Bryan Beller, who is known for his work with The Aristocrats, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and James LaBrie, spoke with Music Radar about working with his bandmates Guthrie Govan (guitars) and Marco Minnemann (drums), and the making of his new solo album. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Beller: “We can do any style we want, as long as it works in a trio format and we have fun with it. Those are the only requirements. Of the three songs I contributed, 'D Grade Fuck Movie Jam' is like a full-on '70s cock-rock Hendrix/Zeppelin throwback, 'All Said And Done' is a Beatles pastiche, a slow, mid-tempo, heavy groove tune with a very simple melody, and the third one is a certain kind of 70s progressive rock vibe that isn’t explored enough, I think, which is the mid-tempo rock shuffle. I wanted to write a song about the whole adventure of my instruments getting stolen and me eventually finding the people who did that and then leading the police to their arrest, so I named that song 'The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde'.”

Read the complete interview here.

Beller recently released a new solo album, Scenes From The Flood. A video for the album track "Volunteer State", featuring Satriani, can be found below.

The album is described as, "An epic-scale modern progressive double concept album featuring an all-star cast of 26 musicians that asks: When the storm comes for us, the one after which things will never be the same, what do we keep, and what do we let go?"

Guest musicians include Guthrie Govan, John Petrucci, Joe Satriani, Mike Dawes, Mike Keneally, Gene Hoglan and Joe Travers.

Says Beller: "The Wall was the very first album I ever owned. It was a gift from my grandparents for my ninth birthday. I completely absorbed the story, the visuals, the long form double-vinyl structure, and the repeating themes that defined it as a concept album. Ever since, my favorite albums always felt like they were telling a story. So, when I realized I had that much music in my head, and something to say along with it, I got over my initial fear of tackling something so conceptually audacious, and finally just said, yeah, I’m actually doing this.”

Scenes From The Flood will be released September 13 and is available for pre-order here.

Tracklisting:

"The Scouring Of Three & Seventeen"
"Volunteer State"
"Everything And Nothing"
"A Quickening"
"Steiner In Ellipses"
"Always Worth It"
"Lookout Mountain"
"The Storm"
"The Flood"
"Bunkistan"
"As Advertised"
"Army Of The Black Rectangles"
"The Outer Boundary"
"Angles & Exits"
"The Inner Boundary"
"World Class"
"Sweet Water"
"Let Go Of Everything"

"Volunteer State" video:

"The Storm" video: