Aussie pop trio Glades will release their sophomore album Planetarium this Friday, April 30 via Wit Hustle/Warner Music Australia. Preceded by four singles, including “Vertigo” and “Dancing In The Mirror,” which have already garnered praise from outlets such as Billboard, the NME and Alternative Press, along with millions of streams, Planetarium bursts with the same charisma and endearing electro-pop traits that defined their acclaimed debut To Love You. The powerful, thoroughly danceable yet vulnerable collection provides an open and honest look into these three Sydney-raised young adults. It’s the sound of a band who have tapped into newfound confidence, radiating with crystalline vocals, bounding beats, and magnetic hooks.
Lyrically, vocalist Karina Savage puts forth declarations of self-awareness, self-love and transparency in sharing emotions. “We came into this album knowing that we had to open up and be ourselves. The songs had to be our own personal stories,” says Savage, speaking of an attitude change that extended to the sonic feel of the album. “It was a very conscious but also very natural maturation of our sound,” adds multi-instrumentalist Joey Wenceslao. “There’s a lot more confidence now in comparison to our first album.”
All three members of Glades – vocalist Savage, Wenceslao and Cam Robertson – have spent the formative years of their adolescence releasing music. They met in high school and officially formed the band back in 2015. Their debut track “Falling Away” caught the attention of the internet in the same year while a cover of Troye Sivan’s “Fools” drew accolades from Sivan himself. 2018’s To Love You took the band to the next level, propelled by a string of successful singles. “Not About You” and “Eyes Wide Shut” nabbed the #1 most played slot on Australia’s influential triple j radio, while global breakthrough “Do Right” eclipses the 100 million streams mark on Spotify. Meanwhile, the album took them on sold-out tours both in Australia and internationally while also supporting the likes of Rita Ora, LANY and Clean Bandit. Their total stream count has since sailed well past the 200 million mark.
It’s an impressive list of accolades for a band who were barely out of their teens but they have taken success in their stride and used the time in between albums to do some growing. Planetarium is the result of dramatic life changes. All three members moved to Los Angeles, while Savage got married, walking down the aisle to the title-track of the album.
“A planetarium shows projections of outer space, but we interpreted it as being projections of our own lives and looking at them from different perspectives,” says Savage. That self-assessment also translated into a bolder sound – one that reflected the changes that all three had gone through.
Planetarium marks an exciting new step for a band that has already carved out an individual space in the Australian pop landscape and is now looking to do the same worldwide. It’s the work of three musicians who have grown-up and fearlessly put those growing pains into song.
“We had a checklist of things we wanted to achieve at the beginning of Glades,” Savage says. “We are realising every day it’s not that impossible. Hopefully, with this new album, we’ll be checking off more.”
