2025-Jan-25 - Interstellar
This week's randomly selected song Interstellar is track #1 from disc #3 of my triple CD album It Was All Just a Dream.
Interstellar first appeared on my 2019 album Electric Sky as the opening song. The inspiration behind the song has NOTHING to do with the movie of the same name – I've never even seen the movie! Rather it was based on my imagination of the thrill and adventure of traveling out of our solar system to some other stellar system. Through the lens of our current human technological capabilities, such a trip would take many decades – possibly even a few generations – and would almost certainly be a one-way trip. So to capture the emotions of such an adventure, I gave the song a mix of a driving hard rock/metal motif, but mixed with some exotic flavor to capture that feeling of embarking into the unknown, as well as a hint of melancholy in the chorus to capture the feeling of leaving behind Earth and all of humanity.
Joining me on this song are my friends Jimena Fosado and Al Fairweather (rest in peace, my friend). I play the first guitar solo coming in a 2:45, and I'm followed by Jime at 3:21. Jime totally captured the vibe of the song and played some killer melodic licks and phrases. Jime and I met at the 2019 Winter NAMM music trade show via a number of mutual friends. When I heard her tearing up the fretboard, I knew I had to ask her to play on my album, and I'm so happy she said yes. She absolutely crushed it!
I felt like the bridge following Jime's solo needed a guitar solo of some sort, but as I had already recorded my solo, given that the whole idea behind my Electric Sky album was collaboration, I wanted to get someone else to play it. So I put out a request to my friends asking for a volunteer to record a solo – preferably on acoustic guitar. In less than 24 hours, Al provided the absolutely beautiful acoustic solo that comes in at 3:58. I met Al at one of the many Dreamcatcher Events guitar retreats that we both attended, and while I am heartbroken that cancer has stolen him from us, I am beyond honored to have a record of his beautiful guitar playing on this song as well as my song Dust Storm.
I used five guitars on Interstellar. For the rhythm guitar parts, I played a pair of fixed bridge Ibanez guitars that are a trusted combo in quite a few of my songs, the Ibanez S5521 and the Ibanez J.Custom RG 8571. For the ambient clean guitar parts supporting Al's acoustic solo, I played my trusty Sully Guitars 624 Conspiracy Series Prototype. For my lead parts, I played all of the verse and chorus parts on my JS1CR30 "Chrome Boy", and I played my guitar solo using my Ibanez RG5120. I played all of my parts through my trusty Mesa Boogie Mark V:25 using the Fat and IIC+ voices for the clean and lead tones, respectively.
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If you love what you hear and want to support the music I make, please consider purchasing It Was All Just a Dream on CD or digital download. I will gladly personalize and autograph your copy.
https://chrisstark.com/it-was-all-just-a-dream
Keep an eye out for next Saturday's song spotlight, and as always, thank you sincerely for all of your support!
Love, Aloha, and Rock!
❤️😎🎸