It’s hard to believe that 34 years have passed since Trevor Rabin issued a solo album featuring his vocals. But it’s true – Can’t Look Away was released in 1989. His new album, Rio, is stylistically similar to his ’80s/’90s work with Yes, and finds the South African multi-tasking, instrumentally, while handling most of the vocal chores. He even supplied the album’s cover art.
Why so long between solo albums with vocals?
I started doing film scores in ’94 – I made 50 film scores and hundreds of TV things; I look back now and it seems like yesterday. That’s one excuse. The other is I had so little time – I was writing and getting ideas, and it wasn’t very truncated. The gap certainly wasn’t intentional.
What was your guitar setup for Rio?
I used a Tele with a B-bender, my Stratocaster, and my signature Alvarez from ’84.
And your amplifiers?
I used the Fractal Axe-Fx II quite a bit because I got quite used to it on the road when I did the Anderson, Rabin, and Wakeman tour. It’s just really convenient. There were tracks where I just blasted out a couple of Marshalls, but for the most part, it wa
Which songs on Rio are you most proud of, guitar-wise?
I really enjoyed getting into the B-bender – there’s a song called “Goodbye,” which was a lot of fun. I tried to go for the chicken-pickin’ thing, and make it as smooth as possible. There’s a song called “Oklahoma,” which, guitar-wise, is pretty straightforward, and I had a lot of fun with it. And “Thandi” is definitely guitar-driven from start to end, which I was very pleased with.
Talk more about your Stratocaster.
I’ve heard people say it was 1962, but I checked the serial number and I think it’s a ’64.
In the ’70s, I was playing a semi-acoustic Harmony – I loved Hank Marvin and, obviously, Jimi Hendrix. There was a lovely guy, Denis Joint, who worked at a store in Johannesburg called Bothners, and I told him, “I don’t have a lot of money, but I want to buy a Stratocaster.” He said, “We don’t have any new ones, but we have some very old stock.” At that time, having an old Fender wasn’t the same as it is now. He went into the back room and dusted off this case – there were a couple of them – and there was this red ’64 Strat. He said, “I can give you a deal on this.” I said, “Done,” and that’s how I got it.
You’ve modded it through the years…
While I was on the road with the band Rabbit, and at the end of a show, I would throw my guitar to my tech, and he usually caught it. But one time – I might have thrown it too hard – but it landed on the floor and the headstock snapped off. I drove back to Johannesburg and an instrument shop lent me a Tele neck that fit perfectly. I had that for quite a while. John Green fixed it, and it’s never been better.
Later, I was having problems with one of the pickups being noisy, so it now has a Bill Lawrence L250 and DiMarzio FS-1.
What do you recall about the guitar solo in “Owner of a Lonely Heart”?
I’ve read so much stuff about that – which is mostly incorrect. I remember the producer [Trevor Horn] saying I used a 12-string Rickenbacker. There’s no Rickenbacker on the track. I don’t even know what kind of guitar it was – it was a 12-string built for Chris Squire, which I used on certain parts, but it’s mostly the Strat. The very fuzzy beginning of the song was on a Strat, but when it goes into the track and the drums enter, it changes to a Les Paul. The verse is the Strat, and the solo is a Strat. I’d used the sound – with a fifth on top – before, on a Manfred Mann’s Earth Band song called “Redemption Song.”
The solo was totally off the cuff. There’s a little flurry just before the solo ends that I wasn’t very happy with. I said, “I really want to drop that,” and Chris was determined to not have one note changed. So, I think we kept it.
This article originally appeared in VG’s December 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
