Interview: Planets (Written)
Following on from their singles ‘SIGNS’ and ‘Red Earth’, London based music duo, Planets are back with their latest output ‘Winner’! With huge riffs and stunning vocals, the track pulls you in from the moment you hit play. In this interview, we get to know the band a little better.
1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.
Charlotte’s originally from the midlands and moved to London for her Acting degree at Rose Bruford College. Her family on her mum’s side is Irish and she regularly visits Belfast to see her brother and grandad – I’m actually going with her next month! Similarly, I’m not from London, but I moved from Eastbourne for my Law degree. We met a year or so ago after I messaged Charlotte to see if she’d be interested in writing music together. Thankfully I didn’t get blocked, but I made every effort to not sound like the creep you’d expect to find in her DMs. Jokes aside, it was all about the work at the beginning, but our relationship has grown from there.
2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?
Alternative power rock, but as a duo we don’t want to be limited creatively to a specific genre. For us, it’s all about the song and using our instincts to give it what it needs; so if we wanna use a ‘Vibraslap’, we won’t hesitate if it sounds good!
3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?
Short term we’re writing and banking songs in the studio, with the aim of releasing new music on a 6 to 7 week cycle. Charlotte and I are also looking at our social media and the type of content we want to start making; we realise this will probably be key in growing our audience this year. But we don’t want to piggyback off something that’s trending. It has to feel natural to us and carry some creative substance of our own making.
In terms of the music itself, we’re really excited by the stuff we’re recording and working on behind the scenes. I feel like we’re getting better and learning a lot about what we do well. As said earlier, we’re very much led by our instincts and we always look for ways to surprise the listener!
Separately, we’ve applied to several summer music festivals this year, so fingers crossed, we get lucky and get some sort of tour to close the year out with!
4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?
One of the best feelings is hearing our stuff back in the studio, especially after all the work that’s gone into getting the idea to that point. But more than anything it’s the people and new friendships we’ve made along the way. We’ve had the luck of meeting some really talented professionals who transmit so much passion for what they do. It’s pretty infectious and it motivates us to never settle and always think critically about our own work.
5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.
Charlotte and I both have two jobs; I’m a civil servant for Legal Aid and I also teach classical guitar privately, whilst Charlotte has a 9 to 5 in an admin role before clocking into a bar job 4 nights a week and some weekends. So for us the biggest challenge has been finding the time and getting the work in without losing too much sleep! But it’s just part of our journey and we love coming together in the evening and working on our songs. When we hear something we’re both excited about, it definitely fuels us for the week!
6. Making music and being creative can be a very positive experience and can be very good for the mind. In what way has making music had a positive impact on your mental health?
A lot of the writing stems from my experiences growing up. I also lost my father in 2016, so a lot of the aggression and drive for Planets comes from how that still affects me to this day. Although a lot of the writing comes from serious stuff, we always want the music to be positive and powerful for people. We don’t want to drag people down with us, so I’m always conscious of not doing that.
The writing is always linked to experiences that have just stayed with me for a long time. It’s really about sticking to what I know and deep diving into ‘why’ something is the way it is, ‘what’ it still means and ‘how’ I could’ve been better. The challenge is then to be really creative with the material, choose phrases or words that capture the imagination, and ultimately write something that sings well.
To answer your question, getting this stuff out of my system in a creative way with someone like Charlotte, has always felt like the right thing to do, and it’s been really helpful for me.
7. It can also be incredibly challenging, more so in the modern times. What have been some challenging aspects of making music and how have you overcome them?
It’s very true and we live in a pretty scary world at the moment. I think this has really motivated us to deep dive into our music, because creating gives us instant purpose and reward. We cut demos at home but I’m no sound engineer, so this is one of the things I’ve had to learn and get better at for sure.
8. How do you handle the online aspects of being in a band? Having to put out content constantly, promoting across several different social media platforms, and having your success measured in likes and follows?
When it comes to promoting Planets and getting our music in front of people, I think the biggest challenge has been talking about ourselves and staying positive. But we’re a team and we know growth will come if we continue to improve every aspect of what we’re doing. And yes, for us, the numbers don’t lie and it’s a big marker to gauge what’s working and what’s not.
In respect to the industry itself, it’s easy to take unlimited access to music for granted. Yes, in many ways it’s really exciting to be able to reach a global audience, but it’s difficult to get a real sense of who are genuine fans, willing to invest. Even with favourable numbers.
9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?
We can’t pander or pretend to be people we’re not. I also think there’s a real ‘ick’ when you sense someone isn’t being themselves online, so all we can do is make content that feels natural and authentic to us. That said, we have to push ourselves and innovate, because we won’t stand out if we’re too safe in our thinking. I’m really into film and Charlotte’s an actor who’s also a great photographer, so we’re being resourceful and looking at some cinematic stuff we can use in our content.
10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?
I think the biggest help to us at this point is supporting our social media footprint and following our spotify artist page. Sadly, we don’t do many gigs, but we love performing and would ask everyone to come see us live when dates come available. But we don’t want charity, this whole thing is on us to win the fan over and give people music they want to listen to, so they keep coming back and telling their friends. We have to earn it.
11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?
I’m a huge sports fan and Charlotte’s incredible at her crafts. When she first told me, I was genuinely looking forward to making fun of her, but she’s actually really talented! She’s also a really decent painter and illustrator too, so she keeps herself occupied with those sorts of things on the rare occasion we’re not working on Planets! We also love spending time with our family, and I see my sister and nephew as often as I can.
12. Where can people find you?
So people can find our music on Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud and Apple.
For your ‘everyday’ update to see us working on material, gigging etc, you can follow us on Instagram. And we now have a YouTube page for Planets where we’ll be uploading studio diaries for all of our upcoming releases!
