“Find your style”: How America’s Got Talent winner Nene Royal put personality into her playing – and it earned her a support slot with Avenged Sevenfold
Back in September, Nene Royal won this year’s America’s Got Talent with a showstopping performance of The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army. But the 16-year-old guitarist’s journey to the grand prize was defined by her ability to inject personality into classic tracks, from her palm-muted hard-rock take on The Cranberries’ Zombie to a gold-buzzer winning performance of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun.
In a new interview with Guitar.com, Royal explains that every artist should put their own spin on a track, because “surprise” is an artist’s ultimate weapon. “Find your style,” she says. “You don’t have to copy another person; if you copy, your performance will look weird and uncomfortable.”
If an artist believes in their own unique sound, the confidence will follow. Having cut her teeth busking at Thailand’s Naka Market since the age of nine, Royal insists that finding her own sound and committing to it helped her mature as an artist. “Even if it’s a small stage, keep doing it,” she insists. “It makes you more confident. Then, you won’t be shy [on a bigger stage].”
READ MORE: “I’m going to play in front of how many? 40,000?!”: America’s Got Talent winner Nene Royal on being invited to open for Avenged Sevenfold
In fact, this confidence has quickly caught the attention of some of Royal’s very own heroes. After winning AGT, Royal told Entertainment Weekly that her ultimate goal would be “sharing a stage with the bands that inspire me, like Avenged Sevenfold or Metallica” – and a month later, she was supporting Avenged Sevenfold, performing with her beloved 1978 Ibanez MC300 for 40,000 punters in Singapore’s Indoor Stadium.
“At [Avenge Sevenfold’s] Bangkok concert, they wanted to meet me,” Royal tells us at Guitar.com. “I was shocked. Backstage I met M. Shadows, Johnny Christ and Zacky Vengeance. It’s crazy to think I started at a night market in Phuket and now I’m opening for my favourite band.”
Alongside her support slot, the guitarist also joined Avenged Sevenfold on stage for Bat Country and Unholy Confessions. In her Guitar.com interview, she emphasises the band’s importance to her: “I really want to put my own energy into the way I play, but I’m inspired by Synyster Gates. I love harmonic minor, pentatonic scales, sweeping… My biggest influences are Avenged Sevenfold and System Of A Down.”
Moving forward, Royal’s goals are on writing more music and fine-tuning her personal style. Her favourite band is rallying behind her, and so are countless market customers who have caught her performing over the years – just look on any Facebook post or YouTube video from her performing, and the support is clear.
“The first time we saw Nene and the Ozone band [featuring her brothers] performing there she was about 9 years old the drummer around 7 years,” one Facebook comment reads. “Even then they were amazing and we’ve seen Nene perform every year [since]… I said three years ago that this girl is gonna make it big. This January when we visited there was no question about it. She is absolutely incredible and so full of charm as well…”
“They say practice makes good and this is just the way it is… But if you’re born with the genetic miracle fingers and musical feelings that Nene has, true musical wonders will happen!”
The post “Find your style”: How America’s Got Talent winner Nene Royal put personality into her playing – and it earned her a support slot with Avenged Sevenfold appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
