SPILL FEATURE: IT FEELS LIKE A MORE INTENTIONAL RECORD – A CONVERSATION WITH CALEB HARPER OF SPACEY JANE

IT FEELS LIKE A MORE INTENTIONAL RECORD

A CONVERSATION WITH CALEB HARPER OF SPACEY JANE

Spacey Jane is quickly becoming one of the most popular indie rock bands. The Australian indie rockers have built quite a strong fan base with their gloriously catchy choruses, cheerful sound, groovy, danceable instrumentation, and sincere songwriting.  Their latest album, If That Makes Sense, is their first since 2022’s Here Comes Everybody.

“It feels like a bigger record for us,” frontman Caleb Harper comments. “It feels like we explored every avenue. We still have our indie roots, but it’s a little more produced than I think things were in the past. It feels like a more intentional record overall.”

If That Makes Sense marks the first time that Harper, the lead lyricist of the band, worked alongside external songwriters. Jackson Phillips (Day Wave) and Sarah Aarons helped write multiple tracks on the record. Harper had a great time working with them. “My first time doing a songwriting session with different people, I didn’t really love it, but eventually I found people like Sarah and Jackson, who I really enjoyed working with,” he shares. “It was really amazing to have these people to bounce these songwriting ideas off of. The songs definitely went in different directions because of their tastes and their advice, so I really enjoyed that.”

One of the standout tracks is “All The Noise”. With breathtakingly atmospheric melodies, captivating vocals, a fast, upbeat energy, and terrific, punchy guitar riffs by Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu, this is one track you will be playing on repeat. “Ashton’s part feels like The Strokes,” says Harper. “The guitar riff really reminds me of Is This It or that era of The Strokes. It feels like Kings of Leon’s Youth & Young Manhood. It feels like early Arctic Monkeys. All these influences were really important to me and us, actually, but especially for me when I was 16 and 17. Those albums for me were like an excuse or validation to say like ‘Fuck you, Mom. Fuck you, Dad.’ Classic sort of child rebellion stuff. Those albums opened a door for me musically and emotionally as a kid. The record and that song in particular were talking about childhood and not really understanding my own origin story in a way.”

The beautifully dreamy “Through My Teeth” is a perfect indie rock song. “That song was written with Jackson on an open C-sharp tuning. It has this non-stop energy,” explains Harper. “The fun thing about writing with Jackson is that he sits there and produces it out and is like throwing a bunch of things at the wall, and I just sit there and do lyrics and melody.  That’s really fun for me. It feels really freeing when I’m not having to have a guitar in my hands or be on the computer.”

 If That Makes Sense is loaded with multiple infectiously anthemic choruses, most notably “Impossible To Say”, “Through My Teeth”, “So Much Taller”, and “Whateverrr.”. “My focus on the chorus is always thinking about how to make it feel euphoric,” reflects Harper. “I came from a religious background. I always felt that worship music, even though I’m not religious anymore, those songs and choruses are so amazing that they make you lose yourself in these amazing moments. I think that’s a big influence on my songwriting, honestly. The goal is to give something to people that they really can’t wait to hear again, whether it’s like in the same song and they can’t wait for the second or third chorus, or they just want to go back to a song.”

PURCHASE IF THAT MAKES SENSE

If That Makes Sense has one instrumental titled “Intro”, which is the opening track of the record. Producer Mike Crossey inspired the song to come to fruition. “It’s part of ‘Through My Teeth’, which is sort of like the opening track, and basically Mike was messing around with some little arpeggio pedal parts,” recalls Harper. “I filmed him doing it just because I really liked how it sounded, and then a couple of weeks later, I was like, ‘Dude, listen to this.’ I was going through videos I had taken. I was like, ‘This sounds amazing. We should open the album with this, because I already thought ‘Through My Teeth’ should be the first song. We ended up building it out. We put a bunch of voice memos in of demos of the songs that we’ve written, pitch shifted them, sped them up to the right timing, and put them in a fun build to the first song. I’ve always wanted to do it. I just love instrumental intro tracks. They’re fun. Glad we finally got to do it.”

“August” is a song that really means a lot to Harper. “I love how it wraps the song up,” he explains. “It’s a hard song for me. It took a long time to write. Some pretty sad themes in it. That song feels like it’s hard fought, and when you really fight for a song and it works out, it has a special place in your heart.” There were several factors as to why “August” was such a hard song for Harper to write. “In part, it was predicting a breakup,” he continues. “I had to send that song to my partner at the time being like ‘Here’s this song where I say we’ll be lucky if we make it to August.’ This was in February or March. That was pretty shitty, honestly. That sucks to talk about. And it’s like dealing with guilt associated with leaving my family and life in Perth to set up shop in L.A. It was written over a year and a half because I couldn’t figure out a chorus. The chorus came really late. I couldn’t figure out the outro. Counter melody stuff too. For all those reasons, it was just a hard song to write.”

An outlier sonically is “Ily The Most”, which is a piano ballad. “That’s the beauty of working with someone else, other songwriters,” smiles Harper. “I wrote that song with Sarah Aarons. I wouldn’t have written a piano song. I actually had a guitar part for it first.” Ultimately, Spacey Jane decided that having a piano ballad was the right direction to go. “It just felt really cool, and I enjoyed writing like that and singing songs like that.”

If That Makes Sense dropped on May 9. “It was just a time in my life that I felt very isolated and scared about the move to L.A. and the time spent away from home in this new place, and I feel like I hear that in the record,” shares Harper. “I hear this kid who doesn’t know what he’s doing. I think because of how challenging the environment was, I’m really proud of what we put into it.”

Spacey Jane will be embarking on a tour to promote the new record. If you want to hear some excellent indie rock, then be sure to check them out. Harper is excited for these shows and is looking forward to all the different places he will be able to explore. “You get on a bus at 1am, then wake up at like 10 am in a completely different city, sometimes a different country,” he smiles. “The culture and people are different. The environment and scenery are different. I think that’s such a trip. That’s such an interesting experience. I’m really excited to go to places we’ve never been before. Excited to eat some good food and just see parts of the world I’ve never seen before. I love touring with my bandmates. We get along really well and have a good time, so I can’t wait.”

Artist Links

Photo Credit: Cole Barash