There I was, watching Steve Vai’s 60th birthday stream on Facebook. Apparently I was there with many others, because at the time of this posting the livestream has nearly 290 thousand views. Think about that, a instrumental guitar player garnering 100’s of thousands of views for his birthday stream. It had me thinking just how influential Vai has been not only to me, but to thousands of other guitarists and even guitar design over the last couple of decades.
The livestream was great, and it was so cool to celebrate such a momentous occasion for Steve turning 60, but then he hit us with his brand new song “Candle Power.” I’ve been playing and writing about guitar for nearly 20 years, and at this point it’s hard to be impressed or hear something that sounds new - but Vai pulled it off.
He mentions, “I wanted to challenge myself for my 60th birthday and decided to record a simple trio track. I gave myself some parameters to work within. I told myself I would use a Strat style guitar, (tougher for me to play then a Jem) use a very clean tone, (not conventional for me) no whammy bar, (that’s like losing a body part for me) and no pick, just fingers (way out of my comfort zone). I also had this idea for a particular type of riff that can only really be played on a guitar with no whammy bar. It’s a technique that I call “joint shifting." This is where you bend a note while fretting another, but I wanted to do this technique with a combination of double and triple stop single note bends while fretting other notes and releasing bends. After considerable experimenting, I discovered it created a unique sounding passage. You can hear this technique on a few sections of the song. I certainly hope other ambitious guitar player see the potential in this technique and take it to the moon!”
I’ve watched the video for “Candle Power” over and over to see Vai do “joint shifting”. It’s wildly interesting, and is something that you only see a guy like Vai do, making up a new technique. The guitar tone is beautiful, and reminds me of other songs he’s done, like his clean work on ‘The Ultra Zone’ album. There’s absolutely no distortion on the guitar at all, just clean playing, done incredibly well.
The video is even more special, because of the backdrop of his beautiful Harmony Hut studio, filled with guitars, cabs, rack gear, and so much more. I also thought it was really cool to give a nod to songwriter Jacob Collier, and his ‘In My Room’ album, by wearing a t-shirt of the album. If you haven’t heard Jacob’s unique pop-funk-jazz creations, go check them out!
Super happy to see Vai always pushing the boundaries of guitar. Happy 60th birthday Steve, thanks for inspiring so many of us!
