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 paypal.me/Talk.... Thank you!
Be sure to check out the other historic interviews on the Talking Guitar KZbin channel. For dozens more guitar-intensive podcasts, interview transcripts, and articles, visit Talking Guitar magazine at jasobrecht.sub....
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This podcast is copyright 2023 by Jas Obrecht. All rights reserved.

[@JayAgassi]

Thanks for sharing this gem. Being a huge fan of satch since 2006, i finally got to see him in person and ask questions last year. It was very special, and he inspired me to pick up a guitar and play 🤘

[@erictripton]

oh, WOW! Didn't knew you did this, Jas. Surprises left and right. Still waitin' on Holdsworth 1980 and 1982 interviews😉

[@TalkingGuitarJasObrecht]

Sad to say, I didn't do the interviews with Allan. Those were done by Tom Mulhern.

[@erictripton]

@@TalkingGuitarJasObrecht I saw that Resnicoff did the 1990, so I thought it's possible you, Jas didn't conduct those early 80's interviews. Thanks for replying, Jas.

[@thewomaninr3d434]

Thank you so much for posting this and the Yngwie Malmsteen 84 interview!

[@walterevans2118]

LOVELY interview. I didn't know Joe was into HARRY PARCH ! .....He was as far LEFT FIELD EXPERIMENTAL as anyone could get. The establishment kind of shut him out because he was so beyond conventions...Good decision getting out of Football into music...Absolute 'car crash' indulgence for a musician to be in....For me in the UK Rugby was the danger to physical health as a teen...Avoiding Scrums collapsing ..lol....Joe had some really diverse influences didn't he ? I understand Mr. Vai was learning from Joe way before he was transcribing & playing for Zappa...Joe got him into Zappa to begin with ? Another player who made his guitar sound like a human voice was BRIAN MAY of course. ....I've had music come to me in dreams too....& I've written music about dreams I had decades ago. Nothing wrong about being 'recluse'....That's being a FOCUSED musician.

[@Jedizen07]

Jas! Thank you for doing these interviews! THIS was the very first time I heard about Joe Satriani. And, while I had been playing for only two years, this interview introduced me to " modes " in terms of using those sounds for even more guitar solo ideas outside of the pentatonic catalog I was studying at that time. In fact, this issue was the VERY first Guitar Player magazine I received in the mail, as a result of a gift subscription my mother signed me up for. This was the most important article for my own playing ( as well as making Joe one of my eternal top three heroes ). Thank you for doing this!!

[@bshingledecker]

I was a Guitar for the practicing musician reader. Surfing had the same effect on me as Van Halen 1. He rekindled my efforts in practicing and trying to learn as much as I could. He was on many Guitar Magazine covers as I remember. I learned a lot trying to mimic what he was doing since that was pre KZbin days, and purchasing the HOT LICKS tapes which were not cheap. I figured out quite a bit, but once I was able to see how they played their riffs, I realized my hand positions were not quite how they should be. Well,,,, Ill shut up now. Thanks for the trip back.

[@BrianKlobyGuitar]

This interview is super cool... great hearing Joe speak his insights at this time... I remember when Surfing with The Alien came out.. most amazing stuff.. thanks :)

[@damonstewart70]

I remember that magazine I still have it!!! You channel rocks

[@geezberry8889]

i remember when satch boogie came out on MTV. i was floored. who the hell is this guy? i immediately bought the cassette and then the EP and first album. amazing Joe , nobody was doing stuff like that

[@erictripton]

❤❤ Looking forward to part II. I never had the original issue so I am curious. I still listen to Surfing' and still get that buzz from it. Was like Hey we in the 80's have OUR jeff beck in Joe. I loved Randy Rhoads live sound from Diary Tour/king biscuit flower recording. That chorus pitch detune sound was awesome. Joe retained that very similarly in Surfing'. Joe helped back off and ease the pressure of the yngwie clones. Had Holdsworth sorta phrasing during slower parts. That's what I liked. Echo is my fave it sounds like a Neil Crichton from SAGA tune, but the soloing is A class. Some article decades later revealed most of that album was a Duncan JB plus the Custom and Custom Custom pickups on some things. So that's a full U Turn back to using Duncans.

[@atiredblue]

Starts @3:20