Steve Vai and Favored Nations / Mascot Label Group have announced his new studio album titled “Inviolate” will be released digitally and on CD January 28, 2022. The LP will follow on March 18. Vai chose Bernie Grundman to master the album for all formats, as he has worked closely with Grundman for many years on his albums.
“For this new album, Steve has created many different perspectives and there is a lot of spatial activity,” says Grundman. “The entire album is a nice little trip. It takes you through different ways of experiencing his music.”
Over the course of a more than 40-year career, Steve Vai has challenged the concept of what a guitar should be. From his days as Frank Zappa’s “stunt guitar” player to his expansive and exploratory solo work, Vai has continually defied notions of traditional guitar playing and composition while reimagining the very instrument itself. For his tenth studio album, he invented not just a new guitar, but also a new guitar-playing technique.
The album’s first track, “Teeth of the Hydra,” is a Latin-fusion-tinged composition that Vai wrote and recorded with a one-of-a-kind custom guitar he named the “Hydra.” Built in conjunction with the designers at Hoshino and based on a “steampunk motif” idea of Vai’s, the Hydra is a beast of an instrument – a one-bodied, two-headstock-ed, three-neck-ed creature that encompasses, among other things: seven- and 12-string guitars; a four-string bass; sympathetic harp strings; half-fretless necks; single-coil, humbucking, piezo and sustainer pickups; floating and hardtail tremolo bridges; phase splitters; and much more.
Watch “The Hydra: presented by Steve Vai and Ibanez” on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/1ehGGTS83m0
“It’s an incredibly-built machine,” Vai says. “I told the guys at Hoshino, ‘Anything that you think is conventional, don’t do that.’ This was an opportunity to exercise brutal creativity. And they went beyond.”
Steve Vai is seen with Bernie Grundman during the mastering of his 2012 album, “The Story of Light.” Photo by David Goggin.
An accomplished recording engineer in his own right, Vai tracked and mixed the album before working with Grundman on the final mastering and preparation for various release formats. “It’s not easy to record and mix and produce your own work, but he has a fully-equipped studio and he’s definitely a good mixer. My goal as the mastering engineer was to make sure that while he goes in many different directions and creates all sorts of fantastic soundscapes that you never lose focus of the central figure.”
“Bernie has mastered all my records with the exception of my first record, “Flex-Able”. He is perhaps the most experienced and gifted mastering engineer on the world music stage. His intuitive ability to hear the entire sonic real estate of a track and bring out the life in it is quite remarkable. He is a striver of excellence and keeps up with, and even introduces new technology as the recording industry has evolved through the years, and he continues to do so today.”
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About Steve Vai
Steve Vai is a virtuoso guitarist, composer and producer, considered by many as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. In over 40 years in the industry, Vai has sold over 15 million records, received three Grammy Awards, and recorded with music legends like Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth, Whitesnake and many more. Vai has also toured extensively and recorded live projects with G3 (collaborating with different touring lineups including Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Steve Lukather) and Generation Axe, a supergroup Vai formed with Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt and Tosin Abasi. Vai is the author of Vaideology: Basic Music Theory for Guitar Players (Hal Leonard), his inaugural music theory book designed to help both beginners and veteran guitar players. For a complete discography and more visit www.vai.com
About Bernie Grundman Mastering
The name Bernie Grundman is synonymous with Mastering. His world-renowned facilities in Hollywood include six studios, including dedicated 5.1 Surround and Lacquer Cutting rooms. Virtually any analog or digital format can be played back thanks to a deep inventory of modern and legacy equipment. The facility provides high quality vinyl masters, pre-masters for CD, and file masters for standard and high-resolution digital distribution and streaming. https://www.berniegrundmanmastering.com
