Interview: Steve Vai - Make Weird Music 

That was so hard to watch,very cringy ,the guy Interviewing Steve is acting like he has no clue how to interview

The more I watch interviews of that guy, the more I have respect for the guy, even more like a sort of inspirational guru than like a guitar master and teacher.

WOW, FREAKING WOW !! This world, humanity, need's more intellectual, philosophical people like Vai. What an interview, thank you, THANK YOU !!!

Musician interviews where music is not constantly discussed are very refreshing. Thanks! I'm getting addicted to the Make Weird Music channel.

I like this guy very much. He is intellectually brilliant and a genius musician. One in a lifetime.

Excellent interview, amazing human being.

Steve Vai is the music. Intellectually and philosophically Steve can explain the powers music has on musicians.

Beyond his virtuosity, I just love his insights and simple, deep lessons. He must have done a lot of thinking. Thank you for sharing with us.

This is THE best Vai interview there is.....period..

I wish I had you tube 30 years ago....there is so much good information on guitar playing ..for example..like this interview ....is priceless

Great discussion of (eg. onstage) fear, ego, and acceptance - ultimately, self-acceptance is everything I think. What an unexpected yet relevant discussion of the inner workings of music.

The best Steve Vai interview. Thank you so much for this

Recently became a Steve Vai fan. So far a great interview, thanks guys!

Wow! Even though I am more familiar with Vai's work with other artists than his solo material, he is inspiring. A true artist! His enthusiasm is contagious!

Awesome interview, I've had the pleasure of meeting Steve on a few occasions and what comes across most is his honesty and passion for music, he's one of the coolest guys on the planet. Cheers!

Steve is an amazing talent for sure and unpretentious ....comfortable in his own skin. Rare. I really appreciate him taking the time to do these types of interviews. I learn something useful every time I hear him. I am grateful the interviewer just let Steve go without any interruptions. Well done.

I love hearing Steve's perspective on music. He's a fountain of knowledge.

i love how you let him just talk on whatever subject he wants this man is very insightful

I could never had imagined how cool Vai was.

I love the way you guys really listen and shape the questions and the way the interview goes about, Im a crazy fan of Mr Vai, amazing talk you guys had. Really enjoyed it, thanks guys!

Incredible interview. Steve always has insightful things to say....His perspective is inspiring

I met him personally, he is a very kind man, gave me his Pick and was very friendly, his music shows his grace i think, who he is

Thank you Anthony so very much for this site. There is no compliment that I can think of that will express my thanks for the incredible musicians that you have interviewed. Plz keep it coming. I play guitar and make weird music makes it so easy to break out of ruts as well as gets in the heads of our heroes. U sir and all that are involved rule the universe. Much lovei

Profoundly beautiful interview for the budding artist and for life more generally. Thank you for this.

For the Love of God, Steve Vai is awesome! Great interview.

thank you all I loved this interview.

Fantastic interview Anthony meant so much! 😃

I'm really pleased to see you allow him a lot of flexibility to talk about a wide-range of topics. I heard many of his interviews, and bits and pieces of his spiritual approach to life come out, but the interviewer isn't interested in this. But if you want to understand some of his songs, you must find out more about him personally. This is an incredibly intelligent man and he has a lot to share beyond guitar playing. Thank you for allowing him to talk more about that. I think it's obvious he wants to talk share it, so thank you for letting him speak.

Can't wait to listen to Flexible! Fantastic interview! Thanks for posting! 💫💥💫

Literally 5 minutes in, and I'm already pressing the like button. Fantastic interview. Vai is such a cool guy.

I'm sorry but I just really really fucking love this interview. It feels so pure and innocent. Music has finally bridge the gap between my existence and the question of why we are here. Life changing and so many times when I hear Steve speak, I get tears because the love he puts into what he does resonates so strongly.

One of the best interviews of Steve Vai that I've seen. Thanks!

Thanks for this great interview guys! I have been a big fan of Steve's for a long time and recently I find I resonate a lot about what he has to say on spirituality in relation to music and the whole ethos behind it. Thank you!

that was worth hanging around to the end for. thanks Steve if you ever read this. cheers.

Thanks for this interview. I've been a fan of Steve' philosophies since his Alien Love Secrets columns many years ago. He is so generous with the sharing of his knowledge, just an awesome human being.

Glad I searched Steve Vai interview. I love hearing him speak about his thoughts and perspectives. Thanks for this and glad you were able to share your time with him with the rest of us. Also liked and subbed.

Have enjoyed Vai's work since Flexable and have seen many interviews with him. I loved this one. Well done everyone.

Intelligent, insightful and eloquent as always. His music is as fully realized as he is, unsurprisingly.

Steve is like a spiritual leader.

What a beautiful interview! I always feel that the artist can inspire us beyond their art. You take Steve's attitude towards life, work, music etc and it is something that you can apply to your own life and anything you do. The particular thing about the artist is that you get to see all those things reflected in their art, and that works sort of like fuel or inspiration to embrace that attitude yourself. Congrats on an excellent job!

Steve is a mind-expanding guy) One of the best and useful ways to spend my time is to listen to Steve... by now it's a weird situation because I listen to Steve's talking more often than to his playing, and I find this very informative. Thanks for sharing that great interview

Very insightful. Thanks for asking him some good questions....

What an awesome interview. Steve Vai is a very wise and inspiring person. His words give me the courage to do my own thing on the guitar.

Such an insightful interview and incredibly useful, no matter what style of music/instrument you play. Thanks for posting this!

Carvin HH2 spotted in the back ! Really inspiring video btw

Thanks, for this very wise and inspiring interview.

Thank you. Awesome interview. Steve is such an awesome personality and his insights about perspective in life is really eye opening.

The goat is very humble. An insightful real person

Fantastic Interview, I hope more people will view this!

Thank you for this interveiw,it was just mind changing for me.Your questions was so good,and the answers was pure fuel for the mind, heart and soul.I've now started subscribing to Your channel (and recomanding it to friends),cause what you're making here is quality :-)Once again,thank you so much :-)

That was so cool, i feel like i know Steve a little now :) and the stuff he talks about the universe ... i feel that sometimes. Good stuff If Steve reads this stuff i would like to say to you ... thanks so much for sharing!

Fantastic interviewer! You asked real questions with a genuine vulnerability and allowed Steve to process and evolve his answers as he was speaking. Great job of listening and thank you for sharing. I can't praise this post enough. Of course, I'm here because of Vai and he's a quality interview, but that goes without saying for anyone else caring to read comments below this video. :-) EDIT: I forgot to mention your annotations were valuable, as well. Thanks agian.

extraordinary! thanks Make Weird Music for this. And thank you Steva Vai for the wise words.

Most intelligent interview I've ever seen. Great job guys.

Thank you, Make Weird Music, for this great interview!

Hey Anthony, wonderful site and interviews!!! This would have been a lifesaver in my world 50 years ago(!). My salvation then were a few "band nerd" guys in high school who were into the "weirdness" of Charles Ives, Stravinsky, Zappa, Persichetti, Cage, Partch, Glass and Nelhybel among others. Thanks much!!!

This is fantastic insight into Steve's mind, really well done guys. Might I suggest a fellow by the name of Guthrie Govan, if you could get him, that would be quite unbelievable, in part to hear him speak about things not related to music. Given his philosophical approach to music, I can imagine he would have some interesting thoughts in regards to the spiritual/religious realm, of which I have never heard him expound on publicly.

28:28 YES! Building the Church's main rhythm section is inspired by Linkin Park's song "Points of Authority". Being a craaaaazy fan of both, this is AMAZING to know.

out of this world, thank you!

Young Anthony !! Love this!

When Steve makes EVO speak I listen!

Coming back to this interview at the end of 2021 is weird bc seeing two people sitting at close together with their faces out is throwing me more than I expected. Love the interview tho.

Steve...it's a way of life!

Mahler and with open mind , it's real challenge that i like

Thanks man

Always enjoy a good Steve Vai interview. Two ideas with which I disagree. As far as thoughts, feeling or emotions being vibrating energy. Maybe... but emotions are responses. This is accepted within the field of neurology. They're reactive responses to situations, physical things that act on the body, perceptions and thoughts. But they're reactive. So, it's not accurate to say that how one feels is a result of whether they're correctly channeling energy. For instance, a person who sustains an injury. That damage from the injury is going to affect the emotional state of the person. Especially some sort of brain injury. It will affect the neurological, psychological, and physiological processes. Emotions are reactive. The second point with which I disagree is the idea that if one writes a sad song about problems in the world that one is essentially saying, "I'm better." Which will perpetuate more negativity. This is why therapists ask people to put a name to their emotions and describe them. It can provide catharsis and allow the individual to understand what they are feeling and that will help to manage the feeling(s) better. Often when a person hears a sad song by an artist there's a feeling of connection. A feeling of no longer being alone. Sad songs can also trigger neurochemicals like endorphins and oxytocin. Apparently singing also activates the prefrontal cortex which modulates emotional intensity. "... determinism from a physicist's point of view has been challenged by the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics." So maybe there is free will. I hope so. Still love ya, Steve! You definitely got my brain moving this morning.

20:30 this question and answer is real important

Excellent adVAIce. Thanks for the interview!

Thanks for the awesome interview, it was very enjoyable and enlightening!! Steve's a great guy. Say hi to Carl, hehe what's He up to nowdays?

You can see how confused he was when he was asked to introduce himself, like "I'm Steve Vai man, what else should I add?!"

This is inspiring !

Great interview! Subbed :)

Funny! Inteligent! Motivational!

I really love and respect how stoned on the Marijuana's the interviewer was and did a great job.....AND TOTALLY REDEEMED YOURSELF!

Great interview, Anthony! During the brief discussion of golf it seemed like Steve referenced a bad back or back injury?

the humility of vai is to be interviewed by this YOUNG novice who should not be interviewing someone like Vai, more like a high school kid

un verdadero maestro zen...🙏

please steve do another Flex-Able

My favorite from Flexible is Salamander in the sun

Wow the part at 49 min is me lol when ever something goes wrong I feel like its god fucking with me and instead of just fixing the problem I give up haha

nice!!!

Fuck, this man is soooo inspiring!

Somtimes I wish people would edit out the "mhm, yeah, right, right, mhm, right, mhm, right, yeah, mhm, mhm, right.., mhm, yeah, yeah, right, mhm.., mhmm, yeah, mhm, mhm"

Vaibrations

he is like master yoda

38:12 irony

Well, I think he is oversimplifying things by saying: "If you worry about not getting paid for your music, then don't write music" (obviously paraphrasing here). Yes, if getting paid is your main motivation then you should probably concentrate on making money and not music. That said, the reality is that living is not for free. You need shelter, food, healthcare, etc. Even if you are a modest person, you need a steady income just to live a decent life. It's only rational to be realistic about your future prospects. If there are very limited options of making a living of being a musician/composer then clearly you have to look for other options. These options consume a lot of your time. Getting an education is a full-time occupation on it's own. Even if you opt for a modest lifestyle, most people (at least in the US) need to devote at least half of their waking hours working in order to make ends meet. It does not matter how creative or inspired you are. Developing your craft and creating music takes time and you need to put in the hours to be successful. To pretend you just have to pick up a guitar and all this wonderful music will just pour out of you, is not realistic. At least not for the great majority of people. The reality is, that a lot of potentially wonderful artists and musicians are just crushed by the realities of life. If we want more good music in this world, it's of utter importance that we give people who are talented and ready to work hard to achieve their goal realistic means to make a living. I think, modern technology presents a lot more opportunities than people in the past could ever dream of. Still, I think it's dishonest to say that "true artists" will always find a way to channel their creativity. That just is not true. As I said, many really creative people are just crushed by the realities of life.

dat sfg polo

Sounds more like Eckhart Tolle than Dianetics

"Stevie's Spanking" is a song by Frank Zappa written about & featuring SV. Check out these two master soloists during this instrumental interlude from 1982. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WJxoV5O8HUU.html

Steve Vai, you are such an amazing , intelligent person. I want to truly thank you for your willingness to spread your vast knowledge, and be so honest with your fans. Thank you, and God Bless you and your family.

when this man speaks, i listen

"Write a song as if no one is going to hear it." VERY great advice!! Complete freedom from failing without expectations.

Mr Vai becomes increasingly likable as he ages.

This is the best interview Steve has ever done. Well done Guys!! This is gold.

There's not many (any?) interviews I watch over and gain more each time, but this video is a wonderful insight, thanks so so much to all involved

I just wanna say that this is probably one of the best interviews I've ever watched, because of the quality of the questions asked. Why this doesn't have a million views is beyond me. Or maybe, that's just how it's supposed to be. Anyway, congratulations, it's a very powerful video.

Vai has some serious philosophical insights...very Zen/Buddhist stuff...I always like hearing this...even as a Christian. I have a very, very special spot in my heart for this guy...always have.

I could honestly listen to Vai talk and/or play for hours on end... Oh wait, I already do :D

Not to mention he has amazing voice and also a virtuoso and not many can handle the pressure of working with Frank Zappa. So he is basically very talented