If guitar meme culture is anything to go by, you’d think doctors and dentists exclusively play the blues on exorbitantly expensive PRS guitars. Steve Dadaian defies viral convention.
Dentist by day, guitarist by night, Dadaian is as adept with a pick as he is a dentist drill, and cemented his virtuosic six-string skills by winning competitions hosted by Slash and Guitar World. And he reckons the precision of his day job helped him hone his remarkable shredding skills.
“They both require an incredible amount of manual dexterity,” he tells GW. “I'm often working in fractions of a millimeter in dentistry and with guitar, too, even the slightest movements can make all the difference; whether it's fretting, a bend, tapping… it all matters. It can be the difference between a note intonating or not.
“Similarly, they have both required thousands of hours of focused practice and dedication. They are both creative in their own way, and there’s an art and science behind both!”
But it was his fretboard dexterity that won him one of his most high-profile gigs yet: recording alongside Dream Theater keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess.
“I’ve been a fan of Dream Theater ever since I was a kid in junior high school when I first started playing,” Dadaian says. “Seeing them at the PNC Bank Arts Center in New Jersey was one of my first concerts and all these years later, having the opportunity to work with Jordan Rudess on his solo album is an amazing, full-circle moment.”
The pair first connected on social media, striking up a musical friendship. After realizing they lived locally to one another, they would meet up and jam, culminating in Rudess previewing material he was cooking up for what would become his latest album, Permission to Fly.
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“Hearing them for the first time in his studio was such a cool and unique experience – to hear them as he did when he wrote and recorded the songs,” Dadaian says. “Even looking at the grid on the DAW was mind-boggling to see all the intricate layers that were so perfectly woven together!”
The Alchemist in particular stuck out owing to its frantic arpeggio sequence – and the guitarist knew exactly how he could take it to the next level (as demonstrated in the video above).
“I immediately thought it would be cool to double in unison so I arranged it for lead guitar,” he explains.
“It’s a very complex line that required a lot of care to arrange it as comfortably as possible on guitar. We were both very proud of the end result and started this prog epic off on the right foot.”
Dadaian employed his ESP Custom seven-string for all tracking, utilizing the firepower of Seymour Duncan’s Nazgul/Sentient pickups and the slinkiness of DR’s Tite-Fit and Dragon Skin+ strings.
Few guitarists could match the technical wizardry of Rudess’ keyboard parts, but the Dream Theater keysman is thrilled with Dadaian’s results.
“He’s an incredible young guitarist and friend (did I mention an amazing dentist, too?)” says Rudess. “When I was still writing the album, all the rhythm parts were done on a keyboard, and when I showed him what I was working on, he had the idea to re-record them on guitar to expand the overall sound.
“I loved what he did and it really elevated the record. I’m looking forward to working together again in the future!”
- Jordan Rudess’ new album Permission to Fly is out now via Century Media.
