It’s virtually impossible to capture the tapestry of blistering fretwork and undulating soundscapes at the core of Australian guitarist Plini’s creations in a singular genre or word.
Fittingly, Plini has just independently released his third studio album, dubbed An Unnameable Desire, expanding his sonic palette and genre-defiance once again, with the guitarist, composer and producer set to kick off his biggest headline run of Australia and New Zealand this week.
Revered globally for his versatility as a composer across prog rock, metal and instrumental rock wizardry, Plini’s virtuosic guitarwork and ground-breaking creations have been praised by guitar gods like Steve Vai, and taken him around the world both as a headliner and alongside the likes of Animals As Leaders, Sleep Token, Periphery and more.
Following on from 2020’s Impulse Voices, which embraced jazzy hues and ambience set against soaring guitars, An Unnameable Desire finds Plini stepping into more whimsical territory, embracing his playful side without sacrificing intricacy and moments of heaviness. And, as he explains, the end result of this chameleonic collection of 10 tracks was equal parts organic evolution along with a sharp subconscious mindset honouring his long-time creative approach.
“I often think about when I first started writing music and how I would get lost in trying to make a song for hours and hours and hours, and have nothing else to do and not really give a shit what the end result was,” Plini explains. “And that’s the thing I’ve always wanted to keep, no matter how much better I get at the guitar, or the more skills I have in composing. I always try and go back to that headspace.”
“That was partly the goal with this album,” Plini adds. “But I guess it’s also maybe some good luck that it worked out that way too”.
Call it luck or perhaps also an artist truly fluent in their sonic DNA, An Unnameable Desire is a tantalising journey, flitting between the unbridled whimsy of its title track through to the fiery palpitations of Canyon, the interstellar percolations of Vespertine, and the djenty ambience of Manala. And for Plini, arriving at the final track listing for album No. 3 was ultimately spurred by a healthy dose of competition, but it was one lit from within rather than dependent on outside sources.
“It starts off with just coming up with ideas,” Plini reveals of navigating sequencing and track listing his albums. “And then when I have a handful, I have some sort of a thought of like: okay, I’m going to make an album.”
“It’s a little bit of competition with myself to make the album longer than the last one,” Plini laughs, “and then I just convinced myself: yes, 10 tracks feels right. That’s the correct decision for an album. Then I build up the ideas that I have, song-by-song, until they’re all there and then sequence it.
“It’s kind of like making a sculpture. You chip away until the thing is there, as opposed to building it from nothing.”
By no means his first album rodeo, An Unnameable Desire delivered many firsts for Plini in various ways. Bucking his trademark reputation via the album’s title track, a single without a typical or expected guitar solo geared to provide a false sense of security about what may lie in store on the broader album, Plini also stepped well beyond his comfort zone on the visual side of things, too.
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Releasing a trilogy of Australian-centric music videos, comprised of After Everything, An Unnameable Desire and Manala, Plini’s goal as “an independent artist known for playing guitar” was to try new things; despite the fact that making a music video is realistically financially daunting and creatively questionable for a self-funded artist in a distinct sonic realm.
“I actually totally loved it,” says Plini of creating the video trilogy. “The idea came from many conversations I had with Jamie [McVicker] and Declan [Blackall], who do all my photo and video stuff. I was basically like, ‘Album’s coming soon. Let’s promote it with videos because that seems to be what people do for some reason.’ And then, ‘What can we do that’s different to just me sitting in a room playing guitar… but also let’s have a little bit of me sitting in a room playing guitar.'”
“They thought of writing a narrative that would go across all three songs first,” Plini adds. “And then, because having a budget unfortunately exists, we had this idea that the first and last ones could be shot at the same time as well as bits of the middle one, and then do a band shoot in the middle. It came out really cool.”
Garnering comments from his local audiences like “an average Australian trip to the nearest grocery store” and “A+ kangaroo content”, the videos also gave international audiences a distinct taste of Australiana that also harks back to some formative Aussie TV vibes for the locals.
“Something that I was hesitant about initially, but it ended up being cool, at least to me: it’s the kind of story that could have benefited from $100 million Hollywood special effects to go crazy,” Plini says. “But some of the effects are very humble, the part where someone disappears. And I kind of like that, it’s kind of like a ’90s ABC TV vibe.”
After releasing An Unnameable Desire in April, Plini immediately kick-started a world tour to christen his latest opus a few days later, with international crowds immediately resonating with the new material.
“The album came out a few days before we started the tour in Europe, so I was kind of like: will anyone even know what the fuck’s happening? And I’m including us in that!” Plini reveals. “But it came together really quickly, and the new stuff was all really fun.”
“That actually surprised me because usually you play something new, the crowd either hates it or the band is just like “there’s no vibe to this”. But it was cool. Everything was really good and I’m really looking forward to doing it back home and in New Zealand too.”
“The song Manala in particular has gone over pretty well live so far,” Plini adds. “It turned into a bit in the set where I would encourage a circle pit and stuff like that. It started getting quite silly. I started sending our drum and guitar techs into the crowd to do a circle pit. So that was fun. But all of the songs seemed to be well received.”
Last headlining in Australia back in 2023, Plini’s upcoming local run will bring his biggest production to date to Australia and New Zealand audiences, as well as bringing some of his own favourite acts along on the journey, including British math rockers Delta Sleep, enigmatic Sydney solo artist Cenobia in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and Aussie alt metalcore act Nightdive on Australian dates only.
“Nightdive are pretty much just our friends,” says Plini. “The guys in that band have played in bands with some of my band, and we’ve known each other forever. And they started this band, as Nightdive, recently. They’re awesome, so it was kind of a no-brainer to force them to come with us.”
“Cenobia is also a new artist, I think she’s playing her first show in a week, then the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne shows she’s doing with us will be her first Aussie tour, and then I think she goes overseas,” adds Plini. “And that’s the kind of thing where hopefully we can support her in an arena next year or whenever that happens”.
“And Delta Sleep have been one of my favourite bands for years. I was just thinking about who is a cool overseas band I could bring here that’s kind of similar enough to be enjoyable for the audience but also isn’t just another shred guitar band. I just think they’re really sick, it’s a stacked bill”.
A modern-day force to be reckoned with who has taken the guitar world by storm for over 15 years, gearheads can look forward to laying their eyes in person on Plini’s brand new signature Strandberg guitar set to drop next month. But there’s also a unique new instrumental addition picked up during Plini’s European travels that will also find its way onstage in Australia and New Zealand.
“I have a new signature Strandberg that’s coming out in August, I think, that I’ll be playing mostly,” Plini reveals. “And then I’m playing a seven-string, which is the signature of Per Nilsson, who played in Meshuggah for a while.”
“My other guitarist has six, seven and eight strings,” Plini continues, “my bass player has five and six strings. My drummer, I was just talking to him this morning about our Asia tour because he wants to bring three snares, and I was like, “I would love you more if you didn’t”. He will for Australia, I guess.”
“But the most important thing, I can’t play it right now because it needs to be filled with water, but it makes bird noises, it’s a bird water whistle. I bought it from a street vendor in Barcelona who was making bird noises with it. The song After Everything on the new album has bird noises at the beginning, and now my drummer plays this whistle in the set.”
Kicking off 2026 extensively touring the UK and Europe alongside releasing An Unnameable Desire, one key factor ultimately beats at the heart of his success: creating and releasing music as an entirely independent solo artist.
“In terms of what might be my greatest success, it would probably be that I do it totally on my own terms and enjoy it every day,” Plini shares. “That’s definitely got to be the best part. I was actually thinking about this the other day, I do spend a lot of time doing work, but I never think of it as work, so that’s definitely a cool thing”.
“And I do still get “pinch me” moments,” Plini adds. “When I walked into the venue we just recently played in Paris. I was like, “holy shit, this is way too nice for me”. The backstage had all, it had a fucking ornamental bathtub in the band bathroom. It was this totally beautiful theatre. So that was a bit of a pinch me moment.”
As for his greatest lesson to date in this ongoing journey?
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned to date was also on that Euro tour,” Plini reveals. “We only had three days off, it was pretty full on. When I travel, I also tend to make the most of my time there, which takes away from sleeping. But I noticed if I don’t sleep enough, I play like shit. So I definitely need to get to bed earlier.”
Armed with An Unnameable Desire and about to enamour hometown crowds, Plini’s gaze has also turned towards the not-too-distant future. And here, there may be vocals.
“I would like to start writing the next album, and I would like to have vocalists on it,” Plini reveals. “I’m trying to figure it out because I’ve never really written for vocalists.”
“In terms of which vocalists I’d like, I have a list of people that range from reasonably realistic to probably not,” Plini adds. “And I’m also like, “do I write a song with the person in mind, but if they say no, do I find someone similar or is the whole song fucked?”. Or do I try and just write a song and see what happens? I don’t know.”
“It could be a mix of positive manifestation, or it might even end up going somewhere I didn’t expect.”
PLINI AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND TOUR
Tickets available here.
Thursday, August 6th
Princess Theatre, Brisbane, QLD
Friday, August 7th
Liberty Hall, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, August 8th
Northcote Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
Sunday, August 9th
Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide, SA
Tuesday, August 11th
Magnet House, Perth, WA
Friday, August 14th
Double Whammy, Auckland, NZ
Saturday, August 15th
San Fran, Wellington, NZ
