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" When I was growing up, the blues did seem too simple to me. I was just a muso. "
Steve Vai
Blues
Simple
Me
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" If I remain true to what's in my heart, that's all the success I need. "
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" My past is very interesting, and I treasure it, but to write about it, it's just not on my radar. "
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" I have an independent record label called Favored Nations on which I released an album by an artist called Johnny A, who plays an arch top Gibson through a Marshall, but the tone is all in his fingers. "
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" I have a deep love for life and my fellow human beings. I try to understand everything that everybody does, even if it seems wrong to me. "
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" We have the insight and the tools to identify and bring to fruition the dormant talent that our artists possess. Favored Nations will be branded as the home base for inspired musical talent. "
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" I was a kid, 12 or something, when the Partridge Family was big on TV. I liked the curly cord running from the bass to the amps, which were real fancy. That cord looked so cool. I said, 'Wow! I gotta play something like that!' "
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Kid
Cool
Said
" The blues scale was the first thing I learned. It's just a pentatonic scale with a flat seventh and a few notes that sound cool when you bend them. And because people have amalgamated the blues into this rock-blues scale, if you're using it, you better sound like a real authentic blues player. "
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" I'm always pursuing knowledge; I'm a seeker of spiritual equilibrium - and music is a big part of that. "
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Knowledge
Spiritual
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" The classical guitar has a dynamic to it unlike a regular acoustic guitar or an electric guitar. You know, there's times when you should play and there's times when you gotta hold back. It's an extremely dynamic instrument. "
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Guitar
Back
Hold
" I'm a big fan of cultural music, and that's how I try to expand my playing, by listening to music that is not conventionally American. "
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American
Listening
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" I know it is common nowadays for artists to start labels but this is a thoroughly constructed vehicle for inspired talent. This is a market that we've been living, breathing and eating for our entire lives - one where a huge void currently exists. Favored Nations is a long-term commitment. "
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Commitment
Start
Know
" A lot of those little things that I really like doing are just moments of cool articulation, just little moments of phrasing that probably go over everybody's head. "
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Moments
Little Things
Go
" History's most treasured musicians were believed in and cultivated to reach their potential. Today, it would be difficult for those musicians to get deals. We have the insight and the tools to identify and bring to fruition the dormant talent that our artists possess. "
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Talent
Musicians
History
" As a musician, I look for certain things that stimulate me. And what I look for is something that's an evolution on a particular genre that I never heard before. "
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Things
Evolution
Me
" I don't believe in 'greatest'. I believe in favorites. "
Steve Vai
Greatest
Believe
Favorites
" That's the thing about great artists: They find the thing that's most obvious to themselves, what's most conscious and natural, and they put it out there and the audience comes. "
Steve Vai
Audience
Natural
Great
" I could never overstate the importance of a musician's need to develop his or her ear. Actually, I believe that developing a good 'inner ear' - the art of being able to decipher musical components solely through listening - is the most important element in becoming a good musician. "
Steve Vai
Art
Listening
Important
" Besides being a guitar player, I'm a big fan of the guitar. I love that damn instrument. "
Steve Vai
Guitar
Love
Damn
" You know, there's times when you should play and there's times when you gotta hold back. "
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You
Gotta
Hold
" It's hilarious, because my guitar has what's known as a tremolo bar or a whammy bar. And the whammy bar is probably the most alien thing on my guitar that could possibly relate to a classical guitar. "
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Because
Bar
Alien
" If you're feeling emotional when you're creating something, it'll sound that way. "
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Creating
You
Way
" I loved the idea of recording. The idea of sound-on-sound-recording captured me as a young kid, and once I realized what it was I had an epiphany. Before I was even playing the guitar, I would create these lists of how I would record things and overdub them, like Led Zeppelin song, 'I could put this guitar on this track...' and so on. "
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Young
Song
" What I look for in music is artistry, sincerity, and simplicity, and Tom Waits has all of that. I want to make a connection to the creator. "
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Simplicity
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" My main calling in life is to seek and achieve spiritual balance, and to express that through my instrument. Everything else is here today, gone later today. "
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Life
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" I don't think I approach my songs differently from other artists. You get a big picture of it, and you imagine the song and hear and feel it, and that big picture is like a snapshot, and it comes to you as fast as it takes to click a camera. "
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Feel
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Think
" I can tell you this: I'm an extremely passionate individual. I try to be careful how I display it because you never know how people are going to take it. "
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I Can
You
People
" I've always considered transcribing to be an invaluable tool in the development of one's musical ear and, over the years, I have spent countless glorious hours transcribing different kinds of music, either guitar-oriented or not. "
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Over
Always
Years
" Acting, at least for me, is very unreal, and when I'm doing it, I actually feel embarrassed. "
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Embarrassed
Acting
Doing
" I loved the guitar, and I had all of this music in my head. My passion for the guitar and the ideas for what I could create musically were equal. So that's where I was. "
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Ideas
" The only time I'm miserable is when I can't keep an instrument in tune. "
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Only