Why PLGRMS Are Paving Their Own Way Forward These Days

Jonathan Bowden started out life playing music for coins. Growing up with a piano teacher for a father, he jokes about getting "forced into half an hour practice a day" in exchange for pocket money. "I have three younger brothers as well and they all learnt instruments, and part of earning pocket money every week was doing music practice in the morning before school. One of my brothers didn't learn an instrument, so for pocket money he had to do the dishes - practicing an instrument was better than doing the dishes!" he laughs.

From piano, Bowden progressed to studying jazz at university before playing in the then four-piece Sydney outfit Battleships. PLGRMS is his latest musical evolution, combining electronic elements with traditional instrumentation to create a sensual, cosmic exploration of alt-electro. "For me personally - obviously electronic music is such a big thing now - but it was about incorporating what I grew up doing. I started on actual instruments, so it's great to be able to fuse the two of them together and that way you're getting the best of both worlds I think. The rawness and the feel of live instruments with electronic music," he analyses.

"Basically it's like Tinder dating for musicians - maybe they should invent that!"

The multi-instrumentalist and songwriter began laying down tracks before realising that he couldn't hack the project alone. "I can sing but I'm not amazing," he laughs, "so I decided that I needed a singer and started trawling the internet trying to find somebody who was really good, and I came up with a short list and Jake [Pearson] was top of my list." Man-crushing on Pearson's YouTube videos, Bowden reached out and the two met up to have a chat about PLGRMS. That first meeting "wasn't awkward, but it was a bit tentative," he jokes. "Basically it's like Tinder dating for musicians - maybe they should invent that!"

Their debut track Pieces has "about 50,000 off a million plays," but Bowden recalls being realistic about his expectations when it was first released. "It was pretty incredible. You kind of set yourself up for that to happen because the goal is for that to happen every time - you put all these strategies in place to make that happen - but in the back of your mind you're like 'there's a big chance it won't happen'."

PLGRMS hope their latest single Gemini garners a similar response, but they're approaching its publicity from a slightly different angle. "It's still a case of, 'It's not what you know it's who you know.' Previous connections I'd made... that definitely helped the process of a new band breaking in. For example, the first track was co-written and a little bit of production by Jimmy [Lyell] from Flight Facilities. Jimmy and I went to school together back in Queensland, so I've known him for years. And through Battleships I met Luke [Davison] from The Preatures, so he's drumming on all the tracks. With the first song we definitely [publicised the connections] because I feel like people need a story, and if you give them some kind of familiarity, give them something to latch on to, they'll connect with it on a deeper level. It was a conscious decision especially with the first song. But as it's progressed we're relying now on our own steam."