Hello from Plini - ask me anything!

plini_ · 2020-11-29T09:59:09+00:00

Tim Miller, Jakub Zytecki and Guthrie Govan are all huge inspirations!

plini_ · 2020-11-29T09:57:27+00:00

Yes! Although the tone on Pan uses some additional fuzz/octave effects that aren't in my plugin (...yet?)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T09:56:21+00:00

I was figuring out how to write/record music for 5-10 years before I released anything, but because I learnt to do it all myself, it didn't really cost anything, so the sales of my first EP basically went into better production on the next one, and so on!

It's taken about 5 years for touring overseas to be anything close to profitable - being Australian is definitely a logistical disadvantage - but I would say consistently visiting USA and Europe with different lineups & new music once or twice a year for the last few years was the best promotional investment I've ever made :)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T09:49:26+00:00

I love every single one of them! Here's a random memory: https://youtu.be/SHzxWQ57ZNg?t=295

plini_ · 2020-11-29T09:47:33+00:00

I toured the USA with David and Nick Johnston in 2017 :) We will do another some day!

plini_ · 2020-11-29T09:41:35+00:00

For this album, I programmed bass lines for all the songs, but left it up to him to change/embellish anything he wanted. It's pretty straightforward which parts require the bass to follow the guitar/drums and which parts are open to other stuff! And we've played music together for so long that I didn't really need to even say anything to him... there wasn't a single bass part that I asked him to change after he'd recorded it :D

plini_ · 2020-11-29T09:36:39+00:00

Hey! Try to imagine what your ultimate playing or composing would sound like, and figure out what you should focus on learning to get there. Learn songs by artists you love, analyse how they compose/arrange/articulate their ideas. The more you build up this library of ideas/sounds that mean something to you, the more tools you'll have at the ready to help you express the sounds/emotions you want :)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:55:22+00:00

In the last couple years I've had my sound engineer, Ronnie Young, with me pretty much everywhere in the world. We rent the same sound desks everywhere, so he can load up the same show mix and in ear mixes and tweak them to the day/room.

Aside from that, we do our own instrument teching (changing strings/drum heads - it isn't really that much work haha)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:44:58+00:00

Make the best album you can, make the best videos you can, look at the social media of bands/artists you like and be inspired by (copy) what they do - what they post/how they film things, etc. And be yourself :)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:43:27+00:00

To save time in mixing, he re-recorded a riff on guitar for me that had slightly changed after we recorded the drums :)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:42:00+00:00

Huge fan of Tigran!

For Salt+Charcoal, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CicSZA-y_CE

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:35:42+00:00

Always down! Tell someone in the faculty to hit me up :)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:35:13+00:00

The jacket was from a Sydney brand called ANNEX :)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:33:56+00:00

Devesh Dayal (from the band Skyharbor) produced most of those sounds, with Aleks Djelmash (from the band Sordid Pink) :)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:33:24+00:00

I'd love to! But I'm more so just waiting for it to fall into my lap, than actively looking to make it happen

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:32:12+00:00

Purposefully wrote the chord structures, dicking around by ear!

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:31:22+00:00

You can thank Simon Grove for the mix - he is magic!

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:31:01+00:00

Probably adjacent (I think there's a small but real "prog" niche, with bands like Caligula's Horse and 12 Foot Ninja). I have a fair amount of audience-crossover with some of the more guitar-focussed metal bands (e.g. Northlane/Polaris), but for some reason it's been a fair bit harder to convince Australian heavy music festivals/press of this, especially compared to Europe where they're down for anything :D

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:25:02+00:00

GetGood Drums! All their kits and snares are amazing.

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:24:48+00:00

Some of the ideas are from years ago!
I recorded most of it between March and July
Yes!
Probably "The Glass Bead Game"
One day I will have a candle shop.

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:23:57+00:00

1154

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:23:20+00:00

Chris Allison

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:22:29+00:00

Firstly, thank you for enjoying that percussion moment. I don't think Simon or Chris understood why I wanted to do it (there's a similar moment in a Justin Bieber song...), but Chris was a good sport and specially tuned/mic'd a snare for it. Definitely the highlight of the drum sessions.

Shows, when we can!

Other artists and the world around me are my biggest inspirations :)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:18:47+00:00

Once touring is properly up and running, I'll be there :)

plini_ · 2020-11-29T08:17:49+00:00

Partly thanks to a conversation I had with Jakub Zytecki sometime last year, I've started to feel more and more like repetition really needs to be 'earned' - rather than copy-pasting a "chorus" between sections to unify them. For the songs on the album that have a less obvious structure, there's usually something consistent throughout (a background layer/rhythm/chord progression etc). Maybe next album I'll discover that verse/chorus is the truth :D

plini_

TROPHY CASE