Birth name Janine Rostron Years active 2004–present | Name Janine Rostron | |
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Labels Rostron Records,Human Level,DFA Role Musician · planningtorockofficial.com Music director The Bad Breast; or, The Strange Case of Theda Lange Similar People Mount Sims, rRoxy, Jackson and His Computerband, Dessa, Sims Profiles | ||
Planningtorock the one
Jam Rostron (formerly Janine), better known by her stage name Planningtorock, is an English electronic musician and record producer who lives in Berlin, Germany.
Contents
- Planningtorock the one
- Planningtorock doorway
- Early life
- 20062009 Have It All
- 20102011 Tomorrow In a Year and W
- 2012present EPs and All Loves Legal
- Artistry
- Studio albums
- Collaborations
- Extended plays
- Mixtapes
- Singles
- Remixes
- References
Planningtorock doorway
Early life
Rostron studied at Blackburn College of Art on the Foundation course in 1990 together with Patrick Bridge, Andrew Hine, Lisa Roberts amongst others. Then Rostron enrolled in an Art school in Sheffield before she moved to Berlin in 2002. In 2004, she launched her label Rostron Records with Planningtorock's EP Eins, following it in 2005 with a compilation LP Carousel of Souls that featured songs from The Knife and The Soft Pink Truth. She sang backing vocals on the Badly Drawn Boy track 'Outside is a Light 2', a B-Side from the 1999 single 'It Came From the Ground'.
2006–2009: Have It All
After signing to Chicks on Speed's record label in 2006, Planningtorock released the limited edition 7" single "Changes/I Wanna Bite Ya," before her debut album was released the following summer.
In 2006, Planningtorock remixed the song "Marble House" by The Knife.
2010–2011: Tomorrow, In a Year and W
In 2010, Planningtorock collaborated with The Knife and Mount Sims to write an opera for the Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. The opera, titled Tomorrow, In a Year, is based on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Tomorrow, In a Year was later released on 9 March 2010, by Mute Records and received generally favourable reviews from contemporary critics; according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it garnered an average score of 67/100.
Rostron worked as the sound designer and componist for the Bruce LaBruce film The Bad Breast; or, The Strange Case of Theda Lange in 2010.
Rostron began correspondence with James Murphy after he sent her a fan email that said 'Really like the Planningtorock stuff – just saying." Murphy later invited her on LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver tour before signing her to his label DFA Records.Planningtorock co-wrote the song "Answering Machine" from the album From the Cradle to the Rave by DFA label-mate Shit Robot in 2010. DFA released Rostron's second studio album W on 17 May 2011. Rostron had been working on the album's songs since 2007, eventually writing more than 27 songs. W received positive reviews from contemporary critics; according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it garnered an average score of 72/100. The album included a cover of Arthur Russell's song "Janine."
2012–present: EPs and All Love's Legal
In an interview with Resident Advisor, Rostron stated: 'Last summer after touring W, I had a bit of a creative meltdown and wasn't sure about making music any more—then I wrote "Patriarchy Over And Out," and suddenly the goal of the next album became clear'. During this period Rostron legally changed her name from Janine to Jam so as to have a non-gendered name. She also revealed that in the Spring of 2012 she set up a studio space with Olof Dreijer (of The Knife), Hermione Frank (AKA Roxymore) and Paula Temple.
Rostron states that "Patriarchy Over And Out" was a turning point 'which was the beginning of being more direct and experimenting with being more political'.
On 8 March 2013 Rostron released "Misogyny Drop Dead EP" and in mid-July released a vinyl-only remix of "Full of Fire" by The Knife "Let's Talk About Gender Baby".
On 29 October 2013 Rostron announced a third studio album All Love's Legal along with a music video for its opening track "Welcome".
Artistry
Planningtorock has stated that the distortion of her vocals allows for the "playing around with gender alongside communicating what I feel is the emotions within the songs. Because I am really interested in expanding upon the limits that we live in – how we are defined – and it is an experiment."