Lost Spaces faces heartbreak on ‘OCPY’: “Releasing this album is the bravest I’ve ever been”

Music has always come naturally for Samuel Lopez. The Malaysian synth pop artist known as Lost Spaces learned to play the guitar by 10 and by 12, he had already written his first song. “Growing up conservative and religious was not really a bad thing for me,” the Ipoh native tells NME. “I learned my first few songs and how to play in a band from a young age in church. It’s where I discovered I had a compositional brain.”

It’s the commercial, outward-facing aspects of a music career that Lopez struggles with. “I don’t like selling myself or to fight for attention. That has always been bizarre to me,” he shares. Ironically, Lopez works a day job in a music distribution company that helps artists get their music out there. “If I had a choice I wouldn’t be on social media at all.”

Over the phone from a quiet corner of an airport, NME hears there is a weathered tone in Lopez’s voice. Understandable, perhaps, for a conversation about a record that’s also a three-arc tale of his own heartbreak. But there is also an ease in the way the self-professed introvert talks about the record – which Lopez says was emotionally necessary to make. “I recognised I was going through something and I needed to use this record almost as therapy for me to get over a lover that meant so much to me before. It felt like a disservice to myself to not get this out.”

Lost Spaces touched down in 2019 with the album ‘No-Vacancy’, which paired catchy and soulful synth pop cuts with retro imagery and tales of jaded youth. Racking up millions of streams – 23million to date – the record led to a signing with major label Warner Music Malaysia in 2022.

Lost Spaces debuted as a band, and for the next record, Lopez took a different approach. “The first album and the experience of working with my band and other producers was a huge learning experience that I appreciated,” he says. “It’s taught me to trust my own tastes and decisions a little more.”

Lopez produced and performed all the songs on Lost Spaces’ sophomore record ‘OCPY’ (pronounced ‘occupy’). The first sound you hear on it is a bubbling synth line that bursts into bright, bobbing beats and a chorus that exclaims: “I’ve fallen for a beauty off the screen / I know it’s silly but she’s got a hold on me.” It’s the sound of free-falling into new love.

“I don’t like selling myself or to fight for attention. That has always been bizarre to me”

But we’re in for a jarring mood swing with the restless and angsty ‘Face The Dark’, where Lopez faces up to reality that things aren’t working out, “There doesn’t seem to be an end / I’ve been living day to day with so much dread.” The album eventually closes on a cliff-hanger with ‘Daydream’, as Lopez finds a coping mechanism to get on: “This memory, where I wanna be don’t ever leave / Just let me stay in this daydream.” The combination of swirly saccharine synth pads and the record’s most hummable chorus suggests a happy conclusion, rather than a sad one. “It’s like a parting letter that says, ‘thank you for everything.’”

While Lopez plays to type with the heady pop of ‘TV Love’, on other songs he experiments with vibes and sounds that are less familiar. The moody R&B textures on ‘Infinity.’ would’ve felt out of place on the first record, while ‘Face The Dark’ opens a path to a darker, more aggressive sound in the future.

“I was gravitating to diverse sounds to try and inform each song more individually,” Lopez shares. “I listen to so much music that I wanted to get everything in there.” Lopez had a pop punk and indie rock phase, but he eventually settled into his style because of his love of a good bassline. “It’s always been the centerpiece of what I look out for in music. Everything else is just dressing.”

For his second full-length, Lopez originally wanted to go big with a party record after lockdown. But he went inward instead, writing the album over four months in 2022 and then recording it immediately while trying to navigate the pain and disappointment of a failed relationship. “Emotionally, I was in a daze when I was putting the record together. I was almost in a state of disbelief at the time with everything that had happened,” he shares. “It felt like a reopened wound for a brief moment.”

Lopez is quick to point out that he did not walk away from the experience bitter. “This is not a typical breakup record where you tell the other person to fuck off,” he says. “In the end it was about coming to terms with the idea that there was nothing I could’ve done about it. Nothing would’ve changed. Making this record, writing these songs, was a big part of that realisation.”

That process of acceptance translated into the occasionally haphazard production of the record. “It sometimes sounded like I was pulling in different directions,” says Lopez. “I was just trying to paint a picture which captures the emotions of what it feels like to go through heartbreak and at the same time trying to heal. There were days where it felt like I didn’t want to make anything at all.”

Response to the record has been encouraging so far, which is a relief, Lopez says. “It’s summer and everyone is out to party and here I am putting out a heartbreak album. But I am proud of what I’ve done because [releasing] this album is the bravest I’ve ever been.”

Speaking to Lopez after this milestone, one gets a sense that he’s approaching his career with a new clarity. “I used to lean into big arbitrary goals, but as you get on with life you realise that there are certain things you don’t feel strongly about anymore,” he says. “Now I just want to release 100 songs before I call it quits one day. I’m at 30 now, so I have some years to go before that happens.”

Lost Spaces’ ‘OCPY’ is out now via Warner Music Malaysia.

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