VaiTunes - Steve Vai to release previously unreleased material

Published Feb. 14, 2010 at 5:05 p.m.

Steve Vai has posted the exciting news on his website that he is going to release previously unreleased recordings that have been sat on his virtual shelf for years.

It’s not uncommon for a musician to record more work than they release. In my case I have a digital ocean of snippets in various degrees of completion. Some are leftovers from assorted project recording sessions, projects that were never completed, sound check jams, demo snippets, etc.

...with the advent of all this digital technology and distribution, it’s possible to release a variety of tracks from a potential project without having to complete the whole project itself.

I am working to release a VaiTunes track once a month if possible

The first track released is called Without Me originally tracked in 1998 at The Mothership, Hollywood with overdubs added at The Harmony Hut featuring the following line up:

Steve Vai - Guitar
Mike Keneally - Keyboards
Philip Bynoe - Bass
Mike Mangini - Drums

And Steve even lists the gear used on this track in the digital booklet:

Guitar used: Evo (Ibanez Jem)

Amp set up:
From the guitar into a Bad Horise Wha, into a Boss DS distortion pedal, into the front of a Bogner head.
The send from the back of the Bogner was set into a TC Electronics G Force and a bit of stereo delay was used. The stereo return from the delay was sent back to the return of two Bogner heads.
(2) 4x12 cabs with 30 watt celestions were used.

Without Me features the same kind of stripped back simplicity as k’m pee du wee and although there are defined melodies there are parts like the intro which sound improvised and the whole track is so totally unmistakably Vai. I’m surprised this never made it onto any of Vai’s albums as I would have thought he would have enjoyed playing this live, mind you he has such an incredible back catalogue to choose from already, so I’m just thankful that he has decided to dig up these tracks that he previously thought were unworthy of release and yet most of us would die happy if we had composed ourselves!

To download Without Me head over to Steve Vai’s VaiTunes page.

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