Polyphia – "Guitar is a Means to an End - the End Being Good Music"

Two virtuosos, no rules: how Polyphia are redefining the possibilities for guitar music

- By Amit Sharma

Every now and then, usually right around the time people are starting to feel like they've heard it all, an artist will come E along and reinvent a sound or style in ways radically different to what came before, daring to dream and open up the floodgates for a new era of noise. These things can certainly be said of Polyphia - the Texan quartet led by Tim Henson and Scott LePage, whose combination of virtuoso guitar heroics and unabashed genre hopping has broadened their appeal to well beyond that of your average rock group. On latest album Remember That You Will Die, for example, they're collaborating with the likes of Rodney Jerkins (Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga), Y2K (Doja Cat) and Johan Lenox (Kanye West) - borrowing as much from the pop and hip-hop worlds as they do from six or seven-string heroes, and in the process creating guitar music for non-guitar listeners.