Nita Strauss Discusses New Solo Album “The Call of the Void”
By Justice Petersen
Nowadays, when Nita Strauss isn’t busy shredding on stage with Alice Cooper or Demi Lovato, the recently engaged guitar legend is spending her time looking at wedding dresses. It’s not a life she can be mad about, she says.
But this isn’t the only thing occupying her mind. Strauss recently released her second album, “The Call of the Void”, on July 7. An album that is as inspiring as it is thrashing, Strauss plays with unprecedented force on every track. However, unlike her previous album, “Controlled Chaos” (2018), Strauss is now joined by numerous rock and roll legends, such as Lzzy Hale, Chris Motionless, and Alissa White-Gluz to name a few. Compared to her 2018 release, “The Call of the Void” shows how much Strauss has grown and matured both as a person and as a musician.
“The first record really was just an emotional outburst and temper tantrum of kicking and screaming [and] just wanting to be creative and do my own thing and not have outside influences or anybody else do it,” she says. “This time around, now that I got the temper tantrum out of the way, I was able to approach it from a much more mature standpoint where I could work with outside musicians or do co-writes with other songwriters and let other people…make the record better and more well-rounded.”
“The Call of the Void” is an album that gives the same sound and feel as a raging and beautiful storm. Once you realize how soaked it is in metal fame and glory thanks to collaborations with artists like Lilith Czar and Dorothy, the album is truly transcendent.
“It’s just been such a cool experience. Every single artist that I worked with was absolutely amazing. And [it] makes me excited to make more records,” Strauss says.
Strauss isn’t just known for her fiery solo career. She’s been playing guitar with Alice Cooper and his band since 2014, and she more recently joined Demi Lovato’s band as a touring guitarist. When it comes to how performing with Lovato affects her solo work, she says it gives her more appreciation for simplicity and songwriting – especially as a guitar player.
“I do have a tendency to overcompensate (laughs). Playing these Demi songs, which are quite straightforward – and when I say simple, I don’t mean easy. The simplicity and straightforwardness of these songs which are such massive hits, struck a chord in me. And seeing the audience responses and feeling how well it worked…definitely going to be drawing from that for future music.”
The record has an overall theme of finding strength within yourself and rising above hardships. The inspiration behind this idea, as well as the album’s title, comes from Strauss’s own life experience.
“The title actually is something that I have experienced all my life and didn’t know there was a term for it until more recently,” she says. “The call of the void is what happens when you’re standing at the top of a tall building, or looking off the edge of the cliff or something like that, and you get that sense of like, ‘what would happen if I just stepped off?’ It’s not a suicidal ideation. It’s just kind of like this, ‘what if?’ And … every time you step back from that ledge, you make that unconscious decision to live and survive and thrive.”
Featuring both instrumental and vocal tracks on this record, every song is unique and delivers something different for listeners. However, she does admit that choosing a favorite song is like choosing a favorite child.
“I will say that the opening track on the record, “Summer Storm”, is the song that I think I would play someone if they asked what my music sounds like,” she says. “It sort of really speaks to who I am as an artist and where I’m at right now. Creatively, it has all the aspects of the stuff that I like. It’s aggressive, it’s fun. I wrote it completely by myself. There are no outside influences in it, so if someone was to ask me what my music sounds like, that’s probably the first song I played.”
A definitive track on the record, “Summer Storm” does show everything remarkable about Strauss and her songwriting. She can play heavy riffs with insane speed, but she can also play solos that will give you chills and tug on your heartstrings. Just like she says when discussing what it’s like to play guitar with Marty Friedman on this record, her guitar playing sounds like a “really nice, harmonious conversation.”
Now that her record is out, Strauss plans to hit the road again soon. Alice Cooper will tour with Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard for a few weeks in August before touring with Rob Zombie for the “Freaks on Parade” tour in the Fall. She’ll also have another solo tour at the end of the year, dates are listed below.
With several tours in front of her (and not to mention a wedding to plan), Nita Strauss has, undoubtedly, a pretty badass life. But it wasn’t a smooth journey to get there, and rock and roll is not easy, she warns.
“There’s a lot of roadblocks [and] a lot of things that life throws at you,” she says, “and the most important thing is to just never give up and be true as an artist with what you want to do artistically, and everything will come out alright.”
Ultimately, she hopes this album can give people what they may need and make an impact on listeners.
“I hope that the different songs can be what’s needed for different people’s lives,” she says. “I want to inspire more people to pick up the guitar and I want people to listen to this record and think ‘That sounds like fun, I want to do that!’
Biography:
Los Angeles born guitarist Nita Strauss has become a force to be reckoned with in the music world, dazzling audiences across the US, UK, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia and Africa. Fans may recognize Nita as Demi Lovato’s new axewoman, Alice Cooper’s touring guitarist of the past 8 years, the official guitarist of the Los Angeles Rams NFL team, and her successful career as a solo artist.
Nita’s skill, exuberant stage presence and love for all things about her instrument have earned her a stellar reputation in the music industry and endorsements including Ibanez Guitars, Marshall Amplification, DiMarzio pickups, Monster Energy and more. Her consistent schedule has shown her to play in front of over a million audience members per year consistently for the past several touring years.
Nita has been featured on the covers of worldwide print magazines including Guitar World and Guitar Player, and on dozens of albums, trailers, and soundtracks, including Heroes Of The Storm (Blizzard) and Grammy-nominated Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Konami/ Platinum Games). She was also previously the author of the monthly Guitar World column “Like A Hurricane”. She also is one of the most sought after clinicians in the rock world and has done extensive clinic tours and speaking engagements in 17 countries across multiple continents.
She was the first female to have a signature guitar through Ibanez guitars, the Ibanez JIVA, which has now grown to three signature models available worldwide and become one of the highest selling signature guitars in the industry, along with her signature pickups, the DiMarzio Pandemoniums.
A life long Los Angeles sports fan, Nita first performed at a Los Angeles Rams games in 2018 when the team moved back to LA. In 2020, she became the official in-house guitarist for the team when they moved to SoFi stadium, and played at all the home games for the 2020 and Super Bowl winning 2021 season, and received a Super Bowl ring along with the members of the team and staff.
She was in the same role with the LA KISS, the arena football team owned by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS.
Nita has performed at multiple events with WWE, including Wrestlemania, NXT Takeover and WWE Evolution, the first all female Pay Per View in the company’s history. She also played the National Anthem to kick off the NASCAR WISE Power 400 in February of 2022.
Nita’s debut instrumental record Controlled Chaos made a huge impact on the Billboard charts at #1 Top New Artist, #3 Label Independent, #4 Top Hard Music, #8 Top Rock, #8 Top Internet, #20 Top albums, and #7 on the iTunes Rock chart. Her Spotify streams total over 11 million, and YouTube views over 4 million.
Her 2021 single, “Dead Inside” featuring David Draiman of Disturbed, became the first song by a female solo artist to go to #1 at rock radio, and held that top spot for three weeks in a row. The upcoming album’s third single release, “The Wolf You Feed”, featured Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy. The music video gained over 2 million views in less than two weeks and continues to climb.
Outside of music, Nita is also extremely passionate about health and fitness. She uses her wide social media reach to inspire and educate people about maintaining a healthy lifestyle while traveling on tour. She has been featured by publications like Muscle and Fitness and Bodybuilding.com, and is a sponsored athlete with major companies like 1st Phorm, Trifecta Nutrition, and RP Strength. In 2019, she launched a fitness challenge entitled Nita Strauss: Body Shred, with a companion e-book via her website. The challenge is aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle in both body and mind.
In 2020, Nita launched an online guitar lesson course titled Rock Guitar Fundamentals: From Ground Zero to Guitar Hero. The course is available at www.iwanttoplayguitar.com. She is also very active with her fan community on Patreon at www.patreon.com/hurricanenita.
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Tour Dates:
Sat, NOV 4 The Rave / Eagles Club Milwaukee, WI
Sun, NOV 5 First Avenue Minneapolis, MN
Tue, NOV 7 The Bluestone Columbus, OH
Thu, NOV 9 The Vic Theatre Chicago, IL
Sat, NOV 11 The Intersection Grand Rapids, MI
Mon, NOV 13 The Danforth Music Hall Toronto, Canada
Tue, NOV 14 Théâtre Beanfield Montréal, Canada
Wed, NOV 15 Big Night Live Boston, MA
Fri, NOV 17 Starland Ballroom Sayreville, NJ
Sat, NOV 18 Keswick Theatre Glenside, PA
Sun, NOV 19 Rams Head Live! Baltimore, MD
Tue, NOV 21 Buckhead Theatre Atlanta, GA
Wed, NOV 22 House of Blues Orlando Lake Buena Vista, FL
Fri, NOV 24 Warehouse Live Houston, TX
Sat, NOV 25 The Factory In Deep Ellum Dallas, TX
Links:
Official: https://www.nitastrauss.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NitaStrauss
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hurricanenita
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hurricanenita/