What do Stev Skye and David Gilmour have in common?

Well, lots of things. Both play guitar. Both prefer Fender Stratocasters. Both have home studios.

Both have a Neve console in their home studios. David Gilmour’s Neve sound board is in his famous house boat studio, the Astoria, which is where the interview with him (above) took place.

Unfortunately, Stev was having some issues with his Neve lately.

And here’s where it gets really, really interesting. . .

To get it all ironed out, a man named Robin Porter came out to have a look at the Neve console in Stev’s studio. Robin Porter is the guy who actually designed the board that Stev has in his studio. He’s also the guy who added a similar Neve console to the Astoria studio so that David Gilmour could capture his epic sounds in all their splendor.

Having Robin Porter come out to fix your Neve is pretty much like having Carroll Shelby come out to have a look under the hood of your Shelby Cobra, should you be one of the fortunate few to own one.

It’s epic in its own right, in fact.

The good news is that the Stev Neve (hey, that rhymes!) is up and running now thanks to Robin and actual music is being recorded with it at long last. That also means we’re getting things rolling again here at Eye On The Skye, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, here’s another look at the Astoria studio, with a bit of Shakespeare, Gilmour style. . .

Two Degrees of Separation is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.

In the studio for rehearsal with Stev Skye

For me, it was a chance to see the band in action, to see the studio firsthand and to get a taste of what’s to come in terms of the stage performance and new tunes the guys are working on now. What follows are my notes about what I saw and heard, including me trying to log each of the songs they played, as they played them.

From the studio on December 14, 2009:
Before we went over to the studio, Grammy made us some killer stuffed peppers. Grammy can cook like Stev can play the guitar. Damn fine eatin’! It’s just Jeff and Stev armed with musical instruments tonight – no bass guitar since Connor had some other stuff going on tonight and couldn’t be here. Robert’s back there on the sound board making damn sure I’ll have the rock-n-roll ringin’ in my ears in the morning (if not sooner)! I’m front and center here on the studio couch with my laptop ready to go.

Robert running the sound in the Stev Skye Studio

Stev and Jeff agree to do a run-through of their full set. Listed below is what they played. I added some random thoughts and notes next to the song names as they were playing and while we were talking. This all happened live, so it’s not totally complete, but you’ll get the gist!

They play:
1. (Let Me Stand Next to Your) Fire – Sweet F(profanity)ing solo! This time Stev’s playin’ Jimi Hendrix for real!
2. CalifornIA

After a couple songs, I happened to look over at that lonely bass guitar just sitting there on its stand as the guys decided to abort the full set run-through. Stev and Jeff both agreed that the sound was incomplete without the bass. I thought they were kicking ass, but WTF do I know!?!? Had I the ability to actually play a bass, even a little bit, I’d go up and give them the bassist bailout they so desperately want tonight!

Anyway, they decide to move on to practicing some of the newest material. After all, as Robert said, “We are professionals!”

Indeed they are, and so the show must go on!

3. Little Wing – Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And did I mention this is one of my all-time favorite songs? I did sense the bass missing on this one later in the song, but Jeff and Stev still killed it. It probably helps that I love this song unconditionally!
4. Caution (new track) – Good solid rock jam.
5. Opposites (brand spankin’ new track) – Stev says this one’s “like three days old”. . .Good, fast intro, heavy drumming and an overall upbeat tune with distinct transitions.
6. New Track (“Coexistence” is the working title) – It reminds me of . . .oh crap. . .it’s on the tip of my tongue. . .what the hell is that song I am thinking of?? Shit, just keep writing. . .whatever, I can’t think of it. . .This one’s more of a mellow twangy guitar song to start out and then it has a good grungy jam transition, then a gritty guitar solo later in the track. It ends up more with a mellow tone.
7. Pride and Joy – Stev does a sweet solo that’s extra long, the way it should be. I think Stevie Ray would be proud (and joyous).

We take a short pee-break/intermission here and we talked about playing other songs from Stevie Ray Vaughan. My suggestions were “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” or “Texas Flood”.

8. I really want to know
9. Wish You Were Here – Electric style, very cool. Had a little SRV taste to it and a nice smooth transition into Simple Man
10. Simple Man – And I didn’t even have to yell “play some Skynryd” for this one!
11. In Spirit – I think the vocals are powerful on this one. It’s probably one of Stev’s better vocal sounds not to mention an awesome solo/hook. Early-on favorite methinks!
12. Rings of Saturn – Mellow/kinda spacey beginning – good ambiance, which I dig.
13. Scream – A song about an epic rant that Dziadzia (Stev’s father) had after work one day. We won’t name any company names here. . .classic.
14. Sacred Journey – (another new one)
15. Times Three
16. A Chance to Live My Dreams

Stev Skye on guitar/lead vocals and Jeff Hall on drums

Near the end there, I was actually posting the “Live” blog as well as snapping a few of the pics I have which is why there isn’t much in the way of commentary on the songs.

From what I heard of the new stuff, I liked “In Spirit” the best. It’s really rare for me to instantly love a song after the first time I hear it (and I mean that across the board, including my beloved Pink Floyd), but that one seemed to stick the most in my brain. It’s not completely fair to judge music after only hearing it once and doing so in a rehearsal setting where it is still taking shape, not to mention it’s being played with a third of the sound missing. BUT, I must say that the new stuff is solid and Stev Skye fans have A LOT of good stuff to look forward to!

It’s exciting that there is so much more great stuff in the pipeline. And even without a complete sound tonight, the songs sounded awesome. It’s just a rehearsal, but if it truly were crap, I’d probably not have babbled on for this long about it!

Good show!

In the Stev Skye Studio is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.

“When you play, I hear Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan influences more than any others. I’m not saying I hear you playing them, if that makes sense, but I definitely feel their influences when you play.”

“Absolutely. I would agree that those two more than any others have influenced my playing and my sound.”

“So how do you find that sound? How do you know it’s yours?” I ask.

“Well, it varies from song to song, but I hear it in my head and I try to match what I hear. It’s pretty much all up there (pointing to his head) so I just try to replicate what I hear in my mind.”

“Makes sense,” I say. “So then how do you reproduce a certain sound, once you think you have it? I mean, is it hard to remember what you played, how you played it and all the settings between the guitar, the amp and all the effects, etc.?”

“Well, I have four main ‘sounds’ that I stick to for the most part (he starts to demonstrate). I have the total clean sound (plays), then the overdrive sound (plays again) which is more of a ‘gritty’ sound. Then I have the rhythm distortion sound (plays) which is tighter sounding and finally, I have the louder more distorted ballistic atomic sound that I use in my solos.”

To achieve his sound, Stev uses a combination of guitar pedal FX along with his custom Two-Rock amp. Here is Stev Skye’s Signal Chain:

Boss CH-1 SUPER Chorus Pedal Standard

Vox V847A Wah Pedal Standard

Fulltone MDV2 Mini DejaVibe 2 Guitar Effects Pedal Cream (made with original Univibe parts)

MXR M169 Carbon Copy Analog Delay Guitar Effects Pedal Standard

Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer Effects Pedal Original Reissue Standard (Modified by Robert Keeley)

Fulltone OCD Overdrive Obsessive Compulsive Drive Standard Distortion Pedal

As I mentioned, Stev uses a custom designed guitar amp from Two-Rock. The amp is a 100-watt Custom Reverb Signature Model Version 2, all tube, handmade for specifically for Stev by Two-Rock. We’ll get into more details on the Two-Rock amp in another post!

Stev Skye guitar FX is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.

Stay tuned for lots more (and pics!) from this session and our previous sit-down when Stev and I talked influences, gear and more!

Online Only Free Shipping Exclusives from Guitar Center.

Live from the studio is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.

The taste just paints this perfect picture that bridges the gap between your taste buds and your imagination and it makes you feel at one with the wine universe. You take another taste – and another – and before you know it, there went the whole bottle.

It’s just that good.

In “Skye Blues,” Stev creates a sonic swirl with his guitar that establishes a sense of familiarity and comfort around the piece. It invites you in and you feel like you you’ve heard this before, but then you realize it’s better than what you think you know. It’s familiar in the sense that it’s a blues jam. It’s comfortable because the tone of his guitar is so clean.

As the jam evolves, it takes on more soul, more blues and more complexity. It’s so complex that it seems simple. The song taps those groove nerves that are usually tapped only by the great ones. You sense a fine hybrid of influences with a touch of Jimi Hendrix, a dash of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and perhaps a little David Gilmour and others. It’s all that and none of that. It peaks with a full bodied jam – the drums, the bass – everything where it should be.

At the end, you want more of it.

Put it up there in your collection with the other great blues jams.

Skye Blues and a bottle of wine is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.

To start, he gave me a rundown of his current pedal board which we’ll cover in another post soon. The star of this post, however, is the newest addition to the Stev Skye guitar collection – another ’56 Strat from the Fender Custom Shop. This one’s a pale blue beauty that we’ll call “Sonic Blue” given it’s classic Fender color and she sounds every bit as good as she looks.

Stev Skye Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster Guitar

As a side note, Stev has been amassing an insane amount of new gear, which has three significant implications:

1. Stev’s studio will now be the ultimate power in the music making universe.
2. We’ll have loads of new gear to write about here on the fan site.
3. His purchases are more than likely enough to bring an end the nation-wide economic crisis we’ve been mired in since 2007! Hooray global-scale economic recovery!

So there we were. Stev started firing up the new Two Rock amp (again, more on that in another post) and getting his pedals ready to rock. It was like Yoda sitting there with Luke Skywalker, ready to impart his knowledge and show him the ways of the Force.

“Much to learn, you still have,” Stev says to me. “Fenders are the most temperamental guitars. But they are the most toneful to play. They have the most character.”

“All of my Strats are ‘56 Strats,” he continued, pointing to the darker blue “Skye Strat” that was resting comfortably on the couch. [That’d be the Strat pictured in the website header images, BTW. –Ed.]

He drew the new Sonic Blue from the case, plugged it in and continued, “It’s a really thin body,” showing me the back of the guitar. Flipping it back to the ready-position, he twanged a string and said, “I have the strings set higher than a normal Fender – for that ‘snap’. (He snaps the strings.) You hear that?”

“Yep, I hear it.”

He does it again, for effect.

“This guitar has a compound radius – nine-and-a-half-inches at the nut to 12-inches at the heel.”
“Impressive,” I say, not really knowing what the F he was talking about.

“Most impressive,” he says. Then he explained that the compound radius basically gives him more versatility when playing a variety of styles, particularly when he goes into those screaming uber-fast solos.

“OK, here’s a question,” I say. “Let’s pretend I am standing in the music store – say at the Guitar Center here in Phoenix since they seem to have the widest selection of guitars at the most competitive prices, not to mention a friendly, knowledgeable staff [First plug’s free, GC! – Ed.] – and I am looking at a wall of Fender Stratocasters. . .What is the difference between the $100 Strat, the $500 Strat, the Gilmour Black Strat for $4k and the $17,000 Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat? What’s the difference between any of those and yours, for example?”

“A good question,” Stev says. “One thing is the quality of the wood that’s used to make the neck and the body. Mine, for example, is made from super-lightweight swamp ash wood for the body [as opposed to ‘swamp ass’ just so we’re clear –Ed.]. It’s a single-piece body like the original Fenders from the Fifties. The neck on this one is a one-piece rock maple – which is an especially hard wood – and it’s quarter-sawn,” he says, then he jams for a minute to demonstrate the sweet, sweet tones.

“The big difference in the price range of the guitars is due to a number of factors,” The Stev continued, “but mostly because the higher-end guitars are handmade. Also, after you play these for a long time, you come to understand that the marriage between the body and neck is SO important. Those are major factors in the tone and the overall sound, and that impacts the price tags.”

“Makes perfect sense to me,” I say. “I guess if you just look at them and you don’t actually play them to compare, you’d never really know. All you can really see is the difference in paint colors.”

“Oh, and the paint is actually another factor,” Stev says. “I have a nitrocellulose finish on all my guitars – ‘nitro’ for short – it’s a thin lacquer that breathes and ages well.”

He scoots over closer to me, laying the Strat across his lap and says, “my nut is made from bone. It’s all-natural.”

“Seriously dude? I love you like a brother and all, but I’m not here to talk about your boner and your nuts.” I say.

“No, dude. The ‘nut’ (pointing to the white piece at the top of the neck) is this white piece up here. It’s made of bone and that gives a much more natural sound. Some are made from plastic and other stuff, but bone sounds the best. And they’re pretty expensive.”

“Boney nuts ain’t cheap,” I concur, relieved that we had not, in fact, descended to Creepyville with that last exchange.

“On the neck here, you see these fret wires?” he asks, pointing to the fretted neck. “I use Dunlop 6000 fret wires, which are sometimes referred to as ‘railroad ties’. They’re higher up off the neck which makes them more difficult to play, but they give you a much better tone.”

He twangs and snaps and bends a few notes to illustrate what he means.

“Then you have all the different components and electronics – all of which can be customized or upgraded to some degree, like these pickups. These are handmade pickups, similar to fat ‘50s pickups – these aren’t Fat ‘50s exactly, but similar in terms of how they sound. They are overwound to make them hotter for the ‘50s tone.

“Really, the key things are finding a guitar with good wood, a good marriage between the neck and body, and good craftsmanship. It’s hard to find a good one. You can play a hundred Strats and maybe find one that’s a good one, at least for me.”

Stev Skye Sonic Blue Strat

“Interesting, indeed. So what about the strings?”

“Nine-gauge strings are standard on most guitars. I used to use 11-gauge strings, but I dropped down to 10-guage both to save my fingers during consecutive days of long rehearsals and to get more of that ‘snap’.”

He snaps the strings for effect again. “You hear that?”

“Yep, I hear it.”

He does it again for effect.

“Jimi (Hendrix) used 10-gauge and Stevie Ray (Vaughan) used 13-gauge in the studio, but lower gauge strings when he played live.”

“And speaking of, I tune to E-flat. It’s easier on the fingers especially when you’re playing six or more hours a day. Jimi and SRV tuned to E-flat for the same reasons,” he explained.

After making a comment about how this was starting to feel more like an Inside the Actors Studio interview than an excuse to hang out, talk shop and drink GUINNESS, I switch the conversation over to his guitar influences and the creative side of things. . .

Which we’ll continue in another post! Stay tuned!

Stev Skye Sonic Blue ’56 Fender Stratocaster is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.

Stay tuned!

Happy Birthday Stev Skye is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.

The Band: Connor, Stev and Jeff. And somewhere in this picture, I've hidden Jimi. . .look closely. Can you find her?

As I mentioned, we were at the event last night down at Alice Cooperstown in Phoenix and after the set, I noticed that we had a major, major problem. Take a look at this picture (below). Can you see what’s missing?

Look at these faces. Drummers and Bassists should not have to live like this. Please help us find groupies for the band. It's the least we can do.

That’s right. No groupies. I mean, W T F ???

What, exactly, does a bass player and/or drummer have to do to get some lovely ladies hanging all over them after a gig? Seriously people. We have problems. Big problems. What does it say about the state of our rock and roll nation if two of our finest can’t have groupies? This is NOT going to look good on the E! True Hollywood Story of the Stev Skye band. NOT good AT ALL!

How can you expect to have a good E! True Hollywood Story about the band without a gaggle of groupies to tell the tales of outrageous parties, trashed hotel rooms, and urban rock legends? Rehab and creative differences just don’t cut it on the E! network anymore. They’re just not good enough.

We need to make it our mission as fans of the band to get groupies out to the gigs. The band needs us, people. We can’t have this. It’s a travesty!

So we need to assemble. We need to organize. We need a name. The fans of the “hottest band in the world. . .KISS” are known as the Kiss Army. What name will we take? We could be the “Skye Watchers” but that’s a geeky astronomy reference which is probably only funny to me since I love astronomy. If we go with “Skye Walkers” I will more than likely get a cease-and-desist letter from George Lucas. So what do we do? What do we call ourselves?

I put it to you. We need to name our fan club and we need to come together to bring groupies into the mix. Our boys are counting on us!

THIS JUST IN. . .The YouTube Video of the show last night! Enjoy!

Wanted: Band Groupies is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.

It’s the truth. Every poet is a thief. I just stole that line from Bono of U2, who, in turn, probably stole it from any number of others. It seems we poets tend to stand on the shoulders of giants (again, stolen). . .

But I think all poets (read: artists, musicians, writers, etc.) are inspired from a variety of sources, and each mix of inspirational ingredients makes for a new brew of creative. . .stew (only because that seems to rhyme).

See. I’m a thief without grief. And a poet, yet I didn’t know it.

Now watch this one. . .

So this video is obviously David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame, doing a cover of what you saw (heard) in the first video, which is one of Syd Barrett’s (also of The Pink Floyd, when they were still known as “THE Pink Floyd”) old tunes known as “Dark Globe”. As you can hear, it’s kind of a nonsensical song, as many of Syd’s tunes were. But in the capable hands of David Gilmour, you get a totally new feeling out of the song and, I would argue, a more powerful, moving experience than the original. And even though it’s not HIS song, per se, he made it his own.

In other words, the original is a good tune, but a different spin on it makes it an even better tune, with no disrespect to the original or its artist. David Gilmour performed that song on his solo tour in 2006, just after Syd Barrett died, which added an even greater level of emotion to that particular performance because he was doing it in tribute to his former band mate and friend.

So what in the F does this have to do with Stev Skye? Well, nothing. And everything. The reason I (holySmith!) write this blog about Stev Skye and Stev Skye’s music is that I (holySmith!) have a reason to write. I get inspired to write about music because certain music is inspiring to me. Stev Skye’s guitar playing, not unlike David Gilmour’s guitar playing, strikes a chord – pun most definitely intended – that makes me want to write about it. Is it thievery? Yes. I am lifting my inspiration off those sounds, translating it into words, and putting my name next to it so that you think I came up with this?

Guilty.

But I think Stev would agree that artists are only artists because of the artists that came before them. Gilmour wouldn’t play the way he plays unless Elvis and Jimi Hendrix (and others) had inspired something in him that moved him to play one way or another. It’s not copying. It’s motivation.

And the motivation doesn’t always come from a lateral source – such as from one guitarist to another, or from one writer to another. Sometimes it’s an event, a person, a rainy day in the desert, or someone else’s music that inspires the need to make music, or to write, or to create something. Happens to me all the time.

And it’s not just the music. Stev and I seem to find common ground when it comes to the process of creating something. It usually just happens and the trick is knowing when to recognize it. As time progresses, Stev and I are going to delve into that more. We’re going to wrap that all into the posts I will eventually write about the gear Stev is using (and now there is a lot of it). I wanted to preface those posts about guitar stuff with this post about why all that stuff is necessary because that, in itself, is fascinating.

I also want to say that I am not a musician at all. I couldn’t carry a tune if you packed it in a suitcase and handed it to me. So in order for all the upcoming info about pedals and distortion boxes to be any fun at all for you, I decided that I better come up with a way to put it into some greater context so that it is interesting and has meaning.

I don’t own a guitar, yet I am fascinated by them and those who are able to play them well. I do know that a lot of stuff goes into making “a sound” – and by that I mean the signature sound that is unique to all the greats. If you close your eyes and listen, you immediately recognize a David Gilmour, an Eddie Van Halen, a Mark Knopfler, the Edge, a Pete Townshend, a Joe Satriani, a Stevie Ray, a Santana, a Brian May, a Slash, a Kirk Hammet, or a Jimi Hendrix. You just know them. They are unmistakable sounds that nobody else does quite like they do.

After you hear enough of Stev’s songs, you start to hear that, too. It does take time, but keep your ears open and one day, you’ll find yourself wanting to steal some of that poetry, too.

Every poet is a thief is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.

Pink Floyd wrote the best song ever written about money, so with that as our background tune, let me be the first to tell you the biggest announcement in Stev Skye history (so far):

Stev Skye Signs a One Million Dollar Deal with EPS Records!!

The announcement was just made over at the official site. We’ll have all the details soon, but this is seriously huge news. And you heard it here first! (I’ve always wanted to say that!).

Congrats to Stev, of course, all his family, and to Robert, Stev’s manager. BIG THINGS are still to come, indeed. Big, big things.

New car caviar four star daydream is a post from: Eye on the Skye - the Official Stev Skye fan website.