Riding The Wave

30 years on from its release, Joe Satriani’s Surfing With The Alien remains one of instrumental guitar’s landmark albums.Here, Satch looks back and shares the lessons learned while recording a multi-platinum record on a shoestring budget…

- Michael Astley-Brown

If you’re a guitarist of any kind, chances are you’ve at least heard Surfing With The Alien. Over the three decades since its release, the album has become essential listening for legions of players – a masterclass in fusing technique and melody. But in the run-up to its recording, Joe Satriani didn’t exactly fit the guitar hero mould he occupies today.

Back in the mid-80s, Satch was working in guitar stores and sharing his knowledge with eager young players. Thanks to the help of former student Steve Vai, he’d landed a record deal and already had one album to his name, but high hopes for his second release were scuppered when he received word of its $13,000 budget, in an age where albums routinely cost $100,000-plus. It left Joe and producer John Cuniberti to stretch their limited resources to the limit in San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios. But even when time was tight and the gear selection even tighter, Joe somehow made it work, and the resultant album gave life to shred staples such as Always With Me, Always With You, Satch Boogie and the iconic title track.

This is the inside story of a true labour of love, an album that changed instrumental guitar forever and one that guitarists of all stripes can learn from. Take it away, Joe…

GO WITH YOUR GUT

"The idea for the album was to celebrate everything that I liked about electric guitar, my roots, and the players I still really like. So, it went from Chuck Berry to Hendrix, from Wes Montgomery to Allan Holdsworth, I wanted to celebrate all of it. I grew up listening to The Beatles and the Stones, and Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton and JeffBeck, and I wanted all of that in there. But at the same time a large part of my playing is Tony Iommi and Billy Gibbons. I’m just a sum of all of the guitar players I thought were really cool. And I wanted to make an album that was about that.