For more than a decade, Plini has quietly become one of Australia’s most respected instrumental artists.
Entirely independent and constantly pushing his own creative boundaries, Plini‘s built a global following through fearless songwriting, technical brilliance and an approach that puts curiosity ahead of expectation.
His latest album, An Unnameable Desire, continues that evolution, embracing a more playful creative mindset while expanding the dynamic range that has become his trademark.
With his biggest Australian and New Zealand headline tour about to begin, we caught up with Plini to talk about rediscovering the joy of making music, the meaning behind the new record, staying independent and why sometimes the best ideas arrive completely out of nowhere.
Plini ‘An Unnameable Desire’ video
Congratulations on the new album. You’ve described it as being more playful than previous records. Was that something you consciously set out to do?
Plini: Yes. In thinking about going to start making an album, so the easiest part where I’m like, “I’m going to make an album and don’t actually have to do anything.” I was thinking “what should some of my goals be?” Well, I guess the main one every time almost is to try to capture the same energy that I had when I first started making music when there was no intention to put it on CD. I was just literally making music for fun. So, to try and go back to that head space of just being a kid playing around with making noise.
You’ve said you’re still just sitting in a room following ideas down rabbit holes. After all these years, what keeps that process exciting?
Plini: I guess I’m lucky in that I really love it. It’s something that I would do whether it was my career or not, so that feels kind of easy in that way. And I think being surrounded by people like the people in my band, that work on the album or come on tour with me are all kind of similarly passionate about what they do in a fun way. So, it feels like there are people joining me down the rabbit holes too. We’re one big happy bunny family.
The title An Unnameable Desire is really intriguing. What does that phrase mean to you?
Plini: It came from a conversation with my friend Patty who did the artwork when I was trying to figure out what to call the album. And we were talking about different foreign words that mean things that you can’t really explain fully in English. And the phrase An Unnameable Desire came up in the definition of one of these words, which I forget what it was. And it just felt, as you say, intriguing. And also, something that’s kind of funny is that most of the album titles and song titles, I don’t really think about what they’re like to say much because I live on messaging and it’s instrumental. So, it’s like, “do the words look good in text?” But then you end up naming it An Unnameable Desire, which is fucking impossible to say more than once in a row, which is quite funny.
Plini ‘Manala’ video
The album moves between heavy moments and really beautiful, delicate passages. Do those contrasts come naturally, or is finding that balance the hardest part?
Plini: No, I think that does come really naturally because one of the first things I remember observing about a lot of the bands I like is that they would be heavy and soft at the same time. Between The Buried And Me, I think the first thing I heard from them was the album, Colors. It’s more extreme than I’ve ever done. It goes from straight up death core to German folk music to strumming acoustic and singing, but I’ve always found that exciting and enjoyable to hear in other music, so I try to use it myself.
You joked that your audience probably just wants to watch you play guitar, but you deliberately challenged those expectations. Is it important to keep surprising your fans and yourself?
Plini: Yeah, I think so. All the shows that I really enjoy are when the band is obviously killing it. They’ve obviously been practicing and sound good, but also there’s an extra layer of having fun on top of it. It’s not just going through the same motions. And I think also because making music is quite serious, I feel like there’s room for the performance of it to be kind of comical at times.
You’re bringing your biggest production yet to Australia and New Zealand. What can fans expect from these shows that they haven’t seen before?
Plini: I think the light show and the stage production are just refined in a way that I haven’t necessarily had the time or money to try and do before. So hopefully it comes across more serious and professional like, oh, we’re a real band now despite how we may act on stage.
Plini ‘Manala’ video
You’ve toured with everyone from Sleep Token to Animals As Leaders. Has there been a tour that’s changed the way you approach performing live?
Plini: I mean, probably touring with Periphery was an influence on the balance between trying to play music really well, but also being idiots on stage and having fun.
And I think it definitely escalated things when we toured together. I was playing a guitar solo in one of the songs with Simon, my bass player. So that alone was already quite funny that the bass player from the support band was coming up to do a guitar solo. But then it escalated to instead of me going on stage, I would be side stage playing the solo while Chris, my drummer, was miming on stage.
And then I think the final iteration was that he came on stage, actually plugged in without a shirt on. And this is a guy who has, I don’t think he’s really ever played guitar and Periphery were like, “You’re not allowed to touch a guitar before this. Just whatever comes out is the solo.” So shirtless plays surprisingly not terrible, but definitely not what anyone was paying for.
And then hands off the guitar and did a stage dive. And this is one of the best modern metal bands.
Steve Vai once called Handmade Cities “one of the finest modern instrumental rock records” he’d heard. Did hearing something like that change anything for you, or did you just get back to writing music?
Plini: Oh, it continues to be the greatest quote of all time for press.
Yeah, that would be the thing on the book or the movie poster or whatever. And it has continued to be for 10 years, which is also quite sad that no one’s said anything nice since that was as big of a deal. But I mean that is kind of as good as it could get. My childhood hero was like, good job.
Yeah. And I think the effect aside from yay, I can use this in press, was just hugely encouraging that whatever I am doing was coming across meaningfully to someone who I really look up to. So, I guess to just keep doing it.
You’ve stayed fiercely independent throughout your career. Looking back now, was that always the plan, or did it just evolve that way?
Plini: It definitely wasn’t the plan. I think it just happened because at each stage of trying something new, it always felt like things were growing on their own, so there was no reason to change. And as it’s gotten more professional, a larger operation, I also just think it’s funny that it’s just me. I’m currently freighting a bunch of equipment from Germany to Singapore and emailing people about freight as though I have any idea what the law is to do with any of this. And I’m just warm regarding my way through. And I think that’s really fun compared to handing it over to someone that’s done it a million times. That would make it become more like a job to me, I think.
When you’re not making music, what helps you switch off?
Plini: I love walking. I have walked probably at least 10kms a day on average every day for the last few years.
Do you ever finish a song and think, “I have absolutely no idea where that came from”?
Plini: If it’s good, then yes. All the stuff that I’m most proud of does feel like that, which is also demoralizing because when it doesn’t happen, I’m like, maybe I’ll never write anything again.
Was there a song on this album that almost didn’t make the cut?
Plini: Not that I can think of, because typically I write the album into being from nowhere as opposed to having 15 ideas or 20 ideas. Once I feel like the album is there, then I can give up as opposed to culling stuff.
Do audiences react to instrumental music differently around the world?
Plini: Probably.
I’m not paying attention. I think in some places it might come more naturally to the audience to sing along to a guitar part or a melody, whereas other places will sing if a singer is singing sort of thing. So, a lot of Europe where football is popular, like Spain, Portugal, Italy, they’ll be singing along. Whereas I guess football’s popular in the UK, but the UK American audiences are typically more watching, if that makes sense.
Has your definition of success changed since Handmade Cities?
Plini: Probably. It might’ve changed in some ways and then even changed back in some ways more recently, or I’m constantly trying to figure out what it is so that I can be happy. I think one thing that’s important to… I can’t remember what felt like success to me then. I guess to just be able to go on tour and that was cool, but then that still is the same for me now. Success to me is being able to do everything on my own terms more so than how big the show is or that sort of thing.
Do you ever feel pressure knowing so many guitarists study your music?
Plini: No. I think it’s awesome. Yeah, I mean that’s probably another big contributor to a feeling of success is that it would inspire other people to play a guitar as well.
Finally, what does the rest of 2026 have in store after this tour?
Plini: After this tour at home for a little bit and then to the US through October and a bit of November. And I imagine I will come up with random activities to do in the US while I’m there just because there’s so many music people and then the year will be over and hopefully, I will have started writing a little bit of music in the downtime between.
Plini ‘An Unnameable Desire’ Australia & New Zealand Tour 2026
- Thursday, August 6th – Brisbane, Princess Theatre
- Friday, August 7th – Sydney, Liberty Hall
- Saturday, August 8th – Melbourne, Northcote Theatre
- Sunday, August 9th – Adelaide, Lion Arts Factory
- Tuesday, August 11th – Perth, Magnet House
- Friday, August 14th – Auckland, Double Whammy
- Saturday, August 15th – Wellington, San Fran
Tickets are on sale now here.
An Unnameable Desire is out now, and Plini is about to bring its intricate, dynamic world to stages across Australia and New Zealand with his biggest headline production to date.
Joined by Delta Sleep, Cenobia and Nightdive on selected dates, the tour promises a fresh live experience from one of Australia’s most inventive musicians.
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