Armond Arabshahi, known by his stage name Unlike Pluto, is an American singer, songwriter, music producer, and former DJ. He is mainly known for his song "Everything Black", released under the record label Monstercat in 2017, which he produced with Philadelphia-based vocalist and DJ Mike Taylor.[1] He is also known for his Pluto Tapes series of albums, a project he started on May 30, 2018, where he challenges himself to release one song per week, experimenting with different genres and developing his style. Besides the Pluto Tapes, he also has a side project called Why Mona with stage actress and singer, Joanna Jones. Another side project of his is Like Saturn, where he produces relaxing and emotional Lofi instrumentals.
Arabshahi was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He began teaching himself how to play piano at the age of 5, later learning to play the guitar, the drums, and the clarinet. He later decided he wanted to produce music as his career, being inspired by other musicians such as System of a Down, Chevelle, Incubus, Gorillaz, Radiohead, Linkin Park, Sublime, Simon & Garfunkel, Underoath, and many more. He also claimed to be inspired by the mixtapes many rappers would hand out on the streets of Atlanta. At 18, he created the alias "Unlike Pluto,[2] due to Pluto having been his favourite planet growing up.
Arabshahi attended Georgia State University and Emory University in Georgia, graduating in 2013. During his time at Emory, he enjoyed producing multiple styles of EDM, such as dubstep, house, trap, etc., and eventually independently released his first ever studio album We Are Plutonians on March 12, 2013.[3]
Early Career
By 2014, Arabshahi started his career creating and releasing unofficial remixes on his SoundCloud. His remix of Diplo's "Revolution" was picked up by the label Mad Decent after garnering popularity. In 2015, Armond started working with Mad Decent more as he would release two digital A-side and B-side records with Kickraux under the label, called "Palace" and "Tew", with "Palace" currently achieving over 2.2 million plays on SoundCloud. He released a few more remixes independently until mid 2016, where he released the single "Waiting For You" [4] under the label Monstercat, which currently has over 3.8 million plays on SoundCloud, with his long-time friend Joanna Jones, a singer and actress currently known for her performance in the musical Hamilton on Broadway. Then, after two more remixes released under Ultra Records and Spinnin' Records, he would confide in Mad Decent and Monstercat again to find multiple talented singers and writers to produce music with before he even revealed his voice. With these singers, he released a single called "Found You" featuring Michelle Buzz [5] and two more A-side and B-side records named "Soul" featuring Q'AILA and "Show Me Love" featuring Michelle Buzz under Mad Decent, and two singles called "Searching for You" featuring Karra & Eric Zayne,[6] and "Someone New" featuring Desi Valentine under Monstercat. At this point, he had already accomplished over 20 million plays on his SoundCloud overall, was included in Billboard's "Dance artists to watch" article,[7] and began performing at concerts again, touring at multiple music festivals around the world, such as Ultra Music Festival, Bestival, Fvded In The Park, and HARD Summer Music Festival, where he would play his own remixes and songs.[8] By early 2017, he did one more official remix as he looked for an independent label to aid him, and found Lowly Palace (Lowly), whose parent label is Trap Nation. With them, Armond revealed his vocals for the first time with his single "Worst In Me", released on February 21, 2017.[9] After that, he paired up with Monstercat again and released the singles "Sweet" featuring Mister Blonde [10] and "Everything Black" featuring Mike Taylor,[11] with "Everything Black" very quickly becoming his most famous song, and still is with two gold certifications in 2021 and 2024. Due to its success, he announced a tour for the song after its release in March, where he would play the song alongside his others at large festivals including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and EUPHORIA. The song was not only popular in the music industry, but also in the gaming community, as thousands of streamers played it as one of their songs for background music in their livestreams on the streaming platform Twitch. The song also plays in the competitive, multiplayer vehicular soccer game Rocket League.
In late 2017, the producer gradually and artfully combined some of his favorite genres together, like alternative rock, rock, pop, and indie rock, alongside his electronic background. This created a unique range of electronic/alternative rock and alternative pop, with an emotional, meaningful twist that stands out as a "new genre" of his own. This intrigued many people in his past and gained the interest of not only new fans, but also previous ones. With Lowly Palace again, he started to make this transition known with the single "Let It Bleed" featuring Cristina Gatti,[12] and a cover of TLC's "No Scrubs" with Joanna Jones, which did incredibly well, going viral across multiple platforms and currently has 35 million views on YouTube.[13] Seeing the success he had every time he produced with Joanna and being a good friend of his, Armond decided to start up a side project called Why Mona, six months after "No Scrubs", where he started out producing covers of old school classics with her vocals, then eventually original singles that she would write. When he announced the project, they released a cover of Queen's "We Will Rock You" the same day, August 11, 2017.
However, despite the massive amount of progress in his career he's made thus far and the fun times he had, Armond ultimately decided he wanted to leave EDM behind him as he noticed his success lessened and became harder to maintain/gain with the changing environment surrounding EDM. He wanted to move past the genre, dive more into his creative desires, and experiment with his music style, eventually settling with and signing a recording contract under the, now former, independent label and artist management company Heroic Recordings (Heroic/Heroic Music Group). So, by November 2017, when he released another single with his vocals called "I Need A Win" [14] under Heroic, the transition in music genre was clear despite still having an electronic influence in his songs. In an interview with Catherine Zhang in April 2017, Armond explains:
"In 2011, the electronic music scene was still pretty new. You could just make a random beat and release it on SoundCloud by yourself, and just email a shit ton of blogs. Now it's not like that anymore. Now you need connections, you need to have a name for yourself before you even hit up these blogs. I will probably go crazy if I only do EDM for the rest of my life. That being said, there are lots of things to do in EDM. You can combine any genre you want..."
He stopped touring in mid 2018 after releasing two more singles called "Nothing Wrong With Me" and "Fade All My Life", with his last festival being at the Shaky Beats Festival from May 11 - May 13, 2018.[15]
Mid Career
Armond often found himself sticking out of the crowd, which is a theme that carried over into his new music, as the majority of his songs are lyrically and musically dark, depressing and/or deeply impactful in many relatable ways to his ever-growing and loyal fanbase. This is eventually what led his name to gain meaning, since the planet Pluto became a "dwarf planet" and he viewed himself as an outcast, he compared himself to the planet which matched his style of music. He made multiple digital A-side and B-side records under Heroic, where he showed his new, more apparent style of alternative rock, screamo, grunge, emo, indie rock, and electronic inspired music. In the midst of these records, he would go on to eagerly start his new project "Pluto Tapes" under Heroic on May 30, 2018, alongside the first Pluto Tape release "Run, Bobby, Run". The project was made so he could release hundreds of his creative song ideas as often as possible and explore with his style in a way he never thought of before. He released songs weekly, and a lot of the time it was a stress reliever and a fun way for him to make new, unique music, keeping his inspiration up as well as being a welcome challenge. Since the project was made, his fanbase grew immensely once again, and formed into the tightly knit community it is today that he interacts with often. Unlike Pluto is an emerging force in the space he's carved out for himself, with his talent and unique style, characterized by his meaningful songwriting and distinctive voice. He started to have a lot of success once again, but in the way he wanted to the most, and put out three Pluto Tape albums, or volumes, within the year 2019 all under Heroic.[16] In his words:
"The Pluto Tapes started as an experiment for me to release more music - I wanted to see what it would be like to release a song every week. I start a new song idea every day. A lot of those don't even make the cut, but it gets my creativity flowing. The Pluto Tapes have now become my outlet to push my creative boundaries and challenge myself."
Once a certain amount of songs were released, they would be repackaged into a volume before beginning the next one with the same process. Each volume was different, but still had the same recognizable style that is Unlike Pluto, progressively getting much more away from the EDM light and clearly showing an improvement in his production and quality as each new song was consistently released. He began to show himself more in the song covers and with music videos by Pluto Tapes: Volume 2, displaying more professional advertising and comfort promoting himself. However, his contract with Heroic was short lived, and he went back to being an independent musician in late 2019, not wanting to be under any labels or artist management anymore. Before he broke away from Heroic though, Armond released a single under the independent label NIGHT MODE called "Everything You Need" on November 29, 2019, where he stepped back into his classic EDM production for the house style song,[17] and an EP under Heroic called life in minor on November 15, 2019.[18] Pluto Tapes also came to a close and he had a hiatus, or break, of no Unlike Pluto releases after his departure, during which, he also started his side project "Like Saturn" on February 14, 2020 alongside the release of the song "All Alone".
Late Career and Current
His hiatus lasted from November 2019 to March 2020, where he came back with an independently released single called "Life in A Hole".[19] Breaking his silence, Armond explains the song:
"'Life in a Hole' is a song I made in an AirBnb in Atlanta with two of my best friends and co-writers. It's an upbeat melodic song with Drum and Bass influence about what it feels like to climb out of rock bottom. During that time we were listening to a lot of 90's and mid-2000's drum and bass, so we took those influences along with my alternative rock style juxtaposing a unique sound. I just want to keep experimenting with music with high energy and lyrics that people can relate to, because that's what music is all about for me."
Because of his love for and success of Pluto Tapes though, he didn't stop releasing weekly and evolving his style once he returned, and, similar to the project, had a planned amount of songs he would release and repackage into albums, however just not apart of the Pluto Tapes. His comeback was big despite not continuing the project, especially with his once again evolved style, which his loyal fans, along with new ones, were thrilled by with his exciting diversity.[20] Armond went on to make several albums varying in different genres, but still his "own", over the course of 2020-2022, garnering more attention and fans. He had many songs go viral, such as "8 Legged Dreams" and "Rose Colored Lenses", which both came out in 2020 on separate albums. By 2023, Armond started to shift a lot more into an alternative/electronic rock and rock style as he needed consistency to see more success, rather than making different kinds of songs each release, during and after his fifth album Cherry Blossom Nightmare. "As they Bloom" became quite popular from this album, and amassed over 1.1 million views on YouTube, and over 5 million streams on Spotify. He also released a vinyl for the album on November 2, 2023, over a year after the album's release.[21] He eventually did find a solid place in alternative rock, rock, and metal, lessened the frequency of releases to every other week, and soon every month when releasing the songs for his sixth album, Dizzy Bezerko. He wanted to spend more time on his songs to improve the writing and quality, as he simply couldn't if he kept releasing weekly, which also began to finally burn him out. Fortunately though, he had two songs do well on this album as well, with "Guts" gaining almost one million views on YouTube, and "Rip Me Apart" gaining over 700k streams on Spotify.
Pluto Tapes did not end permanently however, as in November 2023, in the midst of him releasing songs for his upcoming album in June 2024, he announced the projects return alongside a new Pluto Tape release called "Smile on my Face" only on YouTube.[22] In the description, he explains that he has a lot of leftover songs that Heroic supposedly did not deem worthy of release on Spotify when he was still signed under them, so he wants to bring the project back, especially as he still loves it and creating these fun songs. He plans on releasing the new Pluto Tapes only on YouTube, before being repackaged into the fourth volume and released on all platforms around mid to late July 2024. This also brings upon the opportunities of keeping the fans who love the weekly releases fulfilled, and having the songs act as fillers in between his monthly releases. It already is proving successful and well-liked, as the songs get over 10k views on YouTube after just one day of being released. The album is now done and set for release, as he already begins new weekly Pluto Tapes for the next volume, kicking it off with a demo Why Mona collab.
Currently in 2024, alongside the weekly Pluto Tape releases, Armond continues to release more songs every month for the two albums he has planned for the year, and has just released the first of the two called "Ghost Gardens" on June 14, 2024. He also will hopefully release another special collaboration album that is yet to be revealed. He explains this, and more, in a YouTube video he uploaded on January 11, 2024, titled "my plans for 2024 and music".[23] The songs are already doing quite well too, gaining over 100k streams of traction on Spotify just four to five days after being released. In the video, Armond has also announced the release of his new manga, called Dada Immortal,[24] which went through a long trial and error process for over two years. The manga was inspired by his love for writing supernatural style stories and newfound love for Japanese anime and manga, which started around 2021-2022. He is publishing independently under the name "Nada Nada" with his friend and graphic designer Protski,[25] who makes the art for Unlike Pluto, and Protski's wife, Gabi. Armond also released a special cover with Sumerian Records, for the "American Psycho" comic series soundtrack, of Eurythimic's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", that both him and Joanna sang together.[26] Sumerian also teamed up with him to release his own version of Palaye Royale's "Dead To Me", written with different verses and sung by Joanna Jones. However, it wasn't just her, as he partnered with Palaye Royale's vocalist himself to combine new vocals of his with hers in the chorus, bringing back his original influence. He has announced that he may be working on tours for 2025.[27] He also had his first release on NCS with the single "Hollow" on April 12, 2024.[28]
Why Mona
In August 2017, Armond announced a new side project called Why Mona with one of his best friend's Joanna Jones and released a cover of Queen's song "We Will Rock You" the same day.[29] The name was created based on his older sister's name, Mona, and the pair started out releasing covers sung by Joanna and produced by Armond with his unique electronic rock style, before transitioning to just making originals in the style of electronic indie pop, written and sung by Joanna. Joanna is a singer and actress who hails from Broadway, where she's currently starring in the roles of Maria Reynolds and Peggy Schuyler in the critically acclaimed Broadway hit musical Hamilton.
In 2019 and again in 2022, the duo's cover of "Wannabe" by Spice Girls went viral on TikTok, amassing over 10 million unique video creations by users on the platform.[30] In 2020, they were releasing singles monthly before taking a two year hiatus and returning in 2022 and 2023. In 2021, Dell computers released an ad that featured their original track "Rabbit Hole", which introduced a lot of viewers to this song and group.[31] Despite only putting out three singles in 2022 and clearly slowing down in releases, Joanna was still active on the YouTube channel and continued to perform multiple live covers of different songs, until they released another cover together of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)" on August 5, 2022, before once again going inactive until June 30, 2023, releasing another single named "Dollhouse". Afterwards, Armond and Joanna made multiple demos, and even two demo remixes of their song "forest green" and Unlike Pluto and Why Mona collab song "Quintana Roo", that they published only on the YouTube channel. They have since been on a hiatus, but Armond still makes music with her in the form of collabs.
Like Saturn
In 2020, Armond began another side project called Like Saturn, a name that plays off of his stage name, derived from his love of the Lofi genre where he makes his own version of chill, emotional Lofi. The songs require low effort, are fun to make, and another way for him to create freely. He does weekly releases with this project as well that he repackages into albums, and continues to do so consistently into 2024, sometimes alongside his partner.[32]
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