Rock legend Steve Vai says Turkish audience 'just built with life'

By Omer Faruk Yildiz

ISTANBUL (AA) - Steve Vai, one of the world's most famous guitarists, praised his Turkish audience ahead of his concerts next week in Ankara and Istanbul as part of his European tour.

"There was a period of time back when I was recording Alive in an Ultra World where I was studying the traditional music of various cultures, and Turkey was one of them," Vai told Anadolu.

"What a rich musical culture," he added, recalling "traditional music from the culture" that he listened to quite a lot.

The award-winning guitarist, who has released 11 studio albums in his career of more than 30 years, has recorded in many different styles such as instrumental rock, hard rock, heavy metal, and progressive rock.

Vai, a former Whitesnake, Alcatrazz and David Lee Roth guitarist, has featured several times in the best guitarist lists prepared by music magazines and websites.

Vai's first concert will take place in the Turkish capital Ankara on April 18 and a day after he will be rocking in Istanbul.

"I remember the Turkish kind of traditional mentality, it was beautiful because it involved a way of playing a stringed instrument that wasn't natural," he said, referring to the traditional Turkish stringed musical instruments saz and ud.

"If you're playing a saz or an ud, it was a whole different mind structure. And also, just the way that they change keys is very untraditional to Western music. So I listened to that," he said.

"When I was in Turkey once many years ago, I bought an ud and a saz and I brought them out on stage and played them and recorded them," he added. "They're in my studio. I look at them every day."

Vai said he always loved to travel and to see different cultures. "When you're young and you're going to school, and you're learning about other places in the world, you are not really learning the culture, you learn, sometimes political history, but you don't really know what it's like until you go."

Describing Türkiye as an "exotic" location to an American, he said: "When I go to a place like Turkey, I go for the people and the culture and the things that I love about it. And it always turns out great."

Recalling his earlier concerts in Türkiye, the guitar virtuoso said: "The Turkish audience also is just built with life. You can hear it on my Alive and an Ultra World record."

"When I recorded a song in Turkey and we're just going mad, just really moving with the music and that's fantastic, very passionate people," he added.

- Tribute to victims of Feb. 6 quakes

On Feb. 6 earthquakes which killed more than 50,000 people in Türkiye's southeastern and southern and provinces, the veteran guitarist said: "My heart goes out to any anybody that's suffering through a natural disaster ... Of course, the damage done in Turkey was tremendous."

"One of the things when a country or a people are confronted with this kind of challenge, they come together, psychologically and emotionally, they must, they have to, because that's our humanity," he said. "Our humanity is actually stronger than our ignorance. Our humanity is stronger than our anger … And when push comes to shove, that humanity comes out."

Vai said he was thinking if he could even go to Türkiye following the earthquakes. "So I'm definitely going to consider some kind of a tribute."

- Long-shelved Vai/Gash album

About his new album Vai/Gash, which was released earlier this year, he said the album includes songs that he recorded with Johnny "Gash" Sombrotto who died at an early age and the album had been shelved since '90s.

"So I have the Vai/ Ggash record that was sitting on the shelf, I just released that. I'm almost done with a solo acoustic vocal record. That's totally different than anything I've ever released," he said.

"Last year, I recorded amount of my orchestral music, with the Metropole Orchestra in Holland and the Tampa Bay Philharmonic and Finland,” he said.

Vai said he has "some ideas for … tons of stuff," adding: "I don't know what's going to come out next, but I'm looking forward to doing it. That's for sure."

He was influenced by every guitarist he listened to, Vai said: "Every guitar player I see has an effect somehow. Joe Satriani was obviously the biggest because I started taking lessons from him when I was 12 and took lessons until I was like 16.”

"So I absorbed everything I could. You can see some of that in my playing but our choice of notes is very different," he added.

He also explained that he got inspiration from various guitarists from the '70s such as Jimmy Page, Brian May, Ritchie Blackmore, and John McLaughlin.

Vai said he was also inspired from the young guitarists. "When you come into the world and you're interested in something, you'll look around at what's been done, and you take it from there. So you're always standing on the shoulders of those that came before you."

"So I was most popular probably in the late 80s. And I saw various generations of guitarists come along and move the bar around," he said. "And they're standing on the shoulders of guys like me, and all the people I mentioned, and then there was another generation, so now I just see such extraordinary players, these young players that technique is like water. It's beautiful."

To his fans who are planning to see him on the stage in Türkiye, Vai said: "I would just say thanks to the Turkish fans that are considering coming to the show.”

"You will not be disappointed,” he added. "The band is hot. I'm feeling great. I'm playing good."

"The experience of our shows is a very uplifting one, because we leave the world outside. We leave the news, we leave economics, we leave politics, religion, everything is left outside and we come together as a group of people and join in an energetic exchange. And that's always food for the soul. And you will get that at my concert.”