Space Jaguar

Space Jaguar came into being in late 2023 in an attempt to make it 1993 again by science or magic. Eight years after his last band spluttered to a halt, Irish-born and London-based singer-songwriter Mark Grassick channelled a tumultuous year and a 90s power pop obsession into a set of songs that attempted to evoke a sound somewhere between Teenage Fanclub’s Grand Prix and Gin Blossoms’ New Miserable Experience.

A series of false starts led to initial recordings being shelved and the entire project was almost abandoned until Grassick sent a chance email to Andrew Taylor (The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, Dropkick) via a mutual friend. Taylor took over as producer, mixing engineer and multi-instrumentalist, with Grassick’s former bandmate and fellow Fountains of Wayne obsessive Michael Wood (Whoa Melodic) joining on bass.

The north star throughout recording was the sound of the 90s coming-of-age comedies that Grassick had grown up with. “I bought so many 90s soundtracks, just because of the Matthew Sweet, Super Deluxe and Gigolo Aunts songs within,” Grassick says, “They became my main route to new music. I can’t remember much about Can’t Hardly Wait but I can remember the exact moment when ‘Farther Down’ played and it plucked every one of my overly sentimental teenage heartstrings. I wanted to create an album that had that feeling at its core.”

All this made it inevitable that Grassick would cross paths at some point with Matt Scottoline of Hurry, a band that has nailed the delicate art of heartsick power pop. It’s Scottoline that lends his distinctive vocals to first single ‘Please Come Around’, which was also the first song written for the record and the one that kickstarted the whole project. “Matt and I have very similar sensibilities,” Grassick says. “I once wrote that he’s as good a songwriter as Gerry Love so I think he felt duty bound to sing on the record.”

The song also features guitar from Mike Connell, guitarist with South Carolina college rockers The Connells, whose 1994 album Ring was a big influence on Grassick as a teenager. Josh Salter of Nap Eyes and Laughing plays guitar and sings on ‘No Martyrs, No Victims’ and Matt Ashton of The Leaf Library plays guitar on ‘Please Come Around’ and ‘Only Love Lets You Down’.

Over three months, Grassick and Taylor traded ideas back and forth between London and Edinburgh, building a record of ten bittersweet power pop songs that rarely venture past the three-minute mark. If You Play Expect To Pay marks the beginning of a partnership that values the short, sharp hook over all else. More is bound to follow.

“I still can’t believe I’ve worked with so many people whose music has meant so much to me,” Grassick says. “You can get a little caught up in the general shittiness of the music industry, so it’s a salve to discover a community out there that will get involved just because they sense a kindred spirit and like the songs.”

Mark Grassnick (Space Jaguar)