Planet What
interview by Kyra Bruce
If you don't already know about Planet What, get ready for your new obsession. Planet What is a prolific and multi-talented garage-grunge-surf band from Tulsa, Oklahoma. They released a publication about the Tulsa music scene called "Toxic Town" on September 15th and a new EP "Maggie Fingers" one day after. The band is currently on tour so be sure to catch them on this, their upcoming tour, or support them in any way you can! You want to keep up with this group because they're going big places! Below is an interview with Kylie Slabby, co-front woman of Planet What.
How is your tour going??
we're on day 6 of tour and its going pretty good! Slept at some nice and some not so nice places and have eaten some pretty good foods so I'd say it's going well :)
What’s your favorite tour stop so far?
My fav tour stop so far I think was honestly our tour kick off in Chicago. We love playing there and its always an amazing show. But I really liked Ottawa because it was beautiful.
I'm most excited for going to my families hometown in Connecticut and spending a day there showing my best friend my favorite place ever! And playing a show with my m uncle Paul's band!
So you guys have been busy! You have a new album out and you recently launched your zine Toxic Town! Tell me about the album Maggie Fingers, what’s your favorite song on the album or what’s a song that means a lot to you? How did it all come together? What inspired it?
Yes we have been insanely busy and I wouldnt want it any other way! Maggie Fingers is our newest songs mixed with a couple older songs that we re-wrote. A lot of the songs on the EP have a special meaning, whether its about anxiety problems, issues with the music scene and just feeling ignored most of the time. So all those things are what inspired the whole EP.
We started our zine Toxic Town because we are so tired of being ignored in our own town, as well as so many other talented bands. We hardly have publications that really talk about the music scene like many cities have. So we wanted to start something cool that could give other bands a chance to share their art or help promote bands and then some other fun stuff thrown in the mix! We plan to keep it local for a bit then expand to all of Oklahoma and eventually the whole country and maybe even international! who knows ;)
You often call out local artists for their sexual misconduct and you catch a lot of heat for it. I love that you’re willing to take the bullet for your local music scene to keep predators out. Why do you feel it’s important to make people aware of the misconduct of local artists?
I am getting fed up with our male dominated music scene. Especially since the majority of the bands contain one or more people who have been accused of being abusive, rapists, etc. Being a women in the scene, that of course makes me extremely uncomfortable and its very frustrating. These men are getting away with awful things they continue to do / have done and I am tired of women suffering and feeling like they don’t have a voice. As a feminist I will not just stand by and let it happen without saying something. That’s just how I am.
What can we expect next from Planet What? Where can people see you on tour?
After we get back from our current tour we would like to start working on a full length album and new songs. We are also already half way booked for our next tour which is in Jan 2019 ( a 2 week west coast / mexico run) So we're stoked to visit Mexico for the first time! And we're constantly dreaming of Europe so we really wanna start working on that.
We're just 1 week into our tour so we have plenty of dates left! You can see us in Allston, NY, DC, Philly, Athens and more!!