“Connecting with Joe on this track is perhaps the most rewarding musical collaboration I’ve ever engaged in”: Hear Joe Satriani and Steve Vai pay homage to their rich history together on the Sea of Emotion, their first ever collaborative song

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(Image credit: Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

Steve Vai and Joe Satriani’s careers have perennially intertwined over the years. Satriani taught a 14-year-old Vai the tricks of the trade, and they’ve played together countless times together since – most recently during a tour that reunited the original G3 line-up. 

Yet, until now, they’ve never collaborated on original music together. That makes the first of a three-part track, The Sea of Emotion, a landmark composition, and it’s a beautifully colorful and incendiary affair that pays homage to their rich, entangled history. 

Musically, The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1 sounds like everything guitar lovers will have undoubtedly dreamed of: Whammy-wavered Vai licks trade-off of big, hairy Satriani grooves before their unmistakable voices weave in and out of each other across an energetic, near-six-minute playtime.

You can tell which guitarist is gleaming in the spotlight at all times, such is the uniqueness of their musical personalities. Vai flavors many of leading moments with Mixolydian flourishes, while Satriani aims for epic, skyscraping motifs. 

This isn’t just a fretboard-burning affair, however. After Vai recently revealed that his favorite Satriani song was Wind in the Trees, thanks to its raw, “emotional intent,” the pair’s collaboration makes sure to pack plenty of thought and feeling into its gilded guitar work. 

The song hinges on a gnarly groove, meanwhile, that wouldn’t sound out of place in Chickenfoot; Satriani’s former supergroup with Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer Chad Smith. 

“When Steve and I decided the time had finally come for us to collaborate on an album I immediately thought of our humble beginnings, where we came from, and our teenage rock ’n’ roll hopes and dreams,” Satriani says of the song’s inspiration. 

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“To anybody else, it may look like just a field, part of the sprawling Carle Place Public School complex, but for some of us, back in the early ’70s, when the sun went down and the moon came up, [that field] became ‘The Sea of Emotion.’ 

“We would hang out there late at night and share our deepest thoughts. The memories we shared at that location so long ago became the inspiration for a musical journey in three parts. 

“Each part of the song has little reminders of what we were so into musically back then, including a chord sequence that Steve and I would sometimes jam over during guitar lessons.” 

Expanding on the track’s backstory, Vai adds: “As young teenagers, we would sit overlooking this magnificent field and wax on generously for hours about the meaning of life and many other deep, rich discussions. We deemed this field ‘The Sea of Emotion’: 50 years later, it has been memorialized in melody and groove. 

“Connecting with Joe on this track, and the other music we are working on, is perhaps the most rewarding musical collaboration I’ve ever engaged in,” he continues. 

“Although we’ve toured and recorded jams together through the decades, for this music we are intimately bringing together our melodic impulses and playing techniques and creating something that is bigger than the sum of its parts.”

(Image credit: Future)

Indeed, The Sea Of Emotion, Pt.1 has been decades in the making, and not just due to the guitar heroes’ longtime friendship.

In a 1990 Guitar World conversation with Vai and Satriani, the two joked that if they ever made music together, it would likely involve an ode to the Sea of Emotion location.

Asked about the possibility of their recording together, Satriani joked that they’d do so “When we’ve become totally unpopular.”

Dropping into somewhat of an old man voice, Satriani said to Vai, “Oh, Steve, remember the old lick…,” to which Vai, adopting a similarly old man affect said, “Let’s call this song…‘The Sea of Emotion…’”

So there you have it, folks, read guitarworld.com, and you’ll, literally, see the future of guitar. 

The Sea Of Emotion, Pt.1 will be showcased on the pair’s current co-headline US tour, which began last week. 

While the tour is far from the first time the guitar heroes have shared the stage, it is, surprisingly, the first time they’ve shared a dual bill.  

Head over to Satriani’s website for a full list of dates.

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A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He’s also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.

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