Orianthi, 'According to You' -- Video Premiere

By Ken Micallef Posted Oct 23rd 2009 10:00AM

Australian-born Orianthi wants to inspire America's young women to put down their cell phones and pick up guitars. As the guitarist for Michael Jackson's ill-fated final tour, the 24-year-old followed in the footsteps of Eddie Van Halen and Jennifer Batten in working with the late legend. But as the video for 'According to You' -- from her forthcoming album, 'Believe' -- proves, Orianthi is ready to break out on her own.

"'According to You' is a pop song but I think the lyrics will really connect with a lot of young girls," Orianthi tells PopEater. "It will make them feel good about themselves. It's really empowering and it connects with a lot of people as it's about leaving a bad situation and moving on to a better one. It's not a negative song. I thought that lyric would be great and then rocking it with the music and adding a guitar solo."

Channeling the spirits of Stevie Ray Vaughan and her biggest influence, Carlos Santana, Orianthi gleefully shreds and slashes her axe as her two fellow guitarists rock out in the background.

"Playing guitar is my passion, and I love it," she admits. "The two male guitar players in the video are in my band and we have so much fun playing. They are great players and we jam away all the time, we act like six-year-olds at band rehearsals playing old songs. We add 20-minute guitar solos to Hendrix and Stevie Ray songs. We love playing."

A robot-like hand playing chords on a guitar neck is also seen in the video, a la 'Guitar Hero.' But Orianthi says she's no game master. "I suck at 'Guitar Hero,'" she laughs. "I get booed all the time! It's really depressing."

Well, cheer up. If 'According to You' is any indication, 'Believe' will soon inspire a new guitar girl nation.

"When I was learning guitar there weren't too many female players like Jennifer Batten and Bonnie Raitt to look up to," Orianthi recalls. "It wasn't easy. It's like being a male ballerina. Ballet is a girl's thing and playing guitar is a guy's thing, but hopefully this will get more girls playing guitar. When you watch the music video it's not too much guitar but it's there. If it inspires more girls to play guitar that would be really cool."

Tags: Orianthi

Comments

(4)

Friday 23 October

By dlc

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Orianthi is amazing. Just look her up on you tube. When she plays solo she's incredible. Thanks to MJ, we would have never heard about her. Awesome.

By Emma

I have never been a morning person. That does not work out too well when you have to get 3 kids ready for school in the morning. I have been a regular user of multi-vitamin packs and energy drinks for some time now. I really hated the "burn out" from the drinks and taking the vitamins alone really did not do much for me. I started taking Resveratrol Pills http://cli.gs/RezV and I now love getting up in the morning and have the extra energy to exercise while the kids are in school. So I am a "skinnier" morning person too. I am so glad I found this ultimate supplement: http://cli.gs/RezV

By Ron

I saw her on youtube a couple of years ago and was stunned by what I saw - she's got great feel in her playing. I immediately bought her 1st CD that she recorded when she was about 17 & played all the instruments - go get it, you WON'T be disappointed!