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Spacey Jane are risking it all on their new album, IfThat Makes Sense . NO PLAIN JANE

Spacey Jane

W hen Paul Hester quit Crowded House, he lamented: “Being in a band takes you away all the time. You’re always leaving places.” The members of Perth band Spacey Jane know that better than most. Coming from one of the world’s most isolated cities, they’re aware that most of their work will take them many miles from home. The band has said of their third album: “It’s hard to give it a theme other than an overwhelming sense of confusion and a less than successful attempt to tie up emotional loose ends.” If the record does have

to hold on to what they’ve got. In the album’s second single, How to Kill Houseplants , singer Caleb Harper notes: “Water me darling, love is a garden.” Despite the personal cost, Spacey

Jane are shooting for the stars. They literally put their money where their mouth is – paying for this album themselves. “We went to the US, we put our faith in

If That Makes Sense by Spacey Jane is out May 9 via Rocket

THE FACTS

new collaborators and finished making a self funded record without a label home for it. “We stepped off the cliff every day and loved it.” Spacey Jane made the album with producer Mike Crossey from Northern Ireland. Crossey has previously worked with Arctic Monkeys and The 1975.

Spacey Jane formed in Perth in 2016. Their debut album, Sunlight , reached number two. The follow-up, Here Comes Everybody , hit number one. They have placed 13 songs in Triple J’s Hottest 100,

In the album’s lead single, All the Noise , Caleb Harper sings, “Well, it’s all just f-ckin’ noise.” But amidst the chaos and confusion, Spacey Jane have managed to deliver something glorious. Jeff Jenkins

a recurring theme, it’s the strain that distance puts on

relationships. In songs such as I Can’t Afford to Lose You, Falling Apart and ILY the Most , the band members are desperately trying

including Booster Seat , the runner-up to Glass Animals’ Heat Waves in 2021.

KALEO DIET Iceland’s hottest band sinceThe Sugarcubes unleash their anticipated third album.

Kaleo

FAMOUS FANS Kaleo covered Cher’s Bang Bang . When the American star heard their own original song Way Down We Go , she tweeted how much she loved it, saying, “It’s what we hope 4 as artists.” Mick Jagger also asked the band if their song No Good could Kaleo’s highest charting album in Australia was 2016’s A/B , which hit number 29. CHART FACT THE NAME GAME Kaleo means “the voice” or “the sound” in Hawaiian.

T he release of Mixed Emotions – Kaleo’s third international release – follows the band’s recent Australian tour. “They were so incredibly good that the crowd definitely wanted more,” one reviewer said of their Melbourne show. “This band has a wow factor.” Fronted by Jökull Júlíusson (known as JJ), Kaleo made their Australian debut at Bluesfest in 2016, returning to the festival in 2023. “The theme of Mixed Emotions is kind of

GRAMMY ALERT No Good was nominated for a Grammy for ‘Best Rock Performance’ in 2018. The award went to Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker .

going through the various mood swings of life,” JJ explains. “For me, both mentally and musically.” It also shows the band can’t be pigeonholed as just blues rock. “I don’t like to limit myself to a specific genre. I enjoy the freedom to explore where to take my songs sonically. I truly feel there is something for everyone on this album.” Jeff Jenkins

Mixed Emotions by Kaleo is out May 9 via Inertia

Aside from Kaleo, the five biggest Icelandic bands are The Sugarcubes (featuring Björk), Sigur Rós, Of Monsters and Men, indietronica band Múm, and techno group GusGus.

be featured in the HBO series Vinyl .

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38 MAY 2025

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