Ichika Nito is a modern-day guitarist success story. After making a name for himself on YouTube – where he posted quirky quick clips of himself playing guitar solos on one-string, and meme-like clips, including one titled “When you need to impress a girl but you only have a guitar and 20 seconds” – Ichika has begun using his platform to promote his stellar original music.
His efforts have landed him noteworthy guest spots, too.
Back in June, he lent his silky six-string chops to “More Than Life,” a track by rapper-turned-pop-punk-superstar Machine Gun Kelly.
Ichika said it was “a pretty crazy story” that a “guy from Japan that barely speaks English” wrote a guitar loop which now features in a Machine Gun Kelly track.
But this is not a guitarist that needs to lean on big musical names to prop himself up. Currently his following includes nearly 2.2 million YouTube subscribers, more than three quarters of a million Instagram followers, and over a quarter of a million TikTok followers.
As of last year, he’s had a headless Ibanez signature model, the ICHI10, under his belt, too, so his influence is clearly working its magic on a wave of new guitarists.
Standing alongside the likes of Polyphia and Manuel Gardner Fernandes, Ichika Nito is a trailblazer of the modern guitar movement, one who fuses crystalline clean fingerstyle passages and tapped slides with hip-hop and trap beats, showcasing the limitless future potential of the instrument at a time when many have touted its death.
Quite the opposite: The guitar is very much alive and well, and in the hands of immensely talented players like Ichika.
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