Project Description

Q&A

with

PLANET

Interviewer: Georgia Dickinson

.

.

2018 is the year of PLANET. Riding the final waves of their previous single “Aching Dream”, the Sydney-based quartet kicked off their year with “Save.Sold”. With this new single came the announcement of their upcoming EP Waking Eight and their supporting slot on DMA’s “For Now” Tour in the UK.

Before the band made their maiden voyage to the UK, AMNplify got to catch up with guitarist Tom Peppitt to talk more about “Save.Sold”, Waking Eight and their excitement to play shows overseas.

.

.

First of all, tell me a little bit about how the band formed.

Myself, Matt and Harry were at school together, although I can’t really recall any time I had a conversation with Matty while we were there. We properly linked up after finishing school, I really wanted to start a band and those two were the only people I knew at the time that could even play an instrument. We’ve been playing together for about 6-7 years now and have definitely gone through a lot of musical and personal changes.

The project PLANET was born out of Harry nicking off overseas for about half a year, allowing me and Matty to spend a lot of time in the studio refining our sound! Our bassist Jimmy joined a couple years ago just after we dropped our first single under PLANET. I actually found him on a night out in a cocktail bar, he was playing some jazz covers and the timing was perfect because we were looking to restructure the line-up and needed a new member. The four of us a really tight now and I’m pretty happy with where we are now and the direction we’re moving in.

.

Your music is very reminiscent of Brit-Pop culture. Which Brit-Pop artist would you say has influenced PLANET the most?

Thanks, it’s a great compliment to have your music compared to some of the best artists in that part of the world. I personally really love The Verve and would die happy if we were able to release a record that in any way matched the songwriting and production quality in Urban Hymns.

In saying all that I definitely feel like there’s just as much if not more influence from here in Australia like Paul Kelly, Crowded House, The Go-Betweens, Powderfinger – to name a few of the bigger ones.

.

So, let’s talk about the new single “Save.Sold”! Tell me a little more about what the song is all about.

I can’t talk too much about this unfortunately because Matty is the Lyricist. I know he prefers to have people make up their own minds on what they think a song is all about, and sometimes that can be more rewarding when listening to a song than being told what you have to take from it.

.

.

For “Save.Sold”, you guys worked with the likes of industry veteran Lachlan Mitchell, whose worked with the likes of The Jezabels and Little Bastard among others. What was it like to work with him and did you learn anything from him that you guys will take into consideration for future releases?

Lachie has played such huge role in the development of our sound. We’ve been working with him since day one and we’re always keen to work with him in the future! We usually track everything at various other places and bring all the stems to Lachie who mixes and helps produce the songs. We’ve learnt a lot from him, especially Matty who mainly engineers all of our stuff.  I’m pretty sure he was the one who told us to start double tracking electric guitars which resulted in a way bigger sound in post-production. 

.

You guys also released a music video for “Save.Sold” as well! What was different about filming this music video compared to the music videos you’ve done in the past?

That video had the fastest turn around of anything we’ve undertaken. It was the first time we went out and looked at doing a clip with a Director who had a particular style he wanted to nail.  We shot the whole thing in one night a couple days before we released it.  Because we took so long trying to find the right director and concept, it ended up having to be very last minute and rushed but we’re all stoked with how it turned out!

I feel like we put ourselves more out there in that clip and were able to bring the same energy and vibe from our live shows to a screen for anyone who hasn’t gotten along to a show yet.

.

You guys also have an upcoming EP being released in May. Would you say “Save.Sold” is a perfect representation of the EP as a whole?

Save.Sold was the best choice for the second single from the EP because it’s the complete opposite of our first single Aching Dream and every other song on the EP kind of sonically fills the gaps. We wanted to show different styles and explore a little bit instead of just throwing down 5 tracks that all had the same theme and sound. You don’t really get enough space with an EP to tell a story like you might on an Album.

.

.

You guys are to about to go overseas to support Aussie legends DMA’s on their UK tour. How did the idea of you guys supporting those guys come about become a reality?

We’ve known some of those guys for years and Matty’s related to one of them. It’s something that’s been talked about here and there for a bit and we only started having serious discussions about it towards the end of last year. The offer was there for us and it was just a matter of weighing up costs against the experience and exposure. It was really important to us to work on our own music and get to a point where we are comfortable with having a crack overseas, and this tour seemed like the best opportunity with our Debut EP only weeks away from release!

.

It’s usually a huge milestone for any band to play shows overseas for the first time. How are you guys feeling now that you have that opportunity?

We’re honestly feeling stoked to be able to go over there and play some of the UK and Europe’s best/most renowned venues. I’ve never personally been to that part of the world so I’m kind of ticking two boxes for this one. We want to put on the best shows we can and hopefully set ourselves up to go back soon.

.

So once the EP comes out in May, what’s the plan for PLANET for the rest of 2018?

There’s a lot going on in the background at the moment. There’s definitely going to be some Australian tour dates once we’re back from the UK. We’re probably gonna be a bit quiet for the second half of the year to track and finish our debut album which is something we’re itching to get out there.

.

.

Connect with PLANET!

.

AMNPLIFY – GD