Confronting inner feelings of claustrophobia and overwhelming expectations, Space is a cathartic cry that will strike right to your core.

Australian rockers Hands Like Houses dig deep into the unpleasant feelings that have haunted them in recent times with newest single Space. Tackling head-on feelings of frustration, constraint and entrapment, the track conveys an overwhelming urge to break free from the narrow thoughts that keep us trapped in claustrophobic mindsets through its urgent lyricism and searing guitar chords. Complete with impactful vocal octaves and haunting high guitars, it evokes a mental strength to declutter all of the negativity that can tie us down.

Explaining more of the inspiration behind the track, vocalist Trenton Woodley says:

I think the song really captures that pressure we felt having to refine our raw ideas and work through our differences in taste and personality while recording.

It’s strange that that sense of emotional claustrophobia has fast-forwarded to this literal one with COVID-19. Since we tracked it, I haven’t actually read the lyrics written down until now and there’s a strange sense of deja vu, like I wrote them yesterday, with full knowledge of everything that’s happened in the last few months.

I wanted it to feel tired, not hopeless, worn out but not ready to give up just yet. I didn’t want it to sound like I’d stopped trying. I wanted it to feel like coming out of a long silence, to say ‘please be patient. I can get this right. I just need a little faith, a little trust, and a little bit of space to get myself back together.’

The accompanying video for the track was directed by Rhys Graham and follows a female protagonist as she navigates her way through life. Speaking more about it, Rhys elaborates:

Our character stops off at a couple of isolated motels which lead us into the world of the band….it all very much reflects the idea of the isolation that we’ve all just experienced.

We also used a deaf actor to reflect the ways that separation or a different way of communicating is not necessarily a lack of freedom, it’s just a different way of doing things that we are used to. That very much ties in with the emotional space in the song.