SPACEY JANE’S CALEB HARPER ON THE NEW ALBUM, TOUR, AND MORE
BY ELLA EDWARDS
Spacey Jane hit Australia’s indie rock scene hard with their debut in 2016. It wasn’t long before the group released breakout single “Feeding the Family” and started to rise. Across their three albums, they’ve had countless hit tunes, with many boasting the ranks of ARIA Platinum and beyond.
PHOTO BY COLE BARASH
Spacey Jane has also been recognized at the AIR, APRA, and ARIA Music Awards. Now, their most recent album “If That Makes Sense” is making waves. With insecurity and introspection, the record begs to be toured, something that the band will gladly oblige this fall. I had the chance to sit down with frontman Caleb Harper. We talked inspiration, image, and “If That Makes Sense”, a release that sent Spacey Jane out of their comfort zone and into the stratosphere.
Ella Edwards: You began your musical career doing some busking. Now, as a musician who's grown so much in popularity, do you still find yourself tapping into any early lessons from those busking experiences?
Caleb Harper: I take a lot of inspiration from our early days playing, club shows, especially. That's really where the inspiration came from. Busking definitely was my first taste of performance. Every bit of experience matters and is important. But the club shows were really important to us. We used to play for 100 people-- or 10 people, four people-- for a good year and a half before we ever could actually form a crowd, and that is really valuable.
Ella Edwards: I saw you did a Wiggles cover, which I thought was super funny. And your social media can be very light-hearted and silly. So I'm curious, how do you find this plays into how audiences relate to you all as a band?
Caleb Harper: We definitely have no pretense. We're not trying to be enigmatic or anything like that. We are who we are, and we are pretty unserious people. The band keeps us young. I'm 28 now, and I don't feel 28 at all. I still feel like I did when I was a kid. Not that 28's that old. But, yeah, we like to keep it light. And, you know, the music is not light; it's quite heavy, and it's very personal. And so I kind of feel like I'm already connected to people in a way, with the music. We want to feel like our fans can know us. It's really important.
Ella Edwards: Yeah, you have both sides of that; you have the heavy stuff and then cheerful stuff.
Caleb Harper: Yeah, and then stupid shit posting, you know?.
Ella Edwards: In writing your latest album, "If That Makes Sense", I heard that you all took a step back from performing for about a year while working on it. And then, of course, back during Covid, shows weren't happening. So what's it like for y'all as musicians who really seem to thrive on stages to sit in that space when you're not touring?
Caleb Harper: Pretty awful, honestly. I mean, I think we got used to it in the end, but the truth is, yeah, we love being on stage. When we stepped away from that, we struggled for identity, I think. We didn't really know what to do with ourselves. We missed it a lot. At the same time, it was really valuable for us to go away and just write music, and not be distracted by touring; touring is brutal. It might be a month of shows, but it sort of wipes out three months of your life. We needed to stop and go and write a record, and we're glad we did that.
Ella Edwards: Let's get into "If That Makes Sense" for a little bit, which, to reiterate, is Spacey Jane's latest album. So this title really struck me, because it is totally something I would say when I'm nervous. You know, like, "if that makes sense, I don't know". In listening to this record, it does give off that vibe, like some feelings of insecurity and anxiety. So, I'm curious, was the title intended to emulate that feeling?
Caleb Harper: That's part of it. It's not really sure of itself. And I also didn't want to have to prescribe this whole overarching theme to the album. I just wanted to put a bunch of thoughts in a record and sort of say, "Here you go". It's a whole bunch of thoughts. I don't really know what I'm saying. I hope it makes sense. Here we go. It's like throwing your hands up and discounting what you're saying.
Ella Edwards: On that note of all these different thoughts, the song "All the Noise" really stuck out to me, because it has so many troubled thoughts, like a lot of this self-negativity. Is it 'all the noise' in your head?
Caleb Harper: I'm just trying to reflect on childhood and not understanding where I've come from, and what happened to my family. And it's like, does it even matter? Who cares? It's all just a bunch of fucking noise. And I don't even really know why I'm pursuing this line of questioning.
Ella Edwards: In your work on this album, you were working with a new producer. You were in a new place. Did "If That Makes Sense" feel remarkably different in its development than your other albums?
Caleb Harper: Yeah, it all felt really different. You know, different city, different country, different producer, new songwriters. It was pretty daunting, and we felt like we were pulled out of our comfort zones, which I think was a good thing; we needed to stop being so complacent. It was good.
Ella Edwards: I saw a beautiful cover by Asha Jeffries of your song, "Booster Seat". Who's the dream artist to cover one of your songs?
Caleb Harper: I'd love to hear Phoebe Bridgers do a "Booster Seat" cover. I feel like she'd do a good job.
Ella Edwards: You have a cover of "Scott Street" [by Phoebe Bridgers], right?
Caleb Harper: Yeah, she owes us one.
PHOTO BY COLE BARASH
Ella Edwards: You have a tour kicking off in a couple of weeks, and you'll be gone for a while. What's the preparation like before you hit the road?
Caleb Harper: It's definitely a lot of green juice and running and getting my lung capacity back up. It's mostly physical actions, just making sure the body's up for it. And, you know, emotionally. It'll be a shit fight, but that's how it goes.
