Australian guitar phenom Orianthi is probably best known – so far – as the blonde guitar player in the Michael Jackson footage that was shown virtually hourly after his recent passing. Though she never had the chance to actually participate in his comeback English tour, that visibility has put her on the musician’s map. We now know that she can reach inside you and rip out your soul like Carlos Santana. She can rip through highflying blues licks like Stevie Ray Vaughan. And she is able toburn down a guitar neck like Steve Vai. In fact, Steve was so blown away by her playing that he co-wrote a song called "Highly Strung" that appears on her new solo album, Believe.
Here she talks about the album, working with
Michael Jackson, and the thing she loves best in this world – playing guitar.
UG: You were originally listening to a lot of the classic players like Santana and Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. What was it about those guitarists that got inside of you?
Orianthi: Just the amount of soul in their playing. It really affected me the first time I heard Hendrix and Eric Clapton and Santana and Stevie Ray. My dad had a lot of vinyls around the house and yeah, he would play them all the time. When I was six, I picked up a guitar, the acoustic guitar, and just sort of started strumming. I was listening to Roy Orbison, Elvis, just all the old greats and tried to learn the chords and everything.
Santana was an especially big influence on you?
When I was actually 11, I saw Carlos play when he came to Adelaide. I was studying classical at the time and I saw him play and I was like, “Oh, my gosh! I don’t want to play classical guitar anymore; I want to play electric.” My parents bought me a PRS, a second-hand Custom 24 and I never put it down. I just listened to his records and tried to learn his solos. His playing has really affected me and was really amazing. His amount of soul and his choice of notes is so distinctively him. It’s like B. B. King and Stevie Ray; they hit just one note or a couple of notes and you know it’s them.
I just loved to come home from school and put the homework to the side and listen to the records.
When you saw Carlos, he was playing PRS guitars? And that influenced your choice of instrument?
Yeah. I loved the way he played and was just so cool and so I wanted to have the same guitar as him.
In listening to your music, there are some Santana influences there but you don’t really play guitar or sound like him.
I think when you’re listening to different records and you learn different player’s solos, you try and find your own voice. And you don’t wanna sound exactly like somebody because I think it’s important to step away. After I listened to Carlos’ records and Stevie Ray’s records and B.B. King and Steve Vai, you’ve then got to step away and just play and not listen to anybody. And try to find what you sort of gravitate towards playing. This comes from like jamming and not listening to anything for a while.
When I was younger, I loved to sit down and learn solos note-for-note and just learn as many Carlos songs as I could. I think it’s really good to do that because you learn the way that they approach solos and everything. It definitely helped me when I was coming to write my own songs and thinking up ways to put together solos.
"I actually quit school when I was 15 to just play in cover bands."
Yeah, actually my first support show was when I was 15 in Adelaide and I opened for Steve and he was playing at a club called Heaven. I was so nervous because it was my first ever support and I had a backing tape. Steve Vai audiences are pretty tough audiences because there are all these guys and it’s kinda scary. I plugged in my guitar and I’d never actually seen him play live before; I’d read lots of interviews with him and heard like sort of snippets of his playing. Then when he got off stage after I’d finished, I was just blown away. If I had seen him perform and play like that, I wouldn’t have gotten up. He was just insane. So he’s kept in contact since then and he’s been a huge support. He’s such an amazing player; I learn so much from just listening to him and watching him play.
You also opened for ZZ Top?
I actually opened for ZZ Top when I was 16 so that was really cool at the Adelaide Entertainment Center.
Were you playing with friends in school and doing that type of thing?
Yeah, totally. I actually quit school when I was 15 to just play in cover bands. I was playing out two to three nights a week and sort of earning my pocket money that way and learning all the Top 40 songs. I think it was a great learning experience to get out there and play to different audiences in different pubs and stuff. I loved music so much and school wasn’t really for me. I think I found my calling with music and so I asked my parents if I could drop out of school and just take music and do that fulltime. They supported me which was awesome. But yeah, at school, I was in a funk bank and just different bands because I changed schools a lot. It was funny, when I was really young, 12 or 13, I’d put up posters advertising that I needed to find some bandmembers and I’d say, “Influenced by B. B. King, Santana, Eric Clapton” and the kids were listening to music on the radio and were like, “Who are those people?” I didn’t have any people auditioning for the band so it was pretty funny.
Did you run into any sort of anti-feminist feelings from all the guys in bands? Did being a female guitar player prove to be a difficult thing?
Yeah, totally; I had a pretty hard time at school being a female guitar player. I think it’s like being a male ballerina. It’s a guy’s thing and I respect that but I love it as much as they love it and I just wanted to be accepted. The guy drummers thought it was cool but when I went to the same auditions to get in the school band as the other guy guitar players, they didn’t really dig it. Some of them were really cool and some weren’t but I loved it so much.
And that ultimately brought you to the attention of Michael Jackson.
Yeah; I got to play with Carrie Underwood and her band at the (2009) Grammys and that was awesome because I’m a big country fan. That was really nice of her to invite me up and I think the musical director for MJ, Mike Bearden, saw me that night but he didn’t know my name or something. But he wanted to find a female guitar player for the MJ tour and so I guess he asked people if they knew anybody and my name came back a few times. And then he found me on MySpace and sent me an email and I thought it was a joke at first. Then my manger reached out to him and it was for real so he asked if I could learn “Beat It,” “Dirty Diana” and “Wanna Be Starting Something.” So I learned those songs and I was so nervous because I was a big MJ fan and going in there and playing for the MD and then that night Michael came in and I played for him. They cranked up the “Beat It” solo in the speakers and he was sitting on the couch and I’ve never been that nervous in my life. I was just praying to God I didn’t stuff up the solo. Afterwards he got up and he was smiling and grabbed my arm and started walking up and down in front of the stage area and said, “Can you play that solo and follow me around at this pace?” And I said, “Yeah, totally.” I didn’t know if I could do it or not but I was prancing around, playing the solo, and he was, “OK, cool” and he hired me. That was just an awesome, awesome night.
You had been working on the Believe album at the time Michael Jackson called you? Your main focus was on becoming an artist on your own?
I came over to America about three years ago and signed to Geffen. So I moved to Los Angeles and I’d been working on the record and when I first came over I was writing it. And then we started recording about two years ago so it was on-and-off writing new songs and going in and recording it. It was kind of a slow process but I’m really happy with the way that the record was taking shape. We took our time and working with Howard Benson and his guys, his team, was just awesome; I learned so much. I’m really proud of this record; it’s really guitar based and it’s kind of got an ‘80s now sort of vibe to it. So, lots of guitar solos. Every song has a guitar solo and lots of guitars piled up in the choruses. It was great and I had a lot of fun doing it.
So when I got the email from Mike Bearden to come in and audition, I kind of put that stuff to the side. You do that when you get the opportunity to audition for Michael Jackson’s band.
I’d been rehearsing with him for three months ready to go out there and play the shows in London. It was just an amazing experience and I’m just so grateful I had the opportunity to play music with Michael and everyone in the band. It was just such a great learning experience.
What was it like learning Michael’s music? Those songs are not the easiest songs to play for a guitarist.
I didn’t realize there were so many funky sort of rhythm parts; just listening really carefully to different songs. I wouldn’t say they’re simple parts but there are little parts and you just have to remember them and just get them right in the groove and everything. For me, it definitely made me step up as a rhythm player and I learned so much from those guys. And just a great bunch and it felt like a family and he was so encouraging. And working with Michael, he was so awesome and friendly and just a really nice person.
Would he ever comment on something you were playing?
He was so particular about his songs; he wanted them to sound just like the records. And so everyone went home with the songs and we listened very carefully to make sure we’d got all the rhythm parts right and all the other parts.
"I really want to inspire kids to pick up the guitar."
I wasn’t trying to think of filling any of their shoes ‘cause they’re just all so amazing. If I thought about it that way then I wouldn’t have done it; it’s too overwhelming, too daunting. I went in there when I auditioned and just did my thing and they hired me.
I’m a blues based sort of player but it was just learning the solos from “Beat It” and “Dirty Diana” and yeah, I learned a lot. Actually Jennifer Batten emailed me after the Grammy Awards and I was a big fan of hers. There are not too many female guitar players I look up to. Jennifer Batten and Bonnie Raitt and getting an email from her was awesome. I thought she would be doing the shows so when I got the email I thought that it was kind of weird but it was awesome to have her support because she’s just great.
Jumping over to Believe, the first single from the record is “According to You” which has acoustic guitar, guitar lines spelling out the verses, and a big guitar solo. A lot of guitar!
Yeah, there is. I love commercial songs so it’s just trying to make the guitar fit and do what’s best for the song. I really want to inspire kids to pick up the guitar and girls and hopefully it comes across as an exciting song with the film clip and everything. We had a lot of fun shooting the music video for it. And I had a lot of fun recording the song too. So hopefully people take to it.
How would you describe the solo? Is it something you knew would fit with the song or did it just happen off-the-cuff?
Well, I wanted to put a tapping solo into the song (laughs). I thought it would be kind of funny to do that. I sort of did it, not as a joke at first, but just as an ‘80s tapping solo in there and see if people dig it. Because it will be kind of fun to play live. Yeah, so I just did that; I worked on it and went into the studio and recorded it and they kept it on there.
“Suffocated” has this sparse verse and picked guitars that lead into the big chorus.
That’s a song by the band Sound the Alarm which I covered. I actually heard that song and I loved it so I covered it. The guitar player that was in that band is now my guitar player, my second lead guitar player and rhythm player. So when I’m singing the chorus parts he’s playing the lead parts underneath that so there would be melody parts and stuff. It was really cool because I heard that song and Brian Chiusano came down from Pennsylvania to put some rhythms on that song. I’m really happy with my band; I have a great band. He plays rhythm and then I have another guitar player who also plays keyboards (Daniel D’amico).
So you’re doing like a Skynyrd thing? Did you think you needed two other guitar players to make your songs come alive on stage?
Yeah, I just wanted it to sound really fat because there are so many layered rhythm parts in the songs that I didn’t want it to sound weak or anything. So when we put on a show it sounds rocking having three guitar players playing different rhythm parts that sort of complement each other. We listen to the record back and make sure we get the parts right. People come to the shows and hopefully it sounds rocking and they dig it.
“Bad News” is another rocker with that sort of orchestrated section in there with the harmony guitars.
I actually wrote that song with Desmond Child and when I went in to do the demo of that song, I was just experimenting with different solo parts. I wanted to have more of a melodic part there instead of playing whatever and having a set sort of thing. When we’re all playing harmony parts it could be pretty cool.
“Think Like a Man” has a really rhythmic thing going on. You can hear a little AC/DC influence in there? A nod to your countrymen?
Oh, totally (laughs). I love AC/DC; I’m a big fan. I thought that song had a funny lyric to it. I did two different solos for that song. I recorded a solo for it a while back and then I wanted to change it so I went in and put another one down.
I’m happy with the way the song turned out. Actually the lead singer from Hoobastank, Doug (Robb), he came in and sang harmonies to that song.
And more to the point, what were the guitars and amps you used on Believe?
I was using a JVM Marshall and a 5150 for the recording. And my guitars, I used a Custom 22 PRS and a Custom 24; I have a few of those. And my Martin acoustic and I used my Maton acoustic as well which is an Australian guitar.
Is that the same gear you used with Michael Jackson?
No, I used an Engl amp; I love the Engl amps and I’m using them now. The thing I love about them is they have like a built-in noise gate so even when you have it on pretty high gain, it’s quiet. And it doesn’t interfere with the notes either. Sometimes when you put a noise gate in your pedals, it kind of makes noise. You can read a book right next to the speakers – very quiet. It’s rocking.
I’ve actually started working with some pedals now but during the MJ tour they wanted me to put together a pedal board. But apart from using my wah pedal, that’s all I used live before – just a wah pedal straight into the amp. I went through that whole phase of having a lot of pedals and using different digital effects and stuff. They kind of frustrated me after a while because when you turn down the volume, you lose the tone and it’s very harsh and brittle.
Plugging straight into the amp is this sort of direct connection; you can just hear your notes and everything clearer otherwise they get too muddled. So working on a pedal board for that was stressing me initially. Because I’m like, “Oh my gosh, all these pedals are overwhelming” but then I got used to using a bunch. But just like having delay and chorus and a whammy pedal and a volume pedal, that’s cool. I like to use the distortion from the amp and reverb and everything. I think it’s really important to just have an amp that sounds great by itself without putting a whole bunch of stuff through it.
"It was an amazing experience and I’m just so grateful I had the opportunity to play music with Michael and everyone in the band."
I’m really happy with this record; I’m really proud of it. I have been working on it for a long time. And writing “Highly Strung” with Steve Vai was awesome. He came out with the idea of this riff and I went over to his house and we just destroyed it. Actually the guitars that are on the record were recorded at his home. That’s the instrumental for the record and it’s like an answering and talking back song; I play something and he plays something and we play together. That was a lot of fun; it was awesome to work with him. He’s such an amazing guitar player.
You were doing these Guitars Runs of the Week on Youtube?
I actually started those and was then told I was a terrible teacher!
Well, I have to tell you, Orianthi, I saw those lessons and I think I agree! You play this one country lick and then you say you’re going to slow it down but it still goes by in a blinding blaze. You just need to bring it back a notch.
My lesson in life is to learn patience. I was trying to slow it down a little more. I watched it back after I got a few comments saying, “We like your playing but you’re a terrible teacher.” So, no more. I might do some later but I don’t know. I don’t know about the teaching thing because I’m learning so much myself now. A few people have asked me to do it before in emails to teach them a few riffs and stuff but there are so many amazing guitar teachers online. I have riffs that I play and whatnot but trying to break it down for people and trying to come across as being a good sort of teacher, maybe I’ll do it later on. Because as I said, I’m still learning myself and I never stop learning. Every day I’m working with different people and everything. So maybe later on.
You talked about Carlos and Clapton and Stevie Ray as having all this soul in their playing. But maybe another way to look at it is that were just able to reach a deeper level of expression. They were so unique in what they did that you could never mistake Hendrix for B.B. King or whatever.
Yeah. When I first heard Santana play for the first time and I bought the Sacred Fire video, it wasn’t about playing a gazillion notes or anything. It was about playing just a few notes but they were really heartfelt. It was just like a really organic sound that they had – the guitar straight into the amp. And I grew up listening to Santana and B.B. King and Freddie King who don’t play a lot of notes, but it’s the feeling they put into them. If they’re feeling it, you feel it. For me, I loved that sort of playing. I always kind of go back to that. People always ask me, “What scales do you use?” and stuff like that, and in a way I don’t really think of scales; I don’t think of melodies. I can sort of hear it in my head if I’m soloing or whatever and just go with what I feel. It’s usually blues-based because that’s what I grew up listening to so I go back to that. Even though I love rock.
Interview by Steven Rosen
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