For those familiar with Joe Satriani's guitar-playing wizardry, stamping him as a god is easy. Garnering multiple platinum albums and international acclaim since the 1980's, this rock icon has raised the bar for old and new musicians alike.
Still, Satriani says that as an artist he's always searching for something more.
"I still feel like I am trying to get it right for once," he said in an interview with The Spectrum. "I am looking for the Golden Fleece, just chasing after something. I can't feel this 20-year thing. Except for this morning when I woke up for a radio interview at 7 a.m."
Satriani will perform tonight at the Center for the Arts. On the set list are songs from his new record, "Super Colossal," with accompaniment by special guest Eric Johnson.
Made famous by his innovative musicianship, Satriani has netted 11 solo albums which claim over ten million sold units, as well as two albums having reached platinum and four having reached gold. He has had 13 Grammy nominations and has toured with a host of famed musicians.
Satriani offers insight to the inspiration behind his latest masterpiece, "Super Colossal."
"I wanted to write a record without any subject boundaries. That's an important thing for me," he said. "Sometimes in the past I've been stuck down one particular path of music. This time I wanted to keep the ideas wide and let any subject in, so that generated a lot of material as this idea came to me."
The components that built this comprehensive album didn't end there. In music, there is always a place reserved for emotions.
"I wrote 'Super Colossal' about a silly little guitarist writing a huge guitar lick in a little town," Satriani said. "It released the giant-size emotions and good times and bad times inside a guitarist. I kept thinking this is a good thing to focus on, a celebration about feeling good and that I shouldn't hold back."
Despite the strong presence of emotion in Satriani's past recordings, "Super Colossal" is a bit different than anything Satriani has done before in quite a few ways.
"Purely from my perspective, it's very easy for me to listen to something and think that I could have never had done that decades ago," he said. "I have a better handle on harmonies and melodies, a better handle on phrasing resulting from practicing and years of letting go and playing what you feel and learning to drop any type of laborious or didactic technique."
Satriani also said he tried to listen to experience the album with the ears of an objective outside listener.
"This album sounds better than any other album," he said. "This is the first time we recorded at 96k, so every step of the way we tried to maintain the highest standard. It has a lot of things about it that make it sound incredibly different."
In addition to these differences, "Super Colossal" was recorded entirely in Satriani's personal home studio. This contributed several elements for the guitarist.
"I've been doing that in various stages for about three to four records now," he said. "This time it was serious, everything was recorded in the highest degree. My home studio was prepped and I had to do things right and not think that I would do them over and over again."
Not only does it help Satriani improve his material, it is also exciting for him.
"Part of the art that I find exciting is shaping an idea any way I want," Satriani said. "I am there in my studio and I control the spaceship and direct it. I did 99 percent of the guitar work and all the bass and keyboards at my home."
Money can often hinder a musician's creative design and natural ability. Satriani explained how his artistic impulses aren't restricted at home.
"When you're at home, of course when you have your own system, you can record at any time of the day, you can really follow any artistic impulse you want. You can do what you want if you have a handle on engineering and play a few instruments. It is the ultimate playground."
Despite being known as a guitar god by many, Satriani doesn't see this reflection in the mirror.
"I don't get up in the morning and see a guitar god, that's silly," he said. "We are who we are and one of these external things shouldn't change the way we feel about ourselves and our grip on reality. It's still the same as when I was 14, I love practicing and I know if I'm not practicing I am falling behind. I don't feel being a guitar god like I feel love or faith."
Satriani will be performing at the CFA at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 and up for general seating and $30 for students. Visit satriani.com for more information on the artist.
