“If you’re not excited about new players, then that’s pretty sad,” Joe Satriani said recently. “I’m excited about just about every player I see. I champion it. I always have.”
Celebrating guitarists has been a mainstay in Joe Satriani’s life and career, from teaching students like Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett to creating the G3 tour as a way to bring players together, despite hurdles he faced from managers who saw guitar virtuosity as a competition. Through it all, Satch has defied expectations and created bridges between players and genres. In recent months, he’s even applauded the guitar work of Kurt Cobain and celebrated the new generation of guitar players who are raising the bar higher.
Now Satch has expanded on that last point. In a new interview with WDHA-FMhe explains that the digital age of music has democratized music, allowing guitarists to excel and to put out their own music without having to worry about conforming to expectations.
In particular, he and host Terrie Carr discuss how more women are finding opportunities to excel and perform as guitar players, where doors were previously closed to them.
“If you happen to listen to Alyssa Day, she can shred any guy out there,” Satch says, pointing to the young YouTube influencer and member of the Iron Maidens. “So there’s no difference in aptitude and availability of technical prowess. It really is just about whether they want to do it or not.”
Day is a perfect example of a young shredder who has built her own platform via YouTube, allowing her to reach others with her music and gear reviews and demos. She’s just one of many examples of how the digital age has opened the door for musicians who once had to rely on labels to reach a wider audience.
“With the digital age, music production has become democratized,” Satch says. “Everybody can pretty much make a decent musical product at home with their laptop, or their iPad, or something like that. And this has been a good thing for people who, maybe because of their sex or their appearance, have been cut out of the music scene, because they don’t fit. They don’t have a TV look, or they don’t have the right sound for a particular radio station.”
“That’s all broken down. The artists and the fans connect without the need for the music industry infrastructure. This has been great for music. If you go to Instagram, you just see the most amazing guitar players from ages eight to 18. They’re just playing better than guitar players have ever played before in the history of the world. So this is a great thing.”
Satch and Steve Vai are currently ramping up their new group, the SatchVai Band, writing new songs and preparing for their inaugural Surfing With the Hydra tour this June. They’ve recently announced the addition of Pete Thorn to their lineup as rhythm guitarist.
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