Planningtorock

Phone interview by Gerlin Heestermans
Photos shot by Goodyn Green in Berlin, Germany

Jam Rostron, formerly Janine – but better known by her stage name Planningtorock – immediately sets the tone when we reveal the angle of the interview. She responds: ‘What does that mean, “grow a pair”? I always say, “Grow a bush!”’ Long based in Berlin, the Bolton-born producer/performer recently dropped her third full-length, All Love’s Legal, on her own Human Level Recordings. We spoke to Jam about facial prosthetics, direct lyrics and the perfect feminist.

I wanted to be both direct and open. But then I also wanted it to be fun!

Your stage persona is an androgynous being and has sort of become your trademark. When did that first manifest itself?

The minute I started to perform on stage in front of people. Whenever you perform onstage you get gendered. People interpreted my decisions and how I looked on stage as challenging gender stereotypes, because I didn’t want to be sexualised or objectified. But that didn’t mean that I wasn’t exploiting my sexuality either. For W I got so into that, that I wanted to experiment with the gender of my face, which is what triggered this whole prosthetic and extending of my forehead. It was often interpreted as hiding, but from my side it was more like an expansion, an extension, an exploration. It affected my performance, because I literally had to be careful that it didn’t fall off my face. It made me a little stiff. I was just like, ‘Shit, I hope this thing doesn’t fall off!’

Being a woman in the music biz is said to be difficult enough as it is, but I imagine the androgynous persona isn’t always met with enthusiasm by people, either. How have you experienced this over time?

I was quite impressed at how people reacted; I thought it would be more negative. A lot of people really got it. It’s important for women to feel as if they can play around and move away from this normative visual or form of expressing yourself and have the chance to explore your sexuality on stage. It’s a very difficult thing for a woman to do, though. I don’t think women should be censored and I don’t think women should censor their sexuality, but being sexual also implies that you are in danger of being objectified. It’s a tricky thing.

The creative side of my life is so huge, it’s what I do all the time

All these issues and ideas were present in your last two albums, but it’s as if with your latest album, All Love’s Legal, they’ve become more literal.

With W I didn’t want to be direct, I thought it would be a negative thing. I feared I’d alienate people and be too confrontational. In my personal life there’s issues and topics that I’m interested in and I want to learn a lot more about and I want to explore. But how do I get that into my music? The creative side of my life is so huge, it’s what I do all the time. Then I set myself this exercise to write about patriarchy and what I thought about it but in a way that still remained open. I wrote about patriarchy as a construct, I objectified it. I wanted to be both direct and open. But then I also wanted it to be fun! However, going through this shit is making me happy. I’m happy and excited about it. I didn’t want it to be heavy or negative.

There seems to be a new movement of young girls who identify themselves as feminists, but they make it less about restrictions and more about fun and positivity. Do you put yourself in that category? And also, is there such a thing as a perfect feminist, do you think?

I personally feel like there’s a lot to learn and there’s a lot to unlearn and this is all good and the only way is to be honest and make mistakes. I’m glad feminism is getting shook up a bit (in terms of race, for example) and being challenged and it has to be, for it to grow. I think that that’s a good thing!