(credit: Riinu Rahuoja Rostron)
Acclaimed artist, singer-songwriter, producer, composer, director, and DJ Planningtorock – aka Jam Rahouja Rostron – releases their newest song “Girl You Got My Heart” today via Human Level. A love letter to and celebration of their wife, the song comes just days after the couple’s first wedding anniversary and Planningtorock’s inclusion on Lady Gaga’s Dawn of Chromatica Remix Album. About the track, Planningtorock says, “Before I met Riinu I had had a pretty rough time of it regarding love. I’d been hurt a lot, had low self esteem and gotten to a place where I was quite literally preparing to spend my life alone. So when Riinu and I met she was like a gift from the universe and yes girl you got my heart❤️”
The track’s artwork, with the balloons referencing the colors of the non-bianry flag, was created by Joyce Lee. This is the fourth piece of artwork for Planningtorock by Lee following the three queer portraits for the “Gay Dreams” single & remixes. “Girl You Got My Heart” will also be getting remixes by rRoxymore and Maya Jane Coles coming soon.
Planningtorock’s upcoming EP Gay Dreams Do Come True, out October 29, 2021 is comprised of three celebratory, joyful, sweet house tracks with the aural mission to own their queer happiness, and to share that joy with anyone who wants to listen. The previously released title track is a euphoric song destined to become a Pride anthem. The song’s celebratory video premiered via Paper Magazine.
Click HERE to watch the Gay Dreams Do Come True video
Click HERE to listen to “Girl You Got My Heart”
Click HERE to pre-order the Gay Dreams Do Come True EP
For the uninitiated: Planningtorock has been a disruptive voice in dance music for the last fifteen years. Initially signing with DFA via James Murphy himself, in addition to subsequently opening for LCD Soundsystem in America, Planningtorock has released four acclaimed studio albums thus far, using the personal as political on each record while playing with gender in their costumes and photos for each release. Planningtorock has also become a highly sought-after DJ and remixer, transforming songs with their remixes of tracks by Christine and The Queens, Robyn, Romy of The xx, and many more. Following an opening slot as a DJ for Robyn in 2019, the multitalented producer teamed up with Chanel’s sound director Michel Gaubert in 2020. Their Planningtochanel EP soundtracked the Parisian label’s Autumn/Winter 2020 show, and was the first work created in Jam’s new home city of Tallinn, Estonia. It’s also here that Planningtorock created their transformative new EP, Gay Dreams Do Come True.
Jam uprooted to the Estonian capital – a beautiful, gentle-paced city on the Baltic coast – after spending two decades in Berlin. Already feeling restless and ready for a change, everything fell into place when the musician met their partner, Riinu, through mutual friends in Helsinki; soon, Jam relocated to Riinu’s home city full-time. Last September the couple married. LGBTQ+ marriage isn’t legal in Estonia, so the ceremony took place at the city’s British Embassy – in theory, the country recognises marriages which took place abroad. In reality, they have been struggling to get their partnership acknowledged in their home country while under a right-wing coalition government. With the prime minister now ousted over an alleged corruption scandal, Estonia is going through a time of great political upheaval. Distant hope of a more progressive government is on the horizon – and Gay Dreams Do Come True represents Planningtorock’s own personal exploration of queer love.
A loud, proud, unabashed celebration, Planningtorock’s new EP Gay Dreams Do Come Truestands in opposition to the tragic queer narratives which can sometimes dominate the mainstream. Indeed, Jam set out to make a record which basks in the all-consuming joy of queer love instead, and the sense of belonging, intimacy, and safety that comes with it.
Gay Dreams Do Come True cover art:
PLANNINGTOROCK:
