In just a few years, Fremantle four-piece Spacey Jane have gone from playing small local shows to selling out tours across the country, starring on massive festival line ups and making Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2019. Now after a series of well-received EPs and singles the indie-rockers are unveiling their debut album Sunlight this Friday, June 12. BRAYDEN EDWARDS caught up with singer-songwriter Caleb Harper to find out about the ride so far and how it feels to finally release an album. Spacey Jane play the Prince of Wales, Bunbury on Thursday, September 3, Badlands on Friday, September 4 and Sunday, September 6, and Indi Bar on Saturday, September 12.
Congratulations on the release of your debut, how would you describe how it feels to finally get it out into the world, albeit in unusual circumstances?
Thank you! It feels great, it’s been a long wait for us so we’re excited and relieved. Definitely some weird times but releasing music really feels like a good way to stay active as a band right now so we’ll take what we can get!
You have already revealed a fair chunk of the album through five singles, but is there anything you feel will still surprise fans on the songs they haven’t heard yet?
I hope so. We definitely dove into the “studio experience” a bit more as we got closer to the end of the album and most of the unreleased tracks were tracked during that time. There’s some venturing into synth leads and a heavier focus on the dynamics of the songs which separates them from the earlier album singles I think.
And what do you feel has surprised you the most considering where you are now compared to when you started? It’s been a remarkably rapid rise for Spacey Jane!
Pretty much everything has surprised us. Everything from radio play to selling out tours feels unreal and we’re so grateful for that. I think the volume of fans who truly seem to love the music and want to support us is probably the biggest spinout. They’re amazing.
Your success has been built on a lot of live shows and touring. Was there a particular moment you felt that the hard work had paid off and that the band were really going places?
I remember feeling so excited when we sold out Badlands Bar in Perth in October 2018, like we were finally doing something right. That was the biggest headline show we’d played at that point and looking out into a crowd of mostly strangers really drove it home.
Most of us consider Spacey Jane a Fremantle band, however half the members are originally
from Geraldton. Do you feel that brings something unique to the music?
In a roundabout way I think it does. When we moved to Perth we didn’t know anyone in the scene at all so we just started playing and writing without much direct influence. There was still a huge psych contingent along with a lot of Aussie punk in Perth and we came out sounding pretty different to anything else at the time which was good for us, I think.
And how have personal experiences also shaped the music and lyrics? If you were to sum it up, what would you say Sunlight is about?
Very much so. The album is almost exclusively a reflection on life and relationships, I can’t really talk about much else! Sunlight is the result of unavoidable lyrical candour and trying to write an album during a breakup.
The next time we’ll see Spacey Jane live it will be on the other side of a debut album release and a global pandemic (they have since announced dates for September, see above). Are things going to look or sound any different?
I hope that’s soon! Depending on the degree to which restrictions are eased will likely determine how big the shows/tours are but if things are more or less back to normal we’ll be pulling out all the stops. Prior to COVID we were working on a lighting show and beginning to build backing tracks to give fans the full album experience which is really exciting for us. We’re looking forward to progressing past the club show vibe and trying to play to the rooms we’ll be in.
And have you been able to make the most of isolation with any new music we can look forward to?
Sure have. We’ve got a whole bunch of demos ready to go and we start tracking album two later this month!
