The Biography

Normally bands that have existed for no longer than about two years and haven’t published a single album, can look back on a lot of things, but not on a band history.
The quartet from the Hanover area is totally different in that respect, two reshuffles of the original band of three females and one male that started as a circle of friends have now more than promoted the parity of sexes. “Especially because not everything went right” says drummer Daniela Liesche, “the hard core is now holding more and more together. More and more, our band is becoming what we once wanted it to be”. Her colleague and good friend Carolin Schmieding nods and smiles “everyone knows now what this is about and how to go on. Not only forward, but also to the top.”
Verbally the two women still demonstrate the former feminine majority of Planet Emily, but as a band that was self formed, the four are something like an excellent collective, even if this word is quite out of fashion today. But Planet Emily love to thwart expectations and clichés. “Our discussions” says guitarist Lennart Baetge, “are usually about two things: What is it like if it works – and if it doesn’t work, what is our plan B? Anyway, we don’t want to take the job away from any street musician“. Some nice understatement to which the band adds some normalities as well.
”We don’t fool around now any more as we did before”, Daniela adds with a little bit of regret, “ we sometimes even start rehearsing at ten o’clock in the morning before concerts.“ However, all that does not protect Planet Emily against those inconvenient comparisons. “It happens to me quite often” says Carolin. “They always compare me to Stefanie of the band Silbermond: black hair, similar outfit, German rock music, that’s usually enough”. “ I guess you have to live with that, but you can – and Planet Emily offers their listeners lyrics that are worth listening to and are a nice change to what their competitors offer, without being snobby.
The band does not have any real hierarchy at work. “I start with the instrumental part” says Lennart, “But then we jam until there are some dynamics of their own. But I am no great text writer, in that respect I rather rely on the highly creative input from the rest of the band” Lennart is not even a great fan of German lyrics. “ I know very well how easy it is to feel ashamed for the lyrics of others. To be honest, I often experience that with German lyrics”.
Carolin nods, then contradicts and says “ That’s exactly the challenge not to hide behind the English language”. Let’s get even more esoteric in our questioning: Do women in general write different lyrics than men?
”Yes, I think so”, says Daniela. “I Don’t think so” is Carolin’s answer. “ I think it depends”, says newcomer and youngest member in the band, Timo. “ And I believe in everything” Lennart jokes. Big grins. “Well, let’s be honest: you write different lyrics for a female than for a male singer. And you have to put yourself in the position of your target group”. But who is that? In times where pop and rock were the matter of three generations and you cannot automatically turn to a target group U 20? “But that’s great”, says Daniela. “We don’t want to play for the 12-18 year olds only. For me it is a great honour, if their parents tell me after a concert that they liked it a lot.” Maybe Planet Emily will never have to answer the question whether they were manufactured or not, and if so, there will be good answers. “We haven’t thought about them yet, says Daniela. “But fortunately we don’t even have to make them up.“