Nick Perri Plays His Favorite Guitar Riffs

One of the interesting things about Gear Factor is hearing how musicians found their way to guitar for the first time. For Silvertide's Nick Perri, his discovery of rock music came just before he hit his teen years.

Perri credits his aunt with turning him on to rock 'n' roll when he was just 11-years-old. “I was raised in a very conservative Catholic household, shirt-and-tie all boys school, the whole thing. So I didn’t grow up with rock ‘n’ roll but my aunt, my mom’s sister, came over one day on Thanksgiving in the mid ‘90s with two cassette tapes. One was AC/DC’s Highway to Hell and the other was Pearl Jam’s Ten and I went upstairs, put the cassette tapes into the stereo and I remember hearing the sound an electric guitar could make and it was a total transformation. My life was different one minute before that and completely different the minute after.”

By the time Perri started playing guitar, it was another grunge era act, Nirvana, that inspired the first riff he learned to play. “Learning that for me was a big deal. I could go into school and say I knew how to play ‘Come as You Are’ by Nirvana."

While Perri has built a following in Silvertide, of late he's turned his focus to his solo band Nick Perri and the Underground Thieves. The group just issued their debut album, Sun Via, and Perri displays a few of his favorite riffs for the viewing audience.

Among them are the singles "Feeling Good," "Excess" and "Everybody Wants One" before finishing out with "Politician." The latter track has a very distinct influence, with Perri shouting out Eric Clapton's Cream years. “Anything that Eric Clapton was doing in that era was just mega to me and it’s endlessly inspiring."

You can pick up Nick Perri and the Underground Thieves new album, Sun Via, right here (As Amazon affiliates, we earn on qualifying purchases). Check out Nick's full Gear Factor episode below.

Silvertide's Nick Perri Plays His Favorite Guitar Riffs

30 Best Hard Rock Albums of 2018