Vai: "I wanted to do a concept record but I didn’t want it to be a conventional type of concept record. 'Well here’s my concept record and this is the first song and by the end you’ll kind of understand what’s going on.' I thought I’d break it down and add a mystique by not giving it up and chopping all the songs into different orders and put them on different records. So nothing happens in linear fashion. If you want to listen to the music without having to wrap your head around the heady esoteric story that I’m unfolding, that’s fine."
UG: Because the music does hold up on its own.
Vai: "You don’t have to follow the story. But the plan is and the plan has always been to do three records based on this story, the Real Illusions story. And then when they’re done take all those three records and maybe create a box set and put the songs in the proper order. Take the melody songs and put vocals on ‘em, which a lot of them originated as, and then glue them together with more material to make it a cohesive, linear, beginning-to-end kind of story. And that’s where I think the real story behind Real Illusions will be understandable and more accessible. But right now for those people who like to fetish the piecemeal, it’s kind of there too."
UG: We talked about how all the pieces have come together on The Story of Light. If you look back at your first record, Flex-Able, how would you characterize yourself as a player back then?
Vai: "At any point in our life our psychic development is at a particular point. Whenever we create something it’s a snapshot of who we were at that time, what was important to us and our skills and the accessibility of the tools because the tools continue to change. I do listen back to my records and I’m actually (laughs) maybe a little pretentious to say that I listen to them a lot. I like my records."
UG: That is very cool.
Vai: "I do. A lot of times I listen and I think, 'Wow, man, how did I do that? Who was that guy? How did I take all that time?' And then I think, 'God, I was so intense and so serious about it.'
Click here for the complete interview.
Vai released his new album, The Story Of Light, on August 14th via Favored Nations Entertainment. A full stream of the album is currently available at this location.
The Story Of Light tracklisting:
'The Story Of Light'
'Velorum'
'John The Revelator'
'Book Of The Seven Seals'
'Creamsicle Sunset'
'Gravity Storm'
'Mullach At Si'
'The Moon And I'
'Weeping China Doll'
'Racing The World'
'No More Amsterdam'
'Sunshine Electric Raindrops'
