PLANET CECE * 1997
( One For The Future? You Choose… ) - Saturday 23rd March 2024
Words by Isaac Solanki. Photography by Amadeusz Misiak.
Introduce yourself and describe your sound…
“I’m Planet CeCe, half-German half-English, from Cambridge and I make sad girl dance pop. I write slow ballads, speed them up, then produce them with beats influenced by UK dance from the late 90s/early 2000s (think garage, house, etc).”
What do you think makes you different to the other young up and coming artists of today?
“What sets me apart is perhaps my writing and production influences and how I combine them, the two processes are very separate. I write mostly on guitar or keyboard and am mostly influenced by 90s pop/rock music as well as the music/score that plays in scene transitions in 90s rom/com TV shows (my favourite genre). Over the past 6 months while I’ve been writing material for a conceptual mini album, I’ve been getting deep into Oasis, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and even some 80s stuff like Spandeau Ballet. On the production side, I pretty much exclusively listen to 90s and early 00s dance music. I love all of it - house, techno, garage, drum and bass and the rest.
Recently, I’ve been leaning more into my German roots, incorporating European trance/techno elements in the new material I’ve been working on. I can’t wait to share more new music, which I can only describe as grunge/emo meets Berlin electronic/dance, all wrapped up in pop songwriting. The songs range from sounding more clubby/Berlin to more UK indie/grunge, which I guess represents me pretty well since I’m half-German half-English. My new single which just came out, ‘no self-lover’, falls more on the UK end of the spectrum. I can give you a hint about the next single: the opposite.”
What’s your story? How did it all start and what challenges have you faced along the way so far?
“I grew up with parents who always encouraged me and my brother to create stuff, whether it be painting something, building a sand castle, baking doll-sized cakes for my toys… I can’t deny the role that played. We have countless VHS tape clips of them getting us to sing and dance, which are v cute. I’d say that together with my brother getting his first guitar plus (I was maybe 7 years old) and this German TV show I obsessed over (about this girl who vlogged her songwriting) was what formed my passion for music. Alex (my brother) taught me how to play guitar when I was 10 years old, so I could copy the girl from the TV show and also be like Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, who were my icons back then.
Around age 15/16, I put out my first EP and did a lot of gigs in and around Cambridge/London. During sixth form, I worked with Nick Hodgson (songwriter/ex-drummer of the Kaiser Chiefs) and got into some exciting meetings with industry folk. It was all really cool until somewhere mid-A Levels I think I got freaked out by the idea of living the ‘lonely solo artist life’ post-sixth form and started distancing myself from music. I called off all the meetings and plans and went to uni after a gap year - weird time that was. Fast forward to 2018, mid-degree, and I had a sort of epiphany… the passion to write music re-emerged, so I casually worked on it while finishing my degree. The real drive came back in 2020 though, after I went through really horrible breakup, and that was the year Planet CeCe was born.”
Moving forwards, what are some of your short-term and long-term career goals for the future?
“For 2024, I’ve got an 8-10 track mini album lined up, which I’ll dripfeed in singles throughout the year. I’m currently developing my live set, so will be doing my first shows this Summer and I’ve also set out to produce my first Christmas cover song, which will be fun!
This time next year, I’d love to be booked for my first festival season and have some serious collab tracks in the works with other artists or producer/DJs. Beyond that, supporting an artist on tour and putting on my own headline show would be a dream come true.”
Talk to me about some of the unsung heroes of your music career to date. Is there anyone that you perhaps wouldn’t be here today without?
“It goes without saying that my parents’ unconditional support and willingness to let me live under their roof while I figure this thing out is a big contributor to my career, especially my wellbeing. But, in all honesty, without my big brother Alex, I wouldn’t be where I am today at all. From him teaching me to play guitar age 10 to producing my debut three singles and generally giving me advice about anything and everything since I can remember, I wouldn’t know how to do half the things I do. He too makes music with his duo partner Angus. They’re called Goodvibes Sound and have a lot of cool stuff lined up this year. Check them out!”
“no self-lover” by Planet CeCe
“No Self-Lover took an unusually long time to write, about 7 months. I had some melody ideas floating about in February 2023 after being inspired by the guitar chords from ‘Everlong’ (Foo Fighters), but zero lyrical inclination whatsoever. I kept coming back to it, because I knew there was something moody, sad and heartfelt about those melodies. Eventually I landed on the lyrics “I’m unaware, bringing my soul down, maybe I’m not OK?” and slowly pieced together that it was about unknowingly harming one’s self-esteem (from spending hours doomscrolling/unconsciously comparing yourself to people online).
I finished writing ‘no self-lover’ at the end of August, then spent time writing the songs I’m releasing this year, landed on this mini album concept and got my head stuck in learning how to produce. In January 2024, I started recording it. The arrangement is super simple: guitars, bass, drums, vocals and that’s it. I recorded the vocals and guitars myself, spending hours finetuning all of the effects, then got my boyfriend who is a talented producer himself, Liam Bokser, to perform the epic guitar solos I’d written, finesse the drums and mix the track. We then spent about a week back and forth adjusting the mix until I was happy with it.”
Favourite lyric from the track…
“What I see in the mirror is no lover to understand that she is such a light beam full of wonder (the chorus). It describes what every human being experiences: difficulty with self-love and realising one’s value.”
