Not long ago, he released “Triangulation” with his personal band—an outstanding, inspired instrumental guitar album that keeps the listener’s interest alive from the very first to the very last note! We are, of course, talking about the one and only Steve Morse, former guitarist of Deep Purple, who with this new album returns to the spotlight and gives us plenty of very pleasant reasons to talk about him. Myth of Rock, under the delightful sounds of “Triangulation” got ready for an in-depth conversation with Morse, who once again proved that he is a truly kind person—one who prefers to speak through his beautiful music.
by Dimitris Zacharopoulos
Good evening, Steve! A little while ago, the Steve Morse Band released the “Triangulation” album. What are your feelings now about your new album?
It’s a big deal for me, because it is the first time I concentrated on my own music, since the whole time I was in Deep Purple. There were times we made albums and times we did little tours when I was in Deep Purple, but this was a long-term, relaxed project and it allowed me to really dig in and enjoy the process.
Why did it take you so long to release a new Steve Morse album? 16 years have passed, since the release of the “Out Standing in Their Field” album!
Because I was in Deep Purple and then, the reason I was not with Deep Purple was that we were fighting this cancer that my wife had, and then Covid-19 right before that. If you put all that together, it is a big span of time … I don’t think I have enough time in this lifetime for all the music that I want to write and work on, haha!
With such a big gap between records, do you feel the pressure of proving something?
No pressure, it was just my friends, Dave (LaRue, bass) and Van (Romaine, drums). They have been loyal, great friends. Yes, they have other jobs, Dave in fact had to stop some things, since he was doing the tour with John Petrucci and of course, the album that John was working on. But it was ok, because I was working at a relaxed pace, and just getting back at my life, you know, living alone and dealing with everything. So, it worked out really well. It was just the right time.
Give us all the info about the composing and the recordings of the new album.
Oh, we recorded just right here in my studio, in my house. Dave lives only 5 miles away, so he would come over and would say, “hey, what were you working last night?”, and I would say, “oh, here’s what I have been thinking … if you play this, I will try to play that!”. That was happening daily, you know, marching ahead, eight bars of the song at a time, and then, the next day we would review it and work on something else. It was great, because I really enjoy having the opportunity to do live edit. I know I can write a piece, having everything planned out and then just hand it to everybody, but I think the music is better, if I watch and sort of teach it to the person. Here is the line, “Oh, no, no, how about if you do the open string there?! That way we can change positions easier. And that’s a B!”, and the other one says, “Well, no, you told me it was a C sharp”, and I say “It was a C sharp, but the B will work better! Now that I hear myself playing with it”. And so, all those things together…! That’s the process I used to do with Dixie Dregs. It was a five-piece band, but still, it was the same thing … “Here, you play, try this, try this, try this”. And then, “Oh, change that, you know, change that”. And everybody said, “Well, it’s hard to keep track of what changes what”, I say “That’s OK, as I said, I’m having trouble keeping track, too! But we are close! Let’s try this over and over!” … Some of the songs started from a melody, a riff, like the song called “The Unexpected”. That starts as two parts, it’s two melodies intertwined as a counterpoint. And part of that was just hearing it in my head and trying to imagine, well, I wonder if I could play that at one time. And then, what we ended up doing on the record was something that I couldn’t play at one time, because I changed it to a line for bass and a line for guitar. When I first came up with the idea, I thought it would be on two cellos, you know, two cello players playing it. Anyway, some of the other ones start with a riff, like “Breakthrough” starts with just a riff. It’s a guitar riff, obvious guitar riff. And same with “Off the Cuff”. The Eric Johnson tune (“TexUS”) started with a melody. But I wanted to keep the melody changing keys and have some interest. So, I have to think of the chords too. And then for the main melody, once I got to the main melody of that tune, I was thinking of the rhythm guitar part, chugging along, and the feel of it. You can kind of hear the music in your head and then work out the best way to do it with the guys.
Are you satisfied with the reactions from people and the press to the new album?
Yeah, well, I haven’t seen everything, but what I’ve seen is … I don’t know if it’s enough to invite young people to do this long process of making a recording painstakingly, when they can press a button on A.I. and get a generic album instantly. I just don’t know what this means to other people. But for me, having positive feedback, which is what we’ve had, and very positive feedback, is … that’s pretty much the payoff, because you want your life to mean something. And it means something, when you’re having a positive effect on people. You know, then they’re enjoying it. It’s making their day. I don’t know, it’s hard to say what it would mean to other people. But for me, that’s all I expected. Obviously, you know, this is the Internet age, so we don’t expect making an album to be something that makes money. But it’s an important piece of art to present. And it lasts longer than those paintings that those really, really good artists do on the sidewalk in the big cities in Europe. They’re so unbelievable. Whenever I think about how much trouble it is to do something on an album, I think about those guys hunched over with pieces of chalk, making these works of art that get washed away with the rain. So, I’m very impressed with that.
The album begins with the song “Breakthrough”, which has a very positive vibe. How important is it for you that the album begins with such an uplifting track?
Almost everything I write, I want to be uplifting. I want to be proud and instill … Well, I said the word “positive” probably three times already, but I wanted to instill positive energy to people and give them a good feeling and hope, and so forth. So, yes, that’s very important to me.
What’s the story behind the title of the album, “Triangulation”?
Well, “Triangulation”. I’m a pilot. So, a lot of the terms in piloting came from ship, nautical terms. Like we use the nautical mile, which is 6000 feet, instead of the statute mile, to determine distance and speed, knots per hour, just like a ship. So, when you in the days of early sailing, before they had these electronic aids, they would triangulate their position by noting the angle between two known points on the chart. And if you note the angle between these two, you could say on the chart, you could draw that angle and say we’re here. So, you’re solving for your position by observing two known points. And on the album cover, we have three frames, and it shows a humanoid type figure trying to break through a wall, another one that’s done further along and another one just finished and it’s just broken through. And so, the guys looking and checking the angles and say … how did he do that? How did you do that? And just in a trio, we rely on each other. When somebody’s maybe not seeing the point of something or is missing something, the other ones … just naturally are there for him. So as a trio, we refer to each other and we depend on each other. And so, … triangulation!
In the new album, there are some guest appearances from Eric Johnson and John Petrucci. How did it come and you collaborated with these famous musicians?
I know Eric, since the 70s. He is a great guy, a wonderful, amazing player. And I was so impressed with his playing, when I first heard him. We ended up doing shows together, and I did a little tour with him when I was doing solo stuff, you know, and I would sit in with his band and do some stuff with him. Anyway, that whole vibe back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s was something I remember. And I thought this album, if it’s every 16 years that we do an album, this could be the last one, you know? Haha! So, I don’t know, I don’t know what was going to happen. So, I said, I hate to ask for favors, but could you play on this album? And he said, yeah. And I had a tune already. And I listened to it, after he said yes. And I said, I think I could do something more suitable. This does not remind me of the feeling of hearing Eric Johnson play in the 1970s. I want to go back to that time. Very melodic and very, sort of uplifting rock and roll.
And John Petrucci?
Same thing. I’d known him a little bit later, in the 80s. And we’ve been friends and we even worked on a song together. We just never finished it. And I didn’t want to be presumptuous and take the beginning of that song and make a song out of it, without him. So, I had a tune in mind that would be good for a duet. And I waited until really late in the game to ask him, I was hesitant, because I thought John is such a good guy that he would probably say yes, no matter what, whether he had time or not, whether he wanted to or not, just because he’s a good friend. And so that kept delaying me. I kept putting it off, saying, “Ah, I feel bad about this. I don’t know. But I don’t know”. And I said, “Well, it’s the last minute. I’ve got to ask him because it’s very important to me”. John plays with alternate picking, and I tried my whole life to play with alternate picking. And John plays at a level, well, 20 years ago, John played at a level that I could see I couldn’t reach, but I could see. And I was so impressed with him. But since then, he’s gotten better and better and better and more musical, to where I can’t even hardly see how good he is. He’s so far above me in outer space. I appreciate it so much, that I think he’s a wonderful influence for young players. Because his whole life, I mean, can you imagine what it takes to do decade after decade after decade playing at that level, and improving, and writing stuff with Jordan, and performing at the level that he does! So, I think he’s a wonderful influence and something that somebody that people should really pay attention to and remember, which they are doing, but I really wanted to bring us together for this. We never finished our song together, … and John did a fantastic job. He totally got what I was trying to do with splitting up the melody and trading back and forth on it. And he had absolutely no problem with it and did the most brilliant solo.
There is a song in the new album, “Taken by an Angel”, which features your son, Kevin. What was it like to do the song with him?
We did most of that song, … we played at my wife’s memorial service. And he came up with a really, really good chord part for me to play over for what was then the introduction, which is now the second section. And I could see that it was like a painting of what it was like to go through the last days, until the end of a loved one. And after we did that, I never thought anything more, but my son said, “Well, if you’re making an album, that should be on it, don’t you think?”, and I answered, “Yeah, but I don’t know if it’s too sad or what”. He said, “No, the ending is not sad. The ending has hope”. I said, “You’re right. The ending is meant to be the hope of a better life”. After, for her soul, so to speak. So yes, that does fit. And I’ll do an intro to the intro to try to describe that feeling in the middle of the night of knowing that it’s over, it’s happening, and there’s nothing you can do. And you’re totally alone, just talking to somebody that you don’t even know if they can hear you. And so, yeah, we laid it out like that, like the musical rendition of what I felt so many people must go through when they, you know, they experience the cycle of life with their family or friends or loved ones.
Let’s go now to the past, to Dixie Dregs, firstly. How would you introduce Dixie Dregs to a young person, who doesn’t know this band at all?
Well, back in the ‘70s, every band was expected to be different. When you go to a pop festival, Woodstock or the Atlanta Pop Festival, you would, … well, for example, I went to Atlanta Pop Festival every time it was held, and in one day I would see Dave Brubeck jazz band, Ravi Shankar playing Indian ragas, Goose Creek Symphony playing country-type jug music, and then John Mayall playing blues, Led Zeppelin playing blues but with hard rock edge, Jimi Hendrix doing his thing, Janis Joplin singing the soulful but free San Francisco sound, and on and on. Every band was expected to be different. We decided early on to be the first instrumental rock band, but to have country, jazz, classical elements all blended in. And so that’s what we did. And it was not a, you know, we never had the hit tunes or anything like that, but we ended up finding a curious place where people used our music for advertisements and for background, and it sort of was the first albums that commercial producers would use for background. They would, you know, of course they wouldn’t pay us or anything, but they would lay it in there, because there was no singing, you know? And they could pick, “Oh, this is an upbeat country tune, that’ll be good for this commercial about dogs running around or whatever”, you know? That was the genesis of it, it was short songs, short solos, but everything is as advanced as possible, that everything we did, we wanted to be as perfect, as well done as possible, but try to keep it short to, so people’s attention span could absorb the changes. And if we get away from the melody, try to come back to the melody. So those were the sort of guidelines that we evolved, you know, over the years.
And then, Kansas! How was your experience with Kansas in the 80s?
Oh, hey, I was always a fan of Kansas. Every night I remember in the ‘70s hearing one of their songs, e.g. “Song for America”, at the same time that I was doing a tune called “Wages of Weirdness” (a Dixie Dregs song) and also “Ice Cakes” (a Dixie Dregs song too), where I was using these polychords, these simple triads moving over a constant bass note. And I thought, “That’s weird!”. We’re doing almost the same thing, but in totally different ways. And when they moved to Atlanta, Georgia, my band moved from Augusta, Georgia to Atlanta, Georgia, because it was bigger, more central music club, and we got to be friends. Anyway, I found out that band was getting back together. And I said, “That’s wonderful! I can’t wait to hear you guys get back with the lead singer, Steve Walsh”, the original singer. And I volunteered to bring some ideas. And so, they said, “Yeah, sure, bring some ideas. In fact, Kerry (Livgren, guitar, keyboards) isn’t bringing any ideas. He’s not going to be part of this”. I said, “Oh, no. Oh, no … Okay, well, all right”. We had a very natural chemistry of writing tunes for that first album (“Power”, 1986). And that’s it was a very natural and organic process. I was very pleased.
And … Deep Purple! What do you remember from your days with Deep Purple?
Well, the start was kind of the same thing. You know, they didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know really who they were. You don’t know until you work together. So, we agreed to do four shows. And, when I met everybody, it was at the first gig. And we were going to have rehearsal in one of the dressing rooms. And so, while we were setting up, I was tuning up and playing a little bit. And I played, you know, I just noodled around to try to get the sound. And Jon Lord plays it back. “Can you do it again? But make it longer”. He plays it back and then adds something to it. I said, “Wow, this is great”. This guy’s like a jazz player! And so, we went on like that and he went on like that. And I started into a riff. He went into a riff. And pretty soon, Ian Gillan started to play the conga drums. Roger Glover and Ian Paice started playing. And it was a very cool, very natural jam that happened. And that made me smile right off the bat. I said, “Hey, these guys can play. That’s great!” …I didn’t know, because, you know, some bands that have a big name, they live off the name. So, I was very relieved. And Jon and I really had a good writing connection. That’s how we got tunes like “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming”. Many of my ideas didn’t fit the band, but I would bring them to the band, hoping that, you know, it would make the horizon wider for the band. And some people, you know, there’s arguments to say, “Well, don’t do that. Just leave the band like it is”, you know. Well, I just felt like I’d seen Led Zeppelin open up and do more stuff like “Gallows Pole” and “Black Mountain Side”. And same with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. They have a very wide scope of music. So anyway, I was thinking, you know, “We should try to expand the Deep Purple thing”. So, that’s why I brought in ideas like “The Aviator” and “Touch Away”. And “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” was something I didn’t think the band was going to go for. I was just sitting there practicing on a break in the studio. And Jon Lord kind of accompanied me very softly with a real soft flute sound on the keyboard. And that’s before the end of the day, we turned it into a song. Only because, you know, he could see the seed in the ground and knew to put a little bit of water on.
What would you answer them, if Deep Purple asked you to come back?
Well, I think they’re happier now with me not there, because they’re at the point where they’re getting the biggest money and biggest gigs of their lives, of the post-Richie Blackmore thing. There’s classic rock music has had a resurgence, because there’s less new bands doing stuff that people can relate to, I think. That’s my theory anyway. So, they’re much better off and I’m much better off. I think that’s, you know, lots of respect for the band, the fans, and the people that have worked in the crew and done all the… There’s been so many concerts I was there for. And to see how hard people work to make these great experiences for the audience and to see the lengths that the audience would have to go through in some of these outdoor places where they have to park here and hike up a mountain or ski up a mountain or take trains. There’s been all kinds of crazy things. People sitting in the rain, you know. So great respect for all those people. And what an experience of a lifetime.
How did the tour for “Triangulation” tour go? In North America.
Yeah, that was… Yeah, that was originally scheduled to have the album going out sooner and we had some delays. You know how it is when you’re doing a complex thing. One little tiny piece isn’t perfect. And it’s like, well, we can’t have that, because they need this for the setup. They need two months to do that if we’re going to change that… So anyway, the album got behind. The tour was fantastic, because we got to try something different. And that was to have Angel Vivaldi come and be the second guitarist. So, when we did the Eric Johnson tune, for instance, he could be the part of Eric Johnson. And we did the John Petrucci tune, he could be the John Petrucci. And he’s a very accomplished, flashy soloist too that could play something very interesting in those solos. But he’s also a hard worker, who could learn the lines perfectly. And he was a joy to work with. Really, really wonderful guy. And of course, my guys, Van and Dave, I love playing with them. And I was going through a hard physical time with the degenerative wrist arthritis, and stuff like that. So, it was painful to play, but I’m really glad we did.
Finally, which are your future plans?
My future plans are to start a different technique where I’m not, maybe not holding a pick very much, and maybe using my fingers and playing more legato. I hate to have to relearn to play, but I need to keep playing, because my son has, you know, really shown an interest in possibly, you know, … we’ve been writing some music together. And I would like to get to the point, where we could perform together that way. And so that’s number one on my radar.
Thank you very much, Steve!
Thank you so much!
