Keith City lately obtained a heartfelt present from Chase Matthew, a custom-designed Gibson guitar that left him speechless. The guitar, created by Māori cultural artist Sam Mangakahia, was offered to City as a thanks for having Matthew on tour this 12 months and to have a good time his birthday.
“I’ve by no means seen something like this. It’s simply beautiful,” City admitted. The present was a significant one, because the guitar’s design, titled “The Rise of Phoenix,” holds deep significance for City. The phoenix symbolizes energy and rebirth, and City has a tribal-style phoenix tattoo that represents his admiration for mythology. As he beforehand advised Ladies’s Put on Each day, “The symbolism of the phoenix being one thing that succumbs to the challenges and burns within the hearth, however then is resurrected from the ashes and rises up even stronger than earlier than…The ‘what does not kill you makes you stronger’ story of the phoenix … I can relate very strongly to that, going via laborious instances and popping out the opposite finish of it a lot stronger for the expertise.”
The guitar’s design represents a number of facets of City’s journey, together with his household, music, and roots, all woven collectively right into a single story. Mangakahia defined, “It covers loads of various things and it touches on your loved ones, issues which might be necessary to you, your music, polarity in design, tradition the place you grew up, it is all type of wrapped up on this…design which have annotated you could learn via rigorously when you could have time.”
This explicit Māori-inspired design marks the thirtieth guitar Mangakahia has created in his collection, with earlier {custom} items going to Jelly Roll and Put up Malone. Mangakahia hoped that City would use and love the guitar, saying, “I can not wait to see this guitar out within the wild. If which means on stage or within the studio, no matter it might be. I simply hope that you should utilize this and love this factor…I am excited so that you can have this in your arms. And massive shout out to the crew. It is on a Gibson. I hope you adore it. Aloha, Sam.”
When City obtained the guitar, he was visibly moved, holding it up and expressing his awe on the distinctive design. “Oh my gosh. It is breathtaking. It actually is,” he advised Matthew. The 2 artists shared a heartfelt second, with City commending Matthew on the vitality and coronary heart he and his band have delivered to the stage evening after evening. “I thanks to all of you guys for simply bringing the proper spirit. That is all it’s. We’re not rocket scientists. We’re simply making an attempt to deliver some pleasure, some hopes and levity and a few mild to individuals. And I’ve watched you and the band come out evening after evening and it hasn’t mattered the place it’s,” City defined.
City’s Excessive and Alive World Tour, which featured Matthew as an opener, concluded with a remaining present in Nashville, TN on October 17. The tour made stops throughout the U.S. and Australia, with City and Matthew forming a powerful connection alongside the way in which. As Matthew stated, “Thanks a lot for having us this 12 months. Dude, we have realized a lot from watching you and your staff they usually’ve been so superior and taking us to Australia with you. These are locations we by no means thought we might ever be in our whole lives.”
