About Steve Vai
The amazing career of Steve Vai stretches back to the seventies and has seen him become one of the biggest names in rock. Voted the 10th ever Greatest Guitarist by Guitar World magazine, his amazing talent has seen him work with Ozzy Osbourne, White Snake and Spinal Tap and has now sold over 15 million records.
Vai’s career started at the young age of 18, working in 1978 as a transciptionist for legendary psychedelic rocker Frank Zapper before quickly being embraced into his band. Possesing enormous talent, he recorded his debut solo album Flex-Able and released in on his own Akashic Records label in 1984. His technical ability shone through, and combined with a talent for song writing, he quickly developed a reputation as a world leader in guitar.
Of his eight outstanding studio albums, his second release Passion And Warfare really stands out. Taking inspiration from his dreams, the guitar ace’s album features the song For The Love Of God. He utilized highly unorthodox recording methods when making the record at The Mothership studio in his home as well as his usual flair for highly innovative skilled guitaring.
"I make music to push my own buttons, " says Vai, speaking of his music. "I've always been driven by an addiction to create sounds that are unique â€" not better than what other people do, just different. "
This need to engineer new sounds pushes him to become wildly innovative. In 2002 Vai teamed up with the composer and concert pianist Ichiro Nodaira to produce Fire Strings, a concerto for the electric guitar and orchestra. It saw the pair work with the 100-piece Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra to produce a fusion of classical instruments with the electric guitar.
His unique talent and mission to explore music has seen him change the guitar itself. Co-designing and developing the uniquely shaped Ibanez JEM and designing the Ibanez Universe, the world’s first commercially produced seven string guitar.
Steve Vai tickets are available now.
The Passion And Warfare 25th Anniversary Tour sees him play across June at O2 ABC Glasgow, O2 Newcastle and O2 Academy Bristol.
Concert tickets can be bought online through Gigantic. Make sure you see Steve Vai play live!
