Matteo Mancuso Built a Track Around Steve Vai’s Musical DNA for Route 96

When Steve Vai approached Matteo Mancuso at the 2024 Vai Academy in Orlando, the suggestion was direct. If Mancuso had a song, Vai would be happy to collaborate. The young Sicilian guitarist didn’t have a song at that moment. But the offer quickly became the engine for his sophomore album, Route 96, and the track that now opens it.

“I immediately started to work on the song,” Mancuso says. “In fact, Solar Wind was the first song I finished on the record.” He knew from the beginning that this wasn’t going to be a conventional trade-off of solos. “I wanted to have the most Steve Vai song possible on the record,” he explains. He shaped the guitar parts accordingly, using legato runs and tones that echo Vai’s own palette. Mancuso wasn’t trying to mimic a style. He was building an environment where Vai could move freely.

By November, he sent the structure to Vai, who tracked his parts remotely from the Harmony Hut in early 2025. Unlike some remote collaborations that get edited into place after the fact, this one was fully written and waiting. Mancuso had left room, and Vai filled it without stepping outside his own musical language. The result isn’t a battle between two guitarists. It’s a piece of music that sounds like Vai from the inside out.

Mancuso is on a steep trajectory. Since his debut three years ago, he’s played with Al Di Meola and Tommy Emmanuel, earned mentions from Tosin Abasi and Joe Bonamassa, and heard Vai say that the evolution of the instrument is safe with him. Route 96, whose title nods to Vai, now carries that endorsement in its very first minutes.