I had contacted her and she was really exciting to work with. I found the original artwork for Real Illusions it was an existing piece she had done. “Yeah, I found this artist, Andrea Cobb in this magazine, and I just love her work! There’s something ethereal about it and otherworldly, and I contacted her. The artwork of the two album covers underscores this exotic philosophy as well. Maybe change things around and create a linear narrative that’s pretty robust.” The idea was to release three records, each being sort of an instalment of songs not in any particular order, but then eventually come around and bring all the songs together in one package and maybe add another record where it’s a narrative. When I set out to do that record, I had a story, a very interesting kind of esoteric story, that I wanted to express through the music, plus bits and pieces from liner notes and whatever, and sort of have the songs be depictions of characters and events through the story.

With this record I wanted to create something that had a little more depth to it, which started with my last record, Real Illusions. I try to come up with an exciting idea that becomes so compelling that I kinda have to bring it into reality, and that’s basically the face value. So really, I take the same approach when I make music as I always have. “And that has a big effect on the outcome of anything you create. “You know, as an artist, when you go through life, as with anybody, you have experiences and whatnot that can change your perspective,” explains Vai, asked what the mission was this record ‘round. And like everything in Steve’s intellectually challenging body of work, well, a river runs through it. The Story Of Light perpetuates Steve’s conceptual search for meaning embarked upon within focus on his last album, Real Illusions: Reflection, issued fully seven years ago. And more to his credit, his vast catalogue is one with its own exotic sound, arguably a language or world or infinite universe, with peeps and skronks ranging from a sort of spiritual lilt to a playful heavy metal crunch and everything in-between. STEVE VAI has cultivated a bunch of cool band associations to be sure, but to his credit, he’s more so carved out a career as one of the most famous solo guitar album and performance guys. FRANK ZAPPA, ALCATRAZZ, DAVID LEE ROTH, WHITESNAKE.

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