The meteoric rise of The Last Dinner Party has been well documented. Before releasing any music, the quintet were selling out shows – and by the end of their first year they’d opened for The Rolling Stones at BST Hyde Park.
Some critics dubbed them industry plants or nepo-babies. In fact, frontwoman Abigail Morris, bassist Georgia Davis and guitarist Lizzie Mayland met at college in 2020. They enlisted pianist Aurora Nishevci, a student at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and guitarist Emily Roberts, who played the role of Brian May in a Queen tribute band – a guitar legend who later praised her band.
In a new Guitar World interview, Johnny Marr calls you “a really good player.” What do accolades like that mean?
That’s made me pretty emotional! Wow – that’s amazing! It feels very, very surreal because I don’t see myself as being a technically brilliant player. It gives me huge imposter syndrome!
The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins has compared your chord progressions to Led Zeppelin. How accurate is that?
There’s so much power behind ’70s rock. I want to embody the power that I feel when listening to that music. I often don’t feel powerful as a person, but when I play guitar, I really do.
If someone wanted to improve their fretwork technique, what tips would you share?
Knowledge of the fretboard is important – being able to say the notes of each fret out loud without thinking about it. Learn other people’s solos and pick up different things from different people. You’re not going to end up sounding like one particular person, but a Frankenstein of them all.
That's been a big thing for me. The Nothing Matters solo has one bit where I’m tapping on the frets. I got that idea from Eddie Van Halen, even though Nothing Matters sounds nothing like Van Halen.
What’s on your current pedalboard?
I’ve just completely redesigned it. I’ve been using the Line 6 Helix for five or six years and it’s served me well, but I wanted to try a more analog setup. The good thing about the Helix is that you can dial in everything. For the Nothing Matters solo, I can be halfway up the stage, and the computer can switch on the boost for the solo.
The Mastermind PBC 10 is doing the effects loops. I love playing with the Boss RE-202, replicating the tape delay sounds. I just got it and I was in my bedroom thinking, “This sounds massive even on my tiny Blues Junior!” Then I’ve got a copy of the Klon, the Ceriatone Centura.
I’ve got a different amp setup, too. I’m using the Victory VC 35 Copper in combination with an AC 15 Vox in stereo. We had lots of Victorys to try out, but we were like, “This needs something more.” My spare Vox was lying around; I said, “Why don't we try it with that as well?” It was like, “That’s the sound.”
Your guitar of choice is the Music Man Goldie from St. Vincent.
I got it four or five years ago – I must have seen St. Vincent playing it and then did some Googling. I love how unusual and modern it looks, and that it’s designed by a woman for a woman’s body. It has a fairly flat, clean sound, so when you add effects it responds well.
I didn’t want to go down the route of Fenders or Gibsons; I wanted something that sounds and looks different, for the sake of being different.
St. Vincent gave us the Brits Rising Star Award on the red carpet in 2024. I was so excited to meet her – her guitar playing inspired me to write my lead guitar parts for Sinner, with those winding, distorted guitar lines.
- From The Pyre is out now via Universal. The Last Dinner Party are on tour across the UK.
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