by Joerg Kliewe
Dave Abbruzzese (left) and Stevie Salas (right) – Photo credit: Joerg Kliewe
The music business has changed dramatically over the past few years. While music is still an international language, the world has become a smaller place, and unfortunately record sales have declined in scope as well. Though sales are down, the rapid pace of technological advancements and the rise of independent artists has caused a tremendous global demand for new music.
Therein lies the dilemma for many musicians. When producing and selling music becomes more of a challenge, how do bands, especially young bands, survive?
The answer seems simple: Get their butts out on the road.
Though record sales have slumped there is still plenty of money to be made from live shows, concerts and related events, though not necessarily for regional acts and not necessarily in the U.S.. So, quite a few pro players head over to Europe in order to get back out on the road, build a fan community, and make enough money to pay the rent. One of the new breed of seasoned veterans who is heading out on the road in Europe these days is also one of Americas highly requested, and best, session guitarists – Stevie Salas.
Stevie has been named as one of the “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time” on more than one occasion, and he has performed and recorded with a bevy of top-notch players such as Mick Jagger, George Clinton and Rod Stewart.
Guitar International caught up with Salas during his recent European tour for an exclusive interview and photo shoot. In his interview Salas discusses the music business, gear and the buzz he gets from being on the road with top players, such as his current I.M.F. line up.
******
Stevie Salas – Photo credit: Joerg Kliewe
Joerg Kliewe: It’s cool to catch up with you during this tour, especially here in Germany. So what’s IMF all about?
Stevie Salas: Well, IMFs not a band. The tour…I signed another record contract in Europe and I neglected touring for a long time. I told the record company that I’d start touring again. I’m so busy in America right now with my job on American Idol and my job at The Smithsonian.
I also own a company with an iPhone guitar app game called rockstar solos , and I’m just super busy, and I didn’t want to start touring necessarily as a trio. It’s so much hard work for me.
I work a lot with a singer named Bernard Fowler, so I told the promoters, “I’m gonna come tour and bring Bernard Fowler,” and a lot of the songs on his records we did together and he sings the backgrounds on mine. He has also been a member of the Rolling Stones for 25 years or so.
So I thought, “I’m gonna put a band together and have it be with all my famous rock star friends.”
In the ’90s, when we used to be in the studio in New York or L.A. we used to sit around and call ourselves The International Mother Fuckers, that’s what the IMF stands for: International Mother Fuckers. It was guys like me, Ivan Neville, Bernard Fowler, Doug Wimbish and Bill Laswell and Carmine Rojas and these types of musicians, Brian Tichy, Matt Sorum and we would sit around, we called ourselves the International Mother Fuckers.
We were always playing with the biggest bands in the world, plus we were also on our own records, making records. It was kind of a cool, little private club of people that we thought we’d have our own club. Like you couldn’t just come hang out with us kind of a thing.
So when I decided to start touring again this year I told the promoter, “I’m gonna put together a band and I want you to call it…the band’s gonna say “Stevie Salas and Bernard Fowler present the IMF tour of Europe, 2010” and so we called it the IMF Tour.
A lot of people think the band is called IMF, but it’s not, it’s the IMF Tour. Then we’ll say, featuring so and so, like on leg one we took Jara Harris from the band Slapbak on bass with Dave Abbruzzese of Pearl Jam fame on drums. On this tour, leg two, we have for the winter tour Dave Abbruzzese of Pearl Jam on drums and T.M. Stevens on bass.
So we have different groups of friends, sometimes we may take Doug Wimbish. Sometimes we may take someone else, Amp Fiddler, Darryl Jones or whoever. It’s just whenever our friends are available and we want to go play and it’s a way for us to actually enjoy ourselves playing music and also it’s sort of like a…we just play all the same songs anyway that we’ve always played off all of our records.
I sold a couple of million albums so we play a lot of those songs. Even some of my songs, a lot of songs Bernard sings from the Nickelbag era from his solo album. I wrote with him anyway. It just kind of naturally made sense.
Stevie Salas – Photo credit: Joerg Kliewe
Joerg: How did it happen that you wound up bringing that tour to Europe?
Stevie: I just went home like normal and I called him and said, “What are you guys doing? Do you want to go to New York?” They go, “When?” I go “Next year,” and they said, “Sure.” People don’t realize that it’s like, “How could I work with Bootsy Collins?” I just call him, “Bootsy, are you free? I need your help on something.” “Oh, okay.” It’s like that simple.
A lot of people write me emails and end up hiring me as a producer and I listen to their music and if I like it, I’ll do it. It’s not then it’s impossible to reach me. It’s easy to find me online and I remember…was it Stanley Clark or somebody? I read an article once and he said, “I’d love to do sessions but nobody calls me for sessions.”
Mike Garson, the piano player for David Bowie, I met him backstage at the David Bowie concert and he’s one of my favorite piano players of all time and he goes, “I live in Woodland Hills. I’m in the phone book. No one ever calls me,” because you just don’t think you can call up the guy and say, “Hey, will you come down and do a session?” For a price, the guy will come do it.
Luckily in my case, and Bernard’s case, our friends, we never really charge each other because we’re all bros right? So if I have a record to do and I’ve got a half a million dollar budget, they all get paid. But, if I’ve got a record to do and I have no budget, then we all get together and help out. That way the music stays fantastic.
Joerg: That sounds cool. I noticed that it’s a lot easier to get in touch with people and especially with musicians in the U.S. than it is here in Germany. So there are some big names in Germany too and it’s kind of hard to get through to them.
Stevie: You find that a lot of the times the real heavy people aren’t necessarily that much of a pain in the ass to deal with. It’s the in-between people, the people that hang around them are always the pain in the ass, the managers and the hanger-on assistants and shit. Other than Mick Jagger. Mick Jagger’s not an easy one to reach. And I had his cell number, but even I was cautious about when I’d call him.
Joerg: [Laughs] Did he answer?
Stevie: Of course. I worked with him. I was Mick’s guitar player for the Goddes in the doorway gigs
Bernard Fowler (left) and Stevie Salas (right) share the stage in Germany – Photo credit: Joerg Kliewe
Joerg: I know. Doesn’t it feel odd when you’re used to playing much bigger crowds and much bigger venues than playing in this club which appears like somebody’s living room?
Stevie: No, it’s actually kind of fun. If I only had this to do, it would suck but it’s like a balance. When you come down and do things like this when you’re with your friends, it’s like it reminds me of being in high school and my band in San Diego. We’d set up in the living room and all the kids would come and dance and we’d play and it was like, it’s just about playing music.
This isn’t about being a rock star. This is really about playing music and then hopefully blowing minds at the same time. You still want to play exceptionally better than the average guy if you can, and have kids walk away going, “Holy Shit,” but it’s really about a fun experience. It’s not really about me trying to be a big shot.
I have these weekends where I’ll fly to Tokyo and I’ll play in front of 50,000 people and I’ll fly somewhere and play in front of 20,000 people, then I’ll go home to my local beach bar and set up with my buddies from high school and for fun and play with 200 kids dancing to old Aerosmith songs.
For me it’s fun. If it isn’t fun I don’t want to do it. If I had to do this and this is all I could ever do, I’d want to kill myself. But, for me it’s like a fun little getaway.
Joerg: Cool. I noticed you brought some equipment even though you are playing small venues.
Stevie Salas CD: “What It Is”
Stevie: No, I didn’t. I just brought a half-stack, a half-stack and the same pedal board I’d use if I was playing at a football stadium or if I was playing in a living room. Same guitar I play, so I really didn’t bring that much gear.
Joerg: So the amp that you’re playing tonight, you just told me you were helping develop it? What’s it about?
Stevie: Yeah. It’s the owners of [Ashdown] bass amps in England and for years they used to build a lot of my guitar amps. They used to own Trace Elliot and they used to build my Trace Elliott’s. Then I have these Ashdown guitar amps that they built for me. And this is their new brand. It’s called Hayden. Slash was helping design some of them, helping with it. I was helping design some of it and my goal was, I just love the British tube amp. I love a British tube amp.
These are all point-to-point hand-wired and I like an amp that sounds clear and clean, but has sustain. So it’s a hard combination to find without fuzz. I don’t like all the fuzzy amps. There are too many fuzzy…I call them like little kid bedroom amps. In your bedroom it sounds like you’re playing the L.A. Forum, but if you were really playing at the L.A. Forum, you wouldn’t hear a note that came out of that amp. It would just be like raahhhhr raaahhhhrr.
So these amps have a lot of clarity. They just sound like really classic British tube amps and they’re fantastic. They sounded pretty clear, right?
Joerg: They did. It sounded like they had a lot of headroom.
Stevie: Yeah, tons! I mean, the amp’s on two! It’s a fantastic British amp.
Joerg: You’re running both amps into one cabinet, right?
Stevie: No. Other head’s a backup in case I blow an amp up, because I frontload my amplifiers with so much gain that I blow up my amplifiers all the time.
Joerg: Really?
Stevie: Yeah.
Joerg: Wow.
Stevie: Yeah, I frontload a lot of gain into the pre-amp section and blow them up a lot.
Stevie Salas amp and axes – Photo Credit: Joerg Kliewe
Joerg: Also the guitars you brought look pretty exotic. There was nothing familiar, as you know. What are the axes you have down there?
Stevie: My new cool guitar is…if you looked at a picture of how thin it is. You see that Dean? Dean Zelinsky, who owned Dean Guitars? He sold Dean Guitars, so he started a new guitar company called DBZ which is his name, Dean B. Zelinsky and that guitar is called an Imperial and if you look at it, it’s thick wood in the middle and then it gets really thin on the edges. It’s fantastic. That sound is fantastic.
I like a guitar that has, of course the tone has to be fantastic, but I like a guitar that has a unique look and a sexy sort of look. I remember being a kid in sixth grade going to see KISS in concert and when Paul Stanley walked out with that Iceman, I never saw anything like that in my life.
Or I see a guy with a Flying V, I see Michael Schencker with a Flying V, you’d be like, “Holy shit,” and it would make you go home the next day and talk about it at school, so I decided I don’t want to play guitars on stage and look like everyone’s Les Paul and everyone’s Fender.
Gibson guitars gives all these pop kids these guitars to get tv coverage, so you have all these pop bands. So now you see all kind of people playing a Les Paul. It’s like, “Well, fuck, I don’t want to play that if some goonie uncool kid is playing the same guitar! I want something more unique than that for me.”
So I get these guitars made like that Caparison was built for me in Japan and it’s fantastic. It’s just a bizarre shape, but really it’s just a fundamental guitar, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, set neck like a Les Paul, mahogany body with a maple top, like a Les Paul. It’s just a unique shape and a fantastic piece of wood.
Stevie’s Pedalboard – Photo credit: Joerg Kliewe
I’m lucky enough I get to get guitars custom-made and I get really choice pieces of wood and the wood makes all the difference. I won’t pick up a guitar, I won’t take a guitar unless I can play it without plugging it in and have it sound fantastic. You can tell without plugging it in, because once you plug it in, it’s a different story.
Then the last one is a guitar that’s made in Italy. It’s called a Handel by XOX . You’ll have to look. It’s called a Handel and it’s made out of carbon fiber and it’s pretty weird. I thought it was so bizarre looking, so they sent me one and I’ve been experimenting with pickups.
You’ll see on mine I’ve got some different…I’ve got a weird pickup mounted sideways. I’m experimenting, testing some sounds out with it and it sounds really clear and really killer and it’s different. Once again, I put it on, people are like, “What the fuck is that?” That’s really half of it.
Joerg: All right. So how long is this tour going on now.
Stevie: Five weeks. Too long. I’ve got to get home then I’m coming back again in a couple of weeks. I’ve got to go to the UK to shoot an ad for Hayden. I’ve got to go to Scotland with Jimmy Dunlop for something, you know Jim Dunlop? Then I’m going to Music Mesa for a couple of days for a party, then I’m home and recording and then I’m back again on tour for a week or two in May and late April, doing some festivals, then again doing festivals in July.
Joerg: Any firm dates yet in the United States?
Stevie: I don’t do any dates in the States unless I’m out with somebody else. I very seldom do the States anymore. The United States has become such a, for me, why bother? I have to spend so much time and money.
For me, I’d like to see the fans, but unless somebody’s gonna pay me proper to come play, I don’t need that. For me the States was a young man’s game. When I was young in my first six years of doing it, it was fantastic. Granted, if I’m playing with Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart or someone, it’s all fun because you’re playing big arenas, but for me, nah. It’s too big.
In Europe you can drive 3 hours everywhere and play a new city and make a lot of money so I don’t have any plans for the States. I did do a huge festival in Canada last year. I got asked to do a festival in Toronto, Canada because I have a TV series, a music TV series, in Canada that I host and produce. Once again I was getting paid a ton of money playing in front of 25,000 people. I don’t want to go…I have no grand illusion that I want to go be famous again in America or any of that.
I’m happy with my status. I have a nice reputation. I get to play with the best people in the world. The normal person doesn’t know who I am but the regular music fan usually appreciates what I do.
Stevie Salas – Lifetime Achievement Award Tribute 2009
Joerg: Sounds cool to me. Do you feel that fans in Europe are more appreciative than in the United States too?
Stevie: Yeah, big time. Fans in Europe and fans in Asia, I think they appreciate the real art, less about a pop song and more about the true artistry of an instrument because I think in a lot of ways they want to somehow understand the blues but they don’t feel it the same way and American might feel it. It’s an American sort of art form in a way and they appreciate it that much more, you know what I mean? They really, the Asians, listen to me play funk music and they’re like, “Aaaaaaahhhhhh!” because they want to feel that and it’s not naturally in their DNA. They’ve got to work at it and I think that’s why they appreciate the musicians and the arts in general.
Stevie Salas CD: “The Sun and The Earth”
I think the arts are incredibly under-appreciated in America. I’m talking about painters, I’m talking about all types of artists. I think everything in America has become so corporate owned and so completely run by bottom line and profits that…can you imagine if you told Leonardo Da Vinci, “That Mona Lisa you did was fantastic. It was a huge success. Can you give me another one just like it?” That’s the American record business, or the movie business. Less original and more…when I first started in the music business, when I first got signed, you were encouraged to be original, to search out new sounds and try new things.
Now you’ve got to write a song that sounds just like the other guy’s song. It’s completely uninspiring. In a lot of ways you can come over here to Europe and go play in front of 300 kids, have them go bananas and it’s a satisfying experience. It’s not as satisfying maybe as standing in front of 450,000 people, which is pretty awesome, but at the same time you’re connecting. It’s pretty cool and those people really, really appreciate it. It’s not just something like, “Oh, I’m here because it’s cool to be here.”
Joerg: Okay, one more thing. You mentioned your job at the Smithsonian. Would you like to talk about what you’re doing there?
Stevie: My job at Smithsonian. I’m a Native American and I work for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. I’m a consultant over there for most things music related which is really an honor for me to work with the Smithsonian Institute. It’s fantastic. It’s weird too because I’m walking around Washington D.C. looking like some rock and roll guy and I go to these meetings in the Smithsonian which is so bizarre.
My other two big passions are, I host and produce a television series in Canada that’s on every Saturday night. It’s a music comedy show and it’s about three Native Americans, Native Indians, that are complete idiots and run a music TV program and we have Motley Crue, Velvet Revolver, Chad Chickenfoot and the Chili Peppers. We have all these guys on my show because they’re all friends of mine, but we put them in acting skits so it’s like a scripted reality. It’s really fun to do. I love it. I host the show and I star in it and I executive produce it.
Stevie Salas iPOD apps poster.
My other big project which is really, really cool is my new iPhone guitar game. It’s called Rockstar Solos. You go to the App Store at iPhone. You put in either Stevie Salas or you put in Rockstar Solos. My app pops up and it’s a guitar game. It’s really my guitar, my amps, my sound and put into this. I play licks and everything on the neck is really true to scale and the little computerized Stevie talks to you.
You play a game like Simon where I play the lick [making guitar riff sounds] and then the picks show you on the thing and you play it like Simon, so it’s actually…then you can turn around and learn the lick because it’s the right frets. A lot of kids write me and say, “I figured I was playing a game and I took the guitar and actually learned the lick on the guitar,” but it was really meant just to be a fun game. Your fingers are really controlling my hand, my tone, my sound and it’s selling all over the world and it’s really cool. I hope now pretty soon I’m gonna start signing some of my other rock star buddies and creating their apps through my company Rockstar Solos. That’s like my big thing I’m into right now.
******
Related Sites
Brutus (13 years ago)
Thanks Joerg for the interview. But Jara’s name is Harris, Slapbak is only his band.