Exclusive
Interview with Steve Stevens
By Piper Henriques / ClassicalGuitarShop.com |
Watch Steve Stevens videos! Lessons, Top Gun Anthem
If you haven't heard the new
Steve Stevens solo CD - you should!
Stevens' precision rapid-fire-playing and beautiful melodic pieces
take you on a musical journey across the world from "Cinecitta"
to "Riviera '68."
His film score style on this CD carry you across the notes to
share his genius musical talent: A Grammy winner for "Top
Gun," and world renowned rock guitarist with Billy Idol.
Steve now premieres his solo record with a new direction in his
sound. Call it rock-flamenco or whatever you call it -- Steve
Stevens calls it "Flamenco A Go-Go." |
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: What
inspires you to write such beautiful music ?
what advice would you like to share with aspiring artists?
Stevens: Well, you know in the
case of my solo record, a lot of it's inspired by film and art
and a lot of unrelated things in my life that I draw on for inspiration.
In the case of this one track on my record, it was inspired by
just a photograph. Then, one was a homage to the film director
Federico Fellini. So, you know, I think for any aspiring artist,
I think you just have to put yourself in a position to be aware
of things and kind of open yourself up to seeing the beauty in
many different things.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: What
was the photograph, just out of curiosity?
Stevens: The track on
the record is called, "Twilight In Your Hands," it
was actually a photograph in an architectural book on strangely
enough - airports. There was just a photograph of this empty
airport and it just conjured up this kind of imagery in my mind
of maybe someone leaving to go on a long trip or someone having
just left someone.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Have
you have always been interested in flamenco guitar?
Stevens: Yeah, I've always been
interested. I'm primarily known as a rock guitarist, but I would
always bring a flamenco instrument with me to the studio, but
not a lot of times would it get used. But, yeah, one of my first
guitar teachers was a flamenco guitarist. Then, when I went to
the High School for the Performing Arts, one of the students
was Mario Escodero, Jr. and his father Sr., was the guitarist
for the Jose Greco Dance Company and around the same time I started
to become aware of Paco De Lucia. I was a John McLaughlin fan
and then John did the trio with Paco and Al Di Meola. I knew
the other two guys, but I didn't know who this Paco De Lucia
guy was. And also through listening to one my favorite guitarists
growing up Steve Howe from "Yes" and he was someone
who always employed classical guitar in their music. I just always
loved the sound of nylon string guitar. I think it was from being
a kid and hearing Classical Gas on the radio. It's just something
inviting about the sound of a nylon string guitar.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Where
did you grow up and how did you get into guitar playing?
Stevens: I grew up in New York
and in our neighborhood, Rockaway Beach, there was a well-known
folk musician that came from there called Phil Och and in the
60s he was as well known as Bob Dylan. So we had our kind of
local hero and everyone in my neighborhood played guitar. I mean,
you couldn't go to the beach without seeing tons of people, hippies
with their guitars, you know. I have an older brother and all
his friends played. So, one day, my dad brought home like a little
practice guitar that came with a record I think it was like The
Burl Ives guitar. I was like, 'Wow'. This was my thing, I always
thought it was really cool to play guitar.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: How
did you start?
Stevens: For me, I was
young, I was six and a half -years-old. I mean, not that I was
good at that age. But, you know, from what I can remember, by
the time I was eight, I could actually play, you know like Beatles
songs. Fortunately, my parents were really supportive and sent
me to a music camp.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Did
you like the high school and music camp?
Stevens: I did like the camp,
this was like a day camp out in Long Island, I really liked that.
High school for me, was kind of a realization that what I wanted
to do, what I needed to learn wasn't going to be taught in the
classroom. It was my first exposure to being in Manhattan, I
was accepted into the school for playing guitar and due to the
fact that the guitar's not a symphonic instrument, they asked
me to pick up another instrument and you know, I mean, I'm not
very good at any other instrument. I play guitar. So, I kind
of like lost interest there, although, I kind of like music history.
I enjoyed learning about the lives of famous composers. But I
didn't see a way for me to apply what I knew to this curriculum
they were teaching and around the same time was when a lot of
the clubs in New York were starting to happen, it was a really
good scene for music and I wanted to get in there.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: In the
beginning of the enhanced CD, its cool to see you up there on
stage, it looks really exciting and it looks like you're really
connecting with your audience. Do you enjoy playing live?
Stevens: Yeah, I mean, I enjoy
all music actually, every aspect of it is all good... When I
was younger, you're sort of overtaken by the adrenaline of the
live performance, nerves and a combination of all that.
But now, I guess because I'm a veteran musician, I'm more in
the moment now when I perform live. I'm more aware of the audience
and I'm more aware of kind of relaxing. I warm up before I play
and there's a sort of calmness of being in the moment. Basically,
what I'm saying is I'm really enjoying it more now.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Has
it changed?
Stevens: Totally. I just really
enjoy being a musician and being more mature about it. I enjoy
it more. You really kind of take on a responsibility to your
craft, you know. You feel like . . . I've been given a gift and
I respect it and I want to present it in a really good way. I
recently went to see Jeff Beck play, I totally got that feeling
that he was a guy who was given an incredible gift, he was there
to share it with people and he has such amazing control over
his guitar playing that I think no matter whether you play classical,
flamenco, country -- that's really what you aspire to.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: You
know how you mentioned with "Twilight In Your Hands"
you had seen the photo, is there a story behind any of your other
songs? A story of what they mean to you?
Stevens: Yeah, each track is
different. The second track is called, "Cinecitta".
That's the film studio in Italy where Federico Fellini made most
of his movies. He had passed away and soon after, his wife passed
away. It was sort of my homage to the influence of his movies.
Like I remember seeing "Juliet of the Spirits" when
I was young, I was just a big fan of Fellini's. The third track
is "Our Man In Istanbul," and that, I was kind of imagining
if I was given a spy film in like the mid-1960s to score with
that sort of Eastern intrigue.
The next track
is a "Letter To A Memory." My best friend growing up
was a Puerto Rican guy that was kind of crazy, but a really cool
guy. We both shared a love at that time of early progressive
rock music like Genesis, King Crimson, and here was this Puerto
Rican guy with a huge afro into progressive rock - I mean, people
were like 'What?' And I've kind of lost track with him and with
this track, I was kind of remembering all the good times that
we spent and the influence he turned me on to, going to stay
with his Mom and Dad his Dad turned me on to Tito Puente records.
I was kind of writing, basically, a thank you letter to a friend
that I haven't spoken to or seen in twenty years.
I
mean for probably every track on the record, there's some story
behind it.
As I've said, "Twilight In Your Hands," was inspired
by this photograph.
Oh, "Riviera '68"
was another track, there was a scene where these two absolutely
stunningly beautiful people were driving a sports car in the
French Riviera up the mountains and I thought this music really
worked well against this scene.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Was
it fun to work on 'Top Gun'?
Stevens: Yeah, I only spent an
afternoon doing that track. So, the composer, the film score
composer, Hal Fultemeyer had come into work on the Billy Idol
record. He was working on "Top Gun" at the moment and
he kind of said: "Hey, you wanna help me out with this?"
"Yeah, sure."
It's pretty
funny that we ended up winning a Grammy - because it was like
an easy kind of thing to do, it was like one afternoon, kind
of lucky I guess.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Do you
have a definition for"Flamenco A Go-Go," you know something
that would calm some of the guys out there who are practically
fighting over what it means?
Stevens: Oh really, (Steve
chuckles) about what it means? Well. Yeah, I mean, the misconception
is A, number one: I'm not a traditional flamenco musician. It's
not a flamenco record. I mean, by flamenco, is for me, it's meant
that was the instrument that I used, flamenco guitar that was
used on the record, not that I'm a flamenco guitarist because
I've seen some people say oh well he's not a traditional flamenco
guitarist, yeah of course I'm not a traditional flamenco guitarist.
Its the fact that the only guitar I used on the record happened
to be a flamenco instrument.
And the "A Go-Go"
part was obviously the fact that there is this whole other side
to the record, which is this kind of slightly electronic, 60s,
kind of cool groovy kind of atmosphere that I put the guitar
into, so I wanted to let people know. ... if I had given it some
serious kind of title, ah you know, "Moods Of My Inner Being"
or something like that, there's a lot of new age-y people doing
that. I didn't want to be part of that.
I wanted
people to know just by the title that this record's going to
be fun and that it was some kind of weird kind of slant on Flamenco
guitar playing.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: It's
a great, beautiful CD. If people didn't create new stuff, everything
would be the same, there's a purpose.
Stevens: That's exactly it. I
think maybe someone, you know, who listens to my record will
go out and buy a Paco De Lucia record or something. I mean, I
was exposed to classical music through progressive rock bands,
like you know Yes, Genesis and that made me go out and buy classical
music. I wasn't going to do it looking at my Dad's record collection.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Do you
have a favorite pick for nylon string guitar?
Stevens: I found this company
in Japan that makes picks. Basically, it's like a standard size
pick but, it's slightly heavier and it's extremely pointy. The
standard guitar picks are too rounded for me to get any precision
out of them. I was in town, in Japan and I went into a department
store, music department, music section and I found these picks
and they had this Japanese group's name on them. So, the guitar
technicist at the time said, "I'll get you some with your
name on it."
I mean, more and more I'm finding
that when I'm playing nylon guitar, I'm playing more with my
fingers, expecially for rhythm stuff. The first track I think
I attempted to do that on my record was "Hanina" and
Greg Ellis whose the precussionist on my record, really kind
of inspired me to play that rhythm in traditional style without
using a pick. It's a totally different sound. And with a pick,
it tends to get very sharp and doesn't have the kind of depth
- that sound of the flesh on your finger on the string has, there's
so much more kind of resonance and bodyment.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: How
did you practice to get so perfect? You know, you play so fast
and it's all crisp.
Stevens: Practice, I guess is
the only word. The key for me was that if I was inspired by a
lot of guitarists with a right hand picking technique and I just
never understood why muscians played like hammer-on. I mean the
guys that I liked were Steve Howe from Yes, John McLaughlin,
Robert Fripp, to a certain extent Al Di Meola -- these were all
guys who had that kind of rapid fire right hand picking technique,
where you pick every note. I still practice, that's predominantly
what I practice to this day on my guitar. I love to see guitar
players who can really pick. You can tell in an instant the guys
who can do that. It's the whole other side of guitar playing
for me. It's not just what's going on on the left hand.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Do you
have anything upcoming?
Stevens: Let's see, in April
we have a "Greatest Hits" record coming out for Billy
Idol, and we're shooting an hour long concert for VH1. Yeah,
it should be good. We're going to do primarily acoustic version,
like an unplugged. Then we're doing some shows, we're doing the
"Bottom Line" in New York. Then, I think in May . .
. The record label that I'm on which is Ark21, which is run by
Miles Copeland, Sting's manager, so every year, he has a castle
in France where he brings musicians together there. And it's
like 20 musicians, we all write and hangout. Last year I went
and got to hang out with Jeff Beck, Stuart Copeland, so I think
in May, I'm going to go back and do it this year.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Do you
enjoy traveling?
Stevens: I love traveling. I
spent three months in Japan this year, October, November, December,
there. Yeah, I really love traveling. I think it gives a whole
other perspective to the world. I love Europe and I love the
history and learning about things, kind of what life is there
for.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Do you
have a favorite concert or was somewhere you ever played that
was just like, 'Wow.'
Stevens: Yeah, in Colorado with
Billy, we played at Red Rocks and the amphitheater was built
right into the side of a cliff and that's pretty stunning. That's
pretty amazing. I really like that feeling of being the journey-man
musician where you just kind of go to another country and present
your music and it gives you a really good feeling about what
you do. As I said before, you are given a gift and in some way
you inspire them and help them enjoy their life. That's an incredible
thing to be able to do.
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: Thanks
for taking the time to do the interview.
Stevens: Not a problem
ClassicalGuitarShop.com: It's
been really fun talking to you
Stevens: Okay, thanks.
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