This song is called “Pluto Ain’t a Planet”. There are many great things about this song. First, I became obsessed with Pluto not being a planet, especially after I heard the verb “pluto’d” - as in “you’ve been pluto’d” - like you been kicked out of something. But why did Pluto really get kicked out? Here’s why - because the definition of being a planet, among other things, requires “owning your own orbit” - which means that your orbit will not cross with anyone else’s orbit. Pluto, unfortunately, crosses its orbit with Neptune. Pluto is also too small, smaller than the Earth’s moon, in fact. So, by definition, it is now considered a “dwarf planet”.
I always wanted to do a song or something, or maybe start a new popular saying, about “owning your own orbit”. I also think that “dwarf planet” makes for a good title of something (band, song, movie, dog, for example… but probably not for a baby human boy or girl).
When I wrote this song, I was kind of feeling optimistic and depressed at the same time. I am a big fan of the concept of experiencing contradictory feelings and/or thoughts simultaneously. In fact, it can sometimes be seven or eight contradictory feelings and thoughts happening all at once.
I wrote this song pretty quickly, not thinking much about it. All I knew was I wanted to make something calm and upbeat. I was just getting over having a bad sore throat at the time, which kind of helps out my vocal performance, giving me some extra rasp.
I sampled ”*** of ****” by the **** and then played some of my own ***** drums on top of it. I also sampled “I’ll **** It With ****” by ****. That ******* Girl album is great for sampling - lots of lonely guitars and strings, not much drums. The samples have obviously been distorted and messed with, in other words - recontextualized. (now that this song is featured in a major motion picture, I can no longer reveal my sampled sources).
This song, to date, is usually one of people’s favorite’s that I have done.
I recorded it by taping over an old pink cassette tape, using my tascam 414 mkII four track machine, which is about the cheapest and simplest thing you can buy. But I enjoy the limitations. Limitations are always helpful for pushing productivity.
My friend and screenwriter Simon Barrett used this song in the “making of documentary” for his film Red Sands, directed by Alex Turner. I think the Red Sands DVD just came out yesterday, so go buy it! And then watch the special features. Check out Simon’s blog about horror movies and self-hatred.
I never liked going out to clubs and stuff in LA, but occassionally I would. I once tried to approach some girls with the pick-up line “so, did you hear Pluto ain’t a planet anymore” and then I went on to explain the whole thing. I thought this would be funny and interesting, but the girls just stared at me like I was disgusting and stupid.
In the first verse I sing “you can’t just keep walkin’ around like that / you can’t keep going on like that / I’m not trying to have a master plan / sometimes there’s too many things for me to think about…”
Those lyrics represent a pretty good way to explain how I feel most of the time. The “master plan” usage, is actually a reference to a lyric from “Grits” by RZA.
Then I sing “M-O-N-E-Y… I’m just trying to be a little nasty / I’m just trying to be a millionaire…”
I had been calling myself Nasty Millionaire for a long time before I wrote this song. It’s basically about the desire to have money, just also being a little bit secretly weird on the inside, as most people are - I mean, in their private moments, most people do some weird things that they probably don’t normally discuss in public.
I try to be honest about my desire to attain money. I am not a materialistic person and do not value nice things very much, but I just don’t want to be a slave either. I want to make money on my own terms, doing my own thing, not working for someone else. And I want to make money doing exactly what I enjoy, not a job I hate.
The second verse is “you can’t just keep walking around like that / you can’t keep going on like that / how come Pluto ain’t a planet no more / how come I don’t want you anymore?”
My friend Matt Kalish played the bass on this track, and he often plays with me when I play live. I believe he recorded the bass by importing the original mp3 of this song (sans bass) into his computer and then line in, playing bass over it on a separate track. The bass playing is great on this song and really enhances it, but on my crappy laptop computer speakers, I can’t really hear it. I can only hear the bass when I play the CD on my stereo or when I play it off my i-pod on one of those i-pod docking stations, with speakers. Matt is also a filmmaker, check out his website.
I hope that revealing all this information about the song does not ruin the “magic” of the song.
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