Making Sense of Spacey Jane

Growth, vulnerability and confusion coalesce in Spacey Jane’s third studio album, If That Makes Sense. Here, frontman Caleb Harper opens up to The Note about the self-reckoning, compassion, and connection behind their most ambitious record yet

Words Zara Richards // Photo Cole Barash

“I felt this pressure to give people a through line – the record in a sentence,” says Spacey Jane frontman Caleb Harper. The 28-year old is mulling over when the music industry collectively decided that LPs need an overarching theme; if there’s a single definition he’d attach to the 13 tracks that make up the band’s third studio album If That Makes Sense.

And then it emerges – the album’s guiding compass: honesty.

“I don’t know what it is. I don’t think I have one.”

Honesty has been a cornerstone of Spacey Jane since the band formed in Fremantle in 2016. With soul-tugging authenticity, the band – comprising lead guitarist Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu, drummer Kieran Lama, bassist Peppa Lane and Caleb – have generated more than 518 million global streams, secured the 2021 ARIA Song of the Year for their runaway single ‘Booster Seat’ and topped the Australian album chart with their sophomore release Here Comes Everybody. It’s even a quality that defines Caleb as we talk, unfiltered, about the parts of himself he pulled at when making If That Makes Sense. “It’s a record of insecurity,” he says. “I don’t really know what I’m trying to say.”

Despite the uncertainty, If That Makes Sense sounds sure of its direction – all wide skies and clear eyes. Flickers of self-doubt and self-compassion swell against the band’s dreamy, guitar-driven sound, a noise that feels like running memories through a Super 8 camera. Melancholy also laps at the edges of the album, but it never overwhelms you. Instead, the pensive energy takes your breath away like a dunk of cool water, only sharpening the record’s vision.

For Caleb, these soaring highs and scuzzy lows were aided by the band’s relocation to Los Angeles. “I wanted to put us in a position we’d never been in before, and that turned out to be one of discomfort in the US,” he explains. “I was also reflective in a way I don’t think I would’ve been if I’d been in Australia. I had no sense of those old parts of my life that... totally informed who I was. So it was very much like, ‘Who are you? What is your identity?’”

Scabs of childhood wounds are picked at on tracks such as ‘Through My Teeth', ‘Falling Apart’ and ‘Whateverrrr’; the impact of self-sabotage and unresolved scars on relationships come into view on love-lost songs like ‘How To Kill Houseplants’; and feelings of dislocation colour album closer ‘August’, which Caleb says explores the “isolation and loneliness” that comes hand-in-hand with Spacey Jane’s success, “despite all the good things it’s given [us].”

What drives that emotional clarity, Caleb says, is a need for lyrics that hit hard – even on himself. “I want to make a song that when I finish writing, is like fuck, that hurts. I find those feelings – those emotions – the most accessible. Happiness is this sort of weird, ethereal thing – it’s hard to define. But sadness, grief and trauma are things you can really put a name to.”

The emotional belly of the record also emerged as Spacey Jane’s orbit expanded. Caleb collaborated with songwriters for the first time, acclaimed producer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, The 1975) joined the fold and drummer Kieran – who has been the band’s manager since their inception– started sharing his role with an external team. While structural on the surface, these changes had a resounding impact on the LP. Chief amongst this was time. The band spent eight weeks in pre-production and 12 weeks recording, deconstructing their indie-rock DNA and rebuilding it with fresh textures. Guitars were swapped for lush synths, programmed drumbeats were manually humanised and all of the tracks were run through tape to achieve the record’s thick, analogue feeling.

“With the recording process, having that much time was a blessing,” Caleb says. “Mike would always say, ‘The album will start to tell us what it wants to be’. Obviously, you can understand that in terms of practicality, but to actually feel it happen in week nine or 10... you don’t even realise you’re doing it, but you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s the sound.’”

Spacey Jane will take If That Makes Sense on a mammoth 25-show tour across Australia and New Zealand, including two back-to-back performances at Hindley St Music Hall on June 21 and 22. The band took a year hiatus from touring to make the third album – their longest break from the road to date. But for Caleb, the stage is where the songs take on their true meaning. “I definitely wouldn’t say 95 per cent of this shit to someone that I’m close to, let alone a bunch of strangers,” he says. “But it’s funny, that full circle [moment] of someone singing the song back to you once you start playing it live.

“There’s this crazy thing I never would’ve said out loud, but now a random person and I are connecting over this random thing, and it’s because it’s come to mean something to [them]. I enjoy the experience of how public this really personal thing becomes. That’s what is addictive about this.”

That need to connect was forged early on. Before releasing a track, Spacey Jane spent a year playing grassroots venues in and around Perth, sharpening their sound through the immediate feedback loop only an audience can only provide. The stages they command now have tripled in size, but the reason why the band continue to be so magnetic live remains constant – their tight-knit friendship. It’s what became the bedrock for the four-piece as they navigated going from “kids fucking around” and jamming on weekends to becoming a business with a team that extends into the double digits. “[We’re] each other’s safety nets,” Caleb says. “We feel closer than ever.”

Having started the band in their late teens, founding members Kieran, Ashton and Caleb have had front-row seats to the people they’re all becoming. “There’s something weird about being forced to watch someone grow at such a close range,” the vocalist muses. And while the stress of the industry never lets up, how the band have weathered the turbulence has shaped who each member of Spacey Jane is. “I think that’s probably the most true for me. I’ve gone through such crazy growth as a person. I feel so lucky, we’re so close and strapped in for the long run.”

And maybe that’s the point of If That Makes Sense – you don’t have to hold all the answers; you just have to keep moving forward and have the right people around you.

“As I reflect on the record, it’s interesting how I really don’t have a strong understanding of so many parts of who I am, of my past and of my life,” Caleb says with the same honesty that permeates everything in Spacey Jane’s orbit. “I’m trying to make sense of this thing myself. So, in a way, [on the album], we can collectively ask together – me and the audience – does any of this really fucking make sense to anyone?”

If That Makes Sense is available on all major streaming platforms now.
See Spacey Jane at Hindley St Music Hall this June 21 and 22.