Plini issues statement in response to pop star Doja Cat lifting his music for her MTV EMA performance
The Australian virtuoso isn’t happy, but admits to finding it "absolutely hilarious that something I wrote four years ago in my bedroom would find its way here"
Pop singer Doja Cat recently djent-ed up her wispy dance hit Say So for a performance at the MTV European Music Awards, and as we reported, at one point her nu-metal version of the song seemed to bite the guitar part from Australian electric guitar wunderkind Plini’s 2016 instrumental, Handmade Cities.
YouTube commentators were quick to point out the similarities, and Plini eventually joined in, tweeting, “Someone tell @DojaCat that if she digs the arrangement of this at 2:50 onwards, then she would love my song Handmade Cities."
Now Plini has commented further, and while he is complimentary of the performance itself (as well as the guitar work of Brazilian-born instrumentalist and new Ibanez endorsee Lari Basilio) , he’s apparently not too thrilled with the way it all went down.
“In case you missed it, @dojacat ‘s recent performance of Say So for MTV borrowed a few elements from my song Handmade Cities for its new live arrangement,” he begins. “I think it’s an awesome performance (shout out to the homie @laribasilio – sick playing!) and more than anything, find it absolutely hilarious that something I wrote 4 years ago in my bedroom would find its way here.”
From there, however, Plini takes issues with the lifting of his original work. “The lack of prior communication about it or proper credit upon release is disappointing but not particularly surprising in a sector of the industry that is usually more interested in clout than creativity (it’s being sorted now, but would have been cooler a million views ago).”
He finishes, “if you read this far, and are new to my music, you can preorder my upcoming album from the link in my bio. in the words of @iamdarionjavon - you’ve never heard me produce/arrange ANYthing like this before. 🤟”
With that in mind, now would be a perfect time to say that, yes, Plini’s new album, Impulse Voices, is out November 27, and is available to preorder now.
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Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.