Now Spinning Music Magazine - Artist Interviews and Music Reviews · Phil Aston

Steve Morse Interview : on Loss, Hope and Instrumental Storytelling

·36 min·2 clips

‘Taken by an Angel’ began as a replacement for ‘Contact Loss’ before Steve Morse reshaped it after his wife’s death.

1. Now Spinning Music Magazine presents Phil Aston speaking with Steve Morse about the album Triangulation. 2. Phil Aston is the host, and Steve Morse is the guest because of his work with Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs, Kansas, and the Steve Morse Band. 3. The episode asks how an instrumental guitar album can carry melody, emotion, and narrative without a singer. 4. Morse says Triangulation was built with longtime collaborator Dave LaRue, plus Eric Johnson, John Petrucci, and his son Kevin. 5. He describes the process as starting from small ideas, recording three seconds as a memory aid, and refining parts in a work template. 6. Morse says the project felt free because “nothing depended on how this album came out.” 7. He contrasts instrumental writing with singer-led song forms, saying long solo sections can lose listeners who are walking by. 8. Morse says his own study of human nature pushed him toward shorter, changing structures and toward variety in “a big smorgasbord of choices with their ears.” 9. He points to “Too Many Parts,” an 11-minute track, as the album’s longest piece and jokes that the title came from having “too many parts.” 10. He says Dave LaRue’s bass lines are melodic, technically demanding, and built to interact with his guitar instead of sitting in the background. 11. Phil Aston hears a Philip Glass-like shift in “Too Many Parts” when the texture drops back at about the three-minute mark. 12. Morse says “Off the Cuff” began as an upbeat, happy idea that he first played for Van before he arrived. 13. He says instrumental music has to work harder to touch people emotionally because there is no singer carrying the words. 14. Morse describes “Taken by an Angel” as a deeply personal piece with three sections, including a hopeful but sad ending idea. 15. He says the track was shaped after his wife went from no visible signs of cancer to intensive care 10 days later and then died three days after that. 16. Morse says he and Kevin played the piece together for a memorial, and Kevin urged him to record it. 17. The interview stays conversational and detailed, with Phil Aston stopping on specific tracks and arranging questions around bass, structure, and technique. 18. Morse speaks plainly about pain, touring, and adaptation, including treatment, radiation, and the possibility of changing to fingers instead of wrist rotation. 19. Best for listeners who like Steve Morse, instrumental guitar, and melodic fusion. 20. Skip if you want vocal-heavy songs or short, simple arrangements.

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