JOE SATRIANI Is Working On Two New Albums While In Quarantine

Legendary guitarist Joe Satriani spoke to Australian Musician about how he has been staying busy during the coronavirus downtime. He said (see video below): "I got it in my head that I wanted to create two separate records in the next few months. One would be another instrumental album, and another would be a vocal-oriented record, but they would be centered around my live band. The unusual nature of that was because the band is so unique, with Kenny Aronoff on drums and Bryan Beller on bass guitar and an Australian phenomenal musician Rai Thistlethwayte on keyboards and guitar, who's also a fantastic singer."

According to Satriani, while his previously announced tour in support of his latest studio album, "Shapeshifting", has been "put on hold" due to the coronavirus crisis, he and the rest of this band "have been texting each other music almost every day, and so we're all on board thinking that remotely we're gonna build these records over the next number of months. So that's what we're doing with this time at home — we're trying to be as creative as possible."

"Shapeshifting" was released on April 10 via Sony Music/Legacy Recordings. The disc was co-produced by Satriani and Jim Scott (FOO FIGHTERS, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS) with longtime associate John Cuniberti on board handling the mastering duties. Satriani enlisted a wide range of collaborators, both old and new, to help him bring the songs to life. Aronoff, bassist Chris Chaney (JANE'S ADDICTION) and keyboardist Eric Caudieux were the core musicians on the new album, with additional contributions coming from Lisa Coleman (THE REVOLUTION) and Christopher Guest.