Going out live under the SatchVai Band banner, while releasing a batch of brand-new collaborative singles, two virtuoso Yankee guitarists are about to offer The Sea of Emotion, a whole album’s worth of studio music together, on 6th November through earMUSIC. Heralding its release, brand-new single ‘Mayhem‘ is out now.
Steve Vai has sold over 15 million records, received three Grammy Awards, and recorded with music legends like Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, alongside having a successful solo career.
Joe Satriani has sold more than 10 million solo albums, two have gone platinum and four others went gold, and has received 15 Grammy nominations. He’s played guitar with Deep Purple live in Japan, co-founded the US supergroup Chickenfoot and is currently playing with its family-tree spin-off on The Best of All Worlds tour.
Out on Long Island back in 1973, a 13-year-old Vai began taking guitar lessons from a 17-year-old Satriani. Neither could have known where that shared obsession with the guitar would lead.
“We’ve been planning this since 1973,” Vai said with a laugh. “Just unconsciously.”
The album came together after a G3 reunion tour created an unexpected opening in their schedules. What began as a suggestion to record a single track quickly expanded when Satriani sent Vai two finished pieces, ‘The Sea of Emotion, Part 1‘ and ‘Part 2‘. Vai knew immediately that the time had come.
Even so, the process was anything but predictable. Although the two musicians share a deep musical history, similar influences and a lifelong understanding of the guitar, they discovered that they write very differently. That contrast became one of the defining elements of the record, with ideas moving back and forth until the songs took unexpected turns.
“The biggest surprise was that we write in completely different ways,” Satriani explained. “And that’s what made the project so fun and interesting.”
The album was produced by Eric Caudieux, who also played keyboards, while a formidable group of longtime collaborators supplied the rhythm section, including drummers Gregg Bissonette, Jeremy Colson, Kenny Aronoff, Matt Chamberlain and Mike Mangini, and bassists Billy Sheehan, Bryan Beller, Philip Bynoe, Matt Bissonette, Marco Mendoza and Henrik Linder.
Across The Sea of Emotion, SatchVai move from the raw rock ‘n’ roll of ‘Mayhem‘ and ‘Bronco Freight Train‘ to the darker, cinematic ‘Old Sins Have Long Shadows‘, the unruly swing of ‘Zoot Suit Riot‘ and the arena-sized ‘I Wanna Play My Guitar‘, previously released as a single and featuring the legendary Glenn Hughes on vocals.
At the centre of the album is the three-part ‘The Sea of Emotion‘ suite, which reaches back to the Carle Place school field where the two teenage musicians once spent time dreaming about music. ‘Part 3‘ even begins with a vintage reel-to-reel recording from one of Vai‘s early lessons with Satriani, a glimpse of two young guitarists still searching for their voices.
“It illustrates just how far we’ve come,” Satriani said. “We’re these two kids who haven’t found our sound yet, but we’ve got enthusiasm. We’re chasing something, and we’re determined.”
For Vai, the album ultimately represents something more personal than a meeting of two celebrated guitarists. “That’s when I really feel, like, wow, we really did it,” he said. “It’s a beautiful coming together of me and my friend in a very intimate musical way. That was the reason we did the record.”
Coming out of the doors crashing and kicking, whirring up sonically, it’s not long before Satriani and Vai are dancing round both their fretboards and each other, trading licks and delivering outrageous, spunky, feel-good melodies on new single ‘Mayhem‘.
You can check out the video for ‘Mayhem‘ below.
The Sea Of Emotion features: ‘Mayhem‘, ‘Bronco Freight Train‘, ‘Dancing‘, ‘The Feeling I Know‘, ‘Zoot Suit Riot‘, ‘Old Sins Have Long Shadows‘, ‘I Wanna Play My Guitar‘, ‘The Sea Of Emotion Pt. 1‘, ‘The Sea Of Emotion Pt. 2‘ and ‘The Sea Of Emotion Pt. 3/Reflections On A Year And A Half‘. It’s out on 6th November via earMUSIC on CD, vinyl and digital.
