An additional three songs from the band’s latest album Sunlight earned a spot in the annual music countdown.
But Lama’s music career started on the other side of the country.
He said he could recall a time when he was jamming with friends to Metallica on his first drum kit in Horsham, long before he met his Western Australian bandmates.
“I started playing drums when I was 12. Some of the earliest memories I have of playing drums is in the shed of the house we were living in on Searle Street, playing terribly,” he said.
“A couple of my friends and I all started getting drum lessons through Nick Shirrefs – the music teacher at Horsham College.”
Lama spent about four years growing up in Horsham before leaving at age 14.
“It’s somewhere I haven’t managed to get back to in recent times, but I really want to,” he said. “It’s crazy to think about the sort of imprint a place can leave on you through the people you interact with and the memories you can create – it’s very nostalgic to look back on.”
Lama moved to Western Australian town Geraldton in 2012, which is where he would eventually spark a friendship that would become the foundation of Spacey Jane.
He met guitarist Caleb Harper in high school, where the pair played gigs at school socials.
“Caleb moved to Perth for university in 2014 and the following year I followed to go to uni,” Lama said.
On moving to university, Lama met lead guitarist Ashton Le Cornu and later former bassist Amelia Murray – now replaced by Peppa Lane.
“We just sort of went for it and had a jam to see what would happen,” Lama said.
“It was pretty low pressure – we just wanted to have fun and play gigs and we never thought it would amount to anything.”
Lama said the band’s climb to success came out of a continual push to play live shows across the country before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“I feel like there is four years behind us of relative obscurity – between 2016 and 2019 we toured nationally to crowds of 20 people,” he said.
“It was a long race to where we are now. It’s really satisfying, and it feels like all the hard work has paid off.”
Lama said pivotal moments for the band were in 2019 when it played at one of Australia’s largest festivals, Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay, and later Big Sound in Brisbane.
“It’s been this ridiculously upward trajectory since then. Things haven’t really had a chance to slow down,” he said.
“Splendour feels very much like a launch pad for a lot of artists.
“It feels like you can do anything in the weeks following that – we were just riding a high for a while there.”
The band plans to play to sold out shows across the country for a belated album tour following the launch of its new full-length album released in June last year.
Lama said traction from the hottest 100 contributed to tickets to some of the shows selling out in less than 24 hours.
“The live show sales are popping off, it feels like a huge deal for us and it’s only just sinking in as to how important it could be in the long term,” he said.
“We’re pretty stoked. And touch wood the COVID pandemic is under control by the end of the year – we’d love to be playing as often as possible after what has been a big break on things.”
Lama said although the band was preparing for a ‘jam packed’ 2021, he did not rule out the possibility of playing a show in the Wimmera in the future.
“Never say never – we play regional shows all the time,” he said.
“We were pretty stoked to play a show in Geraldton, which was a nice homecoming for Caleb and myself. I’m sure the same would apply to Horsham.”
The entire February 10, 2021 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!
