When Guitar World scheduled an interview with Dethklok mastermind Brendon Small, we had no idea that a few hours prior, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai had premiered their latest SatchVai music video, for their new single, Dancing.
In the comical clip, Small portrays a misguided manager who tries to convince the guitarists of the importance of “motion” and “energy,” which leads to a series of auditions by a wave of impressive dancers as the duo perform in a school gymnasium.
The video isn’t Small’s first collaboration with Satriani and Vai, as both served as guest voice actors on Small’s cult animated TV series, Metalocalypse. Since then, Small explains, both guitarists have proceeded to serve as mentors.
“When I was discovering guitar, Flying In A Blue Dream was about to come out and Passion and Warfare had just come out, so I was in guitar heaven,” Small says.
“Joe's music is so creative, and his [sense of] harmony and melody are so strong. I think he's one of the great songwriters, and I could say the same thing for Steve. It felt like they were playing these kind of dream melodies in this dream universe.”
Years later, Small met the pair at a Guitar Player-sponsored competition (“they put me on as the funny guy at a dais, where I would just make jokes the whole time”), where they “became very friendly, very easily, very quickly,” he says. Soon after, Satriani left an indirect stamp on Dethklok’s music.
“Joe actually helped me find guitar sounds for Dethalbum II,” Small explains. “I had just finished Dethalbum I and was working on Dethalbum II, and he said, ‘Where are you at with the process?’ I go, ‘Well, I’ve run out of studio time, so I'm doing overdubs from my home studio.’ He goes, ‘What are you using to record the guitar?’ I said, ‘I'm using my Line 6 POD,’ and he goes, ‘I’ve got something that may work better.’
“He asked me for my address, and he sent me two things in the mail,” Small continues. “One was his new distortion pedal, the Satchurator, and he [also] sent me his old Palmer cabinet simulator, because I didn't have an amp mic room or anything. And he said, ‘Get this stuff set up, and then give me a call.’
“Later, I found myself on the phone with Joe Satriani, and he's kind of giving me tech support and showing me, like, ‘Hey, this filter knob – that's going to be your best friend,’” Small continues.
“Steve Vai has done similar things for me. Both of them have been mentors to me in many different ways – musically, business-wise, financially, all kinds of stuff. Steve gives such great advice, and so does Joe. Joe's a natural teacher, and so is Steve.”
While Small says he had a blast filming the Dancing video, his favorite moments on set were off-camera.
“There's a lot of downtime on a video set – they're shooting all these dancers and everything – so we were huddled in a corner just talking the whole time,” he says. “For me, it was one of the most glorious days because there are my two guitar heroes, and we're just talking about the inner game of guitar the whole time.
“It's really funny, because in the world that I've kind of carved out for myself – which is part-time producer/director/writer, and then part-time musician – while I'm doing one, the other atrophies. So while I'm directing a movie or something, my guitar playing is just kind of going, like, ‘All right – you're on hold. I'll get back to you in a while.’
“I noticed that some parts of my guitar playing had atrophied over the years, and some parts had gotten better,” Small explains. “I took a lesson last year with Jason Richardson, and [as] I sat with Joe and Steve, I talked about how I kind of took my guitar-playing apart and cleaned the engine and put it back together again. They were very curious about that – ‘How does that work? How are your muscles working?’
“I'm talking to these guys who are kind of the statesmen of the entire guitar industry, and they're giving me really great advice. Steve Vai’s giving me posture advice. All this stuff, I'm taking in like a sponge, because it's a different game of guitar. It's the mental game of guitar, and Steve had a lot to say about that, and so did Joe. That day was pretty amazing.”
The complete Guitar World interview with Small – whose band Dethklok will soon join forces with Swedish viking metal warriors Amon Amarth on the North American “Amonklok Conquest” tour – will be published in the coming weeks.
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