{"id":39629,"date":"2020-12-04T07:30:04","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T20:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=39629"},"modified":"2020-12-04T07:08:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T20:08:07","slug":"orianthi-2020-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2020\/12\/orianthi-2020-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Orianthi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201c\u2026the thing is with an album we don\u2019t want to make the same record over and over again, and I don\u2019t want to bore myself and I don\u2019t want to bore the people that have been following me, I don\u2019t like to call them fans they\u2019re more like supporters and people that just dig your music because you want to keep them along for the ride\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: Platinum-selling recording artist and world class guitarist, Orianthi has signed an exclusive record deal with the legendary independent rock label, Frontiers Music Srl who will handle the release of her new album, “O” globally. This is Orianthi’s first new studio album in seven years and her first new music as a solo artist in six years. Orianthi’s first major solo artist success, as a singer-songwriter and guitarist, was with the Geffen Records release of “According To You,” which is now RIAA-Certified Platinum\u00ae and has over 17 million streams on Spotify. Her music’s ability to transcend time and remain relevant cannot be more clear than it’s recent resurgence on TikTok. There are over 83 million views on the “According to You” hashtag making it a viral trend that is introducing Gen Z to Orianthi for the first time in a big way. Career-long fans are used to seeing their favorite world class guitarist playing arenas with rock royalty and global superstars like Michael Jackson, Carlos Santana, Carrie Underwood, Alice Cooper and more. The juxtaposition of her newly arrived online popularity and her lifelong pursuit of artistic credibility is the nebulous of this shining star.<\/p>\n

In LA, Ori gave us a call to talk about her new album \u2018O\u2019, its creation, the diversity of the album, working with Richie Sambora, her new signature Gibson guitar, 2020, and more\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been just over four years since we last chatted when I sat down with you and Richie Sambora here in Sydney so it\u2019s great to chat to you again. To start off, the biggest question is, how has 2020 been treating you?<\/strong>
\nPretty rough, I think everybody and all my friends shows were cancelled, I was about to go on a tonne of shows starting in Texas and that got cancelled, I\u2019d probably be in Japan right now promoting my album. It\u2019s been non stop kind of like crazy and with the label \u201cjust put out this record\u201d in the week of the election and everything *laughs* so it was a little mad but at the same time it\u2019s hopefully providing some people with entertainment at this time as well.<\/p>\n

This year has been a funny one no doubt, and many bands and artists have been delaying or postponing albums, why was it important for you to bring the world new music now? <\/strong>
\nI think that honestly it just felt right, it\u2019s funny I was making a hip hop album before with a tonne of producers and experimenting with beats and all these sorts of things, and I met up with Marti Frederiksen who\u2019s been a friend of mine since I was like twenty years old, and \u2018Rescue Me\u2019 was the first song that we wrote and he\u2019s like \u201cwe should make a record\u201d and I got back to LA, heard the demo and text him, he was with Aerosmith and he was like \u201cyeah I\u2019m down, totally down to do it\u201d so in one month the whole album was done in twenty eight days.<\/p>\n

Marti Frederiksen is one of the most legendary songwriters and producers around, so on \u2018O\u2019 what was he able to bring to this album that you felt had been missing on your previous releases?<\/strong>
\nYou know, Marti has this kind of rock edge that I kind of dig, he\u2019s all about getting the raw energy and vibe out of the track and then producing the hell out of it but it\u2019s not over produced, it\u2019s not this polished production where it\u2019s too overdone, the song comes through and the feeling you get when you perform it live, so that\u2019s what it\u2019s like working with him and he\u2019s so fast ad a great songwriter, great producer and great engineer he handles everything. I went to engineering school perse when I was younger and worked in a studio in Adelaide and learned off my Dad how to produce as well, so I produced my first record in Adelaide and that\u2019s how I got my record deal. So to be able to contribute to some production things and programming as well with this record like bringing in different beats and different synth sounds and whatnot that was really cool as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The album is such a diverse album and although you are one hell of a guitarist it\u2019s not always thrust in your face, was this a conscious decision to experiment and try new sounds and vibes?<\/strong>
\nYeah absolutely, the thing is with an album we don\u2019t want to make the same record over and over again, and I don\u2019t want to bore myself and I don\u2019t want to bore the people that have been following me, I don\u2019t like to call them fans they\u2019re more like supporters and people that just dig your music because you want to keep them along for the ride cause it\u2019s gonna be a journey and the next record I\u2019m gonna make is really different from this one I just made, I\u2019m actually writing right now for that one. Yeah, it\u2019s a whole process you know it\u2019s kind of I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s a weird thing when you go in to make a record it\u2019s kind of like OK this is my vision for it but you kind of go more on the vibe you know.<\/p>\n

Now it has been seven years between solo albums for you, in that time you did release the RSO album with Richie, how did the creative experience differ working on this album compared with someone else as a duo?<\/strong>
\nWorking with Richie was awesome, he\u2019s an incredible songwriter and guitar player and everything and everything he\u2019s done, he\u2019s basically written songs that have reached everybody on this planet, so he knows how to connect with people and I learned a lot with him and we\u2019ve been writing a lot lately too for my next record and whatnot. Yeah, it\u2019s a different thing when you work with different people opposed to writing by myself too which I like writing by myself because I can just go anywhere I want with the song and sometime I need to write with myself, I need to be alone with my pro tools set up or whatever it is and be in my own thoughts and no one interfering with that, it depends on my mood really.<\/p>\n

Did you say you\u2019re writing with Richie for new stuff?<\/strong>
\nYeah we\u2019ve been writing lately, awesome songs, and he\u2019s got a brand new record that I think is coming out next year or something, pretty soon and that\u2019s awesome I heard it and it\u2019s just amazing, it\u2019s great to support each other in our solo endeavours, it\u2019s really good.<\/p>\n

So what did this album allow you to do that you feel you couldn\u2019t have done seven years ago when you released \u2018Heaven In This Hell\u2019?<\/strong>
\nThis record is a little more experimental than \u2018Heaven In This Hell\u2019, \u2018Heaven In This Hell\u2019 was more of a straight up barebones rock blues record done in Nashville and that\u2019s what it sounds like, and it was awesome working with Dave Stewart he\u2019s a dear friend of mine. Marti actually wrote a song with me and Steven Tyler for that record too which was a bonus track, but yeah I just kind of felt for this next record I was listening to a lot of Hendrix and Nine Inch Nails to like Muse, to a lot of stuff before making it and Peter Gabriel and all this electronic stuff from the 80\u2019s and I was like you know I don\u2019t know I just felt like it was the right record to make at the time and I\u2019m proud of it you know. Put it all in a blender and see what happens *laughs*<\/p>\n

Obviously this year has stopped touring pretty much cold, but are there plans in the works to tour when the world allows live music to happen again?<\/strong>
\nYeah I\u2019m actually planning something really special that I\u2019ll be announcing and it\u2019s pretty frickin\u2019 amazing and I can not wait to do it, and yeah it\u2019s gonna be a different experience, it\u2019s a concert thing but it\u2019s not the normal concert situation, so we\u2019re doing something pretty out there. Aside from that next year there\u2019s been some dates thrown around but honestly I don\u2019t know because of this whole Covid thing, when it\u2019s safe, because it just seems pretty scary right now you want to be safe and you want people attending to be safe you don\u2019t want to be putting on shows for people to get sick, that\u2019s not what music is about.<\/p>\n

Not even that, when do you think you\u2019ll be coming back here? Who knows when travelling will happen?!<\/strong>
\nYeah that\u2019s gonna be probably by next Christmas, it\u2019s difficult. Thank god for facetime and thank god for phones because I call my family every day.<\/p>\n

So over time it can be easy to say what can change but what would you say is the one thing that\u2019s stayed the same in your time making music?<\/strong>
\nMy love for it, that\u2019s always stayed, when I\u2019m alone I pick up my guitar and I\u2019m sitting wherever, that joy never leaves, the simplicity of just picking up a guitar and feeling that joy that\u2019s just something that I know I\u2019m meant to be doing. I started writing and strumming a guitar before I started playing leads and all that sort of stuff so for me it\u2019s just sitting with it and creating a melody or just strumming, it\u2019s a form a meditation too, it\u2019s not my job, I make it my job but it\u2019s something that I enjoy just doing and there\u2019s something beautiful about that way a guitar is just made and I have a few of them, so it\u2019s nice to have a choice and the thing is I use them all, I don\u2019t just love to have guitars and that\u2019s what I was talking about with my friend the other day, some people collect guitars which is cool, my Dad collects too but he plays, but I spend time with each one and each is used on different songs and have different personalities and sometimes it\u2019s necessary and I\u2019m just really justifying my addiction *laughs*.<\/p>\n

You also basically get to build a guitar, you\u2019ve got your signature Gibson acoustic now right?<\/strong>
\nYes I do, that\u2019s coming out next year and I\u2019m really excited about that guitar because it\u2019s actually a hybrid which is really wild, it\u2019s the first time in history that Gibson have done this, they put a 345 neck on a J200 body and they followed me down the rabbit hole with this one because I went to Montana and the head of Gibson said \u201cwe\u2019d really like to do something with you and I said that would be amazing, I was with Gibson about ten years ago and then went to Taylor, Martin, and PRS and then I don\u2019t even know what. So I went back to Gibson and I went down there and picked a J200 and they said \u201cIsn\u2019t that a little big?\u201d and I said no, it sounds amazing and I\u2019m all about the sound, I mean it looks amazing too, it\u2019s massive, it\u2019s great, and it just projects well when you\u2019re in the room you can accompany yourself, you don\u2019t need anybody else, it\u2019s like a grand piano it\u2019s really is. I was like can we modify this to make it more playable for lead guitar players, not every J200 is the same you have different necks and they\u2019re slightly different, and I picked up the guitar from \u2018A Star Is Born\u2019, Bradley Cooper\u2019s guitar they had it in the corner and I started strumming it and I\u2019m like \u201ccan we just fix this neck on it?\u201d and they were like \u201cahhhh ok\u2026\u201d *laughs* I was such a child running around, I want this neck on this body and we\u2019re gonna modify it and put crystals on it, and lotus flowers and make it red and they were like OK and honestly, they did it *laughs* and they\u2019re just wonderful to work with. Robi Johns in Montana is one of the sweetest people that could ever work with and he was incredibly excited over this idea and his wife actually brought in the crystals, she\u2019s very spiritual and sources amethyst and that\u2019s in the pick guard and then we put down the lotus flowers in the neck and then we modified the pickup with LR Baggs over skype and went back and forth and made it really cut through so the mids and treble and I could go on about this guitar but it\u2019s probably the best acoustic I\u2019ve ever played.<\/p>\n

Do you watch The Simpsons?<\/strong>
\nI did\u2026 a lot\u2026<\/p>\n

Remember when Homer got to make a car and just had free reign over it all, it sounds like that\u2019s what you got to do with a guitar!<\/strong>
\nPretty much *laughs* the thing is as an artist I always try and keep that childlike enthusiasm over things, very much a live with everything I do and I\u2019ve just always been that way and I get really excited over things whether it be songs, or guitars, and that\u2019s the thing, I wanted to make a guitar that when people see it it brings out that kid in everybody that just wants to pick up a guitar, that\u2019s really important we\u2019ve all got to keep that alive because there\u2019s a lot of darkness in this world and being excited over something, I\u2019m always trying to keep that whether it be products, music, or whatever around me I try to bring colour to the world as much as I can.<\/p>\n

When you stop being excited about things, then there\u2019s no point in doing it anymore, right?<\/strong>
\nExcited makes things, I always say that.<\/p>\n

What if anything has 2020 taught you that you will now maintain through your life?<\/strong>
\nWell I think that it\u2019s kind of a thing where people are really looking within, this year has been I think a\u00a0 very spiritual year too, people have been left alone so you\u2019re alone with your thoughts and you\u2019re less social, instead of going out and hanging with your friends at a bar you\u2019ve got to be here at home, so I think that reflection and all that has taught me also who to let into my inner circle and how my energy level sort of is and which people are lights and which people are drains *laughs* and ultimately this year has been about being around people that I love and love to be around and care about, and people that are no longer in my circle which has honestly been a thing where I\u2019ve lost a few people this year, they haven\u2019t died or anything they\u2019re just not in my circle anymore because it just became a bit toxic and a bit stressful so now it\u2019s like I just feel I have a really great team around me and that\u2019s professionally and personally too.<\/p>\n

Let’s look ahead to the future as we like to do. So forgetting the rest of this year, finish this sentence for me. In 2021 Orianthi will…<\/strong>
\nHopefully be playing shows *laughs* and be out there connecting with people, that would be awesome and also putting out maybe at the end of 2021 another record. That\u2019s what I\u2019m kind of thinking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Australia \/ USA<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.iamorianthi.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong>\u00a0O (Out now \u2013 Frontiers Music Srl)<\/p>\n