Introducing PLANET, who make a big push with Never New

Since their 2017 Singles collection - before then, actually - Sydney rock outfit PLANET have transformed into a cult-adored group quickly picking up pace in international waters, seemingly skipping the step of finding national Australian fame in favour of the UK, where they've performed at The Great Escape as well as several headline tours. As shown on their second major release Waking Eight, the band experiment with this distinct Australian rock sound that takes elements from other sub-genres - blistering surf-rock, catchy brit-pop - and combine it to create something uniquely PLANET; perhaps a hint as to why they've become such a break-out hit not just on the Sydney live circuit, but internationally too.

You're probably already familiar with them, but if you're not, their new single Never New provides the perfect introduction to their work thus far and how they sound as a band. It marks the beginning of a new chapter in a way, launching their signing with Dew Process with the single, but it's still distinctly PLANET, with thick percussive rhythms and lush-layered melodies of guitar riffs and synth chords coming together underneath a powerful vocal from frontman Matty Took, who sounds incredibly confident and tall-standing on the single. "I think I recorded all the instrumental basis for that song like four or five years ago," explains guitarist Tom Peppitt on the track. "Matt went away to New Zealand and I was just doing a couple of studio sessions myself, and I just
pumped that out. It didn’t have any vocals on it for a very long time and just stayed instrumental. This song wasn’t even a front runner for the EP at all. It kind of just came together."

"We had this old chorus lying around for ages and just decided to swap it in," continues Took. "Then we were like, ‘Now it’s a single.’" Dive into the track below, which arrives ahead of UK tour dates and the promise for Australian dates to come soon, and introduce yourself to the band a little better while you're at it.

Tell us about yourself?

My name's Tom and I'm one of the primary songwriters & lead guitarist in PLANET.

What’s the vibe music-wise?

I guess at the core it's indie-rock with a lot of pop influences. We like the tracks to have a bit of a grungy feel to them with Matty's vocals sitting up front, driving the music with pure pop melodies.

What are your production and writing processes like?

Writing has become a bit of a mixed bag. Usually, Matty or I will bring a chord structure in and work through it on the acoustics, later getting down into beat land and guitar world. I find the most crucial stage of the evolution process for the track is when we bring it to the rehearsal studio and everyone sprinkles their own little bit of magic on it. In the studio, Lachie Mitchell has always worked with us mixing and engineering all our tracks. Only recently have we started working very closely with him as a producer, which has definitely refined our sound even more.

Can you tell us about your new single, Never New?

This track wasn't even in a top 10 picklist for our next single, but after working in a new chorus it started to catch our ears! We wanted it to be very fast-paced, straight to the point and still very much true to the sound we've built on over the last few years. I'd personally been listening to a quite a lot of Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr at the time of writing and tracking guitars, so I think there's a bit of that influence cutting through in the verses especially.

Any tour dates coming up?

As I type this out, we're sitting at customs in Manchester Airport. About to embark on a three-week tour of the UK. We may be putting on a couple of NSW shows in August too, so watch out for them!

What does 2019 have in store for you?

We've just finished recording our next EP, so once we're back from tour in August we'll be getting stuck into mixing all those tracks ready for release later this year! We'll also be touring Europe & UK with our new buddies DZ Deathrays, which is gonna be a mad time!

Where can we find more of your music?

All the usual spots!

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