Universal Harmony
Returning with his second full-length record, Australian guitar prodigy Plini has found himself in the centre of a metal-versus-pop drama. But instead of fuelling the fire, with Impulse Voices, he tells Prog he’s ceaselessly melding genres to help unify the music world once and for all.
Words: Phil Weller Images: Chad Dao
One man and his guitar: Plini Roessler-Holgate.
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hree weeks before the release of Impulse Voices, Plini’s phone blew up with angry messages from his fans. During the MTV EMAs, American singer and rapper Doja Cat had surprised viewers with a version of her hit Say So and people were quick to notice similarities to the song’s newly added guitar solo and the title track from Plini’s 2016 album, Handmade Cities.
“I was sent the video by a bunch of different fans,” the Sydney-based guitarist Plini Roessler-Holgate recalls. “Some of them were outraged and some were curious. I watched it and I thought, ‘Hey, that is similar’ Then I watched it again and I was like, ‘Hey, that’s really similar.’”
Agreeing with his fans, he sought more information.
“I tried to find out who the band was but some fans did the research for me and found the musical director, who claims to be a big fan of mine. So I found that it was directly inspired, which I actually thought that was pretty cool.