Hours before the second Steve Vai show in Buenos Aires we met ace musician Mike Keneally, a real cool guy, for the following interview:
You started playing keyboards, but many people think of you as a guitarist. Do you consider yourself a keyboard player or a guitar player?
MK: Yeah, I played keyboards for four years before I started on the guitar. Many people consider me a guitar player because most of my focus over the last few years it's been on guitar. Lately I've been getting back into playing piano. I have a piano in my house for the first time in my life, so I am doing a lot of writing on it. A lot of music that I am doing for my next album (Sluggo!) is piano-based.
On the other hand, working with Steve has reignited my interested in the technical aspects of playing guitar, because he spends so much attention on every detail of the physical act of playing guitar (what you are doing with your fingers and the pick at the moment that you play a note). Because I've had to learn his music I've had to focus again -in a way that I haven't for several years- on the technical and physical properties of guitar playing, and that has improved my guitar playing a lot. So I'm having a good time playing guitar again.
How did you learn his songs? Did he give you charts or what?
MK: Mostly I learned it off the records, which is the same way that I learnt Frank's stuff.
What do you mean when you say you are not a good (music) reader?
MK: That I cannot sight-read very effectively. If I'm doing a gig that requires reading I'd call you and say ''would you please send me the charts a week before'' so I can study them. I can read, but I can't sight read. When I auditioned with Frank one of the funny things was him putting up the music for ''Strictly Genteel'' and me making believe that I was sight reading (when I was actually playing by memory). Because I grew up learning stuff off records I have a good ear and that compensates the fact that my reading is not too great.
But lately I've been writing a lot more music; I've found that the more music you write down the better your reading gets. So I get the feeling that my reading is probably improving without me even trying because I've been writing so much. On this two week tour I've put down about ten big pages of music for my next record.
The way Steve Vai works with the group at rehearsals and soundchecks, isn't it similar to the way Zappa used to work? Even the way he conducts the group (and the audience) live, it smells like Frank!
MK: It does smell like Frank! I think that anybody who grows up
listening to Franks' stuff and then finally gets the chance to work with him, it imprints
on your psyche. There's nothing you can do about 
it. Some acts that we are doing in the
show are of course blatantly Zappaesque, especially the audience conducting thing. But
then there are other things that you pick up without even trying. The way you conduct
rehearsals and the way of leading the band, it's just all about trying to produce as much
music as you can in a very businesslike creative and efficient way.
I've picked that up from Frank as Steve picked it up from Frank. It's a work ethic. The most inspiring think about Frank is the incredible quality of the work but also the quantity of the work; he was always producing. And to people like Steve and I that's really inspiring.
That's why I've had too many projects and released lots of albums in the last few years, like my solo records, The Mistakes, the live album, etc. Steve is also very prolific, but being on a major label he is not able to release records just like that, which is a shame.
Why did you leave Dweezil's band?
MK: It was time to go.
How did you wind up playing with Steve?
MK: I left Dweezil's band in January 96 and my intention was to focus entirely on my career and Beer for Dolphins and making more records. With Beer for Dolphins we tour the States in April and May of 1996 and it went well, so I was looking forward to build a future for my music. And then Steve called -which was something absolutely unexpected for me- and so I threw all my plans and my entire life into this array because he was talking about virtually a year worth of touring; which meant I will be away from my home and my family. I have a little girl and to spent that much time away from her is a big decision tome. And I have a band and my bass player Bryan Beller, who left Dweezil's band the same day that I left in order to devote all his attention to me. I had to take that under consideration also, because we were getting paid every week by the Zappas and that was a big sacrifice for him to make.
Finally, after giving it a lot of thought, I decided that really the best thing for my career would be to get this exposure. Plus I enjoy Steve as a person a great deal, and I was intrigued by the challenge of playing his music. It's been a long time since I have been in a band that really challenge me to do things that are not necessarily what I do naturally. When I was with Frank Zappa and I had to sit in a room for 12 hours to try to learn to play the melody to ''Moggio'' for instance, I was programmming myself to do something that a human being is not suppoosed to be able to do. But once you can do, it is a source of great pride.
With Dweezil's band there is some challenging music there but it's not in the realm of the impossible; any really good talented musician should be able to discipline himself enough to play that music. And my music is very challenging but all is written all around my idiosyncrasies and my styles, so it's the music that comes naturally to me so it's not a challenge so much. But Steve's music is very challenging for me to learn because it's very technique intensive with all these things that I don't normally do with a guitar.
What's the difference between you own solo work and Beer for Dolphins'?
MK: Hmm, Beer for Dolphins live is just a power trio. So imagine just a guitar, bass and drums playing the songs from my solo albums, which features drums, bass, 5 guitars, 2 keyboards and 7 vocals! So it's the same songs, but with different arrangements. The catch phrase that I use is ''Cream plays Keneally''.
The next album that I'm doing (Sluggo!) will be credited to ''Mike Keneally and Beer for Dolphins'' just because I like the name BFD and I think it's starting to gather a little bit of momentum as a concept. However it will basically be a solo album since I'll be using different musicians and on some songs I will be playing all instruments myself.
In your discography with Zappa you mention a record called Trance-Fusion. What is that?
MK: Is a guitar solo album (like Shut up and Play yer Guitar) which Frank himself finished and which the family for whatever God-knows reason is taking a million years to release.
How does having played with Frank Zappa affect your own career in business terms? What's the reaction of a person in the music business when he gets to know that you have played with Frank?
MK: Musicians and fans are always happy and impressed and joyful to learn that a musician that is speaking to them has worked with Frank Zappa. If you are speaking to a musician or a music fan, then they are excited about it.
But, if you are trying to get anything done with a record company or a management company or a booking agent or somebody who writes for a big magazine... it would be like ''is it OK if I pour some poison in your coffee?'' (laughs)! As far as the big structure of the music business, Frank Zappa means POISON. But as far as the real people, you know -fans and musicians- they are excited about it.
The thing is, almost everything good that have happened to me in the music business can be directly traced by the fact that I've played with Frank Zappa. All the work that I've got in the last 9 years was because of that. I wouldn't have met Steve were it not for Zappa. Although I haven't had the most sparkling successful drowning-in-money music career, all the success that I've had has been as a result to that. The most important thing to me is what I gained from him musically and spiritually if you will. The most significant thing in my musical career so far has been my own albums and having worked with for Frank Zappa was a totally positive influence in my own music. I might have gotten the record deal if I haven't played with Frank because the people who own the record company are friends of mine, but the albums would not have been the same. So it's been positive.
The negative aspects of having played with Frank... the way I look at it, anybody who is scared of me because I've played with Frank, then I do not want to work with him anyway. (Laughs).
After the Saturday Steve Vai Band show the
authors of this interview went with Steve and Mike to a bar for a Sul Divano
gig. Sul Divano is an argentine Zappa-tribute band. For the encore, Tony, the band leader,
invited Steve and Mike to play with them. Steve politely declined the offer, but Mike
agreed and jumped onstage to perform ''King Kong'' with the shocked local musicians. The
audience could not believe what they were eyewitnessing! (Click to hear for a real audio file with the performance
-622Kb).
When the show was over, Steve congratulated his employee astonished that he (Mike) could remember on the spot a Zappa melody he had not played for... 8 years!
To learn all about Mike Keneally you should visit his site.