Planningtorock

The alter ego of multi-instrumentalist, producer, and videographer Jam Rostron from Bolton via Berlin, Planningtorock channels these skills into witty, heartfelt, danceable articulations of Rostron's viewpoint as a genderqueer non-binary creator. Rostron laid groundwork on the 2006 release Have It All through a blend of dance, glam rock, and empowering lyrics that led to more profound explorations of gender fluidity and queer sonics on the 2014 album All Love's Legal and the 2018 album Powerhouse, both marked by androgynous pitch-shifted vocals alongside unpredictable yet irresistible grooves.

A classically trained violinist who took up the instrument at age eight, Rostron was raised in a music-loving household in Bolton, Lancashire. Following studies at Blackburn College of Art in the early '90s, Rostron relocated to Berlin in 2002 and started performing as Planningtorock in local clubs. The live presentations merged concert formats with performance art elements as Rostron engaged with video characters while donning elaborate masks and costumes to confront gender stereotypes. The debut single "Modern Love" and the Weimar Tour EP appeared early the next year, highlighting Rostron's distinctive combination of pizzicato strings, beats, and husky vocals capable of shifting instantly between bluesy and quirky registers. In 2004 Rostron put out the MP3 EP Topics on a Foreign Mind through Twisted Nerve Records along with the Eins EP, which contained the underground hit "Local Foreigner," on the Rostron imprint that also issued material by the Knife, the Soft Pink Truth, and Kevin Blechdom.

After joining Chicks on Speed Records, Planningtorock issued the limited-edition 7" "Changes/I Wanna Bite Ya" early in 2006 and the full-length Have It All that June. Post-release Rostron concentrated on remix projects for acts such as the Knife and Telepathe. In 2010 Rostron joined the Knife and Mt. Sims for the Charles Darwin-inspired opera Tomorrow, in a Year while serving as composer and sound designer for Bruce LaBruce's film The Bad Breast; or The Strange Case of Theda Lange. After developing a friendship with LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and joining the band's Sound of Silver tour, Planningtorock signed to DFA Records, which put out the 2011 album W, a more expansive and ambitious work incorporating classical influences and androgynous vocals along with a cover of Arthur Russell's "Janine."

Once the album and its tour concluded, Rostron sensed a need to confront personal matters more openly through music. In 2012 Rostron established a studio space alongside the Knife's Olof Dreijer, rRoxymore's Hermione Frank, and Paula Temple. The next year Planningtorock issued the Misogyny Drop Dead EP on International Women's Day, with its title track also featured on the 2014 full-length All Love's Legal, which offered danceable manifestos advocating transnational gender equality through pitch-shifted vocals and R&B-inspired grooves. The following year Rostron scored the emotionality of the jaw, the opening installment of choreographer Ian Kaler's serialized piece o.T. After completing a residency at Los Angeles' Villa Aurora, Planningtorock reemerged with Powerhouse, Rostron's most personal set of songs addressing experiences as a non-binary genderqueer artist. Recorded across Los Angeles, New York, London, and Berlin and including a collaboration with Dreijer, the album appeared in November 2018. An EP titled Planningtochanel followed in July 2020.