Christopher Otto, News & Photography Editor
Following their performance on the rooftop of the Edelman Planetarium a few weeks prior, local indie rock band Calling From Pluto took to Science Hall to celebrate the release of their debut album, “Reframed”.
Composed of lead vocalist and lyricist Amanda Valentina, lead guitarist Joe Shields, bassist Stephen Kossman, drummer Amanda Senatore, and keyboardist and producer Christian Arriola, Calling From Pluto has been making a name for themselves in Rowan and Glassboro’s local music scene for over a year now.
Rather than hosting another rooftop show, however, Calling From Pluto took a more unique approach: holding a one-of-a-kind concert experience inside of the actual planetarium. Alongside visual director Camryn Marti, sound technicians Carly Hulse and Maxwell Adams, and the Edelman Planetarium team, the band went through several different audio tests and dress rehearsals to determine what was possible.
“So this was kind of me and Chris’ idea for a while, like, ‘What if we played in the planetarium? I don’t even know if this is possible,’ and I just reached out. I sent them an email, and then I met with them in-person, a couple of the people here,” said Valentina. “I met with Cam a couple times, and me and Amanda met with Cam to look at visuals and logistical stuff. We had to set up all of the ticketing things, we had to do all the promotional stuff, we had to figure out what the setlist was going to be, how we were going to run sound. That was a big issue too, because it’s in a giant sphere, so there’s going to be a lot of weird angles and things for sound people.”
Imagery of planets, the sun, and even teeth floating throughout the realm of outer space were on display to the sold-out crowd, which contained family and friends of the band as well as die-hard Calling From Pluto fans. As a surprise for the audience, a select few seats in the planetarium would have CDs of “Reframed” taped underneath.
The band would play “Reframed” in its entirety, including tracks such as the previously released “Pluto” and “Teeth”, which also recently just had a music video come out. Other songs off the album that were performed include the upbeat “Fast Fashion”, the waltz-like anti-consumerism ballad “Tap Dance”, and the slow but explosive “Orange & Gold”, which Valentina described during the show as being an anti-war song.
In terms of crafting the sound of “Reframed”, the band’s songwriting process often comes about through Valentina’s lyrics, with the rest of the band then chipping in with different instrumental parts to figure out where the song should go and what it should sound like.
“A lot of the production, a lot of her stuff is lyrically charged. I would say all of our influences definitely went into this, but growing up, I listened to a lot of Billy Joel, but also Latin stuff, a lot of Carlos Santana. Some of us have older, psychedelic influences,” said Arriola. “We’re not really scared of adventure.”
The cover of “Reframed” sees Calling From Pluto sat at a dinner table celebrating with a toast, and a picture frame in the background repeats the image of the band over and over again. Shot by Christopher McIntyre, the band explained that they initially had a completely different plan in mind for the theme of their debut album.
“Our original idea was to do a hotel on Pluto, that was our concept, but we kind of went away from that. We went to the Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City to do a photoshoot, and we got a lot of cool photos back, but we kind of wanted to stray from that idea a little bit, because we got that photo, and we thought it looked so cool, and there was this huge frame in the back. We were like, ‘What if it just repeats again and again and again?’” said Valentina. “We called it ‘Reframed’ because I guess we’re trying to reframe how you listen to music, in a way.”
After the show, the members of Calling From Pluto stuck around Science Hall to chat with the friends and family who came out to support them, as well as to shed a little more light on the making of “Reframed”, including the mentioning of a folk-inspired ninth track that didn’t make the cut.
“We like a lot of our songs because we put so much effort into how it sounds,” said Senatore. “If Joe’s not satisfied with his guitar take, we re-record it. We want everyone to be satisfied, and it sounds tight. And when we recorded the song that didn’t make the cut, we didn’t record it to a metronome; the drums were off, there were just a lot of factors that ended up leaving us to toss it. But who knows? Maybe you’ll hear it in the future.”
With their debut album now officially out, the members of Calling From Pluto show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Alongside upcoming concerts both on and off Rowan’s campus, the members of the band also have other projects releasing new music as well. Kossman and Senatore are also members of LoudandClear, who just dropped an EP titled “Missing Out From My Own Life” this past Monday. Additionally, Senatore also plays drums for Outcry, who will be releasing their debut single “Nate Jacobs” this Friday.
For Calling From Pluto, they haven’t just raised the bar a notch or two for the local music scene: they’ve raised it out of this world.
For comments/questions about this story, DM us on Instagram @thewhitatrowan or email Mackay55@rowan.edu
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