Last weekend the 2011 version of NAMM in Anaheim, California, saw many of the usual artists coming to present new products, signature series and so on. Steve Vai was there as he often is, this year to present his new Ibanez Euphoria signature model, an acoustic model not too dissimilar to Joe Satriani’s JSA Series as you can see below:
While he was there, the guys at Music Radar took their chance to briefly catch up with him, here’s an excerpt of their interview, with something I find quite exciting:
Last year, the film you co-produced, Crazy, was released. Do you have any other such projects happening?
“There are a couple of things I’m working on that I’m very excited about. One of them is a whole new division for Favored Nations. I’m partnering with a company in New York, and what we’re going to do is develop a completely new model for a record company. It’s still way early to talk about, but it’s going to be very contemporary. Ever since I started my first label at the age of 20, I’ve always been aware of how the music business works. Trends can happen, and things can change, but there’s always opportunity.
“The other thing is something that’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s called Guitar TV – an internet station, 24/7, streaming all of the greatest guitar performances ever. Basically, it all started when I asked myself, ‘What would I like to see?’ That’s how a lot of good ideas come about. So we’re going to be launching that at some point. Guitar TV is going to be all guitar, every genre, the greatest performances. Being it Joe Pass, Eric Johnson, Hendrix, Satriani – all the greats, here they are.
“Not only that, but it’s going to have some really cool features. At any point, you can click on it and go to a Wikipedia page and read about the artist. You can click on another place and go to their website. You can click and buy their CDs. And what’s really cool is, you can click on the guitar the artist is playing and learn everything about the instrument. You can even find where you can buy the guitar, too. It’s crazy! The whole thing is built, and the man who’s going to be running it, Andy Alt, is talking to companies about content. I can’t wait to get it off and running. I figure, if I want something like this, there’s got to be other people who want the same thing.”
Now let’s hope it won’t suffer the fate of Pandora in this country. For the whole interview, head over to Music Radar 🙂