Plini – Plini

Sydney’s own legendary guitarist and musician Plini has been creating waves of massively epic proportions in the music world with his sublime and beautiful music. The 24-year old guitar maestro recently did a six-week tour with Animals As Leaders and Intervals – which seemed to be a bloody good one. He then announced a North American tour with the same bands, and now is currently touring home ground with his brand new release, Handmade Cities. He knows how to keep himself busy! Metal Obsession caught up with him to talk about it. “I slept a bit last year, so I’m just going to live off of that and coffee until life decides it’s time to go back to bed! Also, ‘bloody good’ is a pretty apt way to describe it. The best thing about the European tour would probably be the people – there wasn’t a single bad egg on the entire tour and not just within our touring party, but in general: I met so many friendly people. The shows were insane; the food and sights were amazing. Just good vibes the whole time.”

What came as a surprise and delight to many Plini was added to the famous Czech Republic metal festival line up Brutal Assault. “I was definitely one of the odd ones out on that bill – instrumental and barely even metal! But apparently the organisers like my music and I guess, a lot of people in the audience did too. That was definitely one of the most surprising couple of hours of my life. Waking up in a Czech castle, essentially rolling out of bed onto a stage in broad daylight and having the most animated crowd I’ve ever played to!”

In just a few years, Plini has played a couple of festivals including Brutal Assault and the UK Tech Fest (twice). He shared his thoughts on playing festivals and how it compares to playing club gigs and smaller venues. “I’d love to do more festivals! After the response I got at both of those, I think the music translates surprisingly well to a festival setting – not having vocals makes the live sound a bit clearer and I like to think we put on an enjoyable show for someone who has never heard the music before. I’m happy playing to 5000 people at Brutal Assault or 50 people in an underground sweat box and I really like stages with no barrier where I can basically touch the audience, but I’d say two things I’d appreciate are having space to a move a bit on stage and being able to feel the crowd enjoying it.”

Plini has done a fair few shows around the country but the ‘Electric Sunrise’ tour has definitely been a big one so far with sold out shows, and, of course, special guest, Intervals. “It’s super fun and insanely rewarding to be headlining again. It’s nice to have a little more set time, and by doing Intervals set on rhythm guitar, I’m nice and warmed up by the time my set rolls around. The new tunes are translating really well. Good times!”

Handmade Cities is the first full-length album which released just a few days ago and people all over the world are thrilled with its otherworldly personality, new soundscapes, and general magnificence. Plini shared his thoughts on how recording this time was different from his previous releases. “I guess one major difference is that I knew ahead of time that I was going to get Simon and Troy to record the bass and drums, so I intentionally left a fair bit of space in those departments so the guys could do their thing! I guess I also dug a little deeper into the sound design of it and putting little layers and treats in different corners of the mix. To me, the act of composition is an ongoing experiment in exploring musical ideas (or really just trying to make new, cool noises) so, recording the EP’s, it was another snapshot into where my musical ideas were at the time. I guess the difference would be that I was trying to make a slightly more substantial body of work this time round, but again, like the EP’s, it still ended up ‘short’ by industry standards.”

Musically, one thing that is obvious, to me at least is the diversity and fluidity in ‘Handmade Cities’. In addition to that, it’s also that element of surprise and unpredictability. You can never tell whats coming next and for me personally, thats one of the most appealing things when I listen to it. He explained more behind creating little hooks like that and what inspires him to write the kind of music that he does. “For me, achieving surprise in a way that isn’t jarring is one of the biggest goals I have in making music, so thank you for that. The inspiration comes from all sorts of things – other music, food, landscapes, people and come to think of it, I guess generally my favourite experiences in life (places I’ve seen, eaten, conversations I’ve had, etc will have some element of surprise to them in addition to being well-designed or naturally beautiful. It’s the same thing I aspire to achieve with my music. In terms of musical influences, early on it was Dream Theater, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and many more! Currently, Tigran Hamasyan, Disperse, Jacob Collier…. the list goes on!”

Something extremely admirable is that through his music, Plini helped raise money for a  community building project in Cambodia, working alongside a non-profit organisation. “At the end of my Architecture degree, I did an elective which was helping design a community centre in Cambodia. At the end of the year, I went there to help construct the design. I had such a great time working with that non-profit [Raw Impact Org] that I decided to write a song to help fund raise for their next project which was buying land to build houses for 100 of the poorest families living on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.” A good musician and a good samaritan!

Plini also shared with me the first time he met his beloved guitar, the instrument responsible for all the magic. “I first saw Strandberg guitars when Chris Letchford posted photos of his (one of the first ever made) on Facebook. Then Tosin Abasi and Misha Mansoor played them and I thought that, along with being the best looking guitar I’d ever seen, they must play and sound amazing too. Finally, I got to try one in early 2014, after which I then got in touch with Ola [Standberg] to figure out how I could get my hands on them. To me, it is actually how a guitar should be in 2016.”

It has been a few years since he released the first EP and in just a short span of time, Plini has seen his talent, dedication and immense effort pay off. On coming this far in his musical journey, he had this to say. “Completely insane. I haven’t really had the time to let it sink in because crazier and crazier opportunities are appearing every time I think I’m going to have a moment to rest. The best part is, every step of the way has been the result of decisions I’ve made, with no goal in mind but choosing to do the things that make me happy.”

As an artist myself, I love the nature of the artwork on your EP’s, merch etc. Its very serene, eclectic and really has a warm vibe. I know you have an artist who works on it for you but is there some sort of theme or message behind the art that you aim to convey? Handmade Cities for example has quite a bit going on? “Definitely, although I do like to leave it open to interpretation. One of the many themes in the new album cover for instance, is a little bit of criticism for the way we choose to build and live in cites these days – I’ll leave it to the viewer to decide how to see that one…”

One of the weirdest moments on tour? “There are many, but for some reason, waking up with a small photo of a naked man taped to the ceiling of my bunk comes to mind first.”

Catch Plini on the last two dates of the ‘Electric Sunrise’ tour!

9th September, 2016 @ Fat Controller, Adelaide

10th September, 2016 @ Amplifier, Perth

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