Planets formed in the summer of 2024 by guitarist Hector Castro and vocalist Charlotte King.
The duo’s potential was far greater than originally imagined, and both members turned away from playing covers towards writing music of their own making.
Charlotte’s vocal, powerfully warm and organically rooted in Irish and Black Country heritage, sits firmly at the heart of the duos sound and style. Guitarist Hector Castro, energised and inspired by his counterpart, would embark on a journey to write and record a unique environment, to discover the songs of Planets.
Planets’ debut release ‘Red Earth’ draws inspiration from the unknown, the unexplainable and the inescapable curvature of life. Recorded in Bexley, Kent, ‘Red Earth’ was released on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube on Friday 5th July 2024.
PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF...
Charlotte’s originally from the Black Country and moved to London for her acting degree at Rose Bruford College. Her family on her mum’s side is Irish and her brother and grandad live in the outskirts of Belfast. Similarly, I’m not from London, my family are actually Spanish, but I moved from Eastbourne for my Law degree at Greenwich after doing 3 years at Trinity College of Music. As for Planets, we met a year or so ago after I messaged Charlotte to see if she’d be interested in writing music together. Thankfully I didn’t get blocked and we had instant chemistry. It was all about the work at the beginning, but our relationship has grown from there.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW SINGLE ‘WINNER’?
“Winner” is our first release for 2025 and a sort of tribute to people who put their ambition, even talent, to one side for the wellbeing of their family and others. The words are inspired by my own intuition and regrets for not pursuing music more aggressively. I know I lack a lot of self-belief, so the song is aimed to motivate the listener, because it's never too late to turn things around, even start again. We’re a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tango In The Night’ album, and we both wanted to incorporate some of the stylistic elements in the pre-chorus sections, with those piano and acoustic guitar elements before Charlotte sings “I open my thoughts in the dead of night, counting all the times others past me by”.
WHICH SONG WOULD YOU SAY SUMS UP YOUR SOUND THE BEST?
Ah that’s a tricky one because I think our answer will change week to week. But at the moment I think SIGNS is the song that captures the energy, strength, subject matter and sound palette of what we want to present under the umbrella of Planets. It was also the first song I wrote and collaborated on with Charlotte, so it was very much our ‘lift-off’ in the beginning.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO MUSIC?
Charlotte listened to a range of music growing up and was heavily influenced by her parent’s music tastes; Fleetwood Mac, Dire Straits, Supertramp, Kate Bush etc. For Christmas one year, she got an iPod shuffle with a playlist filled with loads of different music her mum had curated for her, and things evolved from there! She then had violin lessons and gradually morphed into the acting scene. With all of her training, I still can’t believe she’s never had a singing lesson!
On my side, my grandparents moved to England from Seville in the 50’s and they always played a lot of Spanish guitar music (Llobet, Albeniz, De Falla etc..) and flamenco. Similar to Charlotte, we had a lot of music in the house and it just became a personal thing of exploring all these different artists and genres. I fell for heavy rock/metal music in my teens and picked up the guitar around 12 years old. I had lots of musical heroes, but my idol was always James Hetfield; both his playing style and writing really inspired me. There’s a weight and physicality to his playing which I wanted to replicate and carry through into Planets.
For Charlotte, Kate Bush was a huge influence on her. In her own words “She commits to a feeling within a song and it radiates through to the sound, the lyrics, the production and the imagery. She recognises a strong hook and has the creativity and musical ear to develop the idea so it comes to life. It’s what we strive to do.”
WHAT DOES TYPICAL WRITING AND RECORDING DAY LOOK LIKE?
A lot of the writing stems from my childhood and my parents who really tried to stay together for my sister and I. I also lost my father in 2016, so a lot of the aggression and drive for Planets comes from how that stuff still affects me. That said, we always want our music to be positive and be more of an energy giver than taker, even if the themes are serious or depressing!
Overall it’s really about sticking to what I know and deep diving into ‘why’ something is the way it is, ‘what’ it still means and ‘how’ I could’ve been better. The challenge is then to be really creative with the material, choose phrases or words that capture the imagination, and ultimately write something that sings well.
Once I’ve got an idea demo’d out in logic, I’ll show Charlotte even sing it to her; she’s kind of the ‘gavel’ out of us two who will react favourably if the idea’s got legs, and then VERY unfavourably if it’s a shocker!
It’s then a collaborative effort, responding to our instincts and adding or removing things until the song gives us that gut feeling.
HOW DID YOU GET YOUR BAND NAME/ STAGE NAME?
I think the name germinated off the back of the writing for SIGNS. The song is about people looking for answers and direction in their lives in coincidences and their astrology. So naturally, because Charlotte knows a lot about this topic, I suggested the name Planets with the tag ‘Yet to be discovered’. Which was bang on, especially since we had zero followers!
WHAT HAS BEEN THE HARDEST THING ABOUT YOUR MUSIC JOURNEY SO FAR?
Charlotte and I both have two jobs; I’m a civil servant for Legal Aid and I also teach classical guitar privately, whilst Charlotte has a 9 to 5 in an admin role before clocking into a bar job 4 nights a week and some weekends. So for us the biggest challenge has been finding the time and getting the work in without losing too much sleep! But it’s just part of our journey and we love coming together in the evening and working on our songs. When we hear something we’re both excited about, it definitely fuels us for the week!
WHAT'S BEEN THE EASIEST?
One of the best feelings is hearing our stuff back in the studio, especially after all the work that’s gone into getting the idea to that point. But more than anything it’s the people and new friendships we’ve made along the way. We’ve had the luck of meeting some really talented professionals who transmit so much passion for what they do. It’s pretty infectious and it motivates us to never settle and always think critically about our own work.
WHAT WOULD YOU DOING IF YOU WEREN'T MAKING MUSIC?
Before I came along and ‘rocked the boat’, Charlotte was on to a pretty good wave of momentum with her acting; so I imagine she’d have a fairly comprehensive list of credits on IMDB by now! Alongside this, Charlotte’s a pretty incredible photographer and a creative ‘all rounder’. Sickening really….
On my side, I’d probably be a chef and/or on the way to opening a family restaurant. At university I worked as a commis chef where I got my ass kicked! But I loved the team and the energy of service. Plus all my family work in catering, so I imagine that industry would’ve pulled me in.
WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN?
“Remember we fall in love quick. And don’t forget your bullshit.” Rickie Stevens (he actually calls himself the ‘Bromley Pirlo’, even though he can’t get into my 6 a-side team!)
WHAT'S NEXT?
Short term we're writing and banking songs in the studio, with the aim of releasing new music on a 6 to 7 week cycle. Charlotte and I are also looking at our social media and the type of content we want to start making; we realise this will probably be key in growing our audience this year. But we don’t want to piggyback off something that’s trending. It has to feel natural to us and carry some creative substance of our own making.
In terms of the music itself, we're really excited by the stuff we’re recording and working on behind the scenes. I feel like we’re getting better and learning a lot about what we do well. As said earlier, we’re very much led by our instincts and we always look for ways to surprise the listener!
Separately, we’ve applied to several summer music festivals this year, so fingers crossed, we get lucky and get some sort of tour to close the year out with!
PLEASE ADD ANY SOCIALS SO WE CAN SHARE So people can find our music on Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud and Apple.
For your ‘everyday’ update to see us working on material, gigging etc, you can follow us on Instagram. And we now have a YouTube page for Planets where we’ll be uploading studio diaries for all of our upcoming releases!
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