Using music in an effort to heal the wounds of the world, Steve Vai's new album, "The Ultra Zone" (Epic/Sony) begins with the words, "Let the might of your compassion arise to bring a quick end to the flowing stream of blood and tears." Steve blends Eastern chants and prayers with Western rock'n'roll, creating what has been hailed as one of his best albums. Inducted this year into the Hollywood Rock Walk as one of the world's most influential and renowned guitarists, Steve has taken guitar playing one step further into a sort of exquisite spiritual meditation. Co-designer of the 7-string Jem Universe guitar with Ibanez, Steve also is involved with Make A Noise, the non-profit organization that assists school music programs. Recently we had the opportunity to talk with Steve about his new album and what it was life was like in the Ultra Zone.

Warren's approach and concept of increasing a person's vocal potential is unique. He feels that the way we speak, our voice, is a reflection of our whole psychological makeup. This psychological makeup is built on life events and our experiences. If you can address some of these issues that we are necessarily conscious of and exorcise our psyche of them, our ability to express ourselves changes. Warren brings you to these altered states of consciousness and for me, these were probably some of the more profound experiences I have ever had in any kind of a training situation. First it started out with breath control, like rolfing, and then Warren puts this machine that vibrates on your body that hurts, but at the same time, it's a different kind of pain like a psychological pain. I'm very skeptical and he did this and nothing happened. Then he did it again and I woke up on the floor in a fetal position weeping uncontrollably, and thanking him. It definitely triggered something. Through his sessions I think I exorcised a lot of those demons inside. You can hear on the different vocal takes on my album Fire Garden, the change in my voice as I was going through the Bio-metric training.

Well the alarm clock is set. It's a real liberation to sing, but I don't consider myself an accomplished singer yet. The trick is singing live. I can sing in the studio. But the other day in Japan I was performing one of the songs on the new record and it wasn't nearly as well done as on the album. There were nerves involved and things I didn't like. There are so many variables when you are performing live like if the air conditioner is on too high or if you don't get enough sleep. It really affects your voice. Playing guitar, none of that stuff affects you. I have gotten on stage with herniated discs, a 102 degree fever, and I still played my ass off, but if I had to sing, forget it. As a performer if you can confront yourself with the kind of personality you want to achieve, then once you plant that mental seed in your mind, it will start to take grip and that visualization is extremely important. That is one of the ways I construct my music and one of the ways I try to deliver myself in a live performance and it works.

Yes, it all starts in the mind, everything does. You fancy yourself as you picture yourself as the way you want to be, with the kind of creation you want to create. You have to plant those seeds. We do this everyday. There are elements coming in from our culture and society that are absolutely brainwashing. Once you become aware of them, you can deal with them more appropriately, but you have to become extremely strong willed and strong minded in order to syphon all of the pathetic insipid shit that comes in. You have to be aware of it and how your children are feed this stuff. I believe there are people treading this planet who have a complete grip on reality, but they are very spiritually evolved souls.

The guitar is a display of emotion. The way I approach the guitar is to use it to liberate my expressive brain muscles. Lyrically it's more difficult because you have to construct lyrics and put those thoughts, feelings, and emotions into a sentence or phrase that relays that. People interpret lyrics very differently, but if you say "sex" and people know what you are talking about. It's harder to say that on the guitar.

I do feel more comfortable with a guitar. I think when anybody goes to create something, they go into those creative realms in their mind and they gravitate toward those things that interest them the most. I seem to always gravitate toward the more spiritual element because that is the most important element in my life, to find that balance.

What I was referring to was that place, like in meditation, where everything is shut off. When you really shut your thoughts off, certain worlds and understandings open up within you. It's not an easy thing. It's easy to become rich and famous and a rock star, a great musician or artist, but it is virtually impossible to still the mind. When you are within that silence within, it is like a quest to get to the core of our being.

Exactly, every inspired founder of every religion has said the same thing--that it is all within. "Silent Within" is all about being within that space and on that quest, with the lyrics centered around that.

Trying to conceptualize God with our intellect is impossible. To put any kind of sex or gender on that is craziness. That is one of the big riddles that God plays. Our spiritual experiences are personal and you can't write them down. You can only try to express it the best you can. Where it comes from, I don't know. We all have the ability to be inspired but it goes through the channels of our own egos and that's what makes the statements we make that are so individual.

I believe some people can, but I can't. It is something that I am constantly trying to achieve, but I'm not that evolved. I can't tap into that place, that Ultra Zone, whenever I want to. When it happens it's like a glorious gift and you don't even realize that it is happening. I think it takes training and constant practice. When you are talking about the subtle realms of the spirit there are obstacles that are very different than what we perceive on the physical plane. Also events that take place in the physical have their reality in the other realms.

Exactly.

I follow Santmat, which is a spiritual path with intense meditation. We don't talk much about the experiences we have during those meditations because that only enhances or feeds the ego. Santmat involves sound and light and has some lofty principles but it is basically Eastern philosophy. The meditation is the path to liberation, but the philosophy also states that we live in the world and have to balance our worldly duties with our spiritual duties. It has the concepts of reincarnation and karma and makes sense and rings all the bells for me. I was a seeker for many years, reading every single book on every philosophy. We all find what is right for us, and Santmat is inclusive. It just helps you be a better person. It does away with all of the dogma and crazy things that have been created in religion.

The song's original title was "Eyes Are Windows to the Soul." I think our eyes are extremely expressive and if you know how to look into a person's eyes, it says it all. There is no hiding anything. Did you ever just sit and stare into somebody's eyes for a period of time? It's amazing, the things you go through. The things you see and feel about each other is a profoundly personal experience but it is quite revealing too. It's one way to grow very close to someone or to completely alienate them.

My wife and I have a friend who is ill and we sit with her. The song is really a tribute to her. When I talk with her now you can see through the illness and see the beauty in her eyes.

I took a very similar approach in both albums. I got an idea and sat down in my laboratory (studio) and construct it. Originally I set out to make a record that was relatively straight ahead guitar, bass, drums kind of thing, but I had this stockpile of music and some of them really filled me up and I felt I had to put this stuff out. Some of the songs were "Blood and Tear", "OOOO", "Windows of the Soul", and "Silent Within."

I'm tapping into their inspiration. Stevie has a certain approach and was very entrenched in the blues. I love listening to his music and I love to hear him playing the guitar. I have always loved one song of his called "Scuttlebutt" and I thought I would like to do a song like that one of these days but with a guitar with real hair on it. So the concept and energy on "Jiboom" is sort of similar to "Scuttlebutt."

Yes as a matter of fact, it came when I was playing at fourteen. My favorite guitar solo of all time was "Heartbreaker" by Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin. When I learned how to play that I didn't care if I died the next day. What I usually do when I learn something is I make an exercise of it and bring it into different realms and I expand upon it. So the main "Jimboom" rift is an expansion on this solo from "Heartbreaker." Instead of doing it on two strings, I did it on five strings. It's sort of like bringing it around full circle. Sometimes I have so many ideas I wonder how I'm ever going to make them all real.

Yes, for me to do something classically Indian just wouldn't work because I'm not trained like that, but there are elements in those scales and voices that invoke an ambiance of spirituality. I like to hear elements of different cultures melded together into one. The vocals on "Blood and Tears" are mantra chants. There are also a couple of cuts that have a Celtic tonality like "Lucky Charm".

When you focus long enough on something, everything else goes away and you become part of what you are focusing on. With that song, while playing the guitar I would focus on an emotion and try to reflect that in the notes I was playing. It's easy to get discouraged right off the bat, but you have to stay with it and try to find any little thread that you can pull on that will get you to the goal. When I wrote the melody I wanted to see how tenderly I could play each note. At one point I stopped playing and just sang the melody which felt like it came straight from my heart. When you can focus that long, I believe you are in an ultra zone of sorts and an altered state of mind. That's when I get my best results. You've got to make every breath count. The intensity that you feel when you create art is what a lot of people will feel when they see or hear it.

It's obviously a technological revolution that is taking place but I don't think it will be the end of record companies. There is always going to be a need for companies because you can have all the Internet you want, but marketing is an extremely important element when selling music. Artists do not know how to market because they have completely different brain muscles than business people. There are only a handful that can pull it off. It takes a massive amount of focus, concentration, wherewithal, and know how to market music. Record companies take their pound of flesh and they sell your music. Eventually I see people buying a box about the same size as a CD player that you plug into the wall and you can get everything on it. You just click on what you want and it's burned right there with the artwork too. There is still a certain romance in the retail experience that will never wane.

I think for some people it is a real convenient way to run their life. Eventually it will be holographic form and will pop out into the room, but there will always be people who want to get out of the house and are interested in other people. I have one son, who if he had his way he would stay in his room all day and play Nitendo. I have another son who is son and we have two acres of property and every day he covers those two acres once or twice. They are so different. One is into red and one is into blue. When I was a kid I was fascinated by watching my fingers go up and down the guitar neck. That was like Nitendo to me.

Right now it's a great hype. It still only accounts for 3-4 percent of all music sales. It makes life easier but also more complicated because people are getting involved in things they wouldn't normally become involved with. It creates a lot of distractions and I don't know if those distractions support good musicianship, but I am on it almost everyday. I do most of my business over the Internet now. It's so much easier than the phone. I get tons of email everyday and it makes it simple to respond. You can talk with people you haven't seen in a while, for example, I was talking with my college roommate recently. I email my mother. I have a brand new label, Favored Nations, and I do a lot of business with Australia over the Internet. If I had to wait and call them or send letters, forget it.

It's a lot of work, but very rewarding. I started this label with a friend of mine, Ray Shear, and I feel I was sort of destined to do it. It's a label that is geared toward inspired and artistic musicians, but not unaccessible. It's structured differently than a conventional record company, in the way the royalties are calculated for artists. It's no secret that artists are on the lower end of the totem pole when it comes to royalties. This is more like a co-venture and a 50/50 split and we have some great acts coming out in the near future. Jimi Hendrix was brilliant and interesting, and he would have worked great on my label.