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Interview with Steve
Stevens of Bozzio Levin Stevens
I spoke with Steve
Stevens, who is responsible for the guitar work
in Bozzio Levin Stevens (BLS), a group
consisting of Steve, Terry Bozzio (of Frank
Zappa fame) and Tony Levin (of King Crimson).
Steve has been a part of mainstream music for a
long time, performing on Billy Idol records,
Michael Jackson's Bad, and even winning a Grammy
for the Top Gun Anthem. Yet somehow, he has
managed to lurk in the background and I think
that BLS, which showcases his work, will also
place him in the ranks of the more
experimental/adventurous musicians. I spoke with
Steve about BLS, his guitar work, and future
plans. Here are some excerpts. What are you up to
currently? I'm producing a Japanese
artist by the name of Himuro. He's sort of like
the Billy Idol of Japan. I'm playing just about
everything on it. On a majority of the records
I've done, I've played the bass guitar, done
some sequencing/programming, and played the
guitar of course, and so it's basically the same
thing. For those of us without
access to the PR info about this project, how
did you guys get together to record this? Basically Terry was
looking for other musicians to put together a
spontaneous jazz-influenced project. His manager
at this point pulled out names of a few
guitarists. These were the usual famous
guitarists. I was the only one there who was not
a instrumentalist. I think that intrigued Terry.
He was in LA doing a one-man drum clinic and I
went over there. I was really impressed by it
and found it entertaining. So we sat and talked
and he came by my place and I played some of my
stuff for him. I was putting together this weird
combination of third world rhythms and flamenco
guitar at that time. He seemed to really like it
and so once we decided to work together there
was only one bass player we wanted and it turned
out Tony [Levin] did have some time available. How does this differ
from previous work you've done? I think it's an entirely
different kind of project. The emphasis is in a
different area compared to what I've done
before. There's less rhythm guitar and more free
form improvisational guitar. It's different way
for me to approach playing the guitar. Other situations I've been
on were on major labels. Record companies are
like a bank and in those releases you have to
consider the commercial aspect. Instrumental
music has a very defined market and doing a
record like this freed me up. There wasn't a
huge budget and there wasn't a record company
telling me what to do which was a kind of a
liberating experience for me. I am used to
working on records where you don't play
spontaneously and this record represents a side
of my playing that people haven't heard before.
It wasn't a record that took me 8 months to do;
it's very fresh and I can listen to it again and
again. So how were the songs
actually recorded? I had gotten together with
Terry earlier. I went out to Austin where he
lives and spent a bit of time getting some ideas
together. Pretty much the way this came together
is that one of us had a idea for some sort of
structure/song and we'd roll a tape. Then we'd
listen to the tape a few times and decide which
parts to play and repeat and go from there. So a
majority of the stuff is live and spontaneous in
the studio. We made a feeble attempt at editing
some stuff, but it really didn't work. That's
the kind of nature of this sort of record. I later played it for
Dweezil Zappa and he really felt that people got
to hear what I'm truly capable of playing. Are there any plans for
a tour of the U.S. in support of BLS? I believe so. We plan to
go to Japan at the end of August and play some
dates there. We're oping to come over here [the
U.S.] after that. How was it working with
Michael Jackson? Was he even in the studio when
you recorded [Smooth Criminal]? I got a call from Quincy
Jones to do that. I had had an experience where
I had worked with Diana Ross where she wasn't in
the studio. My prerequisite to him [Jones] was
that Michael had to be present when I was
recording. He [Jackson] was very receptive, and
he made some sensible suggestions. How was it winning the
Grammy with Harold Faltermeyer? Harold was scoring the
film [Top Gun] and he called me up and said he'd
send me some footage. I saw the aircraft and I
was thought it was really cool and played his
composition. The song won for best instrumental
performance, going against musicians like
Stanley Clarke. It was pretty incredible. When I
won the Grammy I was also performing on the
show, so it was an amazing experience. What about working with
Billy Idol? It was totally exciting. I
was there from the beginning of his American
career. Billy was an extremely charismatic and
exciting guy to work with. I still speak with
him and we're still on very good terms. Maybe
I'll be involved in his next record, but not to
the degree I was previously. I have to fulfil
things for myself as a musician. Who are your favourite
guitarists and who would you cite influences? Growing up, it's all the
obvious choices. It was such a great time for
guitar: Hendrix, Page, Beck. A lot of
progressive guitar players were influential:
Alan Holdsworth and Robert Fripp. Modern guitar
players haven't influenced me in any way, though
I really have a great love for acoustic guitar. I like instrumental
acoustic guitar music, like Michael Hedges and
John McLaughlin. I don't listen to a lot of
electric guitar music today. What's happening
for guitar music in the 70s is what is happening
for synths today. The technology side is taking
over. What kind of gear do
you use? I'm am an endorser of
Logic audio. I essentially use the Mac for
sequencing. As far as guitars, I've been using
these Ernie Ball Musicman guitars, the Eddie Van
Halen model. When I was on the road with Van
Halen, Ed gave me a bunch of them. As far as
amps go, I use the same old marshalls. In the
studio, I'm still partial to Lexicon gear
(pcm80s). I don't use much processing. I don't
use effects like harmonising and chorusing since
I'm not comfortable with that. If I want that
kind of sound, I'd just double track. I also
like using guitar synthesisers. The title track
on Black Light Syndrome was done using a Roland
controller. Do you make that
"ray gun" sound that is literally a
trademark signature sound of yours (it appears
in BLS, Dirty Diana) using the guitar? Up till this time, I
opened up ray guns and tweaked the
potentiometers to get the sound I wanted. I then
played it through the guitar pick up. My brother
is helping me design an instrument that will
produce that sound straight from the guitar. What advice would you
give to young aspiring guitarists? I can't imagine being a
kid now and picking up a guitar. It's probably
more interesting in some ways now. I think that
a few bands like the Foo Fighters are great for
rhythm guitar music. Spacehog really good guitar
players. A majority of guitarists out there are
playing... I am not saying you have to be good
technically. I just think the overall sounds of
record sucks right now. The record industry is
suffering because of it. I don't find people as
excited about it. In the past, the only way you
could see a band was a concert. I remember
seeing Emerson Lake and Palmer and thinking I
had died and gone to heaven, but today you have
MTV. It's very cool is not to
be a good guitar player today. In the 80s the
technical side became more important and we may
be seeing some sort of a backlash against that. What are your future
plans? I hope to be doing
projects which are musically viable. Projects
such as this have opened up a lot of different
opportunities for me and I hope to do more
Flamenco guitar work. And I'm working on a sound
track for an independent film called Dogtown by
John Sabro which is being shot for distribution
right now. It's a really enjoyable situation. I
hope to continue to do projects like that.
You've got to want to challenge yourself. It's
nice to do high profile things like Billy Idol
or Michael Jackson but it's also nice to have a
career. That's why I respect people like Robert
Fripp or Adrian Belew. But being with people
like Billy Idol, you are in danger of being
remembered only as long as the song stays a hit.
The last three years I've
devoted the majority of the time to playing
acoustic guitar and I'm most proud of the
acoustic pieces. If there's any indication of
where I am going as a musician that's where it
is. I think what I do is on the acoustic guitar
is uniquely my own. June 20,
1997 http://www.ram.org/music/articles/stevensinterview.html
Part
1 Teaming up with Billy Idol again, solo
records, flamenco guitar playing.
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