Steve Lukather Alex Van Halen New Van Halen Record?

**DRFC** · 03.17.25, 06:03 AM

Maybe we can get just a touch of what we want mixed into what we're likely getting... Part of why I'm not that stoked about the instrumental road is that "Unfinished" was just alright. Sure I loved getting some new EVH for the first time since his passing, and it was the last thing he did with Alex. But an entire album of that would put me to sleep. But what if there are some real rockers in the vault of just Al and Ed from many years ago? Just a few songs that Steve finds and thinks would work? You bring Dave in to slap a melody on top, Mike in to do the bass/bg vox (I know, not happening), and now you can have a full album of maybe five instrumentals with 2-3 proper VH songs mixed in. Now we're talking. Those 2-3 songs would make it a VH album, even if the rest of them are instrumentals. Sure Dave's voice is shit but in studio he's a different animal, and maybe Steve and whoever does the sound can make that work. Now, you want to do the right thing and make it a double album where side two is all unreleased songs, and we're fucking talking.

A man can dream.

**ScottyBHarris** · 03.17.25, 07:53 AM

Originally Posted by DRFC

Maybe we can get just a touch of what we want mixed into what we're likely getting... Part of why I'm not that stoked about the instrumental road is that "Unfinished" was just alright. Sure I loved getting some new EVH for the first time since his passing, and it was the last thing he did with Alex. But an entire album of that would put me to sleep. But what if there are some real rockers in the vault of just Al and Ed from many years ago? Just a few songs that Steve finds and thinks would work? You bring Dave in to slap a melody on top, Mike in to do the bass/bg vox (I know, not happening), and now you can have a full album of maybe five instrumentals with 2-3 proper VH songs mixed in. Now we're talking. Those 2-3 songs would make it a VH album, even if the rest of them are instrumentals. Sure Dave's voice is shit but in studio he's a different animal, and maybe Steve and whoever does the sound can make that work. Now, you want to do the right thing and make it a double album where side two is all unreleased songs, and we're fucking talking.

A man can dream.

I agree, I only listened to “Unfinished” twice. It was cool to hear, but not something I need to hear more than twice.

**Little Dreamer** · 03.17.25, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by ScottyBHarris

I agree, I only listened to “Unfinished” twice. It was cool to hear, but not something I need to hear more than twice.

Also the title was underwhelming.

Titles like "Unfinished," "Incomplete," "Almost There," "Not Quite" should be avoided.

Spanish Fly, Eruption and Cathedral, on the other hand, are cool titles.

**mrchristopher** · 03.17.25, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by Model Citizen

I checked all Lukather’s socials and can’t find this quote anywhere. Anyone have a link?

Here's an updated GW article... with these further clarifications about "co-producing only" from Steve Lukather.

https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/...an-halen-album

Cheers.
mrC ('',)b

**thechefs2003** · 03.17.25, 01:14 PM

Originally Posted by mrchristopher

Here's an updated GW article... with these further clarifications about "co-producing only" from Steve Lukather.

https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/...an-halen-album

Cheers.
mrC ('',)b

So Luke is not going to play guitar but rather his role is to go thru the tapes and piece together songs out of them. I think that sounds like a good plan!

**Little Dreamer** · 03.17.25, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by thechefs2003

So Luke is not going to play guitar but rather his role is to go thru the tapes and piece together songs out of them. I think that sounds like a good plan!

We get selecting the tapes, selecting the pieces. Question is, what happens next, once the piece has been selected? Who will complete the missing parts?

**CatchAsCatch** · 03.17.25, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by Little Dreamer

We get selecting the tapes, selecting the pieces. Question is, what happens next, once the piece has been selected? Who will complete the missing parts?

AI

**Dave's Dreidel** · 03.17.25, 05:16 PM

They could do a "best live take" and make a great live compilation from each tour. If I had nothing but time I could do a decent job of it from just the shit that is on YouTube and in bootlegs.

Give me access to 5150 and I could make a masterpiece live album from each tour. It isn't hard. They simply don't want to, it's fine, it's their music, but like Brett said, there are songs that didn't make the final cut in the DLR years, you could at least put that out.

**VH1986** · 03.17.25, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by Little Dreamer

Also the title was underwhelming.

Titles like "Unfinished," "Incomplete," "Almost There," "Not Quite" should be avoided.

Spanish Fly, Eruption and Cathedral, on the other hand, are cool titles.

I'd rather hear songs like "Already There", "I Came", "To Completion", and "Spent".

**Van Squalen** · 03.17.25, 06:22 PM

No live or A.I.

Just one record of finished outtake tracks from '80 to '95.

That's all that matters for any post-Ed Van Halen.

**Dave's Dreidel** · 03.17.25, 07:20 PM

Pretty soon, music without AI will be as ancient as music recorded and mixed analog.

There is a reason that most major acts in the world are solo acts, where they used to be bands. Technology has made it possible for people to write and record a song and not even be able to play an instrument at a proficiency needed to perform.

Electronic albums have been around for a while, but, they sounded like electronic albums. You can now make a song using virtual instruments and 99% of the listening public wouldn't know, and most of the ones that can tell don't care.

It's where we are headed musically, and fast.

**Little Dreamer** · 03.17.25, 08:39 PM

Originally Posted by Dave's Dreidel

Pretty soon, music without AI will be as ancient as music recorded and mixed analog.

There is a reason that most major acts in the world are solo acts, where they used to be bands. Technology has made it possible for people to write and record a song and not even be able to play an instrument at a proficiency needed to perform.

Electronic albums have been around for a while, but, they sounded like electronic albums. You can now make a song using virtual instruments and 99% of the listening public wouldn't know, and most of the ones that can tell don't care.

It's where we are headed musically, and fast.

Dude, come on now, it's only Monday. Any good news to announce?!?

**CatchAsCatch** · 03.17.25, 09:48 PM

Originally Posted by Dave's Dreidel

Pretty soon, music without AI will be as ancient as music recorded and mixed analog.

There is a reason that most major acts in the world are solo acts, where they used to be bands. Technology has made it possible for people to write and record a song and not even be able to play an instrument at a proficiency needed to perform.

Electronic albums have been around for a while, but, they sounded like electronic albums. You can now make a song using virtual instruments and 99% of the listening public wouldn't know, and most of the ones that can tell don't care.

It's where we are headed musically, and fast.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say that the public doesn’t care. I think “purists” are a dying breed. But I also think this stuff comes in waves. When I was a kid, my friends and I stumbled on our dad/uncles/older-cousins record collection and heard things that blew our minds, shaped what we understood to be “good” music and changed the way we played. That will happen again. Kids coming up now will rebel and reject and there will be a revival of something (I don’t know what but something).

**Raldo** · 03.18.25, 01:23 AM

Originally Posted by Van Squalen

No live or A.I.

Just one record of finished outtake tracks from '80 to '95.

That's all that matters for any post-Ed Van Halen.

A huge box set of this stuff would be cool.

**Dave's Dreidel** · 03.18.25, 04:23 AM

Originally Posted by CatchAsCatch

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say that the public doesn’t care. I think “purists” are a dying breed. But I also think this stuff comes in waves. When I was a kid, my friends and I stumbled on our dad/uncles/older-cousins record collection and heard things that blew our minds, shaped what we understood to be “good” music and changed the way we played. That will happen again. Kids coming up now will rebel and reject and there will be a revival of something (I don’t know what but something).

I love the romanticism in your post, but I think history has proven that technology moves on. AI is the new Wrecking Crew, the new Toto.