Joe Satriani: The 1987 "Surfing With the Alien" Interview, Part 1

This "Talking Guitar" podcast features Part 1 of Joe Satriani’s first nationally published interview. (A transcription featuring portions of our conversation ran as the cover story of Guitar Player’s February 1988 issue.) This interview, it turned out, had a major impact on Joe’s career. In his foreword to the 2015 book "Guitar Player: The Inside Story," Joe wrote, “It was Jas Obrecht who first contacted me about doing an interview. I was still giving lessons at Second Hand Guitars in Berkeley and recording solo guitar music at night. The interview experience was so exciting because the journalist asked all the cool questions. They don’t do that anymore. When GP put me on the cover and had my new song ‘The Crush of Love’ inside on the Soundpage, it had an enormously positive effect on my career. The song went on to become a radio hit for me, and GP can take credit for ‘breaking it’!” When I recently contacted Joe about turning our original interview tapes into a two-part podcast, he wrote right back giving me permission and saying he’d be honored. He added this additional info: “This was my first national/international ‘full’ interview/cover story published. What a turning point in my career and my life! The photo with my parts-guitar painted by Rubina made it that much more special. Thirty-five years later I’m still grateful for your support and professionalism. Besides introducing me to the guitar loving community in the best way possible, I believe that issue was responsible for getting me into an audition for Mick Jagger’s solo band. The story goes that while Mick and the band were discussing who could replace Jeff Beck in the band, Mick saw the GP issue laying nearby and asked, ‘What about this guy – anybody know him?’ Bassist Doug Wimbish said, ‘Yes, I met him at NAMM last summer. He’s from SF, maybe Bill Graham (the Jagger tour’s promoter) can find him for us. The rest is history. . . .” Our interview took place on the afternoon of November 4, 1987, at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco. On this particular day, Joe and his engineer/producer John Cuniberti were mixing “The Crush of Love.” On occasion, you can hear faint traces of this music as John worked in the background. Joe and I spoke in the same room where he had recorded most his breakthrough album, "Surfing With the Alien," which was released just 20 days before our conversation. A couple of notes: During the section when Joe talks about giving his first guitar lessons, the "Steve" we speak about is young Steve Vai. Lennie Tristano, who shows up earlier in the conversation, was a renowned jazz pianist, composer, and arranger with whom Joe studied in 1975. Part 2, in which Joe takes listeners on a track-by-track journey through "Surfing With the Alien," will be posted soon. If you’re into Joe’s playing, guitars and other gear, and recording techniques, this interview is for you! Thanks to engineer/producer Nik Hunt for enhancing the sound of the decades-old master tape. We hope you enjoy this unique recording. If you'd like to help us continue producing "Talking Guitar" podcasts of historic interviews, please send a donation c/o https://paypal.me/TalkingGuitar. Thank you! Be sure to check out the other historic interviews on the Talking Guitar YouTube channel. For dozens more guitar-intensive podcasts, interview transcripts, and articles, visit Talking Guitar magazine at https://jasobrecht.substack.com/. #joesatriani #stevevai #eddievanhalen #yngwiemalmsteen #lennietristano #billwestcott #jasobrecht #talkingguitar #nikhunt #guitarplayermagazine This podcast is copyright 2023 by Jas Obrecht. All rights reserved.