Spacey Jane are an Australian indie rock band formed in Fremantle in 2016. The group consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Caleb Harper, lead guitarist Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu, drummer Kieran Lama and bass guitarist Peppa Lane, who replaced original bassist Amelia Murray in 2019.
Supported by their 2021 single "Lots of Nothing", the band released their second studio album, Here Comes Everybody, the following year, debuting at number one in Australia. Nominated for Best Rock Album at the ARIA Awards, the record became their second to top the Triple J Album Poll. Six of its tracks were voted into the Hottest 100 of 2022 making Spacey Jane the most played band of the countdown, with "Hardlight" highest-placed at number three.
History
2016–2019: Formation and early releases
Spacey Jane performing in Sydney in September 2018. From L–R: Hardman-Le Cornu, Harper, Lama, Amelia Murray.
In 2016, Spacey Jane was formed in Fremantle, Perth, by Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu (guitar), Caleb Harper (vocals, guitar), Kieran Lama (drums), and Amelia Murray (bass guitar). Lama had been playing drums since he was 12 years old in Horsham, Victoria, before moving to Geraldton and meeting Harper in high school.[1] Both played in a band Sicchino, with Lama meeting Le Cornu and Murray through university.[2][3] The band name is derived from the name of one of the member's friends.[4]
From 2016 to 2017, the band played one or two local shows "every week for a good year and a half",[3] and sometimes "two shows a night at different venues".[5] Their debut single, "Still Running", was released in August 2017,[A] followed by tracks "Feeding the Family" and "Thrills" – the former receiving airtime on Perth radio station RTRFM.[9] Many outlets have since attributed "Feeding the Family" to the band's breakout success,[10][11] with Tone Deaf explicitly crediting the song for the group "fast becoming a favourite of music fans across the whole country."[12] Their six-track debut extended play (EP) No Way to Treat an Animal was released independently in November 2017 containing all three singles.[13] It peaked at number 23 on the ARIA Albums Chart in December 2020.[14]
On 16 April 2018, Spacey Jane released a dual single titled In the Meantime, featuring the songs "Old Enough" and "So You Wanna".[15] Hayden Davies of music publication Pilerats described "Old Enough" as "notably bright and summery, with light guitar riffs and a catchy bassline",[16] while "So You Wanna" has a "somewhat brighter mood" than their EP's tracks, "with its light-hearted melodies and soaring vocals."[16]
Spacey Jane's second EP, In the Slight, appeared on 9 November 2018 with five tracks. It provided two singles – "Cold Feet" on 17 August, and "Keep a Clean Nose" on 12 October.[17] The record was described as a "meeting point of dreamy shoegaze and catchy indie pop" by Davies and was promoted with a launch party at Perth venue, Rosemount Hotel.[18] After winning the Triple J Unearthed Falls competition, the band performed at Falls Festival 2018/2019.[19]
2019–2021: Sunlight and breakout success
On 24 April 2019, the band released the first of six singles supporting their forthcoming debut studio album. "Good Grief" was supported by a music video and an Australian tour, with "Good for You" and "Head Cold" following in August and November 2019, respectively.[20] "Good for You" went on to poll at number 80 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2019, marking the band's first appearance in the annual countdown.[3]
Lane joined Spacey Jane as bass guitarist following Murray's departure in 2019.
In July 2019, the group announced that Murray was amicably leaving the band to focus on her medical career, playing her last show on 13 July.[21] She was replaced on bass guitar by Peppa Lane from Margaret River, who had studied at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and performed on double bass in her group, the Friendly Folk.[22] Lane's second show with Spacey Jane was at Splendour in the Grass on 21 July.[23]
According to Lama, the band toured nationally to "crowds of 20 people" between 2016 and 2019, but that their appearances at Splendour in the Grass and Brisbane's Bigsound festival in 2019 were "pivotal moments for the band" providing a "ridiculously upward trajectory".[1] Spacey Jane signed a global deal with AWAL in December 2019.[24]
The band performed at Laneway Festival on 2 February 2020, with their set later broadcast on Triple J's Live at the Wireless.[25] Later that month, the band announced that their debut studio album, Sunlight, was due in June through AWAL.[26] A fourth single, "Skin", was issued alongside the news, kicking off an Australian and New Zealand Tour (which was later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic).[27][28]
Noted for its "trilling guitar hook",[31] the chorus of "Booster Seat" is one of the band's most recognisable songs.[31][32]
Upon the release of Sunlight on 12 June 2020, Triple J named it their weekly feature album.[33] It peaked at number two on the Australian charts and went on to top the 2020 Triple J Album Poll.[34] Album track "Booster Seat" also received acclaim from music publications,[35] with Al Newstead of Triple J calling it a "life-affirming song with a platinum-strength sing-along quality".[31] It went on to win Song of the Year at the 2021 ARIA Awards and Best Independent Song of the Year at the AIR Awards. By September 2022, the song was verified triple platinum in Australia for the shipment of 210,000 copies.[36]
Leading up to the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2020, multiple publications predicted that "Booster Seat" would top the list,[37] with Josh Leeson of Northern Beaches Review writing it "is the one presenting the best chance of securing the first Australian Hottest 100 winner since Ocean Alley's 'Confidence' in 2018".[38] In January 2021, "Booster Seat" polled at number two.[31][39] This milestone led Leeson to call Spacey Jane "arguably the breakthrough Aussie band of 2020".[5]
2021–2023: Here Comes Everybody
In February 2021, the band signed to Lama's management company, Anybody Management.[40] In June, they renewed their deal with AWAL, with marketing director Ben Godding stating that the label "firmly believe[d] [Spacey Jane] are now poised to break through on a global scale".[41]
On 24 June 2021, the band released "Lots of Nothing", the lead single to their second studio album. It peaked at number 34 on the ARIA Singles Chart.[42] Partnering with Apple Music in August, Spacey Jane released a three-track EP with acoustic versions of "Lots of Nothing" and "Booster Seat", and a cover of Phoebe Bridgers' 2017 single "Scott Street".[43] In October, they released second single "Lunchtime" and dates for a UK tour.[44][45] Further, in December, they contributed to the tribute double-album ReWiggled, for children's music group the Wiggles, providing a cover version of "D.O.R.O.T.H.Y (My Favourite Dinosaur)".[46][47] "Lots of Nothing" and "Lunchtime" were listed in the Hottest 100 of 2021 at number three and number 12, respectively.[48]
In February 2022, Spacey Jane announced Here Comes Everybody, along with a track listing and dates for an Australian tour in March.[49][50] On 8 April, its fourth single "It's Been a Long Day" was released,[51] followed by "Hardlight" and "Pulling Through" in May and June, respectively.[52][53] After the record's release on 24 June,[B] it debuted at number one on the ARIA Charts.[55] It also went on to top the 2022 Triple J Album Poll.[56] The band embarked on the Here Comes Everybody Tour in August 2022,[57] and released a dual single exclusive to Spotify featuring an acoustic version of "Hardlight" and a cover of Paramore's 2010 single "The Only Exception".[58]
In the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2022, the band scored six tracks in the countdown– most notably, "Hardlight" at number three, and "It's Been a Long Day" and "Sitting Up" at number five and six respectively.[59] This feat equaled a record for most songs charted in a single countdown, previously set by Wolfmother in 2005.[59] Spacey Jane also became the first ever artist to have three top-6 songs in a single countdown.[60]
A deluxe version of Here Comes Everybody, featuring four new tracks, was released in February 2023.[61] The band toured nationwide in a regional tour from May,[62] and headlined several Australian festivals along the east coast, including Grapevine Gathering,[63] Rolling Sets (Central Coast),[64] and Changing Tides (Kiama) until December 2023.[65]
2024-present: Third studio album
On 5 January 2024, Spacey Jane announced via social media that their third studio album was half recorded, and that they would be issuing a standalone single titled "One Bad Day" the following week. Written at the end of sessions for Here Comes Everybody, the song's release is to "bridge the gap between what was then and what is next".[66]
Harper's most important influences growing up included the Pixies and Wilco, later exploring the Strokes, Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys.[9] As they continued to develop their sound with Here Comes Everybody, the band's inspirations expanded to the work of Phoebe Bridgers.[67] Harper finds that songwriting is "not an actual way of dealing with things. It’s a way of expressing them, and describing them, and trying to relate to people with them".[68] He claims that his inspiration comes from "processing emotions and life experiences" and "music as a means of catharsis".[69] Spacey Jane's musical foundations are indie rock and garage rock.[70][71]
Their earliest singles and debut EP from 2017 "integrated a bold indie pop sound with their own raw Australian top coat... Packed full of pulsating rhythm and dirty guitars."[13] By 2018, their sound provided a "brighter mood" and "light-hearted melodies" with "soaring vocals".[16]In the Slight developed a "dreamy shoegaze" intersection with their "catchy indie pop".[18] By the end of that year the group had "expanded their horizons and toyed with what's expected of an Australian garage-rock band."[72]Sunlight's first three singles "Good Grief", "Good for You" and "Head Cold" were all written before Lane joined the group. According to Ali Shutler of NME, the album includes "festival-ready songs that embrace a freewheeling joy... But there’s more to this record than purely chasing the roar of a crowd".[72] Overall, he wrote that despite "the jagged edges of conflicting genres ... there's not a moment of their ambitious vision that feels uncomfortable".[72]
Here Comes Everybody was noted for its stark sonic departure from the album's predecessor, and praised by some outlets for proving development in the band's sound. Caleb Triscari of NME wrote the album dives "head-first into something the band didn’t explore too much in Sunlight: dreary music for their equally dreary lyrics", particularly referring to tracks "Clean My Car" and "It's Been a Long Day" which "dial down the tempo a little in order to truly embody the deadening feelings they’re about".[73] While this change of pace was controversial, with Shaad D'Souza of the Guardian writing "most of the songs here hit the same beats over and over",[74] and Al Newstead of Triple J noting it "mostly sticks closely to the model established on Sunlight",[75]Here Comes Everybody was praised for Harper's "fuller use of his vocal range" and "new instrumentation" to combat "their reliance on a verse-chorus structure".[73]
Band members
Current members
Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu – lead guitar (2016–present)
Caleb Harper – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (2016–present)
Kieran Lama – drums (2016–present)
Peppa Lane – bass guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector.
The West Australian Music Industry Awards (WAMIs) are annual awards presented to the local contemporary music industry, presented annually by the Western Australian Music Industry Association Inc (WAM).
^"Feeding the Family" was their second single, released on 29 September 2017, according to Bandcamp and social media posts by the band.[6][7] However, in 2023, metadata for the track on streaming services was changed for unknown reasons to indicate the song was uploaded on 29 July 2017, falsely implying it came before their debut single "Still Running".[8]
^The album was originally slated for release on 10 June 2022, however it was postponed to 24 June due to vinyl production delays.[54]
^"Still Running". Bandcamp. 18 August 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
^ abBec, Jacqui and Bon (2 June 2022). "Spacey Jane – From the West". Eat Your Water. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
^Hung, Steffen (16 November 2022). "Discography Spacey Jane". Australian Charts Portal. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
^"Spacey Jane – Sunlight". Triple J (Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)). 7 June 2020. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
^"Spacey Jane Debut at #1 - ARIA". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). 1 July 2022. Archived from the original on 16 November 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
"It's Been a Long Day": "The ARIA Report: Week Commencing 18 April 2022". The ARIA Report. No. 1676. Australian Recording Industry Association. 18 April 2022. p. 4.
"Hardlight": "The ARIA Report: Week Commencing 6 February 2023". The ARIA Report. No. 1718. Australian Recording Industry Association. 6 February 2023. p. 4.
.jpg)
.jpg)