. So it’s fun to play, it’s almost like a rollercoaster ride.

Q: The band you perform with on the new album are fantastic and a very tight unit. Do you hope to tour with that particular band again in the future?

A: I’d like to, I thought it was a great band, really wonderful people that I enjoy being with. We’re kind of like a family, you know? We really enjoy being together and touring together, we love each other and support each other very much. And that’s really the most important thing that you can have in a band when you’re touring, because it comes through in the music, it all perpetuates what the audience is feeling. I’ve read things where some musicians feel that it’s really okay that they absolutely hate the lead singer, you know, “I can’t even share a bus with them because it adds to the anger or the energy of the show”. That might be good for them, but that’s not good for me. So I’d very much like to keep this band and do some more work with them. The only problem is, they’re so wildly talented that they get scoffed up by everybody! (laughs) So putting a tour together is more like a schedule balancing act, so I’m hoping that I can do it.

Q: Good luck with that then. Now, I recently read a review of the new album which said that, “Vai is an instrumentalist that even those who aren’t flash guitarists can enjoy” and that you aren’t just about showing off every trick you learned at guitar school at every available opportunity. Is it important to you to approach your music this way?

A: Well absolutely, I always have, I never thought of it any other way. I understand why I appeal to guitar players first and foremost and I think that everybody wants to be able to say, “Oh, I don’t just appeal to country artists, I appeal to rock and crossover and jazz artists” and a jazz musician wants to say, “I don’t just appeal to people who like jazz, you can like country music and come and watch me play”. That’s all great, I’m sure there’s crossovers with everybody. So I don’t really think about it, I just try to put on the very best show I can and try to make the music entertaining, melodic, accessible, very skillfully performed by elite musicians, but very listenable and listener-friendly. My stuff is not heady, kind of muso, Fog music, you know? At least I don’t think so. I get bored with that stuff. I get bored with the same thing that my audience gets bored with, so I try to avoid it (laughs). Now and then there’s a long guitar solo, but maybe that’s for me to just kind of like stretch out and some people really like it. But for the most part, there’s a lot of melody and there’s various emotional dynamics that range, like I say, from the very subtle to unbelievably brutal. And yeah, I just feel like if I’m going to put on a show I want people to walk away feeling somewhat uplifted and also as though they’ve experienced something they’re not going to get any place else and that they enjoyed it and felt good about it when they walked away from it. That’s a conscious effort on my part.

Q: How does it feel then when people tell you that you’ve inspired them to pick up a guitar for the first time?

A: I mean, it’s a great honour to be able to inspire somebody to pick up an instrument and play it. That’s a thrill and every time somebody tells me that they started playing guitar because of me, it’s a real honour, it’s a real thrill. You know, for years I didn’t believe it; I know it sounds weird but I never felt I was ever good enough. From the moment I picked up the guitar I always felt that I would be looking for new things to do and ways to improve ‘till the day I die. And I still feel that way – there’s this endless kind of a treasure playing the guitar, because I’ve never… I’m very satisfied with the way I play, I’m very happy and it fulfills me very deeply. But when I think about playing, I always feel there’s something new to discover and there’s something more interesting that I have to go and find. So as a result, I never really felt like I was there. I know it sounds odd. And when people would come up to me and say, “I really like your playing, you’re really great”, I used to always think, “well, first of all, if I can do it, anybody can do it!” (laughs) I’ve never had that kind of self-esteem where I thought that what I was doing was so elite or brilliant, I just thought, well, it’s just the way I do it and if I can do it, anybody can do it. I felt that, they don’t really know, they say that they think I’m good but they don’t know how much better I feel like I need to get. And then you know, I don’t know, 13 Grammy nominations (laughs), you pick your head up and you think, well wait a minute, not everybody is doing this and these people are really serious and this does mean something to them. Obviously I’m not a Rock star or a big Pop star, but there is an audience that like any other artist that I’ve found that finds my work vital to them and that’s a responsibility too. It wasn’t really until the last, maybe four or five years of my career that I actually realized that there are people who really do feel that your work is important.

Q: What do you find influences you as a guitarist these days? Has anything new come along in the past five years or so that has inspired you, either musical or non-musical?

A: Well, I can’t really say because the kind of… what happens to me is not unlike what happens to a lot of musicians, where as you grow, you reach these different musical realizations. You start realizing the value of your time and your ability to create and you really have to prioritize and make the best thing that you can at all times. The desire to do something more unique than the last thing I did is my inspiration. I can say, well, I listened to the newest blah-blah-blah record and there’s this other guitarist that came along that I’ve been listening to that I find very inspirational and stuff but really, I haven’t really heard anything that’s pushed me hard and I haven’t seen anything or… the thing that’s pushing me is the whole new kind of vision that I have for harmonic structure and how it’s going play out on the guitar and how I’m going to incorporate that with my body language. I know that sounds bizarre and it’s not a simple answer to the question you asked (laughs).

Q: (laughs) Interesting. Now, is a new studio album in the works at all?

A: Well, Sound Theories was a very ambitious, double live orchestra project, that was tremendous. The CD before that was called Real Illusions – Reflections, which was the first part of a three-part kind of crazy concept thing. But my next studio record I’m hoping to get started on in the winter and hopefully if things go well by the summer I’ll have a new record out and by mid-next year I’ll be on tour, blowing up the bridge near you! (laughs)

Q: I look forward to that! Changing topics, but the whole Guitar Hero craze has reached incredible heights during the past few years. Do you think a lot of the people who obsessively play the game would be better off just learning to play a real guitar? (laughs)

A: Well, I think that what I’ve discovered is most of the people I’ve ever met wish that they played the guitar (laughs). If they don’t play, they secretly would like to. I mean, I’ve met politicians, famous actors, famous sports figures, when you get them in a corner and just start talking and they find out that you’re a guitar player, it’s almost like they’re little kids, you know? They love the guitar, everybody loves the guitar. But, a lot of people are intimidated by it, because if you play the guitar either you’re cool or you think you’re cool in a lot of people’s eyes, and also a lot of people want to play but they don’t because they don’t think they’re good enough, they don’t want to take the time and the discipline to sit and learn. They think that they’ll be ridiculed or whatever. So, when something like Guitar Hero comes along it kind of gives people a pseudo fix, where they can make believe and fantasize about being a guitar player and actually get some reward by getting points and you can “win”, you know what I mean? You can get a higher score and a higher score, so you’re competing and you’re actually making believe you’re playing guitar. And you know, I think it’s great. As a matter of fact, statistically I believe that the game Guitar Hero has actually inspired people to go out and buy guitars and learn. So as far as I’m concerned, bring it on! But keep this in mind – it’s not a guitar. It doesn’t really scream when you squeeze it, it’s doesn’t cry when you wail it and you’re not going to feel those vibrations running up your spine. It’s just a quick fix; but it’s very appropriate for the consciousness of Americans and most people who just want a quick fix. It’s like, take a pill, get a hard-on, you know? (laughs) Buy a box and play guitar. It kinda works, you know?

Q: (laughs) You’ve been to Australia several times in the past. When will we see you Down Under on your next album tour?

A: Oh yeah sure, on my next tour I plan on doing a sweep of the world at least twice.

Q: Great stuff. Final question – do you have any famous last words?

A: I’m really looking forward to being there again, I love Australia. I’m very much looking forward to coming. Whenever I see Australia on my itinerary my heart goes pitter-patter, because I know I’m going to enjoy it. Also, thanks for the support – my sincere thanks for the support!