INTERGALACTIC SATCH

SUPREME SHREDDER JOE SATRIANI CHALLENGED HIMSELF TO CREATE A “NEW STANDARD” FOR INSTRUMENTAL GUITAR ALBUMS TO BE MEASURED AGAINST. THE RESULT? THE ELEPHANTS OF MARS, AN UNDENIABLY CINEMATIC NEW ALBUM RECORDED WITHOUT CREATIVE BARRIERS — OR PHYSICAL AMPLIFIERS

- JIM BEAUGEZ

IT MUST BE DIFFICULT TO WATCH AN ALBUM YOU labored over for months get released into a world on lock-down. But in April 2020, Joe Satriani made the decision to put out his 18th solo album, Shapeshifting, a month into the Covid pandemic in hopes the world would be back to business as usual in a matter of months, and he could play it live for fans around the world on tour.

As those optimistic early days of the pandemic passed, Satch settled into longer-range plans. Excited by the band he had assembled — Kenny Aronoff on drums, Bryan Beller on bass and newcomer Rai Thistlethwayte on keys — he decided to record some new songs to supplement Shapeshifting before they hit the road. But, alas, plans shifted again, and instead he conceived an entirely new album, The Elephants of Mars.

“I was really energized to come up with a new angle, so I spent a lot of time talking with Eric [Caudieux, producer and longtime collaborator] about how we could break down some of the barriers that were always up,” Satriani says. “Let’s say you walk into the studio and you go, ‘I want to make a blues record,’ or whatever it might be. When you make up your mind about that, you eliminate possibilities and pathways for expression because you’ve got to focus. So coming up with these concepts about what we were going to allow ourselves to do really opened up this wonderful sort of tidal wave of creativity between us.”