Introduction
The "Riff Playbooks" column is designed to make you a better player. By gleaning some insight into the technique, composition, and execution of these fine riffs by fine SH artists, you are bound to make headway in your own playing. We cordially invite you to steal a page from our books in order to expand your own diabolical playbook of musical wizardry (not literally though, the books are expensive to create).
Posted — May 15, 2019
While in Toronto for a performance on the Sunhead: North America tour, Plini once again graced us with (or conceited to) a demonstration of some of his latest material. "Sunhead", both the EP and the Complete Guitar Transcription have been blowing listeners' hair back for almost a year now. With this in mind, we wanted to catch up with Plini to find out what he's been up to since releasing the EP, and what's next for our favourite Australian riff lord.
In this demonstration, Plini shows us a few of his favourite parts from the EP. Alright, that's a lie - these are the parts we asked him to play, regardless of his preference. After a fiasco involving an inaccessible guitar buried in his trailer - which had us moving our entire shoot from our office to a location close to the venue, he was in no position to question us.
First up is a lead line from the first track on Sunhead, "Kind", that sparkles and slides its way directly into your heart. In the book, we are looking at page 12, bars 41-48.
Here's a slowed down take for a closer look:
Next up is a section from the title track, "Sunhead". This section shows Plini at some of his tonal heaviest and most melodically avant-garde. For the first half of the section, Plini takes us through the sludgy yet expressive rhythmic backbone of the riff. For the back half, he shows us how one of his signature layered leads can provide a simple but effective atmosphere which elevates the entire passage.
In the book we are looking at pages 64 & 65, bars 9-12.
And here's a slowed down take of that challenging first half of the riff:
While we had him, we thought we would follow up on some of the Q&A from our last Riff Playbook session with Plini, as well as throw him a couple of new ones. We get into some of his favourite things, from gear to venues, his new signature Neural DSP plugin, and more.
Check out more of Plini's entire (and comprehensive) Sheet Happens catalog HERE.
To listen to more of Plini's "Sunhead", head to one of the links below:
