Sevenpie snagged a golden opportunity with the face and brainchild of lost spaces, Sam Lopez! This indie-synth pop band has achieved incredible stardom over the years, lost spaces is definitely one to look out for!
From what started off as a safe place to get away from the mess of his own mind, Sam Lopez together with his band; lost spaces, turned a mess into one of Malaysia’s biggest music sensations to date!
With over 7.8 million music streams, to performing on the Good Vibes Festival’19 stage, and even opening for international acts like Korean indie rock band HYUKOH, and Phum Viphurit!
From releasing breakout albums like no-vacancy to their freshest release digital-paranoia, lost spaces is definitely one to look out for!
1. Could you give our readers a brief introduction about yourself?
lost spaces is an indie synth-pop project started by me – Sam Lopez with a bunch of friends and family. We currently have Shien on guitars, Koon on synths, Imran on Bass & Kyle on Drums. We recently played at Goodvibes & Urbanscapes 2019,& also opened for Korean indie-rockers Hyukoh & Thai Singer-songwriter Phum Viphurit. We dropped our debut album “no-vacancy” in August of 2019 to great success, with the album reaching 6.5 million streams to date.
2. What got you into music? At what age did you find your passion for music? Did you always want to be a musician?
I personally got into music at the age of 10, where I picked up a guitar at my grandfather’s funeral (because he loved music and wanted to be celebrated even after passing on) & my mum thought me my first few chords. That really helped me learn more about how music helps when you are dealing with a loss. I ended up learning piano & bass & drums in my teen years. I wrote my first proper song when I was 13 for a youth camp, which ended up being a catalyst for my exploration into songwriting & later on production.
3. You are the face and brainchild of lost spaces, how did lost spaces come about?
lost spaces is essentially the story of my experiences in life. I write all the songs with the help of two main producers, The Chief & Kuszanagi. The origins of the project started as a solo project but expanded into a band with my brother Lukas Lopez on Drums & cousin Imran Marshall on Bass. We then called a family friend, Keane Chua to he join us on guitars. That was the first lineup. But as time went by, Keane had to leave to the US and my brother had different commitments to commit to so we had to take a different approach than your traditional guitar indie-rock band. After Keane left, I decided to change up my sound to a more indie synth-pop approach & started making music with The Chief. Koon & Shien joined me & Imran and Kyle replaced my brother on drums to play our tracks live. That’s the lost spaces story so far!
4. How would you describe the music that lost spaces typically creates?
I would categorize our music loosely as indie-pop, but the way I create is not conformed to one style of music simply because I love music from different genres; in other words very “genre-fluid”. I try to create and fuse them with the things I listen to with a hope that it’ll bring a fresh perspective of music to the listener.
5. The song boxset.girlfriend has gained over 1.4 million streams on Spotify alone, what is boxset.girlfriend about? What was the creative process like for it?
This one was the most fun song I’ve written! It was during a time where I had a crush on this art director/artist online, but I had never met her and I was just super infatuated, and I ended up writing about that experience! I built an intro with a vibe that I wanted & brought it into the studio with The Chief (our main producer) and worked on it with him, and Koon (who just joined us at the time). Ideas flowed very quickly with this one, The Chief & I decided to make it as quirky & fun as we could with Koon sprinkling some cool notes here and there in the song. Once the main body of work was done we got in our drummer Kyle to track live drums & he brought the song to another level! The rest is history.
6. lost spaces performed on the Good Vibes’19 stage, what was your experience like performing at Good Vibes Festival 2019?
It was really fun!! I think at that point it was the biggest stage we got to play on & we got to hang backstage and met some of the other acts performing at the festival. We were super touched to find out that there were plenty of people that flew in from Thailand, Singapore & Philippines just to watch our set. So sad that there won’t be a festival this year.
7. lost spaces just dropped an EP called digital-paranoia just a few days ago, what was the creative process like for digital-paranoia?
For this EP, we worked quite different because our keys & synths player Koon, also known as Kuszanagi produced the EP with The Chief helping us out remotely. (He is in Brisbane, Australia now!). So Koon’s approach is slightly different with Chief & we ended up building the tracks first before writing lyrics. We decided to go much darker with our sound, compared to the bright-cheery sound we were used to for our previous album “no-vacancy”. I touched on mental health & LDR with the songs pulling from intricate places in my heart while trying to create a laidback & chilled vibe throughout the EP.
8. What song from digital-paranoia would you recommend to first-time listeners of lost spaces?
Ah this is a tough one. My personal favourite is windows.95, but the song for first-time listeners would be purple.laces. The song borrows from the bright sounds of the previous album “no-vacancy” but casts a more sombre, chill & pessimistic feeling that digital-paranoia aimed to capture.
9. What can fans expect from lost spaces in the near future?
There’s gonna be a music video on July 1st for “purple.laces” & we are planning a virtual EP launch as well. We have a few collaboration tracks in the pipeline with two artists from different countries, so that’s pretty exciting.
10. Being a band in the local music scene, is there anything that you would change? If so, what would it be?
Personally I think we need more infrastructure, support from fellow Malaysians & ideally Government policies that would enhance the ability to grow our music scene and industry. More music venues and a proper tour circuit so listening to music & watching your favourite artist will not be exclusively for international artists, but it can be a norm for bands in Malaysia to make a living.
11. For bands who are currently thinking of starting a band in Malaysia, what would be your advice?
Dip your toes into everything from Music Production, Design, Film Production & think about your music beyond just the creating process. Find good collaborators that believe in your art and invest as much as you can in them as they will want to invest in you for the long term. Be resourceful, consume different forms of art and expand your songwriting/creative output constantly & be honest with yourself and your craft. Also, think of music as a long game, not a short fire shot to fame.
Click here to check out digital-paranoia on all music streaming platforms now! Follow lost spaces and Sam lopaz on all their social media platforms to get the latest updates on their music journey!
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