Even guitar gods get tired of their own myths. For Joe Satriani, the big revelation behind What Happens Next wasn’t buried in a shredding solo or some cosmic chord change — it was the realization that his own alter ego had become dead weight. “I always thought it was a joke,” Satriani says, half-amused, half-exhausted. “But in a way it was holding me back from doing exactly what I’d been asking myself: What happens next?”
What happens next, apparently, is you let your kid film your existential meltdown on tour. Satriani’s son, Zy, a budding filmmaker, tagged along to capture a standard live DVD. Instead, he got footage of dad unraveling the hero’s mask he’d been wearing since Surfing with the Alien. “We started with the idea of a live DVD,” Satriani says. “But nobody wants those anymore — everyone’s filming with their phones anyway. Then I saw my son’s footage and realized he was capturing something else: the truth.”
You can’t bullshit your own kid. “If it were a hired filmmaker, I’d have put on the Joe Satriani show,” he says. “But I can’t do that in front of Zy. He knows the real me. So it became a no-brainer. Just be honest.”
That honesty bled straight into the new record — a raw, stripped-down, soul-and-rock affair that’s as much about staying human as it is about bending strings. “I told Chad [Smith] and Glenn [Hughes], it’s rock and soul — no weird time signatures, no unusual arrangements. Just us in a room, bouncing off each other,” Satriani says. “I wanted it to feel like an event — the three of us playing as big as we want.”
The album kicks off with “Energy,” a song that basically does what it says on the tin. “We just counted it off and went for it,” Satriani says. “It was the perfect intro. We all understood after three minutes: this is gonna be a fantastic experience.”
If it sounds like he’s dodging the prog-rock rabbit hole, that’s the point. He’s done with alien alter egos and wacky concepts — at least for now. Instead, Satriani’s letting soul sneak into the riffs. “Those soul parts just peek through,” he says. “Like in ‘Head Rush’ — you hear it. And it’s natural. It’s not pieced together like you could be anywhere at any time. It’s about being there.”
And if you still think the whole “losing your mind on tour” angle is dramatic, Satriani swears it’s built into the job description. “Every performer knows this rub,” he says. “While you’re still touring the last record, you’re already writing the next one. You’re out there playing old songs but in your head you’re chasing the new stuff.”
So, no big plot twist here: Joe Satriani is still chasing what’s next. The difference is he left the alter ego in the dressing room — and brought his kid’s camera instead. If that’s not rock and roll, what is?
Listen to the full interview above and then check out "Energy" below!
