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Planes Mistaken For Stars |
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Written by Cullen Hendrix
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Monday, 01 January 2007 |
 Planes Mistaken For Stars
an interview with Gared O'Donnell
It's an unseasonably warm day in downtown Detroit, Michigan, and Planes Mistaken for Stars look tired. Bathed in the pale twilight of early winter, vocalist/guitarist Gared O'Donnell, guitarist Chuck French, bassist Neil Keener and drummer Mike Ricketts unload their well-traveled gear trailer, sighing slightly at the prospect of carrying a full band's worth of equipment up the stairs to the Magic Stick. |
Housed within the Majestic Theater's sprawling entertainment complex, the locale is at odds with the urban decay that surrounds it. Various characters mill about, panhandling or offering a song in exchange for a little bit of change. Though the immediate vicinity is undergoing some renewal, said rebirth is taking place in the shadow of massive unused warehouses and factories.
Bearing the open wounds of race riots, the decline of the American auto industry and the evaporation of the working class American Dream, Detroit seems the kind of place that would embrace Planes' artistic vision. The Denver-based quartet has been making a desolate, menacing blend of hardcore, metal and rock and roll for almost ten years, having released three full-length albums and a couple EPs. Their latest, Mercy (Abacus Recordings), has been hailed by critics and fans alike as some of the most gritty and direct music the group has ever made.
For vocalist/guitarist O'Donnell, the record is the result of a more focused, song-oriented approach to writing. “We've adopted a less is more approach—not feeling like each song needs to have eight parts—and being comfortable with writing verses and choruses and doing so as well as we can,” he contends, sipping a beer and talking over the din of basketball fans cheering on the local team. “I feel like we're a lot more streamlined, a lot more steak-and-potatoes.”
This shift away from the hardcore and metal pastiche evident on 2002's F**k with Fire and 2004’s Up in them Guts (both on No Idea Records), O'Donnell contends, makes perfect sense in light of his musical heroes. “My favorite bands are bands like the Replacements, the Police, and Thin Lizzy: more pop oriented stuff with really solid songwriting. In the past I felt like we were pushing the envelop in one direction, and now we're pushing it in another. I don't think there's anything criminal about writing solid, memorable songs.”
Though memorable, Mercy is unrelentingly bleak. The characters that populate the album's 38 minutes are occupied with thoughts of betrayal and, above all, finality--especially on “One F**ked Pony,” the album's opener, and the concluding lament “Penitence.” The last track reads like a suicide note, in turn asking for and meting out forgiveness to the character's close family. Set to a lone acoustic guitar and some piano flourishes, the song nevertheless maintains (and in some ways surpasses) the menacing intensity of the rest of the record.
For O'Donnell, this vision amounts to personal catharsis. “A lot of it is an exorcism—to get these things, this person—out of me, because I don't want to become that person,” meaning the first person protagonist that populates each of the songs. “If you know me, and are close to me, I would like to think that I don't come across as a super dark guy. I don't think I'm as ugly or as gross a person as I have the potential to be, and I think that's because I'm exorcising those demons. The writing comes from my shortcomings as a person and the mistakes I don't want to make.” These shortcomings, he contends, have been drawn into stark relief as the vitriolic young man has become an adult and embraced fatherhood, all the while wrestling with the same personal demons. “Since (my child has) been born, it's been very humbling and made me see my flaws even more because I want to be a good father. When I write these songs that make me come off as a bastard, I guess it's sort of an apology of sorts,” he chuckles.
Sung entirely in first person, it is difficult to separate O'Donnell the lyricist from O'Donnell the person. O'Donnell is friendly and outgoing, but his eyes (and his penchant for perching solo at the bar) bespeak a certain ill at ease with his surroundings. It's a part of his personality of which he seems keenly aware: “The stories that I write are definitely not fiction or concept, but at times they can be embellished. Outside of it being an exorcism, there is sort of a message of hope. It's just not at the forefront. It's important for me because I want people to feel less alone and perhaps through that I'll feel less alone. Even though I don't have a right to feel lonely—I have beautiful family and beautiful friends—my whole life I've had this pit somewhere and I don't know what's wrong. I'm not a melodramatic person. I've never been a coffee shop kid that sits around and mopes—I'm just not that guy. However, there's always something that's a little unsettled in my guts.”
If Mercy represents a fairly radical compositional departure from the band's previous work, the change makes sense in context. Gone are founding guitarist Matt Bellinger and bassist Jamie Drier. In their place, Planes recruited guitarist French (who played bass on Guts) and bassist Keener. “We became a new band and wrote and recorded a record in six months. We knew that if we sat idly with this new lineup we would break up.” O'Donnell confesses that the band almost broke up prior to recruiting Keener, but that the new lineup and the experience of working with producer Matt Bayles (Isis, Mastodon, Botch, Minus the Bear) was reinvigorating. “Neil, Matt (Bayles, Mercy's producer) and Mercy saved us. Matt's very, very steadfast, and that's what we needed. If we'd put out a record that was a shadow of Guts it would have been demoralizing. He said he was taking the project to make our best record, and I think we succeeded.”
|  Both additions have had a marked effect on Planes' sound. “Not to downplay anything that the other guys (Aaron Wise, Jamie Drier, Chuck French) did in the past, because they all added their own thing, but up until now we always had guitar players that begrudgingly played bass. He's the quintessential bass player and hands down one of my favorite bass players to watch.” When asked about French, O'Donnell immediately tips his cap. “Chuck's got more talent for guitar in his pinky than I have in all ten fingers. He can be experimental but can also be traditional and rip a solo if he wants to.”
The sonic upshot is a sound with fewer intertwined lead lines, more use of swooping and swooshing guitar effects, and a fuller bottom end. Songs like “To Spit a Sparrow” and “Little Death” mate this newfound directness to Rickett's Bonham-esque pounding and O'Donnell's singular voice to devastating effect. It's a sound O'Donnell can't wait to explore on their next record. “I'm really excited about writing as a band. We learned to be a band writing and recording the record. Everyone says this, but I think our next record will be even better.”
After that night's show, Planes is bowling alongside the other bands. Drummer Ricketts is locked in a friendly, if only slightly tongue-in-cheek, competition with North Atlantic bassist Jason Richards for the evening's high score. Laughing and chatting with friends at a bowling alley, their current behavior is at odds with their reputation as some of the rawest dogs in punk rock. Their barbarian-like qualities on and off stage are widely discussed and, to be fair, somewhat deserved. “I can see how some people would think that. A lot time that's a hat I wear. A lot of that is defense, and an escape.” These days, however, most of their fun—if not exactly good and clean—no longer lives up to their self-appointed role as the Spearhead of the Sin Movement. That's probably a good thing. Embracing the much feared decade after their twenties, Planes appear to have (mostly) made the transition from brash upstarts to wizened statesmen. “You're dealing with a kinder and gentler Planes. Plus, and I hate to pull the card, but we're getting old. We're older and wiser. I think that's something to look forward to...and I think that's even scarier.”
For info on Planes Mistaken for Stars, please visit them at myspace.com/pmfs |
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