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In office two of our exclusive interview with Joe Satriani of Chickenfoot, we focus exclusively on one of our favorite songs from their new record `III,` the Zeppelin-esque riff-fest `Dubai Blues.`
After speaking near the album as a unit in section one of our talk, theguitar legend was kind enough to gratify our ongoing obsession by answering all manner of questions about this songin very informative detail.
How did `Dubai Blues` come together?
Most of these songs, the way that we make is, I spell and record demos. Then I place them to the guys. In this case, I did about 14 or 16 demos, you know full on - guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, that sort of thing. I read them at home on ProTools, then I commit them out to everybody. Then, for the 5 or six months I was out on tour, they mulled over the material, decided which songs suck (laughs) and which songs they liked. Then when we eventually got together, you know, to go through all of them.
That particular song had a drum loop that was from an adrenaline box, on the box was a curl that was an old Linn drum loop. It was tolerant of an old-school hip-hop drum loop. I stuck that on as the main drum pattern. So the call had more of a stream-of-concsiousness kind of rock meets hip-hop vibe to it; it had these scraping guitars during the verses, it was all very moody. But, basically, all the chords and riffs were precisely the same, everything was there. I had no thought what it was leaving to be called or anything. I intend it was simply called `crunchy song` or something. So what happened next?
When the band got a book of it, Sammy was stressful to transfer some old school, `50s blues rock and roll story through it, but Mike and Chad decided that they would rockify it a bit more, so they kind of took it out of that old-school hip-hop, and they made it a short bit more of a straight-ahead, `70′s rock kind of thing. Then, I had to convert a lot of the guitar parts, now that the ring was more dynamic, you live? We would up using, maybe, six guitars on that. There`s a lot of guitars on there. It`s subtle, but it really took a lot to make that shiny wall of guitar chords. It`s very unusual, on other songs we did there`s hardly one guitar and it sounds fine. This one took a lot of layers to create. Would that do this one of the more complex songs on the album?
Recording-wise, it was, musically it`s very non-complex, I mean, the choir has two chords in it, that`s it. The basic assumption of the call is a 1-4-5 blues progression, and I threw in a little bridge there, which I keep thinking, we should get through the bridge twice. But perhaps it`s well that way, that it`s such a bright bridge when it comes in there. I remember - it`s funny how guitar players think about things - I only think how unique it was in price of what we used to read it. We started out with a vintage 1955 gold top Les Paul, and we played two versions of that, you know, rhythm guitars. Then we listened to that and went, "Oh, that`s too bright, there`s something singular about it." So then we added, I think, two JS guitars, you know, my JS2400s. Then we thought, "Well, now it`s really solid, but is it too solid?" Then I imagine we added a vintage Fender `58 esquire on top of it, and so later on we decided (laughs) well, we simply need a little bit more for different parts, and I reckon we put a re-issue of one of the Jimmy Page Les Pauls on there. So it`s got a ton of guitars; they`re never all on at the same time. (Producer) Mike Fraser was very creative in how he would have different guitars at different times to work out the shimmering quality of the chords. I read it you were pleased with the results?
It`s funny, because when we record, the guys only see my one guitar part, and so they go away - Chad goes backward to work with the Chili Peppers, Mike goes backward to L.A. and Sam`s just popping in maybe once or twice a week with new lyrics for songs and stuff. So they don`t love what we`re doing. Me and Fraser are in there six years a week, overdubbing like mad on top of the live tracks. They were all but totally blown out when they heard this wall of stone and roll guitar, you live? I remember Sam once said, that`s a bright and shine of a razor blade (sound), you know, that a compliment of guitars could always get. He only loved it, and was so funny how we arrived at it. It`s a complicated recipe of guitars.
Check out part one of our question with Joe Satriani of Chickenfoot, where he speak to him nigh the band`s unselfish goals for the relaxation of `III,` and how he thinks the new songs are going to go in concert.
Watch the Chickenfoot Podcast About the Existence of `Dubai Blues`
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