Satriani finds meaning in meaningless title

By John Benson

Satriani tutored young guitarists Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett.

Sounding like something straight out of Harry Potter’s world, the title of Joe Satriani’s latest album, “Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock,” definitely gets your attention.

“The album’s got a funny title mainly because I had this idea not to fix a theme or title to the project before I recorded it,” said Satriani, calling from his San Francisco home. “Then I wound up having a problem when the record was finished because it had no title. So I took all the song titles to see if I could do mash-ups with them to see if I could come up with a really long title that didn’t necessarily mean anything but had a ring to it.”

He added, “So when ‘Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock’ fell into place, I thought that sounds great and can almost think it has a meaning, even though it wasn’t supposed to. Also, I did come up with a story to tell journalists about the name. It’s that people who don’t get my music haven’t been touched by the Musterion. Once they are touched, they understand what I’m trying to do.”

What Satriani has been doing over the past two decades is providing guitar-heads with one sonic exploration of sound after another. However, the self-effacing guitarist admits his instrumental music exists — without complaint — in the fringes of rock ’n’ roll. More so, the New York City native’s real self-identity comes out when asked what act he would love to tour with in the future.

“All of the ones I’d love to tour with would never have me,” said Satriani, who famously tutored then unknown teenagers Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett (Metallica). “That’s the really sad part. Like if someone told Radiohead Joe Satriani was a really big fan of theirs, they’d go ‘Oh my God. Whatever you do, don’t give him our phone number.’

“I’d love to tour with Beck, and I’d hang around with Rage Against The Machine any day. Maybe if Tom [Morello] needs his strings changed.”

Despite such modesty, don’t get it twisted. Satriani is revered by his cult following as a guitar god. For his 12th studio effort, “Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock,” the 52-year-old said he wanted a warm-sounding album that safely fit within his catalog. However, there are a few digressions found on the 10-track effort, including “Asik Vaysel” and “Andalusia.” Both songs – which by the way end the album – feature very long, open-ended jams that go on for six minutes.

Satriani said those tracks were definitely a departure for him with the only other similar-sounding song being “Searching” from his 2004 album “Is There Love in Space?” Though fans won’t hear that song at his Friday show at the House of Blues in Cleveland, there are a few surprises in store.

“I think we’re still very excited to play ‘Time Machine,’” Satriani said. “We hadn’t played that in over 10 years, and we started playing it recently in Europe and really enjoyed it. I think it’s become the band’s favorite gem to play, so the show is going to be great.

“We’ll have a great time. Also, Mountain featuring Leslie West and Corky Laing is opening the show. I’ll definitely be dragging West out on the stage at the end of the night. We’re going to put on a good show for the fans.”