LA-based, Sydney-raised pop trio GLADES are back with their second album, Planetarium, and it's another exciting look at how they're pushing pop's boundaries. 

Even before the album's release, we heard singles Dancing In The Mirror, Get In The Way, Crush, Vertigo and Blonde from the upcoming record.

Speaking about Blonde, instrumentalist Joey Wenceslao says it's all about guiding a friend through a rough time - specifically, a breakup. “Blonde is about helping a friend through a breakup. Sometimes you have to allow yourself to feel the full extent of your emotions to get through something. The song’s about being carefree and allowing yourself to do crazy shit to get over somebody”.

Last year, the band released Vertigo - the first track we heard off Planetarium.  It features production that'll suck you in completely from the very first note, and showcases lead singer Karina Savage's vocals, sounding as amazing as ever. It's an apt first single and lets us in on what the direction of the album is set to be.

Speaking about Vertigo, the band say, “We knew Vertigo had to be the first single because it’s such a shock. It’s very different. Sometimes when you’re so infatuated with someone, you can’t see any of the red flags that your friends are seeing - this song is a warning to a friend about a girl who’s trouble, because you don’t want to see them get hurt.”

GLADES have never been afraid to put themselves on the line musically, and from their very first track, they caught people's attention. The trio met at a Kellyville high school in Sydney, before forming the band in 2015. When we first heard their debut track, Falling Away, it was obvious the trio had something special going on. 

The production of Falling Away is especially captivating - it's both simple and complex. It came together soon after the group met, and the chemistry that was there from the beginning is illustrated on Falling Away - each member feeds off the other two naturally.

The trio draws inspiration from a wide range of places - including, as we found out back in 2018, Grey's Anatomy. "We’re always listening for interesting words or song ideas - inspiration comes from everywhere! Listening to music, overhearing bits of conversation, Grey’s Anatomy... and inevitably, everything gets filtered through our own personal experiences." They're not afraid to put themselves out there emotionally, which is why their music connects with so many people.

2016 saw the group drop their debut EP, This Is What It's Like, which takes a deep look at relationships. Speaking to Something You Said, they described the EP as depicting "the complexities and present moments of relationships. It takes you on an ’emotional’ journey. It’s upbeat and high energy in places, but still has an overall sense of calmness. We wanted to create an honest pop record that people can fit their own stories and relate to the situations we write about. Creating something relatable is so important to us. It’s completely us, written + produced by us".

The EP's highlight was the track Drive, which they told Best Before was written with a more positive idea in mind. "Before Drive, we’d written a handful of songs, and they were all basically break-up songs. We felt like we should write a more positive song, so we wrote Drive. There’s no way we could’ve predicted the response we got – it’s always a little scary releasing new music because you never know what people will think." How did they celebrate the track's success? "From memory, to celebrate, we binge-watched a few episodes of Suits." How else would you celebrate?

The band's debut album, To Love You, was released back in 2018 and saw the band do what they do best - deliver huge hooks, alongside synth-soaked productions that'll take you on a journey. Speaking to Pilerats, the band says the album looks at different types of love. "Not only romantic love; it explores different forms of love, such as loving the people around you, loving those who can’t express that they need love, as well as loving yourself. It maps the progression of a relationship from the first spark, to its complications, and resolves with the realisation that everyone needs love in all its different forms."

With To Love You, the band wanted to explore a lot more ground on the album - and show another side of their music. Speaking to Artist 1 on 1, they discussed how they wanted to put good energy into the world. "We definitely wanted to cover a lot of ground sonically and lyrically with the album. With Do Right, there were so many terrible things going on in the world, so we wanted to put out a positive message alongside a positive-feeling, upbeat song because we felt like that’s what the world needed to hear.

"Thematically, Sweetheart could’ve been a sad, ballad-y song but we didn’t want to play the victim and feel sorry for ourselves – we wanted the message to have some power to it, so it’s upbeat with more attitude. In Through To You we talk about speaking to a friend in another country while it’s really late at night in your time zone – so a gentle, more intimate sounding ballad felt more fitting."

READ MORE: GLADES Just Turned Silverchair's 'Straight Lines' Into An Alt-Pop Jam On Like A Version 

Check out GLADES's new album, Planetarium, now!