Pluto the 9th [Feature Interview + Tour Dates]

Pluto the 9th : Official | Facebook | Twitter - Photo : Tim Wagner
Had an opportunity to catch up with my good friend/super sensei/long time Dank Radio supporter Jonathan Wandag. He's been busy traveling the universe creating the perfect score for your personal scores. I was able to make contact with him briefly to see what he and his fellow Plutonian mate, Amalia Miller, have been busy creating musically. We discuss how they were drawn to music, how they create their music, and what the symbolism of Pluto and The 9th have to do with each other. I may be slightly biased being that they are my friends, but this has been one of the funnest/funniest/entertaining/enlightening interviews I've ever conducted.

Nativity: First off thank you for doing this interview with us. I know it's crunch time the week of the big event and we really appreciate you taking time from your collective band readiness sessions to answer these questions. Before we get into the main course let's begin with you two introducing yourselves and what you do for the band and how the group came to be.

Jonathan: First off Nativity, I'd just like to say that I'm very happy to be in cahoots with you again, whether it be on the radio, musically, social networkingly, or sausagely. It's all grand and beefy... which means, it's magtastic.

Now to answer your questions: I, Jonathan, write music, sing, play keys and orchestra, and shake my ass. Amalia does the exact same thing along with sing E's an octave above the highest E in the treble clef, make animal noises, and show off that massive crater of a dimple on her face.

Amalia: But really, we were journeying across the solar system and our spaceships bumped into each other somewhere around Mars and... never mind. Long story short, Jonathan and I met at UCLA in 2000 and collaborated once every few years on music, from orchestral overtures to silly covers. We even performed in the SF BART stations. After some poor looking dude gave us a $10, we knew we had to get serious.

Jonathan: Yeah, I mean that paid for our dinner. Why not make a real band and get rich?


Dead Birds and Bees (rough draft) by Pluto the 9th

Nativity: Now that we have a stellar interplanetary understanding how the planets aligned for you two I would like to touch on your individual music history. Jonathan you're currently a maestro music scorer of films, tv, and all the like. While Amalia, you have experience with previous formal music groups. What I want to know is how you two found music. What musicians/groups/producers/etc. sparked that initial flame of music. Was it a piece of music or maybe a performance you witnessed that made you think, "This is it. Music is what I want to do with my life."

Jonathan: I’ll answer that with a 3 part answer:
1) I made fun of people singing in choir when I was in elementary. I did impersonations of the sopranos and made kids laugh. Unfortunately, the choir teacher heard me make fun of a girl trying out for a gospel solo and it actually impressed her... so much so, she chose me to sing that solo. Thus began my singing “career”. Which, really, is me emulating other people. I suck at singing.
2) In high school, i noticed music and performing got the chicks. so I failed my art classes and did bad in A.P. calculus and A.P. bio and focused on music and performing instead. It really didn’t get me the chicks though... at least back then.
3) This girl in college got me into Chopin. After listening to his pieces, it was over. I wanted to be the next Chopin and Beethoven. I’m failing miserably but it’s always great to be stubborn.

Amalia: I had a classical upbringing -- played piano for a few years as a kid and unfortunately quit when my teacher kept poking my wrists with the point of a pencil to make sure I held them up. Is that child abuse? I took up violin in the 4th grade and played in orchestras through college.

I grew up singing musicals around the house (some of my fav’s are Oklahoma! and songs from all 90’s Disney movies), but never joined a choir until college. UCLA, specifically the Filipino choir Tinig and orchestra Erectric Youth, is really what turned music from a school elective/hobby into something more serious -- so much so that I changed my major from Materials Science & Engineering to Musicology at the end of my 2nd year. It gave me the opportunity to write my own music and conduct at Royce Hall. How many people can say that?

Jonathan: I can.

Amalia: Shutup.

OH! How it would be! (rough draft / rough mix) by Pluto the 9th

Nativity: To my knowledge Pluto is no longer a planet and has been demoted to a "dwarf planet". What is the significance of the band name Pluto the 9th?

Jonathan: the demotion of Pluto is a heavy heavy thing. (speaking of, Plutonium is heavy too). It symbolizes the ousting of an entity that doesn’t conform to the same patterns and attributes that other entities follow. (speaking of Entity, have you seen that movie? I haven’t but it’s awesome!) For those that don’t know, Pluto has a skewed f*cked up orbit, rotates oppositely, and stars in Disney Movies. Pluto is like the Alice in Wonderland of planets... To demote this anomaly of a planet harks back to countless historical crusades where those that were different were either destroyed, ridiculed, or cast into oblivion... Peep the Salem Witchcraft trials, the Nazis trying to get rid of the Jewish folk, Segregation in the mid 1900’s... okay it’s not THAT heavy but it’s always good to romanticize.

the 9th symphony of any composer symbolizes FINALITY...and a lot of times their mortality... they usually DIE after they compose their 9th. And as the typical 5 year old will know, death can also mean transcendence and metamorphosis. Coincidentally, folks will agree that many 9th symphonies are considered a composer’s best work. (i.e. Beethoven’s 9th) Pluto happens to be the 9th planet... We decided to be redundant with pairing of the 9th planet with the 9th degree and emphasize the coming of a finality, mortality, and eventually metamorphosis. (i.e. we want to get rid of the typical rules of making an album and come with something fresh but familiar) I have 9 fingers. Amalia’s dimple is 9 cosmic centimeters long. There are 9 things going on in your head. If you rearrange the spelling of 9, you’ll get einn.

Amalia: Show off. That name was my idea. But, yeah, everything he said.

Nativity: This weekend will mark the historic debut performance of Pluto the 9th at FPAC (Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture). This will be somewhat of a homecoming for you Jonathan. How are the preparations coming along for the performance and what does it mean to you to be back where some would say, you in your previous incarnation Invid made a permanent mark in the local Filipino Rock community?

Jonathan: I’m scared to perform again. I might break our equipment. Preparations are horrible. I haven’t practiced since I’m scoring a Feature film right now. I think I have a gut. I’m not ready. But I’m always ready to pretend I’m ready.

Honestly, being back on stage will be another chance to inspire and teach the younger cats that you don’t need to be American Idol and perform the way American Idols perform. They Perform. They are object being subjected to the audience’s judgements. I don’t believe in reaching out to the audience when you’re on stage. I believe in being SUPER INTERNAL! So super internal that the audience has a difficult time trying NOT to look at you. It’s like a Blackhole... a Greedy Blackhole! An eternally powerful vacuum that has a motive to take and be selfish. What does that even mean? no clue, but you get me.

Nativity: Going through some of the songs available for stream on your Soundcloud page I noticed a familiar tune "Born Again Friends". Is this version with Pluto the 9th the vision you originally had? Was this a conscious effort to retell this story?

Jonathan: No. Invid’s “Born Again Friends” was meant to sound rock. Weezer meets Beatles. However, the original incarnation of it was me playing a glockenspiel over a piano and a lot of my girl friends loved it. I just tried to make it more macho with distorted guitars and loud drums. I failed.

Amalia: We’re also going for a licensing approach with this band -- not your typical band’s dream, but a big goal of ours since Jonathan does music for films, tv and commercials. Instead of trying to find some pop song to place, we can write our own and kill two birds with one stone. Which brings us to Target commercials. They really lead a certain new ‘indie’ style and I think “Born Again Friends” in this new version hits the nail. Creative agency who films target commercials, our email address is music@plutothe9th.com. :)

Born Again Friends (rought draft / mix) by Pluto the 9th

Nativity: Can you please briefly take us through your collective song writing process? Does it start with a melody or maybe a lyrical hook? Many of us at Dank Radio are songwriters at heart and we're interested at how your musical creation process happens.

Jonathan: My weakness and strength comes from melody writing. I’m ALL about catchy melody that, many a times, the melody leaves my orchestrations and background musical material in the dust. As a film score composer, that gives me a massive headache because there are many movies that just need a blanket of rad ambiance and not a f*ckin motif that sounds like Silvestri’s Back to the Future theme. But we’re not talking about Films so I don’t worry too much. Sometimes though, I do start with a chord progression that emulates the 3 B’s and 1 C: Beethoven, Bjork, Beatles and Chopin.

Amalia: I’m just the Muse. No, I collaborate more on the lyric-writing process and lots of harmonies in addition to my Snow White solos. I’ll be more involved in the instrumentals (chord progressions, etc.) in the full-length album.

Nativity: I've always kept an open mind to existence of extraterrestrial beings across the vast universe. What is your take on ETs traversing the milky way in search of like minded beings and nutritional/constructional resources?

Amalia: “If it is just us... seems like an awful waste of space.” - the movie Contact

Jonathan: Aliens are real. Martians are many. Plutonians are few.

Nightmare Girl (rough draft / rough mix) by Pluto the 9th

Nativity: Lastly we thank you two again for taking the time to do this Interview with us. Are there any final messages you would like to share with your family/friends/fellow interstellar travelers? Please feel free to take this time to update us on any upcoming performances and releases.

Jonathan: Hi to my family, friends, and future kids. I do this all for your well being.

Amalia: Our friends, family and new fans have been so supportive in these past few months. We are releasing our EP “123 Chicken!” at FPAC this weekend.

We are also about to launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for our first full-length album, which we hope to release by end of year. We want this to be a level above our EP and with Jonathan’s film score connections we have access to some industry pros in audio engineering and some award winning music video producers that already love our stuff. We just can’t afford their rates! So if you like what you’ve heard so far, please support us! Look for “Pluto the 9th” on www.kickstarter.com. We can’t wait to give the (Earth) world more and entertain their ears. (The planet’s ears, not people.)

We’re also going to do more shows, perhaps in more intimate settings with just the two of us (rather than with our full 5-piece band). San Francisco and Los Angeles, watch out.

To keep up with all our happenings, join the mailing list on www.plutothe9th.com, and add us on Facebook and Twitter.

Tour Dates:
09/11 Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture [FPAC] @ Pt. Fermin Park in San Pedro, CA | More Info

Nativity