INTERVIEW: Plini

Progressive music has enjoyed a period of creative renaissance over the last handful of years and Australian guitarist virtuoso PLINI has become a central figure in the genre’s explosion in popularity. Thanks to his expertise on his craft and the ability to weave elaborate musical soundscapes, PLINI is one of the most forward-thinking individuals in progressive music and is now reaping the rewards. Being the first instrumental progressive artist to perform at Download Festival, a worthy achievement in itself, we spoke to the man himself to cast a light to the progressive music’s soaring popularity, the benefits that brings and what we can expect from him in the future.

So, you are playing The Dogtooth Stage later today, what can people expect from your set?

Plini: A lot of guitar solos and a bunch of inexperienced Australians having fun!

I believe you are the first instrumental prog rock band to play Download Festival…

Plini: Possibly the last too! [laughs]

…does that set a lot of pressure for you?

Plini: Kind of because it is like will this even work? Will people even want to see this? But at the same time it is cool. We played a festival called Brutal Assault a couple of years ago and we weren’t the only instrumental act but we were definitely the lightest and the crowed were really receptive. If you’ve been spending all day in the sun listening to heavy music, heading to the tent and hearing some jazzy stuff may be a nice break.

I imagine playing a festival like Download that has a lot of big name rock bands on the bill, with you being so rooted in the progressive scene, is it much of a step-up than playing something like Tech-Fest for example?

Plini: Definitely. In terms of the scale of production and everything, you’re talking like 15 minutes to get here from watching ROLO TOMASSI. And I have like ten million wristbands to get to certain things and I can’t get to other things [laughs]

With you playing Download, there’s been a number of progressive bands playing across the weekend, the genre has had quite the surge in popularity, would you say that that you’ve noticed this spike in popularity for progressive music?

Plini: I think in general it is getting like that, I guess because making weirder or more complex music is becoming more of a benchmark for everyone. The stuff that is weird is even weirder and the stuff that is ‘normal’ is a little bit weirder, it’s progressing for lack of a better word.

It must be nice being a popular figure in the scene to see more bands gracing bigger festivals?

Plini: Yeah, and it also means there’s better opportunities for everyone. The bigger another band is, the better it is for me as maybe I get to play with them!

Coming into this performance at Download, you released a new single Salt + Charcoal a couple of months ago, how have you found the reception for that track?

Plini: It’s been really good! Especially live as we went on a US tour not too long after it came out and I totally wondered how it would feel to play, what’s the crowd going to be like? And it seems to be going down an instant hit so it’s really cool.

So when you are writing music do you often think about how it is going to translate to the live environment?

Plini: I didn’t used to in the past because I wrote a lot of music before I ever played live. But now, I guess now that I’ve had a bit of a taste of what seems to work and what doesn’t, it’s probably in the back of my mind. Like, are these sections going to hit hard? Or will there just be one person stood nodding?

Following the release of this new single, I imagine the attention is now focused towards a new full-length album. So where are you up to with that?

Plini: It’s actually an EP which is pretty much finished being mixed and it will come out at the end of the European run that we’re about to do.

Excellent stuff! Well best of luck for your set and thank you very much for talking to us today.

Plini: No problem, thanks man.

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