motel void

MOTEL VOID: Your location on solo.to says: Nowhere, USA. I’ve noticed you’ve got most listeners from Portland, Oregon. Is that where you are located? Or do you want this information to stay secret?)

FOUND SPACE (Spen Oliver): I am mainly based in Portland, OR but teasing the idea of being everywhere and nowhere at once. I sometimes work on music in Los Angeles as well.

MOTEL VOID: Could you recommend your favorite local artists and venues? Do you feel like a part of the local scene?

FOUND SPACE: I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a lot of really cool artists in Portland, and I consider a lot of them close friends. My current favs are Franci and Deaf Dreamer. I definitely feel as a part of a community of diverse young artists, but I still haven’t played many shows as Found Space yet. Holocene and Kelly’s Olympian are a couple of fun Portland venues that I’m grateful to have played at.

MOTEL VOID: You played in punk bands throughout your teens, do you still listen to punk music / go to punk shows?

FOUND SPACE: These days I don’t listen to much punk in my spare time, but I’m always up for a good punk show in a Portland basement or backyard. There’s a couple punk bands I’ll always come back to though. Like Wipers, The Clash, Ramones – those are classic.

MOTEL VOID: How did playing in punk bands influence you?

FOUND SPACE: I grew up around a lot of punk. My dad was a drummer and went to a million punk shows when he was a kid in the 80’s in Southern California. In a lot of ways punk is tied to my passion for music. I always felt like someone who wouldn’t fit into society’s mold, and I saw through punk that you don’t always have to. That has deeply inspired me as an artist and individual.

MOTEL VOID: Could you tell us more about the recording and writing process of the album?

FOUND SPACE: My writing/recording process is very chaotic. I’ll usually sit on song ideas for months and keep changing them little by little until I’m left with the strongest concepts. I do almost everything myself, which lets me be pretty unorganized. I feel like I work better without too much structure. When I’m collaborating with a producer or going into a studio I have to get my shit together though. “never find the answer” was in my hard-drive for about a year and a half until it felt ready. I played all the instruments and did all the production, little by little, and had one session with vocalist Lily Christopher when I felt like I was happy with the lyrics.

MOTEL VOID: You’ve just released a beautiful single never find the answer (sunset). Will it be a part of your new album?

I’m actually taking a different approach to releasing – something a bit more DIY. I’m planning to release a new single every month for the next few months. I will be putting out a couple remixes of “never find the answer” too so keep an eye out for that.