Plantfood are a six-piece blood-pumping jazz force based in Leeds , who construct layers of electronic and acoustic jazz, taking influence from artists such as John Coltrane, The Prodigy and Nubiyan Twist.
They’ve sold out Hyde Park Book Club and headlined Glastonbury’s Croissant Neuf stage. In fact, they were credited as Gabriel Francis’ “best discovery of Glastonbury.” Making musical waves in the jazz scene up and down the country, I caught up with them before their headline show at The Grayston Unity in October.
Plantfood’s new album, Carnivores, is a vibrant, jazz fusion six-track production.
JJ Petrie, percussion: “Having a whole year to sit on this music and then actually finally being able to say ‘it’s out’, that’s probably the longest time of conceiving a project and then saying you’ve got it out. It’s totally surreal.”
After forming in 2020 in a student setting, the band released their first single in 2021, followed by various pieces including Live At The Mansion and Six Dinner Sid. The making of Carnivores took just over a year and, as with any art piece that is worked on for such time, attachments start to form and pride starts to build. The six individuals worked tirelessly on the album and it has been met with positive reviews.
This is Plantfood’s longest project and definitely one to be proud of.
JJ Petrie: “We all have different music backgrounds, but we write collaboratively. One person might think of one small idea, but then almost the entire rest of the song is fleshed out with all six of us in a room together, which means that it is a really true representation of what we sound like, because everyone has their say and we will try out everything. If someone suggests something, no matter how dumb it is, we will give it a go and try it out.”
Having met at university, where everyone comes from sometimes radically different backgrounds, it is a blissful coincidence that these musicians found some sort of alignment and crossover in their tastes, but the question seems hard not to ask – is it challenging to accommodate everyone’s reasoning? And as a fairly new and unique sound, how does the writing and conceptualizing even begin to unfold?
JJ Petrie: “We’ve got a whole track called Executive Decision partly based on our composition process. I think we’ve gotten pretty good at just being honest with each other and not taking anything personally, which I think is a really important thing, because obviously you’re expressing yourself in that process and it can feel like you’re really putting yourself out there, so to feel that we can actually get music out and see that process through is good.”
Just by their stage presence and performance, it is clear that the band hears each other, and has struck a pretty healthy flow in their collaboration.
Music taste and input is one thing, but artistic taste is another. Planfood’s previous artwork has been curated by Ed Thompson and portrays the music and concepts incredibly well. However, for the cover of Carnivores, hitting the spot proved a little more complicated.
Woody Hayden, bass: “We did go back and forth a lot, I think because it’s the second biggest thing, other than the music, that you feel like you want representing yourself. But it’s obviously separate from ourselves because we’re not the actual artists making the art.”
The cover settled on was a piece made by Izzy Cuttil. Meanwhile, Ed’s art sits proudly in Joe and JJ’s kitchen and in all members’ hearts.
Given their unique sound, what goes on in the musical minds of Plantfood? I was curious to know what was inspiring them at the moment, and how that might be influencing them. Plantfood have a regular Spotify playlist called Plantfood Picks, which allows listeners to enter the realms of what’s exciting the band at that time.
JJ Petrie: “I would describe it as quite vivid music in that it makes you almost see, almost visually, what they were thinking about, by listening to the music. I think our music, due to the pool of influences, it takes you on quite a journey as well. So I’m a big fan of any music that’s got that kind of thing going for it as well. We’re all about it.”
You can find Plantfood’s music here:
Words and image by Niamh Robinson, @niamhsjournall on instagram:
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