The guitarist Steve Vai called better than everybody else: “His work is inspired”
Steve Vai has never shied away from sharing how his influences shaped his sound. As he once said, “We come into the world, we hear what’s available, and once we’ve figured enough out, we decide where to go with it.”
Like many others who grew up with the simple dream of one day becoming the next major guitar hero, one of Vai’s main sources of inspiration in the beginning was the monster himself, Jimi Hendrix. Vai adopted many of Hendrix’s tricks and often poured them into his own work (just listen to ‘Dark Matter’), carrying his energy while also infusing it with his own unique flavour.
That said, as much as it may seem the case, Hendrix wasn’t the only one driving Vai and inspiring him to greatness. Vai already had a keen eye for talent after coming across a host of talented people when he was just a kid; one of his first memories of being mesmerised by someone else involved a nine-year-old playing a guitar, making his six-year-old self reel with excitement about one day doing the same thing.
However, the real turning point was a little later when his sister came home one day with a copy of Led Zeppelin II. Packed with absolute lightning contributions by a certain Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin II was like a lightbulb moment for Vai, making him really stand to attention and look as closely as possible so he could attempt to replicate whatever the hell it was that Page was putting in his work.
There are many defining moments on the record, but the one that made Vai feel the most enchanted was ‘Heartbreaker’. The track shows off many of Page’s familiar styles and techniques, but the main one that caught Vai’s eye was that quintessential charm you could never really put into words, or, namely, his ability to capture “atmospheres” and bend the instrument to his liking.
And these were features that Vai also tried to incorporate into his own sound. As he explained to Music Radar, “I think some of the production side of his work rubbed off on me, too, but his sheer command of the instrument floored me. It always felt like Jimmy knew the right parts and was capturing atmospheres.”
He went on, “There were other guitar players for me that felt brilliant but two-dimensional, albeit still powerful. Jimmy was always three-dimensional; there was depth in the notes, sounds and parts. He was the finest guitar architect on the planet and still is… no matter what he’s playing, even during his rusty stages, it sounds beautiful to me. There’s a charge in it, something in there carrying a thread of freshness and inspiration. His work is inspired, that’s the best I can say!”
This is a common theme among Vai’s favourite musicians, like Joe Satriani, who also had that special ability to come out with sounds that sounded like fully-fledged pieces of music, and do it with such “elegance” that it made everything that anybody did seem pitiful. Because of this, Vai also didn’t get why Satriani didn’t gain recognition far sooner, considering he was also a mentor for some of the biggest names in the business.
Another hero who floored Vai was Brian May, who, according to Vai, made it seem like the “skies had opened up” when he first listened. Considering his love for guitarists who bring to life the seemingly impossible, this makes complete sense – all of his favourites were able to smash the room to pieces in ways nobody had ever before, creating worlds and stories often with the simplest of sounds and techniques. To Vai, that’s the real magic.
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