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NITA STRAUSS releases new instrumental solo single, 'Summer Storm'

31-08-2022

(Former) Alice Cooper and current Demi Lovato guitarist Nita Strauss has released her new instrumental single, “Summer Storm”, with an accompanying live music video shot on her recent U.S. headline tour. The new track sees Nita return to her instrumental roots following her previous single, “Dead Inside”, which featured guest vocals from DISTURBED‘s David Draiman and saw Nita become the first ever solo female to have a No. 1 hit at Active Rock Radio.

Watch “Summer Storm” below.

Nita comments: “Instrumental music is where my heart is, and ‘Summer Storm’ might be the song I feel captures my personal style the most: cathartic, driving and emotional. While a lot of the upcoming record will have guest vocalists, I’m also so proud of the instrumental tracks and excited to officially unleash this one on the world!”

Nita made her live debut with Demi on July 14 with a performance of Lovato‘s new single, “Substance” on ABC‘s Emmy Award-winning late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”.

Strauss had been playing with Cooper since 2014 when she replaced Australian musician and former Michael Jackson player Orianthi. She joined Alice in time for a mammoth MÖTLEY CRÜE tour. She was recommended to Cooper by the legendary rocker’s former bass player and WINGER frontman Kip Winger.

Back in February, Nita told SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” about her upcoming LP: “It’s gonna be half and half — six tracks with vocalists and six tracks of instrumental music. We’ve been doing ‘Dead Inside’ live on the solo tour and it’s been getting a super-good reaction from our crowds. So I think the next single will be instrumental — kind of go back to the roots — and then another radio single after that.”

Asked if she could talk about some of the other guests that appear on her new solo album, Nita said: “Not just yet. I will say that we’ve got a really, really cool blend of some legacy people as well as some new singers that I’m really excited about, and some amazing male vocalists and some incredible female vocalists as well.”

In early December, Nita told “The Mistress Carrie Podcast” about her decision to make the upcoming LP half vocal songs and half instrumental: “I did feel, and the label and everybody agreed, it’s still important for me to keep my identity as a guitar player and not just branch off too much and go, ‘Okay, well, now it’s just guests.’ Let me still have a little of what makes me me, which is the instrumental shred stuff. And the instrumental pieces that I’ve written on this record are, I think, better than anything I did on the first one — definitely more… I don’t know if it could be more emotional but they’re very emotional pieces of music and I think a little better crafted this time around. So I think all the songs in general are more well thought out, better put together this time around. And I do have some of my absolute favorite singers guesting on it. I have three amazing powerhouse female vocalists on this album so far.”

Nita also participates in health stimulation, with her Nita Strauss “BODY SHRED!” fitness challenge. From lifting weights to Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu and having her very own 90 day ‘Body Shred’ Fitness Challenge, she has built a community of support and accountability for music enthusiasts to get fit. She furthermore states she will never drink alcohol ever again, which she stopped in 2015.  Nita was also the first ever female guitar player to have her own signature model at Ibanez Guitars.

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