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Interview with
Justin “JC” Cruickshank
from
PLANET OF THE 8s

(30th June, 2021)

Interviewer – Dave Bruce

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Planet of the 8s are a desert stoner rock band based in Melbourne, Australia. Notorious for their prodigious sense of groove and songcraft, the music is laced with rich harmonies, melodic hooks and enigmatic tales. Layered over a blisteringly heavy, dynamically intricate foundation of riff-driven journey arrangements, they’ve conjured a formula that has made a significant imprint on the stoner rock scene both locally and overseas since the band formed in 2015.

Previous comparisons to early Queens of the Stone Age were apt, and the lush vocal treatment still conjures flashes of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, but now, six years down the desert highway, the band’s sound has well and truly evolved into a unique brand of groove-heavy stoner rock. Inspired by the likes of Lowrider, Greenleaf, Tool, Mastodon and Elder, they’ve concocted a more complex, progressive element beyond their bedrock influences: Kyuss, Fu Manchu and QOTSA.

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How would you describe your sound? Why do you think people resonate with your music?
Our sound hinges on three key elements, it’s like a fat, low, immensely stable tripod consisting of big grooves, a thick sonic wall of riffs, and melodic vocals punctuated by harmonies. People tell us our music resonates with them because it’s powerful and memorable, but often people tell us our music makes them feel good too. One person said “you guys are good for the soul” – that what it’s all about, right?

Which artist’s music and/or performance, past or present, inspires you today?
We’re constantly inspired by other bands in the stoner/psych/doom scene, many of them Australian, like Duneeater and A Gazillion Angry Mexicans, El Colosso, Lamassu, Death By Carrot. Overseas we get into bands like Lowrider and Greenleaf. Our bedrock influences like Tool, Kyuss, QOTSA, Fu Manchu are still in there, but the current underground stuff is what fires us up creatively more so these days.

Your new single/ has just been released/! Describe its origin and evolution.
The instrumental bed for Holy Fire was written and demoed prior to our second album, Tourist Season (2019). Drums for 12 songs were tracked during the Tourist Season sessions but five of those songs weren’t developed enough at the time, and because the band has always written albums for vinyl release, choices had to be made to cut it all down to 42 minutes.
We’d already put our toe in the collaborative waters bringing in Bob Balch from Fu Manchu on Tourist Season, as well as members of A Gazillion Angry Mexicans and Sheriff. Then Copperfeast Records asked us to contribute a song to a compilation raising money for bush fire relief after the horrendous summer of 2019/20. Not wanting to just put forward something that had already been released, we turned to those leftovers from Tourist Season and collabed with Diesel Doleman from Duneeater to create something fresh, a bit different for us.
Then, as Melbourne’s long 2020 lockdown deepened, it was agreed to find the singers that would suit each of the three remaining tracks. The plan was pretty simple: each vocalist would collaborate with Sullo (Bass, Vocals) to either write from scratch, or hone the bare bones that had been developed so far.
This first single, Holy Fire, is a collab with King Carrot (KC) from Death By Carrot, and is rare for us in that the lyrics are written pretty much entirely without our input. We changed maybe one or two words and Sullo wrote the middle eight. Then, Death By Carrot being Death By Carrot, they went all in and also recorded additional harmonies, guitar parts and percussion, so it evolved into more like a band-to-band collab, but KC was the driving force in the song writing process.

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Is there an EP or Album on the drawing board?
Hell yeah. Lagrange Point Vol I is due out August 18 and contains all five of those tracks that weren’t ready for Tourist Season, plus a spoken word/soundscape piece that introduces the concept behind the EP. Four of the tracks are collabs with various singers, Diesel (Duneeater), KC (Death By Carrot), Jimi Coelli (A Gazillion Angry Mexicans, Sheriff), and Georgie Cosson (Kitchen Witch).

Any tours or events coming up soon? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?We’re playing (fingers crossed) Newcastle and Katoomba in early August, a couple of Melbourne shows in late August/September, then in October/November we’re doing a run of shows around regional Victoria with El Colosso and Lamassu. So far we’re looking at Moe, Ballarat, Bendigo, Beechworth… basically anywhere the name starts with a B, we’ll be there. We’re hoping staying within the state will be less risky in terms of pandemic-related cancellations etc. We’ve also got some great international supports lined up with Nebula (USA), Stoned Jesus (UKR) and Somali Yacht Club (UKR) but they keep getting rescheduled so it’s hard to know when they’ll come off. In terms of what people can expect? It’s a journey. We kinda just close our eyes, go into a meditative state and punch out the riffs and grooves. We focus on having a good time and welcoming everyone to come along and do the same.

If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why?
Assuming you mean literally ‘perform with’, I’m gonna say Mark Lanegan because he he’s on so many of our favourite collaborative-type projects, from Mad Season to Queens of the Stone Age, and we could always use a spare hand on vocals because Sullo writes more harmonies than Pete and I can handle live. As to why? Firstly, his voice and delivery and lyrics are desert as fuck, secondly he just has that Midas touch – you know if he’s involved it’s gold, and if you didn’t know, but then you find out, you’re like ‘of course it’s Lanegan’.

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Do you have any long-term aspirations as a music artist?
We just want to keep making records and playing shows until we can’t; we love it… it’s our way of life. The ultimate goal would be spending half our time in Europe and the States, the other half here in Australia – an endless summer of riffs and doobs.

What is the best thing about performing to a live audience? What’s been the career highlight so far?
It probably sounds like a cliché these days but the best thing really is sharing energy with people. It’s like creating a bubble in the universe where everyone present is together, sharing the one experience from many perspectives. And the best thing is, it can be a visceral, life-changing experience for people for those on stage and off. Loud rock n roll literally gets inside you, it vibrates into your bones and your being, and rearranges synapses. Getting to tour around the country, meeting all kinds of people and sharing that energy is what we love. Supporting Greenleaf (Sweden) has been the highlight of our touring to date. It was just luck that the guys had a night or two off after the Adelaide leg of their 2019 Australian tour and that just happened to be the show we were asked to support them on. It’s always special getting to support one of your favourite bands but getting to party with them til 5am was the perfect way to cap off the Tourist Season album release tour. Since then we’ve stayed in touch and are hoping to play some shows with them when we make it over to Europe. We’ve been pretty stoked to see their guitarist Tommi wearing one of our shirts on a couple of online videos too. They really are a rad bunch of dudes… we’d probably all agree that was one of the best nights of our lives.

Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – Oh shoosh… you know that’s too hard to answer. Let’s say the Natural Born Killers Motion Picture Soundtrack
Artist – *sigh. I’m going with James Brown
Movie – Kill Bill (both Vol I and II are just one movie as far as I’m concerned) 
Place to visit – Almost anywhere on the coast between Newcastle and Byron Bay 
Venue to play – Outside under the stars 
Food – Seafood
Drink – Yes please 
Person in History – Jimi Hendrix 
Tattoo – The vulva/vagina themed tatt on my left arm is a highlight for sure.

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Follow PLANET OF THE 8s
Youtube – Website – Spotify – Facebook

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Press Release below

Planet of the 8s
team up with
King Carrot (Death By Carrot)
to release
 “Holy Fire”
 off their upcoming EP
 “Lagrange Point Vol 1.”

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Melbourne stoner rock outfit Planet of the 8s team up with King Carrot (Death By Carrot) to release the first single “Holy Fire” off their upcoming EP “Lagrange Point Vol I”. Along with grabbing KC on the vox, Planet of the 8s have pulled together a string of exceptional vocalists to join them on this release. Including Diesel Doleman (Duneeater), Jimi Coelli (A Gazillion Angry Mexicans, Sheriff) and Georgie Cosson (Kitchen Witch) all collaborating across five solid tracks of pure riff fury. When COVID hit, like many musicians, Plant of the 8s found themselves looking at things a little differently, the goalposts had been changed and the opportunity to create something a little extra special dawned on them. With the drum foundations of five songs already recorded, the guys decided to revise the intended use of the tracks. Through a time where social distancing had become the norm, the guys called in on this slew of amazing vocalists to come together and join them in turning these five recorded tracks into one big collaborative project.

Planet of the 8s “Holy Fire” HERE
Featuring King Carrot (Death By Carrot)

While teaming up with vocalist King Carrot from Death By Carrot, the guys were lucky enough to have the whole Death By Carrot crew involved. Stepping in, recording percussion, a second lead guitar, and extra vocal harmonies making this track one hell of a stoner desert collab. The song ‘Holy Fire’ is about how isolation is unhealthy for humans. It’s about going to the desert with our kindred spirits and celebrating our love of riffs, our connection to nature and each other. With down-tuned, slow droning riffs leading into a vast open chorus seeing KC’s vocals soaring, eloquently placed leads and an ambient texture that truly takes you straight to the desert. This is a genuinely rocking tune. This is not the first time Planet of the 8s have brought in additional artists to work with. Their second full-length album, ‘Tourist Season’ (2019), features guest appearances by Bob Balch from the legendary Californian stoner rock pioneers Fu Manchu and members of local heavyweights Sheriff and A Gazillion Angry Mexicans. Since their inception in 2015, Planet of the 8s have not just cemented their place as one of Australia’s top stoner rock outfits, they’ve also made a big point of using their music as a vehicle for bringing people together across the country, across borders and astral planes…

The full EP release “Lagrange Point Vol I” is due out 18 August 2021

Audio pre-save the full ep HERE

Release shows

Saturday, June 19th at The Bendigo Hotel

Tickets HERE

Sunday, August 8th, Aftermath Fest Newcastle
Saturday, August 28th, Aftermath Fest Melbourne

Tickets HERE

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AMNPLIFY – DB