Steve Vai의 65$짜리 CD box set "The Secret Jewel Box"
10000 box 한정 판매라는 말에 그만...덥썩 구입. 과연...Jewel과 같은 곡들로 채워져 있을런지...

도착하는 그 날만을 기다리는 수 밖엔...
-_-;

Tell us about the 10 CDs in The Secret Jewel Box, and your decision to release 3 of them in the box now and the remaining 7 CDs separately over the next few years...


The first thing that came to mind when I started developing the box set was getting a compilation of all the music I've ever contributed to film. I started putting this record together called The Elusive Light and Sound – light and sound being the film world – and I set out to license that material from various film and record companies. There's a lot of great stuff on there. It has the entire Crossroads duel, which has never been released on record, plus a lot of material that never made it to that film – there was a duel that took place before my duel with Ralph Macchio's character Eugene, and that duel was with Shuggie Otis. It also has "Love Blood", an intense rock track I recorded for Interview with the Vampire (but it never made it to the film) – it's one of my best solos of that whole era. It's got this version of "Celluloid Heroes" [The Kinks] that I did too, and "The Reaper Rap" and other material from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. "Amazing Grace" from Dudes is on the disc, plus the tracks I did for Encino Man, "Get the Hell Out of Here" and "Drive the Hell Out of Here." All of the cues and bits from the PCU score. When you're writing for a film, of course, it's very different than writing for a record, or for anything where there isn't that kind of visual. Some of these pieces are just 15 seconds long, but I decided to include everything.



The second CD is Disturbing the Peace, a record I did on Capitol Records with the band Alcatrazz, which was released in 1985. It was well received among the fans, but it wasn't really a terribly popular record – it never broke into the mainstream. I do find copies now and then, and there are people who are very interested to hear what it sounds like, so I licensed that and it's in the box. It's actually a terrific CD and if you compare it to the material that was being released by various bands at that time, this CD stands out as being accessible, slightly eclectic and different for it's day.



Then there's a series of CDs called Archives, volumes 1 through hopefully 12. The archives CDs are compilations of music I've contributed to other artists, bonus tracks for Japan, variations of vault material, etc. The first of the archives discs was The Seventh Song - Archives Vol. 1 - Enchanting Guitar Melodies, which is a compilation of the 7th songs from all my CDs, and it was released on Epic Records in September 1999. The Seventh Song was an archives disc because the material was previously released on my records, though there are 3 new tracks too. Although this CD is not made available in the box, it is part of the Archives series.



The second Archives disc is Archives Vol. 2 - Original Recordings of Frank Zappa, and it will only be available in the box set. I selected a handful of songs from my work with Frank, which I think showcased my "strat abuse" and "impossible guitar parts", as Frank would credit me on those records in the liner notes.



To keep the costs down on the box and keep it interesting, and also to make it possible for me to release it at this time, we're doing it a little bit differently. The box will have slots in it for all 10 of the CDs but the box will come with only the first 3 CDs inside, which helps keep the initial cost of the box down and gives collectors something to continually look forward to. The subsequent 7 CDs will be released within a few years, separately. Most of the box's limited edition of 10000 will be sold through my website Vai.com, and a small handful will be distributed in the world by Favored Nations. But primarily it will be exclusive to the website.



The remaining 7 CDs include a CD of 11 of my songs performed and arranged on solo piano by Mike Keneally. I'm not sure of the title yet but it's a beautiful CD, it's acoustic piano and he plays these brilliant renditions of "Bledsoe", "Junkie", "All About Eve", "Ballerina 12/24", "Die to Live", "Salamanders in the Sun", "Touching Tongues", "Kill the Guy With the Ball", "The God Eaters", "Pig", "Sisters" and "Dying Day".



Then there's a double live Alcatrazz CD, recorded in Japan, which was never released. It's very raw, and captures the essence of my playing during that period.



The next disc is called The Classified. When I left Frank Zappa's band, I started my own band called The Classified. It was right before Passion and Warfare – some really cool stuff, with Stu Hamm, Chris Frazier, Tommy Mars, Sue Mathis. I have a lot of recordings of that band that have never been released, so I want to pull a lot of those together and put it out. It has songs like "No Pockets", "Mighty Messengers", a piece called "Millions of Tiny Hearts", "Prelude to Lowengrim". There's a really wicked piece on there called "The Lights are On", and a great song called "Fast Note People". There is a lot of other material from that period too, which will be added to round out the record – it may include stuff I have from that period but not necessarily of the band.



And then there's Archives Vol. 3 and Vol. 4, which are compilations of the music I've contributed to other projects and records, and includes the bonus tracks from Japan. There's the Angelica track, the Jimi Hendrix In From the Storm performances, with the London Symphony Orchestra, and a song from Songs of West Side Story – the duel with Chick Corea. There's a lot of stuff, some of which hasn't been heard yet.



And the last disc is still in the conceptual stages right now. It's called Hot Chunks, it's an odd potpourri of little dialogs, music... I'm an audio pack rat. For years I would always carry around a tape recorder or a DAT recorder or just anythng that could record, and I'd record everything – my parents, source music, parties, interesting conversations, weird stuff that happens on tour. It's a completely eclectic art thing.