Sick Riffs: Rishi Dhir teaches you the Phrygian drone lick of Elephant Stone's Land of Dead

Sick Riffs #83: Canadian four-piece Elephant Stone are experts at infusing raga textures into their one-of-a-kind brand of psych-pop-rock. This influence is particularly apparent on Land of Dead, the fourth track from the band's 2020 album, Hollow.

The track's main riff - originally recorded using a sitar - is constructed in the Phrygian mode and uses a drone throughout, explaining its distinctly Indian feel. Don't worry, you needn't own a sitar for this one, as guitarist and frontman Rishi Dhir joins us to teach you how to play it on guitar.

Dhir plays an Epiphone Dot electric guitar fitted with Lollar P-90 pickups through a vintage Silvertone 1432 amp.

"Having just released our new album Hollow on Valentines Day, we had a full year of touring ahead of us starting at SXSW, then the US east coast/midwest, festivals, and Europe," the frontman says. "In came the pandemic and all of that is currently off the table. We're filling our days by working on new music and lot of live streaming sessions!"

Support Elephant Stone

https://www.elephantstone.ca/
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpK4lvMTU1CyE_ST2eGxD0A
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https://music.apple.com/us/artist/elephant-stone/314304512

Sick Riffs is a Guitar World video series designed to help guitarists affected by the coronavirus. Self-isolating players around the world have each filmed a lesson where they teach you one of their own guitar riffs, up close and personal. If you dig the lesson, we encourage you to buy music and merch from the artist or stream their music.

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Sam Roche

Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.