Comprised of Grayson Hamm (keys, lead vocals), Walt Blythe (guitar), Brandon Brewer (bass, vocals) and Wes Belk (drums), the Oklahoma City, OK-based psych rock quartet SPACE4LEASE can trace their origins to when its founding member and primary songwriter met his bandmates while they were all attending the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma. And although they all came from vastly different musical backgrounds and had different musical tastes, the band formed as a unique convergence of all their influences, including Tame Impala, My Morning Jacket, Big Thief, Andy Shauf and others while lyrically, their material currently focuses on lost love, the unknown and inevitable life experiences. With the release of their 2016 debut EP, Hiraeth, an effort focused on the complicated process of self-discovery, the Oklahoman psych rock quartet toured extensively across the Midwest, winning the praise of The Flaming Lips‘ Derek Brown, who described them as “Fellow Okies that wonderfully mix the blissfulness and melancholy of the great wide open.”
The band’s latest single “Must Be Something” is a moody and atmospheric bit of psych rock with some gorgeously shimmering guitar work, a sinuous and propulsive bass line and a rousingly anthemic hook that sonically brings a couple of different acts to mind — JOVM mainstays Caveman, Los Angeles-based indie rock act Hands and others; but with a slightly more expansive vibe inspired by the endless possibility of the road, of seeing and experiencing things you’d never expect, and how all of that can change and influence your life. As the band’s Grayson Hamm explains in press notes about the song, “Coming from a small town, I never had the experience of the big city life, but surprisingly it wasn’t these destinations that intrigued me the most. It was the journey, and the miles, and time it took to get there. Once we were out on the road all by ourselves just driving and seeing the countryside, this quest of finding myself really started to take effect. This is where the premise of the chorus let alone the whole song comes into play. “There must be something in the way how, there’s nothing standing in our way now.” I started to realize that the only barrier that was standing in the way was myself. The world was just waiting for me.
“Travel, explore, because the world is waiting for you – but so many of us convince ourselves to push these things off until one day it can be too late. It is this internal fear that holds us back. Talking ourselves out of it. Second guessing ourselves. Time passes all the same regardless if you’re sitting at home in your shell, or if you’re testing those limits of fear and breaking your shell, even if it’s uncomfortable at times. The only person standing in your way is you.”
