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I think the thing that I got most from working with Frank Zappa is that I was able to see someone who completely independent. The most beautiful thing about Frank was that he was completely in the moment and present and eternally creative.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
Along with its enchanting and exquisite melodies, West Side Story has attitude and a tremendous amount of frenetic energy. It's emotional, theatrical and technical. It's everything.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz
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I designed a guitar for Ibanez and then they started manufacturing it - it's called the Jem - it's 26 years old and I still play it. As a kid I liked Les Pauls and Strats, but they had limitations for the kind of playing I wanted to do.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
When I was growing up, the blues did seem too simple to me. I was just a muso.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
The blues scale was the first thing I learned. It's just a pentatonic scale with a flat seventh and a few notes that sound cool when you bend them. And because people have amalgamated the blues into this rock-blues scale, if you're using it, you better sound like a real authentic blues player.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
I knew that I was going to have a life as a musician, because I always felt the pull. I don't remember ever having to make a choice.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
I loved the idea of recording. The idea of sound-on-sound-recording captured me as a young kid, and once I realized what it was I had an epiphany. Before I was even playing the guitar, I would create these lists of how I would record things and overdub them, like Led Zeppelin song, 'I could put this guitar on this track...' and so on.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
That's the thing about great artists: They find the thing that's most obvious to themselves, what's most conscious and natural, and they put it out there and the audience comes.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz
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I know it is common nowadays for artists to start labels but this is a thoroughly constructed vehicle for inspired talent. This is a market that we've been living, breathing and eating for our entire lives - one where a huge void currently exists. Favored Nations is a long-term commitment.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
There's very notable dynamics in all of the collaborations I've done. It's hard to say if one is more important than the other, but if I had to think of all situations and point to one band that I enjoyed most it would be when I was eight years old. I had a band with my little sister and the kid across the street. We sat around all day playing music and it was bliss. I didn't have any expectations or do it for anyone or worry about selling an album. That was really my favorite band. We were called Hot Chocolate.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
It just happens in life, where you resonate with a particular artist. Or it can be a kind of food or a fashion - you discover it and it gives you a whole new lease on life.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
When you get down to it, the way that the music affects you individually is the most important thing, and when you let things like the location of a band get in the way or have an effect on your overview, you're cheating yourself out of a really good time.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
Critisism is just reflection of the person that speaking
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
I've learned over the years that you're going to be most successful at the things you're most excited to do. Every artist has a special set of tools. When you really use those tools, and you make yourself feel really good about the product you create, I think you'll find an audience for it. I've been very fortunate in that respect.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz
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The only thing that's holding you back, is the way you're thinking.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
We have the insight and the tools to identify and bring to fruition the dormant talent that our artists possess. Favored Nations will be branded as the home base for inspired musical talent.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
I dedicated all the time I had to it. The 10 hour workout was just what I put in the magazine at the time, but for me it was every waking moment.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
If you want to play something that you hear, you need to listen with your mind's eye. You've heard of the mind's eye, right? Your mind has an ear too. It's a kind of listening, but it's not using your ears to listen. It's listening with your inner ear, and that's what you want to translate onto the guitar.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
I don't think you can learn to be a complete musician. That has to come from within, and it entails a lot of sacrifice.
Yngwie Johan Malmsteen Alcatrazz -
If you're feeling emotional when you're creating something, it'll sound that way.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz
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As a musician, I look for certain things that stimulate me. And what I look for is something that's an evolution on a particular genre that I never heard before.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
My past is very interesting, and I treasure it, but to write about it, it's just not on my radar.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
Lenny Breau was a genius - inspired and really loose. I loved how he used the guitar as an extension of his inner freedom, because, obviously, on the outside there were a lot of trainwrecks going on. But when you listen to him play, you hear what kind of guy he really is
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz -
The tone is in your fingers, not in your amp or effects.
Steven Siro Vai Alcatrazz