Listen to the Stellar Chill Wave of Space Fight’s “Halimede” — Plus Interview

In the dim glow of a London pub back in 2010, Space Fight was born, a serendipitous union of three friends—two Brits and an American—over a shared pint and a shared dream. Their ascent was swift; they soon found themselves electrifying the crowds at Camden Crawl, zigzagging across the UK with tours that included a notable stint supporting Ra Ra Riot, and catching the ear of BBC6 Music. By 2013, their signatures were drying on the contract for their debut LP, cementing their arrival on the scene.

Then came the silence, a hiatus that lingered until the world itself hit pause in 2020. It was in this suspended reality that the creative sparks flew anew, kindling the flames for their sophomore effort, Do You Dream In The Daylight.

In the latest dispatch from the cosmos, Space Fight, led by Spen Miles (Ra Ra Riot), unveils Halimede, the second wave from their much-anticipated EP, Hyperspeed, set to drop on 3/22. Draped in the nostalgic vibes of mid-aughts chill-wave, Halimede unfolds as a laid-back, atmospheric anthem, gently ascending from its serene beginnings into a powerful ballad crescendo, capped off with a searing guitar solo that sends it into the stratosphere. Space Fight’s mastery of the pop idiom is undeniable—woven with intricate textures and crowned with harmonies that resonate with the soul, they’ve crafted a sound that’s both lush and layered. This track is a testament to Space Fight’s ability to blend the ethereal with the electric, marking yet another milestone in their interstellar sojurn through the indie-pop universe.

“I spent months studying jazz piano in lieu of – or perhaps as a procrastination from – starting the writing process once again, so ‘Halimede’ is the first Space Fight song to feature acoustic piano,” Miles says.  “Many of the parts and progressions were influenced from that time of piano study. The song tells the story of a man separated from a deep love by a long distance… a distance of time, or space, or probably both.”

Watch the video for “Halimede” below:

The follow-up to 2022’s LP Do You Dream In The Daylight – the band’s new EP Hyperspeed sees them exploring a darker and more synth-focused sound. The EP was produced by the band and features 4 new original songs as well as a remix by renowned lo-fi producer Allem Iversom.  Tom Welch shows off his versatility as an acoustic and electric guitarist, spinning beautiful lines, progressions, and melodic harmonies throughout the song, while drummer Billy Hawkes drives the song forward with a palpable energy. To bring everything together, Math Bishop – known for his work with U2 and The Killers – was enlisted to mix and master the song.

Post-Punk.com had a few questions for Miles about the origin of the track and what’s next for Space Fight.

The word “halimede” has roots in both Greek mythology and in our solar system.  Where did you come across the word and what inspired you to dedicate a song to it? Exactly right. My first idea on the lyrics was to write from the point of view of someone stranded on a distant moon, and as I was writing I researched names of moons and I came across “Halimede,” a moon of Neptune. When I learned it was named after a mythological sea-nymph goddess, that seemed at least equally worth exploring, and so the lyrics ended up being somewhat of a mesh of these two ideas… lost on a distant moon, longing for an ancient sea-nymph, you know, your typical rock and roll story.  

You’ve noted that “Halimede” was the first track that the band put together for the new EP, do you feel like it influenced the rest of Hyperspeed by virtue of it being the first song? Absolutely. We had a few false starts in late 2022 after our last album came out, nothing was really clicking. I was listening to McBess a lot around that time, and I loved the synth sounds and vibe on his last record Tubes. We decided to get into a darker synthy sound and see where it took us. The bones of what would become “Halimede” was the first thing that came out of that idea. Then fairly quickly we had 8 songs in various states of progress that we were excited about. We briefly thought about finishing a full length album, but if we had done that we’d still be working on it now, and we wanted to get something out faster. Hopefully those other tunes will get finished up eventually and make their way into the world… or some may find new life in other projects of ours like Paultra Violet or Wendel, and Space Fight will move on to something else, I’m not sure yet!  

What do you hope people take away from your upcoming EP Hyperspeed That’s hard to answer. I hardly ever wonder what people will take away from our music. Once it’s out there, I’m over it. If people like it and it makes any kind of impact, that would of course be amazing, but the important thing for me is to just get it out there and then move on to whatever is next. I guess my hope in the long run is to create a body and legacy of work over time that can’t be ignored and speaks for itself. I like Warhol’s philosophy, “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” I couldn’t say it better than that.

Photo by Kyle Seagraves

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