Foto-© Michael Tartaglia

Das australische Quartett Spacey Jane hat ein großes Jahr vor sich – denn nach all dem Stillstand der vergangenen Covid-Monate, beschleunigt die Indie-Pop Band direkt von 0 auf 100, veröffentlicht heute ihr zweites Album Here Comes Everybody und bereitet sich aktuell auch auf Monate des Tourens vor! Der Titel des neuen Albums ist dabei eine Anspielung auf den Arbeitstitel von Wilcos bahnbrechendem Album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, das zu den absoluten Lieblingsalben der Australier gehört – über die Themen des Albums sagt Frontmann Caleb Harper: “Our first record (Sunlight) 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.” Für uns hat die Band zum heutigen Release von Here Comes Everybody ein Track by Track mit allem Wissenswerten über die Songs verfasst!

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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”.

7. 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.

8. 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

Lift my blinds
Another wasted day
Sleeping off the hunger pains
Saying you’re ok

Oh this is not what you paid for
Spilling drinks on the table
Getting fucked up and kicked out
Even in a blacked out bar

I can’t really forgive myself
If I don’t know what I’m sorry about
My friends keep over compensating for
Not knowing if there’s a fucking point anymore

You caught me at a bad time
But to be honest there hasn’t been a good one for a while
Could you do me a favour
Don’t tell anyone what you saw here

The dull throbbing of a reckless summer
Fucking get me out of here
The quick flicker of a smile
That I’ve never seen seen before in your eyes

Oh this is not what you paid for
Spilling drinks on the table
Getting fucked up and kicked out
Even in a blacked out bar

I can’t really forgive myself
If I don’t know what I’m sorry about
My friends keep over compensating for
Not knowing if there’s a fucking point anymore

9. 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.

10. 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

You can say it in the morning
I can’t sleep but this is getting boring
I don’t have to listen to this
Unless you are gonna tell me sorry

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

I can see
That it’s changing me
To something I don’t wanna be
So I’m leaving

My legs start the motion my head is in the ocean
I’ve felt this before why can’t I control my emotions

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
I can’t see this getting better when I’m older
I still love you if you ask me but it’s been years since I’ve known what that means

11. 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.

12. 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.