Apart from playing with Idol on his key records, including the defining 1983 Rebel Yell, Steve is also well-known for having played on Michael Jackson’s Bad album and having toured and recorded with Vince Neil, the two most frequently mentioned collaborations from an extensive roster of star projects he took part in over the years. This variety of his creative alliances -- all differing in their styles and approaches to music --defines Steve as a superbly versatile craftsman and an explorer – constantly evolving, developing, and refusing to settle into a comfortable groove.

Steve’s latest solo record Memory Crash, released earlier this year, is another testimony to his resourcefulness and a desire to expand his creative ambit. The album is a collection of diverse tracks ranging in style from classic hard rock to flamenco, each featuring space-rocking riffs, instant-grip hooks, and first-class musicianship. Steve’s intuition and mastery of his instrument shine on this album, presenting surprisingly fresh and detail-rich interpretations of genres that have all at one time or another helped shape rock sound as we know it today.

ALISSA ORDABAI: The first thing I want to ask you is about the new album. To me it reads like an encyclopaedia of guitar styles, because the tracks are so diverse and the styles are so wide-ranging. Did you have a concept for this record from the very start or did it develop as you went along?

STEVE STEVENS: I did have a concept. My first criterion was that I wanted to make a record that kind of left you with the impression that I felt when I was a 13 or a 14 year-old kid into classic prog rock records that I grew up with, like King Crimson or Genesis. And I think stylistically a lot of those records were also pretty diverse.

AO: King Crimson and Genesis, as well as your new album, are examples of pretty serious, earnest musicianship. Do you think that serious explorative approach to music can these days coincide with commercial success?

SS: Umm… Obviously with this record [laughs] I wasn’t concerned too much with this… I think there are far too many concessions made on musician’s parts these days, and I certainly wasn’t gonna do that with this record. I am in a fortunate enough position where I work with a singer with whom we still maintain our audience after 25 years, with Billy Idol, and so I was not gonna be too concerned with pulling singles from my record or anything like that. And I wasn’t even concerned with song arrangements and structure, if a song was going to be a 7-minute, so be it.

AO: What do you think was the main driving force being the album – was it a striving towards excellence or a desire to experiment?

SS: This year celebrates my 40th year of picking up the fucking guitar…

AO: Wow!

SS: Yeah, so that encompasses many different styles. I started out playing classical guitar, and then moved to flamenco. I’d been playing for 6 years before I got an electric guitar. So I wanted the record to reflect every different style that has gone on throughout my career.

AO: You just mentioned that you’ve been going for 40 years now. How do you think being a musician has changed since you started to play professionally?

SS: Well, for me not really, haha! You know, I don’t… I think if anything, for me it kind of returned back towards the point where I just have to take more control over my music than ever. Because obviously the record labels have lost the ball, you know. I’ll rephrase that: the major labels have lost the ball. So now with the internet and all these other tools I think musicians have a more immediate access to their fans, so obviously for someone like myself that works in my favour.

AO: Do you feel that the way fans get into music these days is changing?

SS: In some cases people hear music for the first time in their car, in a car advert or something, and go, “Wow, what’s that?” I’ve done that. I’ll hear something in a commercial and go, “What’s that?” and discover an artist that I maybe wasn’t aware of.

AO: You have collaborated with many artists over the years. Which of those collaborations did you find the most challenging?

SS: Oh! Umm… Umm… Possibly the gentleman I worked with whose name is Ben Watkins in a band called Juno Reactor, and I had to play techno music. That was a real challenge because guitar is not an instrument that is used in that style of music very much, so you have to kind of find a space, or I had to find a space that kind of works for what I do, and it’s not in the usual context of rock’n’roll. It’s a bit of a challenge, but at the same time it’s really gratifying.

AO: Form which musicians would you say you have benefited the most in terms of musical knowledge, be it on tour or through studio work?

SS: I think that working with Robert Palmer was an eye-opener for me. But also Robert was the first grown musician that I have actually worked with. Years before I joined up with Billy Idol I was in a band called the Fine Malibus and went down to the Bahamas to record our record. I met Robert then, and we stayed friends and I finally got to work with him on one of his records, and obviously playing with someone who was on the club scene with Jimi Hendrix and all [laughs], and Clapton, and Beck, I certainly felt that the pressure was on to deliver.

AO: This leads me to my next question, which is a bit goofy, but still. If you could collaborate with any musician who ever lived, who would you choose?

SS: Um… I always felt that it would be incredible to work with someone like Peter Gabriel. So I’ll throw that out there, maybe he’ll hear it. [laughs]

AO: Haha! What would your advice be to any young musicians who want to get into session work?

SS: Oh, into session work! Ooh! Obviously you’d have to know how to read and how to play in a lot of different styles. I don’t know about other parts of the world, but in Los Angeles there are a couple of schools that guitarists who have attended them have ended up with really lucrative careers in session work.

AO: What would you say are the essential qualities for a successful session musician?

SS: Um… Ooh, I think that an essential quality for any musician who is going to have a lasting career is not to have your own agenda as a guitar player, to make sure that you understand what’s called for in a song. That may mean playing 3 notes as much as playing a million notes.

AO: On a different topic, I have recently read that you are now writing for a new Billy Idol album. When do you expect the album to come out?

SS: We’ve actually finished recording about 3 new tracks for a Greatest Hits record, so it’s not an album of completely new material, and I believe there’s going to be 3 new tracks on this Greatest Hits, which I think is slated for June.

AO: Are you planning to tour the record?

SS: Yeah, we are. We start touring in Europe in June. It will be Europe in June and July, and then United States in the end of August.

AO: I have one last question and it’s about technique. How do you maintain it? Does it require everyday practice?

SS: When I’m on the road I don’t have to practice because I’m on stage three hours a day. But ,it’s almost an unconscious thing with me; I don’t let a day go by when I don’t play guitar. But, I’m not one of those guys who sits down and practices scales. I usually have a tape recorder going and I always record ideas. It’s usually to write a piece of music and I don’t always know what the context is going to be. But I think that just having an instrument in your hands… I think that anyone who loves… obviously, I’ve been playing guitar for 40 years, so… So it’s almost an extension of me at this point. But when I was younger, yeah, I did have to practice every day and I used to kind of dive into a record and learn all the songs of my favourite artists, and I think that’s as valid a practice technique as practicing scales and all that stuff.

AO: Is there anything else I should ask you about?

SS: No, I think you’ve covered it.

AO: Great! Thank you very much for your time, it was a pleasure talking to you.