Australian indie rock band Spacey Jane dive inside their triumphant sophomore album ‘Here Comes Everybody’, a spirited and soaring record of inner strength, perseverance, and finding light in life’s darkness.
Stream: “Hardlight” – Spacey Jane
I want this record to be for youth persevering and thriving emotionally under the weight of our generational burden made up of climate change, COVID, etc. Feeling like you have the responsibility of your entire future on your shoulders without any say in what happens creates anxiety and uncertainty.
Born in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Spacey Jane’s sophomore album is a record of reckoning and resilience: An album made, intentionally or not, for persevering through hard times and finding the spark inside us all. Spirited, soaring, and triumphant, Here Comes Everybody is a radiant indie rock soundtrack of inner strength and passion: An inspiring and uplifting album about dealing with, and seeing through the hardship in our lives. However dark things get, there’s always a light.
Hardlight
Slips under my door this late at night
Keeps you on my mind
That sound
Comin’ from my head, that screaming out
Don’t feel right
Can you see the weight I’m wearing on my shoulder?
Each one’s worse and stays a little longer
I came out to say that I, I’m not feeling the same
Sitting on your bed, coming down
Released June 24, 2022 via AWAL, Here Comes Everybody is an exhilarating, exciting return from Perth’s Spacey Jane. The follow-up to 2020’s acclaimed debut album Sunlight sees the four-piece of Caleb Harper (lead vocals, guitar, songwriting), Kieran Lama (drummer and manager), Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu (guitar) and Peppa Lane (bass guitar) reeling through the challenges so many of us have faced over these past two-plus years – but make no mistake, this is not a “COVID” album, but rather an evergreen tribute to the staying power in us all.
“Our second record is less introspective; I want it to be more of a guide to the experiences that are coming for those entering the period of life I’m leaving,” frontman Caleb Harper explains. “Our first record discussed personal experiences of mine and it was a blessing to see how many people related to those stories. I want this record to be for youth persevering and thriving emotionally under the weight of our generational burden made up of climate change, COVID, etc. Feeling like you have the responsibility of your entire future on your shoulders without any say in what happens creates anxiety and uncertainty. I think COVID took away the sense of unity that gives young people assurances in such times. I know music isn’t a replacement for taking control and galvanizing positive change, but I hope this record can soundtrack some of those moments in peoples’ lives.”
“Here Comes Everybody has a sort of surety and triumph to it, but is also daunting if you look at it the wrong way, i.e. everyone expects so much but can’t tell you what it is they actually expect. I like the idea of the juxtaposing meanings you can find in it. Lyrically the album is diverging down those two outlooks, there is still vulnerability in feelings of hope and resolve. It’s not realistic to expect anyone, especially young people in this time, to be brazenly confident, and it’s often in addressing fears and insecurities that we’re able to find confidence and purpose.”
“There are still parts of the record that refer to heartbreak and relationships as I don’t think the gravity of those moments can be denied or hidden when talking about any aspect of life. It’s by no means a concept album so it has a range of themes and ideas in it. “Haircut” is about trying to change yourself superficially after losing someone because you think it will fix the hole that’s been left in your life. “Clean My Car” is about filling your time with distractions instead of dealing with the root of the sadness (breakup etc.). Both are really simple metaphors but they also tie into your sense of identity and how you cope with crisis on a small scale when sometimes it feels like the whole thing is a f-ing crisis.”
The sunlight speckles through trees across the road
I get white spots in my vision so I blink them out
Oh I think I’m coming around to this
Maybe not it’s either that or it’s yet to hit
I got a haircut a shitty attempt at a changeup a face lift
But it doesn’t work like the movies I found it
My head is vacuum of feelings and failures
And white noise calling my name
I’ve spent 10 years in my head trying to be someone
And if it seems like I’m unsure of myself that’s the reason
Oh I think I’m coming around to this
Maybe not it’s either that or it’s yet to hit
Harper candidly describes Here Comes Everybody as a “mostly pretty sad” affair.
“This was a COVID record and one made by people kind of figuring out how to be a band, he says. “It was kinda tough and very fun – not much of a story, but maybe I’ll be able to remember more once the dust has settled. This was the first chance we had to be full time musicians to go about putting together a cohesive record, but it was also marred by all the challenges that Covid presented. We wanted to make a record that sounded different to Sunlight and was more considered, sharper or something like that. I think the process of recording changed as we learnt what that meant in a practical sense – more songs started with chords and melodies and sort of worked backwards into the rhythm section.”
The album’s title is a tribute and reference to Harper’s personal favorite record of all time (“the best album ever”), Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. “The title “Here Comes Everybody” was the original working title,” he says. “When I first read about it I thought it was such a beautiful phrase and immediately related it to the themes of the album. I’ve sent Jeff Tweedy a letter asking for his blessing to use the title, and he said yes! I’ve taken a lot from it… I think I was drawn to the two contrasting feelings the phrase evokes, one of empowerment if you’re a part of the “everybody” and one of fear if you’re not.”
Musically, Here Comes Everybody is unapologetically dynamic and charismatically passionate.
Spacey Jane contrast their songs’ often dark and volatile emotional depths with irrefutable sonic light and effervescent energy, injecting their signature summery rock charm into a captivating collection of cinematic anthems, stirring ballads, and everything in-between. They hit hard from the start with “Sitting Up,” a ruminative scene-setting song that feels as though it was made with its opening place in mind:
Sleeping sitting up, shake another hand
He said it looks I’ve been drinking
I said wasn’t that the plan
How’s that for an intro?
Have you done this before
I said I don’t think so
But I couldn’t be sure
“I wrote this about the way I was feeling and behaving when I was in my final semester of college before dropping out,” Harper recalls. “I left quite unceremoniously by not showing up to any of my final exams or handing in final assessments. I had no idea who I was, I was seriously depressed and completely spinning out. I felt like I’d created this terrible facade of myself for all of these people that I knew and that really I hadn’t been myself around someone or been truthful about my feelings in years. I didn’t care about my life or what I was doing to my body, I thought I was going to end up dead if I didn’t fix something. I felt like I was the one going through those feelings and even though that wasn’t true, it made me feel so alone.”
Moments of reverie and reckoning abound as Here Comes Everybody continues. The band hit their stride on such rip-roaring songs as “Lunchtime” and “Hardlight” – two of the record’s fitting, standout singles – but (at the risk of sounding hyperbolic) every one of these tracks shines with its own inner light. The stunningly contemplative “Lots of Nothing” wrestles with a special kind of anxiety and listlessness, whilst the aching outcry “Clean My Car” toils with relentless grief and sadness.
“‘It’s Been a Long Day’ is really special to me, and I’m so proud of everyone’s performances on that track,” Harper says on the topic of favorites. “I really love all the lyrics in that song, but I don’t think I could really pick a favourite. They all have really different meanings and ties to me and it changes often.”
It’s been a long day and I don’t feel like talking
I feel like crying and eating something
Oh what will I do tomorrow
A little unhappy and severely underpaid
Staring at stop signs waiting for them to say go
Or turn green and wave her on
You don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to
I won’t hold you to that
Will you hold my things while I go under
I’m not sure I’ll be back
It’s been a rough night and I’ve had dreams of dying
So you pull out your heart and say take it from me
Oh it isn’t mine to borrow
I’m filling up with anger but it’s not hers to take
But I cannot hold it my knees ache from the weight so I cave
She takes it from my hands
Spacey Jane’s sophomore record hones in on a hard truth: Life is going to get you down.
But, as their bold music reminds us, you don’t have to stay down. In spite of all the chaos, the pain, and the hardship, Here Comes Everybody is a ray of hope in this turbulent world. It’s the keep calm and carry on indie rock record we need to get us through 2022 and beyond: A colorful, charged set of songs, that soothe and stir, uplift and inspire. Out of darkness, Spacey Jane have created an album of radiant light.
“I just hope people can stop feeling shit about feeling shit,” Harper shares. “It’s normal and ok, being young doesn’t have to be a main character moment; it often isn’t.”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Spacey Jane’s Here Comes Everybody with Atwood Magazine as the band goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of their sophomore LP!
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:: stream/purchase Here Comes Everybody here ::
Stream: ‘Here Comes Everybody’ – Spacey Jane
:: Inside Here Comes Everybody ::
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Sitting Up
I wrote this about the way I was feeling and behaving when I was in my final semester of college before dropping out. I left quite unceremoniously by not showing up to any of my final exams or handing in final assessments. I had no idea who I was, I was seriously depressed and completely spinning out. I felt like I’d created this terrible facade of myself for all of these people that I knew and that really I hadn’t been myself around someone or been truthful about my feelings in years. I didn’t care about my life or what I was doing to my body, I thought I was going to end up dead if I didn’t fix something. I felt like I was the one going through those feelings and even though that wasn’t true, it made me feel so alone.
Lunchtime
Wrote this song while experiencing severe hangover anxiety and feeling extremely hopeless. It’s fun to juxtapose fast upbeat instrumentation with somber lyrics and themes. I’m trying to explain how I feel like I’m just going through the motions with love, career, friends and family. I felt like everything was just happening because it had to and not because I cared about it.
Lots of Nothing
This is song is about a version/part of myself I don’t want to know or see but I have to admit still exists. The verses are a nightmarish vision of a couple driving together, having lunch etc. kind of Natural Born Killers vibe. It’s the version of me how I think I am in a relationship. The chorus is sort of self explanatory, it’s the worst that I think of myself. There isn’t a resolution of a redemption lyrically, it just sort of fades out. The plea “You must think something of him” is a hint to the fact that maybe I don’t completely hate that other person, that I also have to learn to love an accept the all of myself before I can make positive changes to the parts I don’t like.
Clean My Car
I think this one is pretty self explanatory! There are so many things you try to do to wrestle with a breakup and other grief/sadness and it’s usually never the right things. I tried to capture how empty you feel in these moments, how can seem to take away the sadness and guilt of what you’re feeling.
Hardlight
I wrote this song about how I was feeling like my life was a bit like one of those nightmares where you’re at school with no pants except I used the metaphor of being on set and forgetting all of your lines (because it felt less silly). I guess it’s about anxiety but also just having no idea what I’m doing even though I want it to look like I really do.
Finding time to produce music videos in between touring can be pretty squishy and calls for some pretty spontaneous and strange ideas. “Hardlight” was one of those. This our second time working with Nick, he created the concept for and workshopped the Lunchtime music video remotely due to covid border restrictions so it was great to have him on set this time. The brief was pretty simple: We had a day off in Melbourne and we wanted to film a whole performance based video that felt interesting and exciting. Nick pitched the charter boat and we loved it straight away, we got to dance around on a party boat on the Yarra for 6 hours, it was a lot of fun.
It’s Been a Long Day
This song was written pre and post a breakup in 2020. It was a way to tell someone that I loved them when I was feeling so anxious and down during covid that I didn’t know if I was doing enough to really tell them. In the end I became so overwhelmed and unwell during a 6 month period, I convinced myself that music was a lost cause and the complete loss of identity because of that resulted in the breakdown of that relationship. “I’ve got something to say” was trying to say all the things I felt for her at once. In the end, after the breakup, the final lines of the song are “I really loved you.”
Bothers Me
With this song I was trying to capture my own/the widely shared experience that people have when they leave high school. I think there is so much pressure to be sure of yourself and focussed and committed to a future in a world that really can’t give you any of that in return. It took me so long to develop any sense of direction or identity post highschool, sometimes I think I’m still figuring it out. You shouldn’t have to pretend that you’re in control or have it figured out when you’re 18. Anyone who says otherwise can get fucked.
Not What You Paid For
So wasted he’s throwing up on the grass
I spent all I earnt this week
And I’m trying to make it last
Missed the last train
It’s 4 o’clock again
The cab driver quoted 80 bucks
So he began to walk
Oh this is not what you paid for
Spilling drinks on the table
Getting fucked up and kicked out
Haircut
I think this one is also pretty straightforward. I’ve got to change some of the verse lyrics I think, some aren’t very clever so I’ll get back to you with new ones soon. But basically it’s about trying to make superficial changes to myself in the hope that the new sheen of it will outshine the dullness I’m feeling about being alone and having failed another relationship.
Head Above
Pack all my things it’s time to go
Filling my car with everything
Leaving to stop the bleeding
Calling my dad I’m coming home
I said goodbye at 17
How could it ever be the same
4 hours to feel and then forget
I promised I’d never cry again
My legs start the motion while my head is in the ocean
Ash rolls off the hillside and I loathe the gift of hindsight
What did you think would happen you turned my fear into a weapon
How did you see this ending it isn’t love if you’re pretending
Yet
“Tell my friends how I’m feeling” is a simple line I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. It’s an easy way to summarise what I think most young people miss with mental health. There are so many avenues to deal with mental illness and support is opening up more and more for people but often the biggest barrier to dealing with things is letting the people who are closest to you know what you’re experiencing. Therapy helps so much from the inside but feeling like I’m understood and loved in my environment has probably been the biggest victory for me. The chorus of this song sits afloat of the rest of the lyrics, I was feeling heartbroken about a relationship and the mood of the song fit the feeling at the time so I just went with it.
Pulling Through
This song is for a friend who lost a loved one. I didn’t really know what to say at the time except for “I’m sorry and I hope you’re ok” so putting it in a song made it easier. I find it hard to not feel cheesy or tokenistic when you’re trying to support someone through grief and songwriting gives you a license to say thing exactly how you want to.
Swimming in my head aiding and abetting
Things I shouldn’t sweat but things that I care about
I don’t if I can take another day
Of waking up and thinking is there a better way
Is there a better way
I don’t want to ask but you’ve already said it
With that look in your eyes and hands deep in your pockets
Staring at your shoes kicking up the grass
Leading to the front door of my house
The front door of my house
But I hope you know I love you no matter what you’re going through
When it feels sometimes like the waiting is the worst that we can do
And if it feels like failure then it’s probably good for you
Oh if it tears your heart out then you’re probably pulling through
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