The third single from the six-string legend's forthcoming album, Inviolate, was inspired by jazz and fusion
Earlier this month, Steve Vai released Little Pretty, the distinctive third single from his upcoming album, Inviolate.
We say distinctive because, rather than one of his Ibanez signature guitars, Vai used a hollowbody Gretsch electric guitar for the song's decidedly jazz-influenced tones.
Now, Vai has released Little Pretty's music video, which – while it shows the maestro toiling away on an Ibanez, rather than a Gretsch (we assume for endorsement reasons) – is novel in that it features him tearing up the fretboard with his usual relish on a hollowbody.
Shot at Vai's “Harmony Hut,” you can check the video out above, and listen to the studio recording below.
“In writing the chord changes for the solo section, and the solo itself, I dug deep into my academic music theory mind to create a set of chord changes where the harmonic atmosphere shifted on every change," Vai said of Little Pretty in a statement.
"The dense chord structures required a series of synthetic modes to navigate. This approach is along the lines of jazz and fusion players, but I knew I did not want it to sound anything like that and the solo had to be totally melodic. The results were pretty powerful in that the entire solo section evokes melodic atmospheric changes that shift dramatically but work together well.”
Little Pretty follows Inviolate's first two singles, Knappsack– which Vai created using only one hand after undergoing trigger finger surgery – and Candle Power, which features the very painful-looking “joint shifting” technique.
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Inviolate is set for a January 28 release via Favored Nations/Mascot Label Group. You can check out its cover art and track list below.
Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
