“We’d meet up in the morning,” says Satriani, ”and someone would say, ‘I really like that song, let’s do that one.’ And we’d spend a few hours learning it and arranging it, and then record it and that would be it. We’d move on to the next song.”
This mad dash proved to be a good thing and gave the album its fresh sound. “There’s a lot of spontaneity on this album because there wasn’t a lot of time to rehearse the songs,” says Anthony. “We would rehearse it 20, 30 times and then we recorded it.” The time constraints extend beyond the recording session. Because of Smith’s commitments, drummer Kenny Aronoff will be filling in for him on the band’s upcoming tour. But this won’t be a permanent lineup switch. Anthony says, “We didn’t want this to be a revolving-door band.”
The long road to Chickenfoot’s origin can be traced back to 1985 when Van Halen and vocalist David Lee Roth parted company. After this breakup, Roth did what any crafty jilted lover would do: He got sweet revenge. He recruited über-virtuoso Steve Vai along with bass hero Billy Sheehan to form a supergroup with superhuman, pyrotechnical abilities. Van Halen counteracted by bringing in Sammy Hagar as the new lead singer, but as Eddie Van Halen became more and more content to rest on his laurels, his position as the king of rock guitar was slowly being usurped by the continually innovative Vai, who ended up becoming the guitar hero to round out the ’80s and onward to the present day.
Flash forward to 2007 when the impossible happened and Van Halen reunited with Diamond Dave. This reunion came with a twist, however. Eddie’s teenage son, Wolfgang replaced founding member bassist Michael Anthony, leaving both Anthony and Hagar without a gig. They must have asked themselves “what would Dave do?” because soon after, they formed Chickenfoot, a supergroup featuring Joe Satriani—Vai’s former mentor—and Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
This ensemble proved to be a success with Chickenfoot’s selftitled first album debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 100 and going Gold. But this is no poor man’s Van Halen. “During the first tour we wanted to establish ourselves as Chickenfoot so we decided not to play any Van Halen or Chili Peppers stuff,” says Anthony. “Obviously some of the stuff is going to sound like Van Halen vocally because that’s where Sammy and I come from and people can identify with that sound in our voices. But we don’t want to be like Van Halen. We don’t want to be like the Chili Peppers, we don’t want to be like Joe’s solo stuff. We just do what we do.”
How did Chickenfoot III
come about?
Anthony: Because we were
going to be losing Chad to his
other band [laughs]. Actually,
we wanted Chad on the new
Chickenfoot record and we
knew once he got fired up with
the Chili Peppers that would
pretty much be impossible.
So we said, “Hey, let’s go into
the studio and put some stuff
together while Chad’s still free.”
Satriani: We always knew we’d
get together again and continue
it. After the set of tours that
we did, we really solidified as
a band and I think we all look
back on the first record like,
“Wow, that’s hardly representative
of what we can do.”
What revelations did you have?
Satriani: We felt like a band,
but we didn’t know if we
sounded like a band until we
had that first album. When we
hit the road we had to prove a
lot to ourselves. We went from
the club thing to the festival
tour and did the theaters and
the arenas in the summer and
then it was over. But in that
period we learned so much
about each other musically, and
the potential of the band would
really blossom every night that
we would play.
Anthony: I think we’ve really
niched out what Chickenfoot is
about on this record.
Michael, do you approach your
bass lines differently depending
on whether the guitarist is
playing more in the pocket and
bluesy or going crazy?
Anthony: The difference here is
when Eddie would go off, he’d
be like, “Pump on this note, it’s
king of like an AC/DC thing,”
whereas Joe gives me a chance
to play different things and not
just ride on one note.
Are you enjoying the freedom
you have now?
Anthony: Oh, it’s great. I don’t
think there was one time on
this album where Joe came up
to me and said, “Can you play
this here?” He let me go off
and develop my own bass parts.
Everybody was allowed to put
in their own two cents.
What differences and similarities
do you see in Joe and
Eddie’s approach?
Anthony: They’re both great
guitarists in their own right.
Eddie would treat every song
like it was an instrumental and
either Dave or Sammy or even
Gary would fit their vocals
around it. I had to be more
basic in my playing to really
hold it down.
Joe Satriani’s Gearbox
Guitars
Ibanez JS prototype with DiMarzio pickups, Ibanez
JS2400, ’55 Gibson Les Paul, ’58 Fender Esquire, ’59
Gibson ES-335, Rickenbacker, Deering banjo, Ovation
12-string, Gibson Jimmy Page No. 1 Les Paul
Amps
Marshall JVM 410 Joe Satriani Signature Model, ’53
Fender Deluxe, ’59 Fender Twin
Effects
Electro-Harmonix POG, Vox Big Bad Wah, Vox Time
Machine, Voodoo Lab Proctavia, Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe
Strings, Picks, and Accessories
D’Addario .010–.046, D’Addario .011 sets on some vintage
guitars, Planet Waves signature picks (heavy), Planet
Waves signature straps, Planet Waves cables
Joe, with this band, do you
feel Eddie’s shadow lingering
over the music?
Satriani: It was obvious that, at
least for me, I’m not going to
try and recreate the over-playing
heroics of the ’80s that was pioneered
really by Eddie. Nobody
can do it, really, like Eddie. So
why would you do it?
Anthony: I don’t want Joe to
do anything like Eddie Van
Halen or sound like him. We
get enough comparisons to Van
Halen the way it is [laughs].
People on the internet are like,
“Chickenfoot III...they’re jabbing
at Van Halen III.” I have
to laugh at these references—
they’ll make them musically,
too. I’m thinking, “Do these
people sit around all day long
and try to find one note that
Joe has in common with Eddie
and just go off on it?”
Joe, on this record you seem
to play less technically than
someone might expect, given
the band’s lineage.
Satriani: That can be said for
everybody in the band. Sammy
can try to sing higher than he
did with Van Halen, although
I can’t imagine trying to sing
higher than that [laughs]. Chad
can try to be funkier than he
is with the Chili Peppers and,
as you mentioned, I can try to
do flashier, more outside stuff,
but that’s so calculated and so
wrong to me. It’s the antithesis
of why we got together.
Anthony: Obviously, when you
have a lead singer, you don’t
have to be playing notes every
second. So now Joe doesn’t
have to play the melody and
everything all the time on the
guitar. I know he enjoys doing
all the rhythmic stuff, too, and
not just being the guy playing
the lead all the time. Maybe he
is making his own conscious
effort to kind of hold back on
the album. All I can say to that
is that people should come see
us live—Joe’s on fire.
Joe, your older stuff like Not
of this Earth is more cerebral,
whereas this is more feelgood,
jam music. Is it hard to
switch gears?
Satriani: No, it’s not. I know
that it seems odd from the
outside looking in. Twenty-four
hours in the day of Joe Satriani,
there are so many different
kinds of music running through
my head, and if I’m hanging
around at home I play lots of
different stuff. Stuff that you
would never release or you
wouldn’t want people to hear
because they wouldn’t know
what you were or what kind of
stylistic box to put you in.
But that’s typical for the way that a musician thinks. An artist is just simply being artistic, so when they see a mandolin, they start playing some mandolin music. Someone says, “Check out this piano,” they sit down and they play whatever piano music they know or like at that moment. We’re always hopping stylistic fences or at least, I should say, I am. I’m always playing lots of different things on an average day at home playing music. When you’re making an album you can’t do that. It’s very difficult to have a career based on being scattered stylistically.
But you’re the guy who
whipped rock guitarists of the
’80s into getting serious about
learning music theory and
studying the enigmatic scale
and pitch axis, among other
things, and now it’s back to
the basic blues scale. Isn’t that
quite a contrast?
Satriani: It is. That’s a really
good question you’re asking
and the answer is quite profound
for someone like me who
started out knowing absolutely
nothing and, little by little,
learning from very gifted and
patient teachers. What I’ve
arrived at, which is what all
musicians arrive at once they
get through all the learning, is
that a three-note scale doesn’t
carry any more extra weight
than a 12-note scale. Whether a
scale is called Lydian Dominant
or whether it’s called blues, it
doesn’t mean one is better than
the other.
A complicated arrangement is not necessarily better than a simple arrangement. It’s just music and what matters is whether it’s powerful—does it move people? Does it move you, the artist? So it’s really great when you arrive at that point and generally you can’t, until you actually know all of it. I’ve been as good a student as I can possibly be all these years. So I can say, “Yeah, I can play harmonic minor scales harmonized in any way that you want, in any key, anywhere on the guitar.” None of that phases me anymore. So that means that everything’s equal. I’m not impressed by complications.
Joe, Chickenfoot’s music is
definitely less complex than
a lot of your own music. No
adjustment issues?
Satriani: Well, Sammy’s always
dogging me about two things.
He wants me just to go crazy.
He doesn’t want me to work
things out, and he’s always trying
to convince me that commercial
success is a good thing.
My success is based on being
under the radar, so it’s natural
for me to go for the odd, not
the accessible. The joke in the
band is that whenever we’re
working on a song that we
think might have some commercial
success, it’s guaranteed
to put me in a bad mood and
I’ll want to stop working on it.
“Different Devil” comes to
mind as one with a commercial
sound.
Satriani: I think the worst
mood I was ever in with
Chickenfoot was when we
recorded that song. When I
brought the song in it was
about 90-percent finished and
I thought it could be a really
good and weird song—the
typical way I think of things. I
bring it in and everybody starts
tidying it up, and then I start
to think, “Hey, it sounds like
you guys want to make this an
accessible piece of music.” And
I’m bumming out about it.
Later Chad took my acoustic guitar back to the hotel room. He shows up the next morning with a new part to the song and Sammy hears it and says, “I could sing a chorus over that.” So we insert it into the arrangement, and after awhile I’m going, “They’re right, this is actually sounding pretty good.” And so we built up the track until the end of the day. Then over the next couple of weeks as we’re doing the overdubs, I started to realize that the melody Sammy’s singing doesn’t actually go with the chords that Chad wrote for the chorus part. So I had to go and listen to Sammy’s vocals without guitars and bass, and figure out melodically what he thought he was singing over harmonically. Once I realized what he was singing over in his mind, I had to go find those chords.
Did the reharmonized version
throw him off?
Satriani: No, it fit because
I think when we did the last
tracking together everyone was
just worried about their parts,
they really weren’t thinking
about what Sammy was singing,
they figured he’d change
his vocals. But I know Sammy
and when Sammy gets on a
trajectory he’s not going to
change his vocals. He’s going
to look at me and say, “Joe,
change those chords.”
“Come Closer” showcases a
moodier side of the band.
Anthony: That’s a song where
Sammy already had the vocals
and lyrics first.
Satriani: One morning I just
went over to my piano and
put the cup of coffee on
one end and the iPhone on
the other side and I very
quietly sang a moody… it
was sort of like, if you can
imagine, Radiohead doing
an R&B song. It was kind of
drifty, especially in my croaky
voice. I quickly emailed it
to Sammy to see if this was
something he could get into
because this was me putting
him in a lower register.
Was that one originally written
on the piano in A♭ minor
(as it sounds) or A minor but
then played tuned down?
Satriani: It was written in
A minor. I’m not too good
with A♭ minor [laughs]. I play
just enough piano to get a
song across.
Michael Anthony’s Gearbox
Basses
Yamaha BB300MA Michael Anthony signature bass
Amps
Ampeg B-50R
Effects
MXR Micro Chorus (live only), MXR Blue Box (live)
Strings, Picks, and Accessories
Dunlop picks, Jim Dunlop strings (.045, .065, .087,
.107), Monster Cable (studio), Shure wireless (live)
Joe, in your “Come Closer”
solo, you play this long arpeggiated
sequence then in the
last two measures you break
away from it so it doesn’t
sound predictable.
Satriani: Right, I had to let
loose. To tell you the truth,
when we were rehearsing, it
had a loaded bluesy solo in the
beginning, and I just started
thinking that it sounded too
much like a power ballad where
the guitar player steps up and
he’s blowing a solo on the
mountain top. I thought that
was too corny. I kept thinking
with the solo that I wanted to
be part of the band.
Let’s talk gear for a second.
Joe, I understand on this
record you used that blue
Ibanez prototype with three
single-coils you played on the
Experience Hendrix tour.
Satriani: Yeah, that prototype
is a winner, man. We’ve worked
on that one for almost 10
years now and Steve Blucher
at DiMarzio just came up with
really cool pickups that, for
some reason, really go together
with a maple neck and that
particular body. It just sounds
like the punchiest Strat you ever
heard in your life.
Is this the first album you
recorded with this guitar?
Satriani: I think it is. And
the whole record was done
primarily on my new 4-channel
Marshall signature amp
called the JVM 410 Joe Satriani
Signature Model.
Michael, I know you generally
use your Yamaha signature
bass, but what happened to
the Jack Daniel’s bass?
Anthony: I still have it and
it will probably come out on
tour. At the end of every tour,
I put it in the closet and say
I’m done with it. And there’s
always somebody like you who
says, “Hey, what’s with the Jack
Daniel’s bass?” My original one
has been on display for at least
a couple of years now at the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in Cleveland.
Michael, there’s a rumor that
you’re the richest among the
original Van Halen members,
is that true?
Anthony: [Laughs.] Well, everybody
used to joke that I saved
the first dollar that I ever made
in Van Halen. I probably did
somewhere. You know what,
my wife Sue and I, we just celebrated
our 30th wedding anniversary
in February. That might
have something to do with it,
because every guy in Van Halen
is divorced—a couple of them
a couple of times. So, of course,
that’s going to tax their account
a little bit.
Some people out there say
Chickenfoot is in it just for
the money, but you guys don’t
really need the money. Sammy
made something like 80 million
dollars selling a share of
his tequila business.
Anthony: And that was just
selling the first 80 percent.
Once he sold the last 20 percent,
I’m sure he made a good
penny on that, too. The best
part about Chickenfoot is that
nobody needs the money. We’ve
got nothing we need to prove
to anybody. We wanted this to
be a fun band and when we get
in the studio it’s just so loose,
relaxed, and open. It’s like
the early days of Van Halen.
Everybody’s just throwing in
their input and having a great
time making music. We don’t
want any pressure and we said
if any came up, we should just
stop doing this.
Michael, if the situation presented
itself, would you rejoin
Van Halen?
Anthony: At this point in my
life and career, I’m so happy with
what I’m doing and I want to
have fun making music. I don’t
want any drama. That whole
drama thing in Van Halen, the
way it ended up, I was like, “I’d
rather make no money having
fun playing music than make a
shitload of money tearing my
hair out.” Maybe when I was 20
it would have been different, but
not at this point. I want to keep
my sanity.
Recently, supergroups
have been springing
up like it’s the late
’70s again. Them
Crooked Vultures
(Dave Grohl, Josh
Homme, and John
Paul Jones) and Black
Country Communion
(Glenn Hughes, Jason
Bonham, Derek
Sherinian, and Joe Bonamassa) have been
garnering headlines lately, but Chickenfoot
was one of the biggest to spring up in the last
couple of years.Formed unofficially in February 2008 when former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist Joe Satriani met at a Hagar concert in Las Vegas. In the words of Anthony, "It was just too much fun to pass up." That attitude drove both their self-titled debut album and this live DVD. Chickenfoot is about having fun and putting on a great show. Even though the members have a whopping 46 platinum albums between them, they manage to put their successes behind them and put on a good show by simply rocking. It’s not pretentious art rock, and there’s nothing too sophisticated about the music. It feels and sounds like four friends just jamming in their garage—even when they’re playing in front of a giant crowd.
The main drawback to this DVD is that Chickenfoot has only one album, so there’s not a lot here that isn’t on the CD. The only exceptions are the band’s show-closing covers of Montrose’s "Bad Motor Scooter" and the Who’s "My Generation" (Hagar plays slide on the former). If you’re looking for a great rock concert, check this one out, but if you’re looking for new music you might be better off waiting for their next album. Chickenfoot doesn’t cover a lot of new ground on this DVD, but they do show that the road forward is already paved—and it looks like a great trip. —BB
List $17.98
dc3global.com
Judas Priest – British Steel: 30th Anniversary Edition
If you’re a metal
fan, you probably
can’t count how
many times you’ve
sat through arguments
over whether
Megadeth is better than Metallica, who was
the best shredder of the ’80s, or what is the
greatest heavy metal album of all time. For
a lot of people, that album is Judas Priest’s
1980 monsterwork, British Steel. The incredibly
influential album still rings in the skulls
of metalheads everywhere, and to commemorate
the 30th anniversary of its release the
band has rereleased the record with a bonus
DVD containing a very special treat for fans:
video of the band performing the entire
British Steel record—from start to finish—for
the first time ever.The recording is of the August 17, 2009, show in Hollywood, Florida—the concert that kicked off Priest’s 30th-anniversary tour. It’s pretty incredible watching a band in which most members are nearing 60 but they still rock harder than most bands today. And they played the album perfectly, with fluid ease. Vocalist Rob Halford proves he is still one of the greatest singers in rock ’n’ roll by consistently hitting every falsetto note with precision and hair-raising emotion. The sound and video quality is extremely clear, without any visual artifacts from transfer or conversion processes, too.
After watching this DVD over and over, I can only hope that I can be this cool when I finally reach that age. What’s funny is that, even with a track list that’s 30 years old—Judas Priest can still bring out your 16-year-old metalhead. An absolute must for the hardcore Judas Priest fan. —JW
List $15.98
judaspriest.com
Guitar Player Wanted, Vocals a Plus
Karan Andrea is a guitarist,
songwriter, and singer
who has distilled several
years of vocal training into
a two-disc set (DVD and
CD) that covers things
like vocal anatomy, breath
control, vocal exercise, and
warm-ups for use in singing
a multitude of musical styles. She states right at
the beginning that she’s teaching only technique,
exercise, and control—not style—so that you can
apply your own style to your vocal instrument.Andrea cleverly takes what we already know as guitar players—melody, chord structure, harmonization, pitch, time, and tone—and helps us apply that knowledge to the instrument that we haven’t spent years mastering. The DVD starts out a little slow, but soon digs into the heart of the matter. Using detailed drawings of the entire vocal system, she offers easy visualizations that help you understand the system you’re learning to control. Breaking it down to two simple concepts—the vocal cord "zipper" and the "low or relaxed larynx"—Andrea offers a set of exercises designed to help people who think they can’t sing become real singers.
I think we can all agree that vocal exercises are incredibly silly things that make you feel ridiculous, embarrassed, strange, goofy, and all kinds of uncomfortable. But once you get past the embarrassment and get to the incredible improvements that can come about with training and exercise, you’ll gladly look a little silly. The initial exercises are pretty elementary, but even experienced singers who have no actual training will find insight and improvement here.
The CD with has the same 25 exercises as the DVD, so you can use it in your car or in your home. Fantastically helpful for anyone wanting to improve their vocals at any point during the day. —GDP
List $39.95
soulhousesound.com
