Guitar
World has posted their full interview with guitar legend Steve Vai
from the September issue on their official website. An excerpt is
available below:
By
Alan Di Perna
Technically, The Story of Light is the second installment of Vai’s Real Illusions trilogy, which began with the Reflections album in 2005. The Story of Light takes the form of 12 dazzling guitar compositions that portray visions and realizations experienced by different characters in Vai’s narrative when they gaze into a reflecting pond that’s central to the plot. It’s essentially Vai’s take on the magic mirrors and enchanted ponds of mythology, fairy tales, sci-fi and other stories - symbolic portals between the ordinary world and a realm of sprit, imagination and self discovery.
“Throughout the story,” Vai says, “what happens is people come into this place where they look into this reflecting pond. And when they look into it they see these different layers of themselves. They start seeing various actions they performed, they see their past lives, they have these realizations and epiphanies. Then they finally experience the core of who they are for a moment.”
Vai drew some pretty scalding criticism for the abstruse conceptual abstractions of the first Real Illusions installment, and he isn’t exactly insensitive to criticism. But he also came of age amid the pomp and circumstance of the Seventies prog-rock era, a time when lengthy concept albums based around spiritual themes were not at all unusual. This time out, though, Vai has chosen to tell his story more through instrumental music than songs with lyrics, with very rewarding results. The rock instrumental has always been his métier anyway. And thanks to Vai’s uncanny command of the electric guitar, amplification, effects and all that goes with them, listeners will feel The Story of Light’s emotions far more palpably than they will grasp its story line. His guitar conjures the epic bliss and vast unfolding vistas of spiritual awakening, the anguish of modern life’s soul-crushing rat race, the terror of apocalyptic cataclysm and the heartbreak of betrayal. The story itself? The grand concept? Like any true spiritual seeker, Vai isn’t unduly attached.
“A lot of people won’t care at all,” he says. “And that’s fine. I don’t care. It’s just an added bonus if somebody is interested in exploring that kind of stuff. And I did my best to create a record that is true to me, true to my evolution, and something I think that the people who have been following me will get a kick out of.”
Click here for the complete story.
Vai released his new album, The Story Of Light, on August 14th via Favored Nations Entertainment. A full stream of the album is currently available at this location.
Technically, The Story of Light is the second installment of Vai’s Real Illusions trilogy, which began with the Reflections album in 2005. The Story of Light takes the form of 12 dazzling guitar compositions that portray visions and realizations experienced by different characters in Vai’s narrative when they gaze into a reflecting pond that’s central to the plot. It’s essentially Vai’s take on the magic mirrors and enchanted ponds of mythology, fairy tales, sci-fi and other stories - symbolic portals between the ordinary world and a realm of sprit, imagination and self discovery.
“Throughout the story,” Vai says, “what happens is people come into this place where they look into this reflecting pond. And when they look into it they see these different layers of themselves. They start seeing various actions they performed, they see their past lives, they have these realizations and epiphanies. Then they finally experience the core of who they are for a moment.”
Vai drew some pretty scalding criticism for the abstruse conceptual abstractions of the first Real Illusions installment, and he isn’t exactly insensitive to criticism. But he also came of age amid the pomp and circumstance of the Seventies prog-rock era, a time when lengthy concept albums based around spiritual themes were not at all unusual. This time out, though, Vai has chosen to tell his story more through instrumental music than songs with lyrics, with very rewarding results. The rock instrumental has always been his métier anyway. And thanks to Vai’s uncanny command of the electric guitar, amplification, effects and all that goes with them, listeners will feel The Story of Light’s emotions far more palpably than they will grasp its story line. His guitar conjures the epic bliss and vast unfolding vistas of spiritual awakening, the anguish of modern life’s soul-crushing rat race, the terror of apocalyptic cataclysm and the heartbreak of betrayal. The story itself? The grand concept? Like any true spiritual seeker, Vai isn’t unduly attached.
“A lot of people won’t care at all,” he says. “And that’s fine. I don’t care. It’s just an added bonus if somebody is interested in exploring that kind of stuff. And I did my best to create a record that is true to me, true to my evolution, and something I think that the people who have been following me will get a kick out of.”
Click here for the complete story.
Vai released his new album, The Story Of Light, on August 14th via Favored Nations Entertainment. A full stream of the album is currently available at this location.
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