Joe Satriani’s First National Interview, Part 2 (Audio)

A Track-By-Track Journey Through “Surfing With the Alien”

This Talking Guitar podcast features Part 2 of Joe Satriani’s first nationally published interview. In Part 1 Joe spoke about his musical upbringing, inspirations, teachers, young Steve Vai, and his appreciation for Harry Partch, Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, and other players. (Hear it here.) In Part 2, we do a track-by-track examination of Joe’s just-released Surfing With the Alien album and discuss his recording techniques, methods of composing, soloing, guitars and set-up requirements, unusual techniques, and other guitar-related subjects.

If you’ve already heard Part 1, you’ll notice that Part 2 has more background noise. This is because it was done on a working day for Joe and his engineer/producer John Cuniberti, who were in the process of mixing Joe’s new song, “The Crush of Love,” on the day we met. This interview took place in San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios just 20 days after the release Surfing With the Alien. On occasion John Cuniberti joins our conversation. Guitar Player magazine staff photographer Jon Sievert was also present during this part of the interview, and you can hear his camera clicks and his voice when he chimes in after Joe and I joke about putting a whammy into an old Martin acoustic guitar.

In the intro to Part 1, Joe explains how this interview had a major impact on his career and led to his joining Mick Jagger's band.

Thanks to Joe and John for permission to post this interview, and to engineer/producer Nik Hunt for enhancing the sound of the decades-old master tape. We hope you enjoy this unique recording. To help us continue producing "Talking Guitar" podcasts of historic interviews, please become a paid subscriber or send a donation. Thank you!

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