Q. You were quite the guitar hero in the '80s. How's your playing evolved over the years?

My wife says I'm getting faster. If you live with a guitar in you hands year after year, you just get better. Age has nothing to do with it. I'm much faster than I was at 19, faster than I was at 30 when I got all my awards such as the lead guitar nod from Kerrang! Magazine. Age savors music like a fine wine.

 THE INTERVIEW

Q. Tell us about your band Joshua Perahia, and how it evolved..

A. The sole thing for Joshua was just to be a little different from other rock bands. It's not the same lyric structure, not the same thing everyone else was doing. We were compared to many of the most commercial bands of the '80s, which I thought was unfair. We had a very different and deep side. Everything that every man in this world does, should be to his best ability and it's not fair to cage it. If the industry wants everyone to be a clown, then this clown just doesn't want to join the circus. I wanted to do things in a certain way. I had something to say. As the years progressed, I just kept my focus on what the band stood for -- a very spiritual band, about life and love. It was about good things -- I figured everyone else had the dirty stuff pretty well covered. A lot of groups wrote songs that were just really something else for me. I'm not trying to judge, but it just wasn't my thing. I was brought up in a strict home. If my mother ever heard me write a song like some of these you hear, she'd spank me --- even if I was 29 years old. So I just had to go with my vision. That more than anything, along with the name of the band, caused a lot of friction between myself and any of the singers or keyboard players in the writing. Maybe they would want suggestive lyrics or something foul that I wasn't in to. So I would say "I'm sorry." I'd offer to write new lyrics for it and they would say 'That's not going to happen." There would be a lot of friction and they would leave. Bye. There are billions of people, so I think I can replace this guy who just left and not have to go with his doctrine. So a lot of guys were moving in and out of the group. By the third album -- with a new lead singer of course -- we were spoiled by our RCA deal. RCA and its parent company BMG put incredible amounts of money into the group. And they started demanding all sorts of things. In the end, I just dropped the name of the band completely and started brand new. We went from the name Joshua, then used Jaguar for a very short time, maybe a year, then struck on Joshua Perahia.

Q. What are you trying to say with your songs now?

A. I want to leave some legacy for my family. Like if I die, I'd like them to say "Dad was a pretty cool guy, and he said these things, and they matter." I wanted them to be prophetic and timeless, whether they were warnings or whatever. Even happy and joyous songs should have something inside of them. I thought we didn't have much to do with any other bands for that reason.

Q. Were the songs different lyrically or musically?

A. Lyrically for sure, 100 percent. Even other bands that called themselves spiritual bands had just very blas�, barnyard lyrics that any hillbilly could write. I always approach a song like it was a movie: what movie could be made, what story could be told with this song. It really has a meaning and says something. It leaves the listener happy or joyful or contemplative or something. Because it's not just rock and roll. Every rock band is a teacher. We see violence today, and it is up to each band what it wants to teach. Some want to teach math or geometry, some want to teach killing your fellow man. For me, it's things more positive and uplifting. We are only here for a vapor of time and its important to leave something behind to help somebody along that same road. Musically, there are lots of influences. I'd like to think we are unique, but the minute the harmonies start, people start referencing other bands. There's nothing you can do. I guess they say it's all been done before. I don't listen to that much other music. The songs are pretty much written to the lyrics. I get a melody in my head. It's never copy-catting, I'm always in my own space and head when I get an idea and I start from there.

Q. Do you always look for a spiritual aspect when you tell a story?

A. I always try to bring things to a spiritual level. For instance, there was someone I knew who was hurt by someone they loved very much... But the way it happened was very unique, in this case very manipulative on one person's part. So I thought about that behavior and described it on "Your Love Is Gone" from our second album "Surrender." The song is a lot more than "you don't like me any more." There is a whole lot more going on in my mind, though maybe the listener doesn't see it all, but there is a whole movie going on around the one song. It includes themes like consideration of another person's feelings, standing up for what's right, telling the truth, playing games, and that there is a consequence for everything you do. When you hurt someone else, nothing is ever just brushed under the carpet, everything we do is watched and remembered.

Q. Tell us about the present Joshua Perahia lineup. Let's start with your bassplayer, Joey Rochrich.

A. This is a unique lineup. This is the first time I've been with a group that's lasted more than five years. If anything, I'm closer to them than ever. Joey is from Bremen, Germany. He brought a lot to me, such as my European roots. He has the kind of European characteristics that I have, such as being a man of your word. Not to say that Americans aren't, but Europeans have a less spoiled upbringing, they don't have as much commercialism as we do, their television and movies are on a different scale. We have an awful lot of visual things in our country that tend to push people away from being on the right road. It may sound bigoted, but I do believe that European people are better behaved. So he brings a strength and element to the band that I really appreciate. He's got great values, as everyone in the band does. He's steadfast, a man of his word, a real backbone for me. I can put my back up to his back and take on anybody. He's a great friend and well as a great bassplayer. He doesn't overplay like so many people do. Rock solid and tasteful.

How about your drummer, Eric Stoskopf?

What Eric brings to the band is another favorite thing of mine. He came from Iowa, so he's got the Midwest thing down. He's a gentleman, hard-working, with a tremendous work ethic. His family is from the farmland area and they raised him that way. He never whines, he's a man of his word.. No matter how tough things get around here, Eric is always the one to say "Okay, what are we going to do next? Let's move on and upwards." He never panics, never gets overexcited about everything. So that strength is important to the band because you play off each other. When you see no one else in the band is scared, it seems to keep you strong too. "Well, we're together, we'll overcome this." It's like a marriage.

Q. There are two albums being released here, one DVD Audio with Santana's Alex Ligertwood on vocals and the CD version with your new singer Jerry Gabriel. How did that come about?

A. Yes, there are two versions of "Something To Say." The Surround Sound 5.1 DVD Audio version has Santana alumni Alex Ligertwood on vocals and Richard Baker on keyboards, and a regular CD version features our new lead singer Jerry Gabriel. When we first recorded, we didn't know Jerry. We had been auditioning singers for two years. We tried a few guys, but the realm of our songs is just so wide that none of the ultimately worked. So we had no one when we met Ken Kreisel, head of M&K; Sound Recordings. Ken brought in (Fleetwood Mac, Santana producer) Keith Olsen. Keith then shocked and surprised us by offering to bring in Alex, whom I'd been a fan of for a long time. He just came in and wailed through the songs, all the lead.tracks and then all the backup. Any comp track he did could have been a keeper, and so I knew we had something. But Alex is tied up with many projects and couldn't tour with us, so the hunt for a singer went on. So when we finally found Jerry, we re-did the vocal tracks (all the tracks were completely isolated) and that will be the CD version while Alex is the DVD Audio version. What Ken did was double up the tracks digitally from a 24 track recording into 48 that allowed us to isolate every single part of the music so that it could be separated appropriately into 5.1. Jerry has a lot a respect for what we've already done. He doesn't try to put it down or interfere. He says, "I know you've had this thing before I joined, I'm willing to go with it. I don't want to mess it up, I want to blend into it." That's a very big thing with me. About 98% of the singers I've ever dealt with come in and after a few weeks, come in and say "Well I've got this song and that song, can I introduce them into the band?" And that is really obstructing. We start building the Joshua Perahia State Building and someone wants to turn it into the Brooklyn Bridge, it really doesn't work. So Jerry has total respect for the songs and songwriting style and wants to write the same way. He has cushioned us with that. We have faith in that. He believes in what we believe in and is aroused by the spiritual content of the group. He's looking into those things himself -- on his own, with no prodding from the group. He seems to be a real gentleman and a friend.

Q. What songs meant a lot to you on the new album?

A. Well the title track "Something to Say," for sure. The movie, "The Copper Scroll" which uses the song over the credits, pretty much describes it. It's the life and times of Christ when he was on this world. Not only am I Christian (Greek Orthodox), I'm half-Jewish, so I had the best of both worlds. A very Christian-Judeo upbringing and I just wrote this song about a man who came down here, basically like a lamb to the slaughter. But in the past if someone wrote about this, it was often anti-Semitic. But I wrote it from the position that he was a Semite, was here to help us. His coming was pre-destined and was meant, even in the Jewish Torah, to come here and do what he did. There was no stopping it.

Q. Other songs on the album?

A. "Steady Weapon" is about when a man is starting from boyhood and learning the ropes about how to survive. He doesn't have a lot of confidence, he doesn't feel strong about himself. He feels that if he extends himself, he might get hurt. Then he looks deeply inside himself to find his own strength, sees the help he has given other people and he grows stronger and stronger -- but not until he's older. Some people just remain boys until they are 30 years old. Everyone finds their manhood in different places. "One Night Is Not Enough" is a real special song for me. Everyone gets the song wrong. They think its some sort of sex thing when it absolutely is not. What it is does is glorify marriage, as a holy institution. The song says that when you meet someone special, one night is not enough, it could be a lifetime. People grow stronger when they are together and it exhorts people to find that one soulmate and make a life's work out of that.

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