Queen's Brian May Revisits Star Fleet Project Sessions Featuring Eddie Van Halen

Bruce Henne | 06-29-2023

(hennemusic) Queen guitarist Brian May revisits his approach to sessions for his 1983 EP, "Star Fleet Project", in the third episode of a new video series about the package ahead of its expanded 40th anniversary reissue next month.

May recruited Edward Van Halen, bassist Phil Chen, drummer Alan Gratzer, and keyboardist Fred Mandel to join him in the studio for a couple of days at The Record Plant in Los Angeles, CA.

As the sessions approached, Brian reveals that he had no idea if this idea would ever get off the ground. "I didn't know if it was gonna work, I really didn't," recalls May. "I think there's a little bit of pushing and pulling, and we didn't gel immediately, but it didn't take very long before we did. You can hear it happening.

"That's what's great about these sessions, ' cause you hear the whole progression. And you can hear the beginning be quite tentative. We don't really know the parts. We don't know each other and things are kind of slipping around. Nice thing is there's no pressure. There was no end product. We didn't say 'We're going to make a record' - it's just like, just have some fun and see what we can do."

"So you can hear on these sessions, which I've now put in the box set, that you can hear us feeling our way and gradually gaining confidence and locking in and becoming a really tight unit, which was amazing."

Due July 17, and billed as "Star Fleet Sessions", the 40th anniversary reissue delivers an extensively revisited and expanded box set edition of the legendary sessions, with 2023 remixes of the original three songs and a new single version of the title track alongside interviews and live recordings from the era - plus 23 tracks of previously-unreleased material.

Get more details and stream the latest episode here.