Planette Automatic is an art rock band based in Philadelphia, best known as the side project of Adam Shumski and Dan Ryan, drummer and guitarist of the NYC post-punk band BODEGA (Chrysalis Records). The band features bassist Sam Nobles from Mean Lady (Fat Possum Records) and lead singer / songwriter, The Poet KR. Planette Automatic will also be releasing their LP Blue Fasnitation out July 31 via Bad Catts Record.
“Dance Around” was released on June 5 via Bad Catts Record which holds such a deep metaphorical meaning. The official music video showcases a burning home which captures the intense emotion of realizing societal collapse, but ignoring all the warning signs. The individual in the music video realizes this, but ignores it and turns up the music louder. The vivid imagery provides the listener the sense that the individual is attempting to drown out the destruction with overstimulating music to not be able to accept how society is becoming.
The vocal performance for this single feels like the individual is having a conversation with themselves almost attempting to stay upbeat at times to prevent themselves from thinking about the negativity about the world. Avoidance looms over the whole single with its infectious guitar riffs that only enhances that undeniable tension
Interviewer: For new fans that just discovered Planette Automatic; how would you explain your soundscape to them?
The Poet KR: “Each song is an experiment in genre, though we fit into the category of a rock band. It’s rock with pop melodies and poetry.”
Interviewer: What does the name “Planette Automatic” represent?
The Poet KR: “While channeling the album Blue Fascination, I sat in a circle of blue items, wearing blue clothes, practicing automatic writing. It was there, in the blue circle, that I realized the Blue Planette, and soon thereafter I realized the name Planette Automatic. “
Interviewer: “Dance Around” was just released; is there a metaphorical meaning behind the single and the official music video?
The Poet KR: “Dance Around is a satire of ignorance, and the first fascination of Mrs. Blue. To truly behold one’s own beauty, one must first acknowledge the fire outside. So beauty is pain- but pain is drama. Therefore the house continues to burn, and its inhabitants party on.“
Interviewer: Blue Fascination is your upcoming album that will be released in July; What inspired this album creatively and emotionally?
The Poet KR: “Many blue things. To briefly touch on it, here is an excerpt from my story which you can read in full with the purchase of our vinyl–
“Writing taciturnly, I recall these events which culminated in the tragic disappearance and perhaps death of, the only of her kind– Mrs. Blue, along with her infectious myth of The Blue Planette, which hypnotized me from its first whisper and still, to this day, enraptures me when thinking or singing or crying about it. Mrs. Blue was myth but I didn’t see her that way. When I was in Barstow, or other such deserts, with hitchhiking ghosts and trains pummeling into skylines neverendingly, or in my room watching NASA livefeeds of her orbit, nothing felt abnormal about the spinning she did. She told no lies about the beauty and vanity of her many worlds within one world.”
Interviewer: Did you have a specific vision for how the album should feel front-to-back?
The Poet KR: “The album is a black hole“
Interviewer: What track surprised you once it was completed?
The Poet KR: “Dance Around. It almost didn’t make it onto the album, but a week or so before going to the studio I rediscovered the demo. We had never run the song, but after our first recording take, we knew we had found something truly special. “
Interviewer: Which track came together the fastest, and which one took the longest to finish?
The Poet KR: “The easiest was TERROR FORMING! as it’s our most straightforward rock song, and we had played it live for a while before recording. Blue Fascination took the longest, because of the portal at the end. “
Interviewer: Did any specific memory or moment inspire a certain track?
The Poet KR: “I wrote Heavil Plenit after river hiking. I was sleeping on a rock and awoke just before getting bit by a fist sized spider. I wrote it on Michael Glabicki’s 12 string. During this time I spent hours listening to the sounds of extinct birds, an experiment which led to our noise dedication– “Doctrine of Protein”. Whenever I listen to it in my yard, the birds begin a curious chatter“
Interviewer: Which track best represents the overall sound of the album?
The Poet KR: ” The bends in Blue Fascination.”
Interviewer: What do you hope listeners discover about themselves through your music?
The Poet KR: “The collective conscience, the sea of infinite possibilities, which is art.“