Legendary guitarist STEVE VAI is featured in a new interview with Mick Burgess at Metal Express Radio dicussing his new album, The Story Of Light.. An excerpt is available below:

(Photo by Larry DiMarzio)

MER: As always there`s such a lot going on musically with a range of Rock, Jazz, Blues and even a touch of Hawaiian, Gospel and Oriental. Where do you start when you write?

Vai: "I start by finding a good idea. Inspiration for ideas just comes and I can`t really do it on command. When it comes, I`ve just got to grab it. I have a diverse musical taste and try not to sound genre specific. I don`t want my songs to sound blues, jazz or straight rock or anything like that. I like to create my own sort of identity with it. Something like 'John The Revelator' has some elements of blues in it but it`s not a blues song or a gospel song, it has several elements to it that makes it different."

MER: In the past some people have accused you of using too many notes but there`s a lot of strong melodies throughout the album. Do think it`s always important to you to have those strong melodies to build your music around?

Vai: "I like melody. Melody is kind of like the soul of the song. I build stuff around a melody and sometimes my idea of melody can be complex like the song The Story of Light. The whole last section is a composed melody that is very intensely orchestrated but is still very melodic. There`s some more simple stuff on the album too like 'Creamsicle Sunset' which is more of a chord melody. Sometimes I avoid melody and just look for textures. The first part of The Story of Light is more textural than melody based. I wanted to create a wall of sound with assorted 7 string guitars playing these chords that were just tension filled and dense."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Vai released his new album, The Story Of Light, on August 14th via Favored Nations Entertainment. A full stream of the album is currently available at this location.

The Story Of Light tracklisting:

'The Story Of Light'

'Velorum'

'John The Revelator'

'Book Of The Seven Seals'

'Creamsicle Sunset'

'Gravity Storm'

'Mullach At Si'

'The Moon And I'

'Weeping China Doll'

'Racing The World'

'No More Amsterdam'

'Sunshine Electric Raindrops'