Spacey Jane hail from Fremantle, Western Australia where in 2016 singer/guitarist Caleb Harper met drummer Kieran Lama in high school. The two started playing grunge rock before relocating to Perth, where they joined forces with guitarist Ashton Hardman-Le Cornu and bassist Amelia Murray.
By late 2017 they had released their debut EP No Way to Treat an Animal, featuring “Feeding the Family,” which became their breakthrough single. The band’s lineup evolved as their audience grew. Murray departed in 2019 to pursue a medical career, and Peppa Lane stepped in on bass and backing vocals, later adding keyboards to the mix. The current quartet includes Harper on vox and guitar, Hardman-Le Cornu on lead guitar, Lane on bass and keys, and Lama on drums.
Following the In the Slight EP in 2018, Spacey Jane released their debut album Sunlight in June 2020 through AWAL. The record peaked at #2 on the ARIA Albums Chart, driven by the success of “Booster Seat,” which won Song of the Year at the 2021 ARIA Awards.
This year, Spacey Jane released their third studio album If That Makes Sense in May and saw it debut at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. They followed its release with a world tour that included shows in the States at The 9:30 Club on 9/9, a pair at The Metro on 9/17 & 9/18, and The Fillmore in SF on 9/29.
Recently Caleb and Kieran stopped by the Setlist offices to sit down with Bree Wilde to chat about going to shows as fans.
Arctic Monkeys, Perth Arena, 2014
Caleb Harper: I grew up in a small town called Geraldton, which is where Kieran and I met. Kieran moved there in grade 11 or something and it's like 20,000 people, 300 miles north of Perth where we started the band.
Arctic Monkeys were a huge influence to me... and that was my first ever real concert in Perth. I was 17, it was on the AM Tour. I walked out, just got to our seats as they started the set with “Do I Wanna Know?” And it's funny, I don't have strong specific memories from the show, but it was the most inspiring, overwhelming thing I'd seen to that point.
And yeah, we went back and we played that arena on our last album tour. And that was pretty special, full circle moment for me.
Bree Wilde: Who did you go with?
Caleb Harper: I went with my high school girlfriend at the time. Actually, her brother was a massive Arctic Monkeys fan. Him and I used to bond over that. I don't know if she really liked the concert that much.
She was probably like, “That's too loud.”
Kieran Lama: I really got into their first record as well, and I remember watching, trying to play along and watching drum covers of that from that album and just completely fucking it up.
Caleb Harper: Yeah. Yeah, he's so good. Matt Helders.
The Strokes, Splendor in the Grass, July 2016
Kieran Lama: Yeah, yeah. We’re both what, 19, 20? 19, we’re both 19. Went to our first music festival together, I suppose. No, we’d been to, what, GTM, doesn’t matter. We traveled to Melbourne. We basically did a boys’ trip or something between the two of us.
Caleb Harper: It was awesome.
Kieran Lama: Staying at hostels and getting super drunk on a shit wine, and then flew up to Sydney and drove from Sydney to Byron, which is what, a nine-hour trip, listening to the same two CDs, which was Nonagon Infinity by King Gizzard and Aha Shake Heartbreak by Kings of Leon with our mate, Nate.
Bree Wilde: But what is Splendour in the Grass like?
Kieran Lama: Well, it's no longer a thing, but it was—
Caleb Harper: It's so sad.
Kieran Lama: If you're a fan of indie music or live events in Australia, it's such a seminal coming-of-age experience to go to camping at a three-day camping festival, where in all likelihood, one of the days it's going to piss down with rain and you're going to have a really shitty time to get super sick afterwards. But it's just this shared rolling around in the mud.
Caleb Harper: But yeah, we saw Strokes. I was on way too much acid and I had this memory of, I remember feeling like we're in warring factions in the crowd and people walking through the middle were a river.
And our friend James was holding me from behind, be like, "You're okay, you're okay."
I had not listened to The Strokes before then, really, in any serious way. And that set me on this pathway of just listening to Is This It, like with Arctic Monkeys, every day over and over and over again riding my bike to work. That's all I could listen to.
But yeah, Julian Casablancas is funny because it feels like he doesn't care sometimes, but I think he does. He was so funny.
He said, "We were sitting at the Artist Compound and these girls came up to me and they asked for a photo, and I looked down at myself and I was in my pajamas and I just went, 'No' And then anyway, as they were walking away, they said, "Play Reptilia.”
Kieran Lama: They said, "Play Reptilica."
Caleb Harper: then he goes, so here it is, “Reptilica.” It was so sick.
Fontaines DC, The Regent, Los Angeles, 2022
Kieran Lama: Yeah, that was the first month that I'd spent in LA and we'd rented a house, an Airbnb up in the hills in Highland Park or Eagle Rock with this big pool and shit. I don't know why we got such a nice place, but it was awesome.
That was the first show that I asked our now co-management to please, please, please get us tickets to this.
And it was on their Skinty Fia Tour, which is the red album with the deer on it. And that's my favorite record of theirs. I love basically everything the Fontaines DC have done. I find they're such a compelling band, such a good...
Yeah, they could fit in any era of rock and roll as we know it and they'd be so, so well suited. But they're just such an insanely captivating live performance. Their front man, how do you pronounce his name?
Caleb Harper: Grian.
Kieran Lama: He had a straight mic and was fucking slamming it on the ground during any of the more uptempo darker tracks.
Caleb Harper: That's cool.
Kieran Lama: And yeah, I just was totally mesmerized. I was front row. There was a circle pit happening because of course. And I just walked away from that show feeling so inspired because it wasn't like there was some gigantic production or this behemoth of lights wall or screen or something. It was just them performing and some strobe, occasionally, and barely in a chatter between songs. It was so just effortlessly fucking cool.
And it made me want to get better at my instrument and get better at delivering some energetic version of a rock show that I think they do so well. I've seen them a few times since. But the intimacy of that night, being I was literally at front row, two from the front or something, and making friends with so many of the people around as well, it felt like a real moment or something, because I think it was their first headline show in LA.
To hear the entire conversation, scroll back up to the top and click the first video.
Spacey Jane's tour rolls on later this month at Tweed Heads. Grab your tickets on the Spacey Jane website.
Spacey Jane 2025-2026 Tour
11/29 Duranbah Beach, Tweed Heads
12/6 Memorial Park, The Entrance
12/19 Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle
12/20 Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle
12/28 Beyond The Valley, Geelong
12/29 The Great Escape, Nugent
7/12 McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater, Troutdale
7/14 Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden, Boise
7/15 The Great Saltair, Magna
7/17 Grand Sierra Resort Amphitheatre, Reno
7/18 Greek Theatre, UC Berkeley, Berkeley
7/19 Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara
7/21 Greek Theatre, Los Angeles
7/22 The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Las Vegas
7/23 Gallagher Square, San Diego
7/25 Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Englewood
7/27 Starlight Theatre, Kansas City
7/29 Meadow Brook Amphitheatre, Rochester Hills
