Beware of the Hydra.
That’s a warning from Steve Vai, the creator of the crazy three-necked guitar that he plays on a song appropriately titled “Teeth of the Hydra.”
Credit: Larry DiMarzio
Credit: Larry DiMarzio
“I am hellbent on bringing that beast (on tour), performing that song and dazzling everybody,” Vai said. “It really is quite an excitement to see it performed.”
The Hydra was inspired by the scene in the movie “Mad Max: Fury Road,” where a guitarist is playing a crazy guitar, strapped to the front of a truck.
“I thought that’s cool, but it’s fake. I’m going to make it real,’ Vai said in a recent phone interview. “I’ve always been attracted to multi-necked guitars. I wanted it to have a 12-string neck half fretted, a seven-string neck half fretted, a bass neck and 13 harp strings.”
Vai turned the plans for the Hydra over to engineers at Ibanez, the company that has made his guitars for decades. The Ibanez engineers added some features, like synthesized guitar and hold functions.
“Finally, I got the guitar and I was stunned and I was petrified,” he said. “I sat the guitar up in the studio on a stand and would look at it every time I’d walk by, like 30 times a day. Every time I walked by, it would whisper to me ‘you know you’re going to have to write that song.”
“When you hear that song, all the bass, all the guitars, all the harp strings, what you hear, with the exception of the keyboard patches and the drums is all from the Hydra,” Vai said.
Credit: Larry DiMarzio
Credit: Larry DiMarzio
“Teeth of the Hydra” is one of the stand-out tracks on “Inviolate,” the virtuoso guitarist’s 10th album, the eighth since he went solo in 1992 at age 32.
The just-released “Steve Vai The Documentary: The First 30 Years (1960-1990),” which gets the seal of approval from its subject, recounts his first three decades as he grew from prodigy to sideman to acclaim as the one of the greatest guitarists ever.
At age 12, Vai started taking guitar lessons from Joe Satriani. Six years later, he began his professional musical career transcribing for, and then playing with Frank Zappa. After spending a year in the band Alcatrazz, Vai joined the David Lee Roth band, just after Roth left Van Halen, providing the guitar work on the hit-filled album “Eat Em and Smile.”
After four years with Roth, Vai joined Whitesnake at the peak of its popularity, spending two years with the group before going solo.
One of the most sought-after players, Vai’s discography includes appearances on more than 70 albums. In his career, he’s sold more than 15 million albums, received three Grammy Awards and toured with a who’s who of rock guitarists from Satriani and Eric Johnson to Yngwie Malmsteen to Zakk Wylde
From the very beginning, however, Vai’s also been a composer — as his transcription duties for Zappa indicate.
Credit: John Davisson/Invision/AP
Credit: John Davisson/Invision/AP
“My musical interests have been quite varied, even at a very young age,” Vai said. “At first, I was introduced to compositional music as a little boy. I loved the idea of being a composer before I played guitar.”
The composer in Vai said, is audible on “Inviolate.”
“Usually when I write a song, it comes from a little snippet of something I’ve recorded on my iPhone,” Vai said. “It’s not a voice in your head, it’s more like a download. It’s happening fast and with it is like inspiration. Remember how long it took me to describe the Hydra? That inspiration came to me in one download. There was no thought about it. That was something the universe gave to me, specifically to me.”
Vai understands that his instrumental rock isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. “People respond to music differently. Some people respond to traditional vocal pop music and that’s fine,” he said. But, he said, vocals aren’t necessary to make a good song.
“Ultimately, you can have an effective piece of music only with the rhythm,” he said. “If it’s effective enough, people are going to respond. If you add a melody to that, we all know melody is king, they respond to melody. On this record, I wanted melody to be through the entire record. If somebody is responding, they feel something in the melody or something fascinating with how I am playing.”
Vai said he hopes that response brings joy to listeners, just like it does for him — whether he’s crafting a song in the studio or is playing it live.
“Joy is joy,” Vai said. “When I’m composing something and I feel it flowing, that’s very joyful. When I’m on the stage, and in the moment of the performance, meaning I’m not thinking, I hear and feel the band and am able to respond, I feel the atmosphere of the room and the audience. The joy comes when the notes are flowing through me and I’m deliberately pushing my notes, purposefully, into the hearts of the audience.”
CONCERT PREVIEW
Steve Vai
8 p.m. Oct. 16. $39-$129. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. 404-876-5566, variety-playhouse.com.
