Spacey Jane: a Whirlwind of Sunlight
★ Interview by Emily Elvish and Abby Strangward ★
Unbreakable melodies, symbolic lyricism and an explosive stage presence: Spacey Jane are utterly irresistible.
Carving through 2019 with three new singles and five national tours, the four-piece garage-pop outfit from Fremantle have set the scene on fire. What takes most bands an entire career to accomplish, Caleb, Ashton, Kieran and Peppa have achieved in a few short years; selling out Australia-wide tours, landing industry staples Splendour in the Grass, Laneway and Falls Festival, and placing two tracks in Triple J’s coveted Hottest 100 for 2019. A momentum that can only be capped by their genre-defining songwriting.
It is the holiness of the everyday that drives Spacey Jane. Their records burst with all shades of life; the beautiful, the agonising, the enigmatic. All penned with such sensitivity that no experience is excluded, and performed with such exhilaration that no-one would dare miss out. The band’s latest single, Straightfaced (off their upcoming debut album, Sunlight), is a shining beacon of this sonic magic which their nation of fans have come to know and love. Layering melting riffs, sparkling hooks and lyrics which poignantly capture the pain of falling out of love, Spacey Jane again create a universe in which both audiences and themselves can find comfort amongst the hurricane of emotion that life hurls at us.
With their debut LP on the horizon and no intention of slowing down anytime soon, we chat to front-man Caleb Harper about the “whirlwind” that was their 2019 and a new chapter in the ever-evolving movement that is Spacey Jane.
So! Talk to me about the inception of Spacey Jane, from your 2017 debut EP right up until now. How’d the band get together? What’s changed in the last few years?
We have to take it way back to April 2016. Kieran and I had been playing in high school bands for years and trying to jam together whenever possible. Ashton and Meils had met in French class and Kieran had met Ashton through boarding friends. We played ‘Covered in Chrome’ and ‘Red Morning Light’ ten times for our first jam. I'm not sure what we saw in it at that moment, but I was so hooked and ready to go. So much has changed over the past few years, so it’s hard to condense that I guess. For me, one of less obvious changes has been how music has grown from a teenage passion into a career - that’s a crazy feeling!
2019 was huge for you guys - a massive FIVE tours, three of which you sold out? That’s crazy! Are you still loving touring, or is the excitement starting to wear off a little?
It’s felt huge! We’re loving it more and more I think, the shows are getting bigger and we get to meet so many amazing artists and fans. We’re also learning to balance the kind of tour experience we have - trying to eat more fruit and getting enough sleep always helps.
What do you tend to get up to on tours that doesn’t involve music?
Kieran and Peppa don’t mind a rock climb every now and then. Ashton and I always try to do a bit of op-shopping and definitely find a beach if possible!
Splendour in The Grass felt like a really pivotal moment for you guys - has it just felt like a bit of a whirlwind since then?
Yeah for sure, Splendour and then BIGSOUND really set us up for the last 6 months of craziness. I think a lot of other things aligned as well; ‘Good For You’ was added to rotation on the J’s, we started doing some more extensive touring around the country and established a really amazing fan base. Whirlwind is probably the perfect word for it; everything feels so surreal at the moment but we’re having heaps of fun.
“Spacey Jane has given me the only real sense of purpose I’ve ever had — I owe it the world.”
AWAL just signed you guys to a global deal - congrats! How are you feeling about that? You’ve had an incredible few years as a rising independent band - is there any sadness giving up that complete independence/freedom?
Thanks! We’re feeling great! Being independent is great for sure, but there’s the potential to lose out in certain areas if you don’t build the right team around you. AWAL are amazing in that they offer that balance to artists in their deals. We’re still able to remain entirely true to ourselves creatively, all the while surrounded by an awesome team.
You’ve got a (very long-awaited) album coming out soon, right? How long have you been working on it now? What can we expect?
Sure do! It definitely feels very long-awaited to us, we’ve wanted to put an album out for so long. We’ve been working on it for over a year now, whenever we all had a week available we’d jump into the studio and chip away at it. It’s been a really changing time for us. I would say that you can expect to feel like we’re closing a chapter on some things musically and hinting at some newer sounds as a band. Emotionally and lyrically, the album shuts the door on a tumultuous few years for me, hoping to tie up some loose ends.
Your lyrics are some of the most interesting I've heard in recent music, with the most fantastic analogies and story-telling style. What's the writing process like for Spacey songs? And do you have a favourite line you've written so far?
That’s a lovely thing to say, thank you. The writing process is pretty consistent for us, I’ll bring anything from a chorus hook/progression to a full song (bar everyone else’s parts) and we build from there. I spend ages working and reworking concepts for a single chorus or song. I want to feel like the stories and feelings I’m talking about are explained as simply as possible, but I also want people to be able to interpret things so that they can always relate. Analogies are great for that because they always draw on universal ideas and experiences, which is really cool.
[My favourite line] is a hard one, but I think it would be from the title track of the upcoming record. The second chorus sings “Sunlight fills the room up, I open up my eyes. Illuminates my nightmare, she’s gone I don’t know why”.
“As an artist, you can use art to try and drive change in the world or just try to understand yourself and never show a soul — but that is entirely up to you.”
Something we’ve been asking a lot of musicians recently is what they think the role of a band is, in our current society? I feel like, as any type of artist, it can be demoralising to hear about everything going on in the world, and you can start to feel like making art is almost pointless. How do you push through that? Where do you find your motivation?
I think the role of an artist is different to the role of a band. As an artist, you can use art to try and drive change in the world or just try to understand yourself and never show a soul - but that is entirely up to you. Art is never pointless and should be valued. A band or any artist with a public platform is incredibly privileged to be in that position. When you’re able to live your dreams as a musician because of the support of a whole community of people, you have a responsibility to be a voice for positivity and constructive change in the world!
How would you sum up what Spacey Jane means to you, in a few words?
Spacey Jane has given me the only real sense of purpose I’ve ever had - I owe it the world.
Lastly - there was that post going around on Facebook about starting off the new year with that bit in Thrill where Caleb shouts “WOOOOO!” — so I was wondering, what would be your dream way to kick off a new year?
Just a night out with our best friends, maybe a little house party something low-key like that. Just having a blast with the people closest to us, as we get a little bit older and people move on to new places and careers and all the post-uni stuff, that tends to happen a bit less often.