'Slow Felt Good, Slow Felt Right': Spacey Jane On Their Mature New Album 'If That Makes Sense'

Photo: Michael Tartaglia

They might have only toured the UK twice in their nine-year career, but Spacey Jane have definitively conquered Australia. When their second album ‘Here Comes Everybody’ landed in June 2022, the Perth indie quartet would become that year’s most-played artist on triple J (the Australian equivalent of Radio 1), also dominating the Top 10 of the station’s coveted Hottest 100 year-end list.

Their debut hometown arena show followed, confirming Spacey Jane’s graduation to the big leagues of Aussie guitar music – where they can proudly sit at the same table as Gang Of Youths, DMA’S and recent viral sensations Royel Otis. 

Fast forward three years, and it’s the eve of the band's third album ‘If That Makes Sense’. A more sombre, heartfelt work than its predecessors, it mirrors the environment within which it was formulated, where frontman Caleb Harper found himself “isolated” and “alone” in Los Angeles. However, the album leaves room for the odd wildcard and pays homage to their sweaty rock roots, resulting in their most mature effort to date.

With their return to the UK confirmed for an extensive October headline tour, Caleb spoke to Stereoboard about the inception of the record, the band’s relationship with home and where he feels Spacey Jane fit into the wider Australian scene.

Was the three-year gap between albums a result of you letting the process take as long as it needed?

“We toured so much for ‘Here Comes Everybody’, and so I moved to LA, essentially for two years, to make the record. I was acclimating and figuring out how to operate in that space — getting a Californian driver's license, figuring out how to get a fucking credit score! It feels like we've been away for ages, but I also feel like I haven't stopped in three years. [Our management] started saying, ‘Hey, you need to stop touring for a second and just make some music. Don't set deadlines, wait until the songs are there.’ That was hard at first, but in the end, we got comfortable with not being on the road.”

Why did you pick All The Noise as the lead single to introduce this era? 

“It was meant to be a bit of a red herring. We knew that it stood alone on the record, in a way. The riff was incredible, it just had so much energy, and it felt like it spoke to the soul of the band from seven years ago. We felt like we could build a really cool world around it before we started introducing other aspects of the album.”

Do you still feel a connection to the band’s slightly rockier roots?

“We were making songs as products of the spaces we were playing them in. It's a big part of why our music was so much heavier, faster and rougher — we would play these songs in rooms long before they came out. Now, the songs live for a long time in my head, on the computer, and then someone else's computer. The focus is different. I really like writing slower, sadder things right now.”

Why do you think the slower, sadder vibe presented itself to you at this point in your life?

“I think it's the context of writing it. In LA, I felt alone and isolated, I was by myself. Slow felt good, slow felt right. Fast and high-energy did not come to me quickly, I wasn’t in that headspace. It's always subject to change, but I guess that's the product of the environment.”

Whateverr and Ily The Most feel particularly open — was it difficult to get comfortable with exposing your vocals so openly?

“It's super scary. I focus on my voice so much more, it becomes the only thing I think about. It also makes me want to believe what I say even more, and deliver it with absolute conviction. It makes me scared to do it on stage, because it's not the norm for us. It’s a weird move to have a piano ballad [Ily The Most] 50 songs into our discography, but I'm excited about it.”

On August, the album closes with the exact lyric ‘If That Makes Sense’ — how did that come to be?

“August took me a year and a half to write. It started out when I first left for LA, feeling this guilt about being away from home and abandoning this life here. That time away, chasing a dream and also someone I love… I wrote that last lyric on the last day of recording. I finally got to it and sobbed in the booth, singing it and then Peppa [Lane, bassist] stepped in and sang it, and I cried seeing her do it too.”

Did you feel any pressure after how well ‘Here Comes Everybody’ did back home in Australia?

“We’re blessed to have amassed this fanbase, and all of a sudden it feels like I don't want to disappoint these people… there's expectation. There's fear, for me, of staying stagnant. This fear of not growing, getting better and not giving something my all. The pressure is there, for sure. When we're making the record, it feels like everything's in our control. I almost hate that feeling, how it rests on your shoulders. There's something exciting about [releasing the record], and the anticipation of things being out of our control.”

Where do you feel Spacey Jane sit within the Australian guitar scene — do you feel connected or removed from it?

“I do think that the gigging scene in Australia is really strong. Independent venues really are the foundation of indie in Australia, and, I think, in the UK. Australian guitar music is music made in venues. It's sweaty rooms and long-haired kids, and it's coastal. That is the culture, and that's definitely where it came from for us. I am proud to be a part of it, I think it's amazing. The choice to leave Australia and make this record elsewhere is not an indictment on the quality of Australia, or what it has to offer musically, but just a desire for something different, for us.”

How is your relationship with Perth? Beyond touring, you seem to have spent a lot of time away.

“The relationship with home gets more and more complicated. I still feel this sense of ease as soon as I step foot in my house, but then it gets sticky after a while. I feel like I'm missing out, I'm away from the action. Relationships start to drift or transform, and that's hard, because some people have been in your life for ages. 

“I haven't been out in Perth in forever! I go to one pub down the road and my friends’ houses around the corner, but when I'm here, I live a pretty secluded life. I spent a lot of time gardening with my housemate. He’s a sound engineer, and both of us aren't home until November, so it's a garden that has to stay and survive!”

How connected do you feel to your fans in the UK? You’ve only been here twice, but there’s an established history of Aussie guitar bands cutting their teeth on our shores.

“I definitely feel it. There are so many Brits in Australia, and so I meet people — not that irregularly — who are like, ‘Oh my God, I saw you in Leeds.’ When we're in the UK, there are a lot of Australians there as well. Our experience with any international audience is like, ‘How do we handle this? We understand Australians and the Australian crowd.’ But it’s grown into something that we're quite comfortable with.”

Looking ahead to your tour plans, does the milestone of playing Brixton Academy in October mean much to you?

“Absolutely. Brixton Academy has been on the hit list for a long time. I’ve seen friends of ours like DMA’S and Gang Of Youths hit that marker. It’s an honour for us. Playing that kind of room in London…I’m literally from rural Western Australia!”

Spacey Jane’s ‘If That Makes Sense’ is out on May 9 through Concord.

Spacey Jane Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Wed October 15 2025 - DUBLIN 3Olympia Theatre
Sun October 19 2025 - GLASGOW CENTRAL Barrowland Ballroom
Mon October 20 2025 - NEWCASTLE Newcastle University
Tue October 21 2025 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City Nottingham
Thu October 23 2025 - LONDON O2 Academy Brixton
Fri October 24 2025 - MANCHESTER Manchester Academy 1
Sat October 25 2025 - SHEFFIELD Leadmill
Sun October 26 2025 - BRISTOL Bristol Beacon 

Compare & Buy Spacey Jane Tickets at Stereoboard.com.

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