Sam Hendel*
Releasing their second album, indie favourites Spacey Jane talk about the artists that inspired their newly-released instant classic.
ARIA award-winning and as humble as they come, Spacey Jane have managed to grow their status from Perth-based cult favourites to one of the key voices in the next generation of Aussie indie-rock. Despite accolades like consecutive top three placements in triple j’s two most recent Hottest 100 countdowns, the band remain completely uncorrupted by their successes so far.
This was apparent from the beginning of our interview. When asked how their day had been, frontman Caleb Harper gleefully informed me that in-between smashing through a jam-packed day of press and interviews, he’d also had his lawn mowed – something he found just as exciting as discussing his band’s new album with me. “It’s the little things in life, right?” he admits with a satisfied chuckle.
Spacey Jane’s smash hit debut album, Sunlight, was released in June of 2020, right in the middle of the COVID -19 pandemic and its devastating effects on Australia’s live music industry.
With limited opportunities to capitalise on the album’s massive success on the live stage, the band – like everyone in 2020 – looked for ways to keep busy and stay sane.
Enter: the band’s second album, Here Comes Everybody. Upon an initial listen through the album’s radio-friendly and shoegaze-esque soundscape, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this body of work for a straight up-and-down indie-rock record full of “peace, love and rainbows” themes to match its sun-soaked, laid-back sonic concepts.
If, however, you listen through the album long enough to scratch through its chilled-out exterior, you’ll find a reflective and emotionally dynamic work that juxtaposes its glistening and optimistic guitar riffs with heavy, all-too relatable lyrical themes depicting the universal struggles and complexity of the human condition.
Here Comes Everybody gets its name from the working title of a 2001 Wilco record. Harper felt that the phrase perfectly related to the themes and lyrics he was exploring to such a degree that he reached out to the band’s frontman Jeff Tweedy for his blessing.
“Someone in our team had his contact details and set up an email chain,” Harper explains. “I was thinking, ‘There’s no way. He won’t reply. He’s too cool for us.’
“But because it was buried in a huge long email chain, I missed his response and didn’t see it for like, six weeks! Here I was thinking he’s way too cool for us, when I was being too cool for him!”
Tweedy also expressed his admiration of the band’s work in his reply and suggested that if they were ever in Chicago to hit him up. “I hope he really meant it, because I’d love that,” Harper admits.
In addition to the Wilco influence, Caleb also admits to drawing inspiration from the dreamy yet dysphoric lyrical themes of indie cult-favourite Phoebe Bridgers, who has similarly built her following through her unique brand of lyrical cynicism.
“I was listening to a lot of Phoebe Bridgers at the time I was working on this album, so that ended up influencing the writing and lyrics,” he notes.
Just like a Bridgers record, Here Comes Everybody explores and makes sense of the human condition in ways many can relate to. It’s a distillation of emotion from a band that has experienced a great deal in just a few short years.
The band will be taking Here Comes Everybody on a mammoth Australian album tour later this year, hitting all capital cities and putting the captivating and energetic live show that the band is renowned for on full display.
Spacey Jane’s Here Comes Everybody is out now via AWAL.
Spacey Jane – Here Comes Everybody Australian Tour 2022
Friday, August 5th
Perth Arena, Perth, WA
Thursday, August 11th (New Show)
Big Top, Sydney, NSW (18+/AA)
Friday, August 12th
Big Top, Sydney, NSW (18+)
Saturday, August 13th (Sold Out)
Big Top, Sydney, NSW
Wednesday, August 17th (New Show)
Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, QLD (18+)
Thursday, August 18th
Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, QLD
Friday, August 19th (Sold Out)
Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, QLD (18+)
Tuesday, August 23rd (New Show)
The Forum, Melbourne, VIC
Wednesday, August 24th (Sold Out)
The Forum, Melbourne, VIC
Friday, August 25th (New Show)
The Forum, Melbourne, VIC (18+)
Friday, August 26th (Sold Out)
The Forum, Melbourne, VIC (18+)
Saturday, August 27th (Sold Out)
The Forum, Melbourne, VIC (18+)
Tickets on sale now via the Spacey Jane website
