Joe Satriani and The Elephants of Mars

[00:00:00] A Guitar Hero for Guitar Heroes Joe Satriani had already served as a teacher for some of rock's most impressive ax slingers before accomplishing the rare feat of breaking into the mainstream with instrumental guitar music. His 1987 album, Surfing with the Alien, turned him into a star,

[00:00:17] kicking off a series of hit records that included 1989's Flying in a Blue Dream and 1990's Crystal Planet. There were dozens of successful tours all over the globe, as well as gigs backing Mick Jagger in the 80's, joining Deep Purple in the 90's

[00:00:32] and jamming with Sammy Hagar, Chad Smith and Michael Antony in the supergroup Chickenfoot. Satriani's unstoppable momentum kept going for decades, with the guitarist releasing new music all through the 2000's and with his latest album The Elephants of Mars.

[00:00:51] Anurag and I caught up with Joe to talk about his new album The Elephants of Mars, the upcoming tour and some fun stories from the road. Yeah, so I guess you know coming straight to the album itself,

[00:01:03] I think one of the things I wanted to ask about was just the fact that there's so much going on in the title track for example so and I think you have a way with

[00:01:14] creating journey sort of music which I think is sort of the allure of a lot of instrumental guitar music anyway but yeah how do you see it you know like when you're constructing a journey of a song like that?

[00:01:29] It's real important for me to have a story in head so that from the in section to the instruction to the other band members and the crew that they understand what it is I'm trying to

[00:01:42] achieve so you can imagine I get this song going it's got a funny sound that reminds me of some sort of alien elephant kind of thing and I construct a story in my head about

[00:01:54] the future earth scientists terraform Mars and unbeknownst to them they create a race of sentient gigantic elephants who want to wrestle control of the planet and make it an independent garden planet and they get together with the colonists and headed by a guitar playing

[00:02:15] revolutionary and they take control to save the elephants of Mars so that you know put a smile on my face as I was playing and I thought that that means that we can really get funny with this

[00:02:27] and be outrageous and uh so as I told the story you know to Kenny and to Brian and Ray everyone sort of got the the joke so to speak but also understood the seriousness of it

[00:02:39] because they had the early demos and uh so everyone's performance then sort of pushed each other band member a little bit further along because the record was done in pieces that that whole thing where we had to compromise in one room in a few hours was suddenly gone

[00:02:58] which was really great so you know it would sit with my producer engineer Eric for a few weeks and then it would move over to Kenny for a few weeks and it would go to Brian and when it

[00:03:10] come back to me and then we'd send it to Ray everybody had time to really reflect on how they could add to this story and so whether it was a song a serious song like Faceless or it

[00:03:24] was a song that had a bit of uh science fiction fun to it uh like the elephants of Mars that time element was really important you know talking of Faceless I saw a comment Sammy Hager

[00:03:38] had left on your Instagram calling you the greatest guitar singer in the world and you know he said if that doesn't sound like someone singing I don't know what what does

[00:03:53] I was thinking back you know I was talking to Steve Vai last week and I was we were talking about Frank Zappa and there was a Frank Zappa quote where he said that you can't write a card

[00:04:02] ugly enough to say what's in your head sometimes how do you sort of bring that to life what's how do you sort of bring what's in your head uh to life on the guitar uh I think I've had um

[00:04:18] a lifetime of struggling with that very thing that very question which is how do I get myself to come out of those speakers you know and and I can't explain to you why

[00:04:33] an artist would want that it's the particular uh neurosis of an artist to want to share with the world what's inside of them you know whether it's painting or or music and but I do know

[00:04:46] that that has been my quest ever since I picked up the guitar and I just deal with whatever technique I I have and if I have to learn a new technique to get a song across then I'll

[00:04:58] I'll spend some time learning it just like Steve you know he's the same way if he has an idea and he doesn't know how to do it he'll change his life to learn how to do it it's remarkable

[00:05:08] right and and his new album is just fantastic it's a perfect document of that of how an artist will go to great lengths to try something new and uh and succeed so uh I think I've done

[00:05:23] the same thing and what bothers me when I don't achieve it is the thing that energizes me to keep trying harder and to try to do anything I can to capture what it is I'm really trying to communicate

[00:05:38] to people and so I push aside competition I I don't want to homogenize with the rest of the world I don't want to join any other club this can be a problem when you're trying to have a career

[00:05:54] but most important for me is that artistic expression that if I'm lucky enough to get an audience for a moment that they will know without a doubt that it's me playing the guitar that

[00:06:06] that melody come from inside of me and that's that's what I want yeah yeah and I mean like it's one thing to obviously you know we're talking about how you are as a guitarist and you've been

[00:06:19] mentioning that as well but I think I specifically wanted to ask about tahara as well as doors of perception because it feels like these two have something going on percussion wise and rhythmic

[00:06:29] wise which is quite you know different for you and just different in general for I think that kind of music so uh it felt like tahara obviously had a ethafrican kind of percussive thing going on

[00:06:40] and doors of perception maybe like a middle east ad-bic sort of thing so yeah could you could you take us through that like how you ended up going in this sort of rhythmic direction I think it's uh

[00:06:51] you know a life of traveling around the world and having the privilege of experiencing music and musicians from all walks of life all different cultures and just really loving it just loving musical expression that I hear coming from places that are so different from where I grew up

[00:07:15] what I hear is the same core amount of humanity and and that's always made it easy for me to accept music from all parts of of the world because I can I don't really you know I have to look at

[00:07:33] the costumes or necessarily hear the instruments I'm really instantly drawn into the musical expression the communication that I'm hearing and it's always the same you know I mean you can I can identify it it's the it's uh if you hear love and you hear also the question about

[00:07:53] existence it's a metaphysical quest that everybody is on to understand life and so it seems so natural to me to want to take those sounds and those chords those melodies those

[00:08:11] rhythms in and sort of make them uh sort of make them my own in a way you know to show that to echo them I guess maybe that's what it is I want to take them in and I want to echo them to

[00:08:27] say to those people over there I hear you and and I feel the same way you know and and I and as musicians you know we use rhythm and sound to elicit a feeling from our audience and uh

[00:08:43] it's beautiful when you know you you can embrace that uh the artistry that is coming from you know across the room across the ocean around the world because you realize it's you're all connected

[00:08:59] you know as artists and then as human beings um and uh but you know that the two stories Sahara and Doors of Perception are so different uh you know the stories behind them are just so wildly

[00:09:14] different but at the same time uh you know when you're working with people uh you hope that the message in a couple of chords and a rhythm uh speaks to that other people in the band

[00:09:29] and and they get what you're saying so those songs wound up really you know blossoming on the album because Eric and I were feeling the same way about things and and so it it it made sense

[00:09:42] even like a song like a dance of the spores uh you know he he could hear where I was going and took it another step further and that's always really great fun you know fabulous yeah I think uh you

[00:09:56] your son directed the the video for Sahara right yes yeah what was that like working with uh ZZ well you know uh we started taking him on tour when he was four and he started making

[00:10:12] podcast for us um with his camera when he was about I don't know 10 or something like that uh he uh beyond the supernova was a documentary he made uh about me uh it was released in 2018

[00:10:26] I think actually you can start streaming it or preordering it on iTunes now um and um he's done a lot of videos for me he did the 1980 video and uh yesterday's yesterday from the

[00:10:40] shapeshifting um record and uh we just finished up doing the title track the new video that he's done isn't totally insane I can't wait for people to see it it's really a lot of fun

[00:10:56] it's really great to work with him because I just surrender to his vision and uh you know he tells me what to do and I do it and it's it's really great that's one of those things where

[00:11:10] when you really trust somebody and their talent and their vision you can really surrender yourself to them and it's a it's a fantastic process a really great working relationship yeah yeah I can imagine um uh Joe I wanted to go back to something you were saying earlier about

[00:11:29] you know like how somebody who's traveling the whole world and you know picked up these sort of things um I think one of the things I picked up through through the album from Mars through

[00:11:39] this album was every now and then like you have places and locations and song titles in your albums like you know like this one has each 104 sleep NYC specifically 1973 that has turned

[00:11:51] into memory lane um I guess I wanted to know like what do these evokes with you because uh some of those things at least 22 memory lane uh I think appropriately brings out a sense of

[00:12:02] nostalgia like it feels a little nostalgic but uh yeah like how did you come up with those song titles yeah those are you know I I get uh an inspiration of feeling and memory uh and the title kind of

[00:12:18] reveals itself and I write it down and then I start it sort of draws the music out of me so um yeah east 104th street in New York City is where my father was born and raised

[00:12:36] it's a part of New York City that uh I think it's still called Spanish Harlem and so my grandparents came from Italy and settled there in New York City around 1906 and so

[00:12:48] my father and his brothers all grew up right there and we visited there when I was a little kid every Sunday uh had fun on this just playing on the streets with all the kids and uh and my relatives

[00:13:01] and then of course in the 70s when I was coming of age and being coming in musician it also was a very cataclysmic time for New York City it was just going to a lot of economic stress

[00:13:14] and I was growing up and I could see it and I could finally understand that it wasn't this wonderland that I experienced when I was a little kid this was like serious stuff but there was

[00:13:26] a lot of great music you know it's sort of Miles Davis on the corner and you know you could go see Led Zeppelin and country music and blues and jazz and classical and the greatest museums and

[00:13:39] the most beautiful people and the and the most terrifying people all in one city and that was really my coming of age period so I had to pick a a year that would be like

[00:13:52] the central point and since I left New York around 70 late around 76 uh I decided 73 would be the midpoint that that made sense to try to sum it up and I was just thinking like

[00:14:10] you know there were many times where it'd be 4 30 in the morning and you're at a club and everyone's gone uh and you're just sitting there jamming with musician friends and you're

[00:14:21] just playing the vibe of the city you know and that's kind of like what that is 22 memory lane is actually 22 is the house number where I grew up uh just about 30 minutes outside New York City

[00:14:36] in a small town called Westbury and um and so yeah that's that's just about uh you know dealing with memories and as you said nostalgia about uh what formed you

[00:14:51] as a young person and then how you look back at that and I've written a lot of songs about that about how it's so difficult uh to go back and in a way as Tom Wolf said you can never go back

[00:15:03] you just can't ever emotionally go back home you can physically go back home but once you've left you've left and it becomes a memory place uh not a place that is has a future

[00:15:18] you know which is really there's a sense of sadness about that because you have to you have to admit it to yourself and and accept it but I think also it's a it's a place where

[00:15:33] if you have great and good memories they are a foundation that give you uh hope and strength in your present day you know which is which is why it's so important for for adults to

[00:15:47] properly raise children I mean this it really you're creating the future for these young people and uh if there was ever you know a thing to do that was something that could never be argued

[00:16:03] it would be that is to always love and and raise children properly yeah yeah but uh Joe you know they say sometimes we tend to sort of create our best work when we have nothing to

[00:16:16] lose where does this album rank for you amongst everything that you've done well I think it's funny you should say that because um we never really have anything it's an illusion

[00:16:31] that we we have something it really is funny because uh I can remember back to when I was really young starting out and you know you focus on things that are really silly like you know

[00:16:49] when you're a young teenager you may you know focus on your pants or your shirt or your shoes or your hair cutters you just think whatever that that is the thing that is the most important thing in

[00:16:59] the world how you're accepted because of some little tiny element you know uh and then a few years go by and you can laugh at it you can say oh I was just a little kid what did I know

[00:17:11] kid what did I know that was never important uh but you can look back uh at career moments as a musician and you could say to yourself what was I nervous about like why did I carry around

[00:17:25] all that you know pre-conceived doom and gloom if these few elements didn't all line up when in fact none of them mattered yeah and uh I guess it just takes a lifetime and a career of ups

[00:17:39] and downs for you to finally exhale and say boy none of it matters I never had anything so I guess I never had anything to lose I thought I had something to lose but actually I never had it so it's

[00:17:53] quite liberating and I started thinking like that really early on because I I started to see it in other people that I was working with and I realized they can't see it they're holding onto

[00:18:08] an imaginary dream and that's actually what's bringing them down and if they would just let go they realize that they're free you know and um I think that specifically happened

[00:18:22] before I became a solo artist I was in a band called the gray kin band and they were going to a really bad time and I was like the last guy to get hired in the band before it all

[00:18:33] kind of fell apart and I I was in a unique position to see that happening and at the same time that year that I was on tour with them I was negotiating with Relativity Records to release my first full

[00:18:46] length album out of the surf and so I could really see like that these two worlds happening and I was like in between them in a way but I learned that lesson that these really good

[00:19:00] people everybody in that band was really talented and they were really nice human beings they just had a problem letting go of something that wasn't working you know because they thought they had

[00:19:14] something to lose that was the thing yeah yeah but tell me Joe what what touring plans do you have with the new album we unfortunately last week we had it when out that we postponed once

[00:19:31] again our european tour to 2023 the good news about that is that all the venues promoters are all honoring any tickets that were purchased back as far back as 2020 and so the dates and the venues are almost completely all the same it's just another year

[00:19:52] ahead for the reasons that are quite obvious we all know about them and we're soon to announce our north american tour starting in September late september and that's again another eight nine

[00:20:08] week tour so I'm excited about that finally we're all hoping that we're going to be able to tour like we used to before and finally get to play music for our fans yeah it's been it's been

[00:20:20] three years but what are your memories of playing in india uh joe oh fantastic uh what an experience the last show was really great I mean uh that the last show and I guess is it pronounced poone

[00:20:36] or poon poone yeah pooney pooney yeah um that was really a lot of fun that was really that was great and it came at the end of a of a long year of touring and so there was a there was a

[00:20:51] great feeling of exaltation and just relief in a way and what a great place to to finalize that whole trip was really really great um and we've made some really good friends in india that

[00:21:11] uh that we've kept in touch with and um uh you know I could go on and on like I'd sound like a tourist if I said I'd love the you know the sights the sounds the smells the the food and everything

[00:21:27] but it's it's true uh it's so uh it's so exotic compared to uh you know daily life here in san francisco and uh uh you know I'm sure you've learned to accept that when people from the U.S. come to india

[00:21:46] they go like wow I think one of the funniest things about going to india is always the colors and um uh an indian friend of ours said it to me once over lunch the last time we were there

[00:22:03] he said that it's like everybody in india has dropped acid and and painted the whole country and it was really a funny way of explaining it because when you come back to the united states

[00:22:17] everything looks rather plain and uh and then you you reflect back but when you're there it's almost like sensory overload um because there's so much beauty to to see in every little

[00:22:31] corner and um so uh but once you go you never forget it stays in your heart which is really great and and our fans in india really reached out and touched me and and have a place uh you know in

[00:22:45] my heart yeah yeah we can't we can't wait to have you back here that'll be great yeah you know I also I also read somewhere that some you know you don't put some songs into your set list because they're considered cursed and there's always something unexpected that happens

[00:23:05] when you play them do you have any stories about is it true uh there was there was only one I think that I thought was a truly cursed song and um and and I don't know why it's just it's actually

[00:23:19] kind of funny in a way but um there was a song that when I was touring with uh Mick Jagger uh it was a very weird situation at times because it was such a high the highest level of touring

[00:23:35] I'd ever been on and it was always a red carpet wherever we went we everything was top of the line and I was that was new to me and I remember after being at some great parties and playing

[00:23:48] these great gigs and I'm in this beautiful hotel suite and I go back into my room at the end of the night and I turned on the television and they it was this program about people starving

[00:24:00] children not having enough to eat or drink and and I just thought oh this is weird how could I be living this life and those people are living that life and we're all in the same planet and

[00:24:13] it just didn't make any sense to me and so I wrote the song The Forgotten about that about this the oddness of life that that these two things could be happening

[00:24:23] at the same time and uh during the recording of that song it was really hard to get through the song because we would listen to it and after about an hour we would all be bummed out and we

[00:24:36] have to stop and play something a little bit more upbeat for a while when we go back to work on the song and everybody's mood would go down but when the fans heard it of course they just

[00:24:46] thought it was a beautiful song that had a special mood to it and then when we were doing a short tour for around the Flying in the Blue Dream album the guys in the band really wanted to do that song

[00:25:03] and and fans were saying oh you should do The Forgotten you should do The Forgotten I'm thinking really it's like where in a set can you play something so slow and sad and

[00:25:13] you know how are you going to get out of it like what do you follow that song with you know drum solo or something whatever but I thought okay maybe I'm wrong I should do it so we were playing

[00:25:24] the last time we played it we were on a short tour with Steve Miller and uh Steve is a wonderful person really great guy very upbeat you know I mean he plays very happy music you

[00:25:37] know so there we are playing in this arena in Reno, Nevada and uh it's on the set list this song right The Forgotten and I thought okay I remember thinking this is going to be a mistake I know

[00:25:51] but I'm going to try it anyway and the the audience really loved us up until that point and we start playing the song and just minute after minute the whole feeling of this thing

[00:26:02] just sunk and sunk and sunk until finally there was like silence when we ended the song it was you could hear a pin drop and I thought I knew this was a bad idea this is just not a song that works

[00:26:16] you know live you know it just doesn't work especially when you're opening for Steve Miller and um so anyway I swear Steve Miller must have figured it out because we decided to do

[00:26:28] Big Bad Moon next and Steve came out unannounced and played the song with us but he didn't really learn the song so the song just was like a train wreck because he just was playing whatever

[00:26:43] I just at the end of that night everyone said okay okay we'll never play that song again obviously that song just sort of destroys everything in its path you know so

[00:26:55] um but I don't know never say never right yeah what a story yeah yeah anyway Joe I think we're out of time thank you so much for doing this um all the best of your album yeah thanks for your time Joe

[00:27:11] wonderful talking to you thank you that's it for this week's episode of Tales from the Road Tales from the Road is brought to you by the concert photographer and moving pictures media don't forget to join us next week for another episode if you like what you heard

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