Nita Strauss' and Yvette Young's playing styles, as well as the genres they tend to operate in, may initially seem like chalk and cheese. However, Strauss has recently revealed how she took a page from the fingerstyle and tapping maestro's playbook when composing one of her favorite riffs.
“Something that I did very differently to what I normally do here is, I really am hardly picking anything in this riff," she tells Guitar World, as she demonstrates Kintsugi, from her 2023 record, The Call of the Void.
"I'm picking a few notes here and there, but the majority of it is just those hammer-ons and pull-offs – very inspired by my Ibanez sister, Yvette Young, and the way that she approaches her songwriting and her chords. I was watching her do her stuff, and I was like, ‘I would love to do something like that.’”
In contrast to her usual shred metal riffs, Kintsugi is more restrained, featuring a gentler approach to tapping and hammer-ons/pull-offs that are very much in the vein of Young. As Strauss explains, the key to nailing this riff is articulation.
“Really just making sure that your fingers are right in the center of the fret where they need to be for the hammer-ons, [and] for the pull-offs. Then, when you're doing the pull-off, really just hit that very gentle pull-off. You're not really doing that sort of shreddy-type of pull-off. It's a gentle tap.”
In a 2023 Guitar Player interview about her album, Strauss describes the piano and guitar ballad-like Kintsugi as being “very pure”.
“The emotion comes from a different place than the other cuts on the album,” she reflected.
“I didn’t use any fancy tricks – I didn’t use a lot of gain or anything like that. It’s very simple and evocative. To be honest, I didn’t know I could do something so sparse. It’s just the guitar and keyboard having a conversation. I didn’t need anything else.”
Strauss has recently returned to the Alice Cooper circus – and got a warm welcome from one particular member of the shock rocker’s crew: the band’s snake – ahead of a packed schedule for the rest of 2025.
