Joe Satriani: Surfing with the Alien’s Enduring Echo – 35 Years On

Joe Satriani’s long-standing status as an electric-guitar deity is indisputable.

However, rewinding to 1987, the Bay Area transplant was a mere local musician looking to make his mark. He had performed with his own local pop-based trio, Squares, and alongside Greg Kihn of “Jeopardy” fame. Satriani also had amassed a cult following after his self-released debut EP came out in 1984 and his subsequent full-length debut, 1986’s Not of This Earth.

Satriani’s workload also included teaching guitar. Known for his taskmaster style and for covering everything from theory to technique and guitar philosophy, his roster of students would eventually include future guitar luminaries such as Steve Vai, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, and Testament’s Alex Skolnick.

Turning his attention to a second full-length LP, Satriani knew he wanted to up his musical game in the form of masterminding an epic instrumental guitar album but with a twist.

“Surfing was an important album for me, partly because every single song on it contained elements of what collectively crystallized into my signature style,” Satriani wrote in his 2014 autobiography. “[But] it wasn’t going to be about Joe and his guitar technique. It was going to be about the songs.”

Released in October 1987, the album proved to be the shot that was heard ’round the instrumental guitar world. Whether it’s the modern Chuck Berry-meets-Hendrix stomp of the title track, the thundering swing of “Satch Boogie,” the exquisite “Always with Me, Always with You,” or the swirling dynamics of “Circles,” Surfing with the Alien is not only a feast for the guitar, but it’s also a master class in literate songcraft.

The LP ultimately dented the top 30 on the Billboard 200 chart and racked up platinum status with tracks earning radio airplay, MTV video rotation, and even placement in the 1988 Winter Olympics — all unprecedented achievements for instrumental guitar music. Featured on the cover of seemingly every guitar publication at the time, Satch would go on to tour with Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger in 1988 and release his follow-up LP, Flying in a Blue Dream, in 1989. Having now amassed 18 studio albums and countless solo tours, it’s as if Satriani never looked back.

As Surfing celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2022, we are, in fact, looking back. Read on as a panel of Satriani’s peers and all-star guitarists resets the album’s cross-generational legacy and how Satch altered the course of instrumental guitar music for good.

Looking back to 1987, how would you describe the state of instrumental rock guitar music at that time?

John Petrucci: In ’85, I graduated from Berklee. Then, me, Mike Portnoy, and John Myung left to pursue the beginnings of Dream Theater. I remember the state of music and guitar from the early ’80s to the mid to late ’80s was actually unbelievable. I don’t know if I’m just nostalgic, but that’s one of my favorite periods of music. There was a huge appetite for instrumental music, progressive music, metal, and all that stuff. The timing [for Joe] was so right on.

Alex Skolnick: It was a very interesting period. I had done my first performance ever with Testament in mid-1985. Within two years, I was recording my first album. The shadow of King Edward [Van Halen] loomed large, as it still does to this day. He really set a bar that everyone, Joe included, has acknowledged. And it’s not like you didn’t have other instrumentalists — Yngwie, for example. But there was always this sense, “OK, who’s going to come next?”

Alex, you took guitar lessons with Joe before his career took flight. What was that experience like?

Skolnick: Yeah, it was right around 1985 or so. Joe was the star teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was the teacher you went to when you were ready to “graduate.” It was like unlocking another level on a video game, when you felt you were ready to go to Joe. He had a long waiting list. He was the one electric guitar teacher that gave you the sense of studying seriously. He taught music theory on a professional level that could compete with an instructor of jazz or classical guitar. But there were also these other techniques that applied specifically to rock guitar and also a lot of philosophy about the guitar. And I think, at that time, that’s what I absorbed.

How did Surfing with the Alien first come on your respective radars?

Paul Gilbert: The bass player of Racer X at the time, John Alderete, was from San Francisco. And he used to go see the Squares, which was Satriani’s band before he was a solo artist. I think he had an album, but I don’t remember if I ever listened to it. But John said, “This cat from the Squares throws it down.” Then one day, driving my junky old car down Hollywood Boulevard, “Satch Boogie” came on the radio. And it immediately caught my attention. It was like, “Oh man!”

Andy Timmons: One of the fondest memories in my life is when I was living in Denton, Texas. It was just a year or two before I got the Danger Danger opportunity. I was in my early to mid-20s, full on fire with a guitar, and I’d been studying and playing for many years. And then Surfing comes out, and I remember having it on my cassette Walkman with my headphones with the little foam covers. I just remember how happy I was listening to that music and walking around Denton. It was a special moment because here was this wonderful, wonderful music, virtuosic to the highest level. But it was tunes.

Nili Brosh: My introduction to guitar music in general is through my older brother, Ethan. And I kind of saw what he was listening to, saw the album covers, and I think Surfing with the Alien was the first thing by Joe that I listened to. I think it was the cover art that I noticed. It had such a cool vibe to it.

Ben Eller: Surfing with the Alien is one of those records that taught me a lot. And I think the more that I developed as a player and the more I looked back on it, I realized it taught me even more than I knew. My teacher at the time knew how obsessed I was with the guitar and knew I was looking for challenges. It was about at that point he said, “I think we should try to learn ‘Satch Boogie.'” I was like, “You’re insane. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Satch Boogie” is certainly among the standout tracks on the album. It’s such a high-energy tune, but, like the rest of the songs on the album, there’s a purpose.

David Brewster: Yeah. There are strong melodies. It’s instrumental, but it doesn’t seem instrumental. At least, it didn’t at the time. I really didn’t even notice there weren’t vocals because there was so much melody in these themes. It was like he didn’t need a vocalist. He was doing it all himself.

Petrucci: Joe did something miraculous where he had an instrumental hit on the radio with “Satch Boogie.” As soon as I heard that music and that record, I was just hooked. I was all over it. I was blown away by it. I was obsessed with it.

Gilbert: That was the one that grabbed me the most. It’s funny because one of the things I kind of battle as a guitar teacher is what tablature has done to the world. But then I realize, before I go chopping off the head of tablature, there are two times when it was really useful to me. One was when I had to figure out “The Rain Song” by Led Zeppelin. The other was that two-handed part in the middle of “Satch Boogie.”

Paul, there is some great footage of you performing “Satch Boogie” at Musicians Institute in the late ’80s. What do you recall about tackling that?

Gilbert: I didn’t have the harmonic vocabulary to make it through blues changes. I just hadn’t arrived at that point in my journey yet. So, to figure that out, there was a lot of foreign stuff on the fretboard. It was like, “Wow, I haven’t been there before.” Because he’s playing through blues changes and really doing it convincingly. That always impressed me because it took me so long to come across that element. You know, at the time I should have been learning blues, I was learning the Phrygian Dominant scale (laughs).

Were there specific songs that each of you immediately gravitated to on the album?

Timmons: “Surfing with the Alien,” of course. “Ice Nine” I liked a lot. “Lords of Karma.” It’s all freaking great.

Brosh: “Always with Me, Always with You.” I think that’s my favorite Joe song and melody. You can sing it — it doesn’t matter if you’re a guitar player. That’s what I love about it. I like that that’s the draw to the record for a lot of people. There’s so much more depth to it.

Nili, you have a spot-on cover of that song on your YouTube channel. How did you approach learning such a nuanced, emotive track?

Brosh: I never feel like it’s easy to pay homage to any of these players that have such a signature voice. I kind of approached it the same way I approach any other cover, at least of that genre. I really try to make it a soundalike project, where I am really staying truthful as much as I can to what was originally recorded. I learn everything by ear anyway. I learned it, and I ‘shedded it a lot — I tried to really go down to the little details of every vibrato, the trail of every note, and every little nuance and just get as close as possible to what Joe did. It was a real lesson in a lot of things (laughs).

Brewster: My favorite song that really speaks to me has always been “Echo,” the last song. The entire album is brilliant. But “Echo” for some reason really moves me. I actually recorded a video of myself playing that. It’s so beautiful; that’s like the wow moment of the album for me.

As Nili said, it’s not easy to get some of this stuff under your fingers, especially if you’re just starting out on the instrument.

Brewster: I remember I really wanted to learn some of the music. I couldn’t figure it out by ear. I was a kid and already struggling trying to play Van Halen. And here I was trying to make the jump to Satriani, and it was like, “OK, good luck, kid.” (laughs) But I ran out and bought the transcription book, which I still have. It’s old, and the pages are starting to get yellowed. There’s like pencil markings and highlighter swirls from when I was a kid trying to highlight certain licks. I couldn’t play very much of the lead at the time. But then I could play some of the rhythm parts and some of the fills and stuff. With any of those songs that I couldn’t do a lick or if it was too fast, I would just switch over and play the rhythm parts. So, it definitely fine-tuned my rhythm playing on top of trying to play some of those licks.

Eller: “Lords of Karma” is still one of my favorite tunes ever. It has that pitch axis thing, where it’s going between A Lydian and A Mixolydian. For me, that was like discovering a new spice on the spice rack that I had never tasted before. There’s nothing in Hendrix, Clapton, or Billy Gibbons’s playing that has that flavor. I had never heard that kind of dual modality going on. I loved it.

Petrucci: When my wife and I got married, “Always with Me, Always with You” was our wedding song. That song is near and dear to us. It’s one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever. I never get tired of listening to that. [On the G3 tours,] every time Joe would play that live, I’d step to the side of the stage, stop what I was doing, and watch him play that song.

Skolnick: “Always with Me, Always with You” is one of the first ones that comes to mind [for me, too]. It’s such a great melody. That’s just pure feel. It’s just great bends and perfect vibrato. I tend to gravitate toward stuff like that.

“Always with Me, Always with You” stands as a sterling example of Joe’s penchant for melody and his songwriting acumen.

Petrucci: It’s impeccable. Again, we couldn’t talk about Joe without mentioning his songwriting and his sense of melody. That is something that just hooked me. They are all songs that stand on their own and that tell a story. And, when you talk to Joe about what goes into his songwriting, it is purposeful. He does have a story that he’s telling. His playing is so lyrical and so expressive, it really showcases one of the reasons why electric guitar is one of the most beautifully expressive instruments on the planet.

Of course, the album also showcases Joe’s seemingly endless well of technical prowess. For example, “Midnight” is a shorter composition that exclusively showcases his two-handed tapping technique.

Timmons: I used to do part of that for my Danger Danger guitar solo. I adapted — that’s not the right word, I stole — that idea and played a poor man’s version of it (laughs).

Ben, you have a rendition of “Midnight” on your channel. How did you go about learning it?

Eller: That one was definitely one of those benchmarks where I felt I leveled up. It was some kind of exotic, mind-blowing thing to hear this two-handed, piano-type approach. It had all those classical, European harmonies that I liked. I remember when I learned that song, at first it was like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. And I remember having this breakthrough where I was just looking at the tab, and, in my head, it was like an Obi-Wan “use the force” moment. I heard this voice that said, “Play it like it appears on the paper. Don’t think about what hand is doing what.”

Whether it’s songs like “Midnight” or “Hill of the Skull,” the album’s deeper cuts are just as interesting as the more widely known songs.

Brewster: Yes, the really slow, harmonized bending and all that stuff. I remember that, when I was younger, it seemed like a lot of the other songs on the album were flying by. I was like, “Man, I can’t keep up with him.” But when we got to “Hill of the Skull” and it was slower, I was like, “Hey, I can kind of play this.” I remember playing that and refining some bending at the same time, and I didn’t even realize it. It gives the album a breath in a way, then he goes into “Circles.” And it’s off to the races again.

Is there anything about Joe’s approach to guitar playing and songwriting that has influenced any of your own instrumental work?

Petrucci: 100 million percent (laughs). In fact, when Joe first asked me to do his G3 tour, I wasn’t an instrumental or solo artist. I really didn’t have songs to play. I thought, “I’m not going to play Dream Theater songs with vocals. So, I better write some songs.” I wrote a few songs that would end up on my first solo album, Suspended Animation. I remember one of them I was playing, I was like, “This is a little too Joe. He’s just going to think I’m completely copying him.” He definitely creeped into my playing a lot.

Gilbert: It took me a long time to warm up to instrumental music because, really, as a music fan as a kid, I didn’t listen to a lot of instrumental music. I listened to the Beatles, Pat Travers, Todd Rundgren, Van Halen, and vocal bands. Usually, as a kid, when I’d hear an instrumental, I’d be like, “Uh, when is the singer going to come back in?” But there’s no denying how cool Surfing is. Everything about it. You didn’t miss the singer. Fast-forward to 2007, when I was doing the G3 tour as the support band and being able to see Joe in action with the audience, and I realized, “Man, I don’t miss the singer.” He’s taking on that role. That really made me a believer not only in Joe but that [playing instrumental music] was possible.

Timmons: I remember when I did my first record for Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label, That Was Then, This Is Now, we were talking about the recording and songwriting process. And I said to Steve, “It’s really hard once you put down rhythm guitars and start playing melodies over it. You have to consciously kind of avoid sounding like Joe.” But, that said, we’re going to honor those players and those artists that have influenced us so much, but we have to let go of a certain amount of it and become ourselves. It all kind of turns into you, partly because of your influences but partly because of your limitations.

Speaking of limitations, Joe’s budget to record the album ended up in the $30,000 range, certainly a smaller sum in those days. Any thoughts on Joe’s guitar tone and the album’s sonics?

Skolnick: It was very clear. I just remember it cut through very well. I felt like, by that time, a lot of guitar was getting too processed and lost the rawness. And I thought Joe brought it back. It was still clean, and it didn’t sound like the ’70s, but it had some of that directness and clarity that had been missing in a lot of guitar tone.

Brewster: He made what he had work. I think he was using his old Kramer. Really, when you think about Surfing, that was a different Satch. He had hair, he was playing a Kramer and using a Rockman and stuff.

Eller: Whenever I was introduced to Surfing, I liked it, and then, at the same time, it felt a little distant because of the production. But I remember seeing this quote about how the limitations of an art form become the things that we like about it, given enough time. It develops its own charm — the limitation becomes the thing you like about it. So, whenever I listen to Surfing now, yeah, it feels super ’80s. And that’s also what I love about it.

It’s important to note that this album had a DIY aesthetic. Of course, there was Joe and his producer/engineer John Cuniberti. But there were only two other musicians who contributed to the album: drummer Jeff Campitelli and percussionist/programmer Bongo Bob Smith.

Skolnick: It’s kind of miraculous in terms of what he was able to pull off largely by himself and his small team that was really more of a production team and not a band.

Brewster: Tonally, the album sounded a lot different than all the Shrapnel guys. As far as the guitar tone, the way it’s mixed and everything, the drums, the programming and stuff they were doing. I mean a lot of the drums were drum machines mixed with real drums. But it all worked so well.

Some of you have jammed onstage with Joe during some of his G3 tours or at various events. What have you learned being alongside him in these settings?

Timmons: The last time I saw him was at Steve Vai’s camp in New York. Joe was one of his special guests, and he just came in for a day, and I sat in on his master class. Without fail, with most of my favorite artists, I enjoy hearing them speak as much as I do hearing them play. Joe is a very articulate, very sharp guy. And just hearing him communicate about his process, or just about anything music in general, it’s like I am hanging out with one of my brothers.

Petrucci: When you’re fortunate enough to actually get to know him and spend time with him, he’s such a lovely, generous, amazing person. And it’s hysterical, the first G3 we did together, it was the three paisans [a fellow Italian or Italian-American] from Long Island: Satriani, Vai, and Petrucci. And it was great seeing him play live. Joe’s re-creation of this stuff live every night was just mind-blowing. It was like, “Who is he? How does he do that stuff?” I know full well what it’s like to come up with some crazy stuff and then have to play it live (laughs).

Gilbert: I’ve had the good fortune to get close to Joe in doing the G3 tour and other events. Joe has this kind of guru thing about him. Every time he says a sentence, you kind of want to think about it for a while. There’s a mystic weight to his words.

Nili and Alex, you’re going to be participating in Joe’s 2023 G4 Experience.

Brosh: We’ve gotten to know each other well in the last few years. I am really super honored and excited for it. I love Joe, and every one of those camps has been amazing. I’m excited to hang out with him — this will be the first time I get to jam with him. I’m glad I have time to practice, for sure (laughs).Skolnick: It’s a ridiculous lineup with Steve Lukather, Peter Frampton, Steve Morse, Eric Gales, Nili Brosh, Mateus Asato, Cory Wong — I can’t even name them all, but it’s just going to be incredible. It’s such an amazing learning opportunity for all generations of guitarists. And it’s interesting to see it come full circle for me: I sort of take what I learned from him way back when and teach others but in an environment that has his stamp all over it.

In the grand scheme, where does Surfing with the Alien rank in terms of your favorite instrumental albums?

Petrucci: There are a few that come to mind for me. Friday Night in San Francisco [by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucía] was another one I just put on an endless loop. And Vai when he came out with Passion and Warfare, I thought that was a masterpiece, as well. I know a lot of people are nostalgic about records. It’s about when they hit them, what point of their life they were in, and how influential a certain album was at that time. With Surfing, you’re talking about that sweet spot in the ’80s. My career was just starting, and I just got out of Berklee when that came out. So, it will always be a top five, if not top three, instrumental guitar album of all time.

Brewster: If I’m really honest with myself, it’s a top 10 album for me. It helped me move away from that pure Van Halen influence, and it kind of helped me look around. I started to wander around, and then I found Jeff Beck, Steve Morse, and so many other people. He definitely helped burst that Van Halen bubble. I was like, “OK, I am always going to be faithful to you, Eddie. But I’m going to hang out with Joe Satriani.” Next thing I knew, I was swimming in guitar land and music.

Eller: Monumentally important — profoundly important — to me. I would not be the player that I am, and I would not be doing what I do, if not for Surfing with the Alien, Crystal Planet, The Extremist, and Engines of Creation. Joe is absolutely on my guitar Mount Rushmore.

Surfing is the rare instrumental guitar album to go platinum and have chart success. In hindsight, what is it about the album that enabled Joe to find a wider audience?

Gilbert: I think the thing about Joe’s music is that he tends to have straight-ahead accompaniment. It’s almost like AC/DC — the drums tend to be really simple. That fancy stuff is all nice and everything but get it in a theater and it turns to mush. I think Joe has good instincts as far as what works. He kind of builds his music for a bigger venue and for a larger spread of people to connect to. A lot of my biggest guitar heroes, as much as I love them, after three songs, you’re looking at your watch (laughs). With Joe, you can have his music for the whole two-hour show, and it works.

Timmons: It’s because of the aforementioned attention to melody and the recognition that the song has got to be first. Then melt some faces with your technique (laughs). And, of course, his theoretical and advanced harmonic state. The bridge of “Satch Boogie” and the kind of superimposed chord ideas over that droning note — that’s really hip stuff that we weren’t hearing in the neoclassical and other players.

Eller: I think it was one of those things where the stars really aligned. We see this with instrumental music. It kind of comes in waves where it’s like the cicadas coming out every 17 years. We had a period there in the early 2000s where instrumental music was again just regulated to be for guitar players. And now, here we are in the 2020s and we have bands like Polyphia, Animals as Leaders, and Intervals — instrumental groups that are just crushing it and being listened to and appreciated by nonmusicians again. With Surfing, it was the perfect storm of great tunes right at the perfect time.

Skolnick: The thing about Joe, too, is he’s a very open-minded listener. Yes, he listened to Mahavishnu Orchestra and stuff like Tony Williams and Allan Holdsworth. And all of that music has a very select audience. I think he was deeply connected to that music. But he also loved ZZ Top and Hendrix. And he liked Van Halen. You can kind of hear that influence in [the] songs. It was a mix. He easily could have been more of an insider guitar player. But it’s not like he compromised his technique or his tone. For somebody doing instrumental music, and to make it appeal to such a wide audience, it was very unique.

If you really examine it under a microscope, the success of Surfing with the Alien and Joe’s subsequent career have all the makings of a Hollywood script.

Brosh: That’s another beautiful thing. Things that are meant to be are meant to be. Can you imagine the guitar world without this record? Nobody can. There’s a reason why it is what it is. It’s pretty unbelievable. What a cool story this album has.

Brewster: For sure. If you take Joe’s career and just remove the teaching part and then just look at his career as a performer, touring the world and releasing all these albums, that alone is very impressive. And then the fact that he’s a teacher and an educator on top of that, it takes it to the moon. It’s like, “Wow, not only is this guy a bona fide rock star. He’s also an educator and helped mentor Steve Vai and all these rock guitar gods.”

Kirk Hammett once described Joe as the “all-knowing, all-seeing, all-hearing eye” of guitar playing. How would you describe him?

Skolnick: I would say virtuosic, serious but with a good sense of humor, and constantly searching and not resting on his laurels.

Brosh: Melodic. I want to say accessible but with a really good connotation. It’s another way to say he’s really musical. He’s always reached beyond the listeners that are just other guitar players. There are so many examples in this record why that is.

Gilbert: I use the metaphor that Joe sometimes uses a small brush and a big brush. I think Joe, as a writer, uses a big brush, which is really wonderful. So did the Beatles with their big, big melodies. Musically, it’s more like he communicates clearly and directly. Joe always seems to be clear about his intentions and says, “I’m just gonna play what’s important.”

Timmons: He’s just an important guy to all of us. [A few years back,] he released the box set of his whole catalog, so I bought it. Over the next few weeks, I listened, start to finish, to the entire Joe Satriani catalog. And it was really amazing. I would hear stuff, “Oh, that’s where I got that.” There would be a moment of a line or a lick that, even if I wasn’t aware that I picked it up, I’d hear myself doing a similar thing. And that’s the beauty. Any music that we take in that affects us gets stored in what I called the “auralect,” which is the intellect of the ear.

Eller: I cannot overstate the importance and impact Joe has had on my playing. I rip off so many “Satriani-isms,” I think even subconsciously now. Even the way that I try to keep my vibrato in time with the tempo of the music, that’s not even something I consciously practice. It’s just something that I did to make it sound like Satriani.

Petrucci: I have to agree with Kirk. He’s the Superman of guitar. He really is. He can do anything, and his creativity is boundless. Joe not only set the bar so high, but he made us guys practicing six hours a day and writing all this crazy music hopeful that there are actually people out there that want to listen. Joe really opened that door for so many of us.

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Special thanks and appreciation to our Surfing with the Alien panel:

Paul Gilbert has been a stalwart in the guitar community dating back to his groundbreaking shred pyrotechnics with Racer X and Mr. Big. His educational content includes the popular instructional videos Intense Rock and Intense Rock II. The Musicians Institute alumnus and renowned educator gives guitar lessons exclusively via ArtistWorks. Paul also has an extensive solo album catalog, including 2021’s Werewolves of Portland.

John Petrucci is the co-founding guitarist of Grammy-winning progressive band Dream Theater. The Berklee College of Music graduate is also a member of the instrumental progressive supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment, who released Liquid Tension Experiment 3 in 2021. His most recent solo album, Terminal Velocity, was released in 2020.

Alex Skolnick is a longtime guitarist for thrash-metal titans Testament. He earned a degree in jazz from the New School, studying with prestigious artists such as George Garzone, Cecil McBee, and Reggie Workman. A former student of Joe Satriani, his résumé also includes work with his jazz project, Alex Skolnick Trio. Their latest album, Conundrum, was released in 2018.

Andy Timmons has amassed a solo instrumental discography that ranges from blazing guitar instrumentals to blues and a Beatles/Elvis Costello–inspired collection of pop tunes. As a session player and a touring musician, he’s collaborated with the likes of drumming giant Simon Phillips and the late Olivia Newton-John. Electric Truth, his most recent solo album, was released in 2022.

David Brewster is a respected guitarist, music educator, and author. An honors graduate of the Atlanta Institute of Music, he has published books for Hal Leonard and Cherry Lane in addition to writing for Guitar Player and Premier Guitar. His Late Night Lessons YouTube channel covers everything from rhythm guitar and soloing, theory, and technique to player-centric licks and phrases. David will release a new EP, Space Dragön, in October 2022.

Nili Brosh is a Berklee College of Music–educated virtuoso guitarist. She has performed with the likes of Cirque du Soleil, Tony MacAlpine, Paul Gilbert, Andy Timmons, and Guthrie Govan among others. Her live experience also includes joining Danny Elfman onstage during the 2022 Coachella festival. Nili has released three solo albums, including her latest, 2019’s Spectrum.

Ben Eller is an in-demand guitarist and bass player from Tennessee. Known as “Uncle Ben,” his YouTube channel covers everything from guitar basics and technique to horror soundtrack interpretations and intricate solo dissections. Ben also performs with the ’80s hair metal tribute act Skankbanger, the Southern blues-rock-inspired Kennedy Wood Band, and fellow guitarist Andy Wood’s instrumental project.

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