Australian Musician’s Nicole Nighthawk recently had the pleasure of catching up with Australian born, Platinum-selling recording artist and world class guitarist, Orianthi to chat about her new album and her signature Gibson acoustic guitar. Orianthi also opens up to Nicole about online trolls, an upcoming blues album, a hip hop album she’s also been working on, as well as a cooking show.
Australian born, Platinum-selling recording artist and world class guitarist, Orianthi released her new album, “O” in November 6, 2020 via Frontiers Music Srl. It’s Orianthi’s first new studio album in seven years and her first new music as a solo artist in six years. Orianthi’s first major solo artist success, as a singer-songwriter and guitarist, was with the Geffen Records release of “According To You,” which is now RIAA-Certified Platinum® and has over 17 million streams on Spotify. Her music’s ability to transcend time and remain relevant cannot be more clear than it’s recent resurgence on TikTok. There are over 83 million views on the “According to You” hashtag making it a viral trend that is introducing Gen Z to Orianthi for the first time in a big way. Career-long fans are used to seeing their favorite world class guitarist playing arenas with rock royalty and global superstars like Michael Jackson, Carlos Santana, Carrie Underwood, Alice Cooper and more. The juxtaposition of her newly arrived online popularity and her lifelong pursuit of artistic credibility is the nebulous of this shining star.
In addition to her album release with Frontiers, Gibson Guitars has announced a new partnership with the Australian-born guitarist Orianthi Panagaris, aka Orianthi. The new Gibson Orianthi SJ-200 Custom in Cherry will be available worldwide this coming May 2021. In late 2019, Orianthi visited the Gibson Acoustic factory in Bozeman, MT in late 2019 and a creative collaboration was born. Orianthi worked with the luthiers in the Gibson Acoustic Custom Shop to create her perfect signature guitar with a special neck modeled after a Gibson ES 345, a redesigned pickguard with Lotus Flowers, as well as mother-of-pearl dot inlays in the neck. More features include a AAA Sitka spruce top and maple back, gold Grover® Keystone tuners, a stunning and distinctive Cherry nitrocellulose lacquer finish, and an LR Baggs™ Orianthi System, with under-saddle piezo pickup and sound hole mounted preamp and controls and more. “Creating a signature acoustic with the amazing Gibson team was truly an honour! I couldn’t be happier!” says Orianthi. “It’s the same full SJ-200 sound, but it plays much faster with a 345 neck on it, and with the modified unique LR Baggs custom pickup, it’s a balanced guitar and cuts through. I can’t wait for you all to be able to pick it up and shred away on it in May.”
Nicole Nighthawk is a Melbourne-based singer songwriter https://nicolenighthawk.com/
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