Awesome interview!!! She is a talented guitarist. She is a constantly humbled. I adore her style and personality. Thank you Nita Strauss. Sending tons of love from Bangladesh.
17:00 this is so true, I have met so many players who dwell on their live show mistakes, but in reality 99 percent of music fans will not notice or care that there was a problem. I met Nita a number of years back at NAMM before the Alice Cooper gig, and you could tell then, she was a guitar nut and pretty driven about what she did. It's clear t o see from this interview that she's 110% dedicated to the job in hand. Kudos and best wishes to Nita. Great job again Nick Bowcott.
Not playing alone - I dig that. It was when us guys got together in my basement and jammed for hours and hours that made a difference in my bass playing. No rigid plan. No schedule. Just finding riffs and feeding off each other back and forth. Becoming comfortable with our instruments. It was more important than developing any music that would be released publicly. Rock it, Nita! Thank you Nick. Great questions and discussion!
Tip of my hat to an amazing guitarist at the top of her game , or the game so to speak. Melting the frets of anything she has put in front of her. So impressed , inspired , and more than a bit jealous that she has risen to the top of the mountain with the king of 70s , 80s , etc....of hard rock ...AC !!!! Loved this band's music since day one of hearing it.! Beyond beautiful in many more ways than one...very well spoken, non- rehearsed , "interview-wise" and love that " this can and will be you if you're dedicated ,willing to rip the prints off of your fingertips to achieve not even fortune nor fame , but self satisfaction and acknowledgment from the heroes of youth. Alice Cooper . Nita , congratulations. Your journey is far from over !🎃🦂
When I first stumbled across Nita, my initial reaction was 'oh geez, just another hot blonde that can play a few licks.' SO GLAD I was wrong. She's great, all around.
For the movie "Crossroads," the slide guitar was played by Ry Cooper. The flatpicked guitar was Steve Vai. Ralph Macchio was accurately miming the notes, though.
Its fun when Nita and Nick get together for interviews and when they do lessons ! Can't wait for the JivaJR to come in Stock I want to get one So Bad ! I Love the Deep Sea Blond and they Sound Amazing when Nita plays it !!
Who says you can't learn anything from the Internet: played guitar in bands for decades and never thought about doing stretching! My daughter sings and I tell her to warm up her voice but I never thought about doing the sae for my hands! Doh! Thanks Nita :)
Nita is awesome! And the guy doing the interview , is a lefty....So cool I only know this from seeing him do a few guitar demo's. I also play left handed. I wouldn't change that for anything.
I should have mine on 09/06. It's been delayed a couple times already, but I'm number 2 in line at Sweetwater. I ordered as soon as they came online in February :)
Viewed her in calif/July-2012. Definably not scripted, I started laughing when some walking noriety mentioned nitas combined play, with her occasional dance, being scripted. This is completely natural Nita. Also I like her never within lack of variety catagory. Alice being himself, Nita your welcome to travel entire stage, Alice himself even encourages this part within Nita. Can't place a leash on a adventurous person, it creates a plain Jane show. This is what I really liked within kk, his exploration within stage, to provide to audience at every angle. Nita provides equilventcy herself.
She was a main part of getting to the Alice Cooper show. Haven't been to Alice Cooper since Lace and Leather. Was a hard act to follow after Nightmare and expected too much. Tho We are Clones
I am sure that the much younger version of you Miss Strauss was still amazing compared to most other people. On your worst day you are better than most people on thier best.
I agree with her. Compared to a lot of her peers, she doesn't have much of a natural, unique feel for the instrument. Almost all of her finesse, you can tell came from repetition and experience. That is not a bad thing, it in fact means she had to work harder than most of her peers to get to where she is in terms of guitar playing ability.
I hate to say it, but I think joining Alice Cooper's band was the worst thing she could have done for her guitar playing. When she was younger, she was in an all female original band and I remember hearing their stuff on MySpace. She WAS the next Randy Rhoads, Steve Vai, etc. I myself heard how seriously she approached so many techniques in the most melodic way. She's a great song writer. But after she joined Cooper I remember hearing her mention a couple of times that the bandmates told her to "tone it down a little". I feel that she's kind of become stuck in the pentatonic boxes and stuff. When pandemonium came out I was in love all over again. But after hearing in this interview that her gig with Alice limits her practice time, I think it's showing. Not that she isn't good, but I really would love to see Nita break away from this tribute band/studio musician act and really go her own way. I mean this in all respect. This girl was really close to being prodigal at such a young age and I feel like this gig has taken her originality and shine and traded it in for a signature guitar and fame because she doesn't have time anymore to be and do what she really wanted to do with guitar😢
I definitely see the Cooper gig as bitter sweet. On one hand you travel the world, play your guitar, meet people, make money, that's great. The downside is you're playing the same material day after day... and it's not your material. It's the same routine over and over and you have very limited time to do your own thing. If you're constantly toning your playing down in the process in order to play the part and not flexing your muscles you will lose technique. Period. This is quite a common rut for "hired guns" to get into. I think in the long run it stunts creativity and leads to frustration. Anything can become mundane, I don't care how great it is initially. Nita is definitely not a bluesy rock player. I don't mean that as a knock, it's just obvious when I listen to her play. When she plays "bluesy" runs it's sounds very forced and stiff. Even the pitch of the bends are wonky. This is where I think Orianthi had an advantage in the Copper band, she is a bluesy rock player, when she plays blues it just flows, it's natural for her. I'm not in the Orianthi fan club or anything, i'm just a fellow long time musician giving an opinion. Oh and I know people will say "pro guitar players don't criticize other players". That's BS, they may not do it publicly on Twitter or RU-vid, or if they do they may use an alias. The music business is the same deal as the acting business, you want to keep your mouth shut publicly so you don't burn bridges, so you lie publicly and shoot it straight privately. Secondly, an opinion doesn't equal criticism. The Copper gig is a great gig.... but everything has a price though. I was always a believer that it's better to build your own house than to maintain somebody's else's house.
I doubt that there's really much to worry about here. She has shown what she can do when it's her own music and she said in this interview that she has a solo project that she is working on now. I hadn't heard about her before she started playing for Alice, so there are benefits to this gig. In the meantime, she gets to do what she loves for a living in a band that has had a number of other great guitarists before her. I'm sure that she'll be fine.
Iwith the lack of public and label support these days for metal style music I'd imagine the Alice gig is to secure a financial future to ensure that future projects are funded and get the exposure ... On some level anyway , also it doesn't suck to be a young famous hot blondie touring the world w/a world famous troop w/sold out shows every night ! I'm sure we will see her branch off sooner than later ... She literally couldn't get any f'n hotter !!! It'd be nice to see her w/her own stable of like minded mercs doing their own thing !
Jak Angelescu you are on drugs. She still has all of those projects the only difference is now most of us have heard of them because Alice Cooper gave her fame... but it's cool man people like you who have never done a damn thing like to sit on the internet and talk about the horrible decision somebody else made... even though here we are watching her interview and nobody is watching a damn thing you have ever done.
Dude you do know that all of the stuff in the final scene was Vai rite? Some people think it's Rye Cooder but in the final scene it's all Vai doing both guitars.
I'm guessing they got to have "ASAP videos" for promoting Ibanez new products and Nita hasn't got time for proper interview (which usually) on Sweetwater headquarter
i noticed that too whenever she plays her ibanez (through her marshall) in interview situations. it's just a bit too noisy, dunno if it's the pickup or the settings. less is sometimes more.
Anyone watching this who has not listened to GRIM REAPER, I urge you to check them out! Nick Bowcott's old band. See You In Hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I couldn't agree more. I really don't believe in "talent". It maybe gives you an easier time when you first pick up the instrument when you have a certain natural gift for moving your fingers for example. But moving on from that, you either put in the hours and get obsessed or won't improve. And that's what you should always remember when you're jealous about some rockstar or guitar player. They are only at that point because they worked really hard through a lot of practicing. You can get to that level too. But you have to work on it!
Nita you fink it was so ecay for evrybody to play instruments you have wrong its not ecay for me to play drums for the first time its was very hard to me i was 10 yeras ven i play drums.
I don't consider Nita a shredder. I know she considers herself one which is cool but to me somebody on the level of a Guthrie Govan is a shredder to me. Even if you have the technique on the level of say a Guthrie Govan I don't think it's ever a good idea to label yourself. I also disagree with the saying "there is no talent just obsession". Ambition, obsession, timing, hard work, your thought process, is a huge part of becoming successful in anything, but talent helps as well. You don't need an abundance of talent to succeed in the music "business", we all know that, but it's always refreshing when somebody does have some talent. I think there's a distinction between the ambitious hard working pro musicians with a little talent and the ambitious hard working pro musicians with a lot of talent. I never heard of a legendary musician that impacted music/society who didn't have a lot of talent. There's mountains and there's ant mounds.
I agree with you. There's definitely a difference between being obsessed with something and working hard, versus working hard and being really talented. I don't care how hard you work, if you don't have some natural ability you will just be good, but not great.
Nah I play in my room for no one its my space were i can fully control my sound ,that will never change and i have friends who play in super bands and they do the same thing, I think sh eis a very good guitar player of the highest caliber , I see one problem though ,I think she has a learning disability because she stutters when she plays
Sorry but she's not even close to a great like Page,Beck, Clapton, Blackmore.Gilmore. They were not only more skilled at the guitar but also highly skilled music writers that wrote their own music and made into classics. She's a glorified cover guitarist. Joe Bonamassa and Guthrie Govan are two of todays younger guitarists who I've seen who not only have more skill but they also write some fantastic music along with covering the past occasionally. I can see greats like Al DiMeola, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Gilmore or even Zack Wylde having signature guitars but getting one for being famous as a cover/ tribute guitarist? The music Industry has become like American Idol, where even those that are merely generic are treated as a mega star.
Nice person, sloppy player, and those were very basic riffs and runs she was playing. I've noticed in several different interviews over the years when Nita is playing through a basic amp her playing is quite rough. So I can't say it was just a off day for her in this interview. A pro guitar player should be able to plug into anything and make it sing. At the least the ones I know do. I understand an amp may not sound great and it's not doing anything for you but your technique should not fall apart because of it. Really surprising to me considering she has played thousands of shows and those same tunes the same amount of times. Hopefully Sweetwater doesn't block my comment. I'm just being honest.
Street Lethal As a long time guitar player (since 1984) I've got to, sort of, disagree about being able to just pick up and play. Some people need more time to warm up than others. I've been a session/studio player mostly but I have noticed in my old(er) age that it takes me longer to warm up. My hands feel really tight and uncoordinated when I pick up any guitar but after playing for 45-60 minutes I can sweep all around the neck. Never took that long when I was young but it happens to the best of us. I'm certainly not defending her but I can appreciate if she was "cold" when the interview started. I've talked to many guitar players with the same problem after playing 25+ years. Just my two pennies.
I understand, I've been playing for quite a long time myself and I agree that players need to warm up, some more than others. My point is most pro players I know have a baseline that they play at even when cold. Most of them, I can speak for myself and the people I know, have a certain level of technique that's always there regardless of the environment, equipment, etc..Now of course they will play more fluidly and play more difficult licks after warming up for a bit but even cold... a pro player should not be struggling with the riffs and licks she's playing here. IMO. As mentioned this is something I've consistently noticed with her in interviews. I know she has a decent left hand and legato from hearing some of her other work which is why this pattern I've noticed with her in interviews is perplexing to me.
Nita is a glorified "hot" guitar player. The guitar community has put her in this pedestal that is uncontested for so long now, I've seen hotter Eastern European chicks who can shred faster and more accurate on RU-vid, but they don't speak English, advantage Nita. She has charisma, but her playing is as stock and generic as it could get, she uses waay too much gain which amplifies her sloppiness. I hope people should realize she's not as good as they make her ought to be. I will say it again, Lari Basilio is the BEST female guitar player alive, and I don't even think Nita is even close to her musical skills.
Ken T playing fast means nothing - I don’t compare players but Lari is great complete player - she is a great Rythym player and that’s the key to being a great lead player . Solos are not all about playing 32 note runs chromatically or linearly .
Ken T I agree high gain covers mistakes ! I am working hard on my playing and I play mainly clean and practice clean always , I love chorus and delay and reverb . Not a fan of muddy distortion . Jazz and funk , rock and R and B and blues are my passion in a fusion . I don’t care about shredding . My speed will come last in development . It’s all about timing and groove , fretboard knowledge and great note phrasing and taste - sloppy and fast is not worth it !
LOL!! That "storage closet" was Nita's dressing room (read "home for several hours!") at the South Bend show. 100% "real life" - welcome to the always glamorous world of touring...even at Alice Cooper's esteemed level, my friends!!
