Michigan indie rock outfit Strawberry Lake introduce their forthcoming debut album, Forever, with “Other Spaces,” a guitar-driven single full of grit and personality, drawing on the melodic character of ’80s and ’90s college rock with a touch of Americana. Hailing from Dexter, the four-piece open with a pronounced wah guitar, its notes bending and wavering through a rhythm that feels almost irregular. There’s an appealing unpredictability to its movement, especially when frontman Martin Fletcher enters with his raspy, expressive vocals. His voice carries something of Aerosmith’s bluesier rock character, while the music has the familiar pleasure of something you might stumble upon at a neighbourhood dive bar, where the guitar playing catches your attention before you’ve even settled into the song.
As “Other Spaces” develops, the guitar becomes rougher and more insistent, the wah effect worked into gritty, strummed phrases rather than the wandering bends of the opening. The change gives the heavier playing an almost scratchy, restless quality, with the guitar’s expressive strokes bringing a different energy to the same distinctive sound. Fletcher’s voice sits naturally against the increasingly forceful instrumentation, its weathered rasp carrying the melody through the song’s slightly off-kilter movement. There’s an enjoyable sense of freedom in the playing, particularly in how the guitar can wander through a phrase before returning to a more deliberate, driving rhythm.
Beneath those guitars, “Other Spaces” tells a more vulnerable story. Fletcher describes the complications of an on-and-off relationship, where the desire for intimacy persists even as communication breaks down. A night out offers some temporary distraction, but the loneliness remains. The line “My mind can make a memory / My body’s still alone” captures the painful difference between being able to imagine someone’s presence and actually having them beside you. There’s a tenderness to Fletcher’s rough-edged delivery that suits those words, especially against the more spirited instrumental passages. Toward the end, the guitar returns to its wavering opening figure, bringing back that slightly unsettled feeling as the song draws to a close.
Strawberry Lake’s own beginnings carry considerable personal significance. The band consists of two father-and-son pairs: Martin Fletcher and his son Carter Fletcher on bass, alongside drummer Jim Pulford and his son Cole Pulford on guitar and backing vocals. Jim’s son Gage Pulford, who died in a car accident in June 2022 at just eighteen years old, had dreamed of bringing his friends’ musician fathers together to play. Following his passing, Jim and Martin began making music together, eventually bringing their sons into the group. Strawberry Lake grew from that shared experience into a working band, writing original material and performing around Ann Arbor and Detroit. What Gage had imagined as an opportunity for people he loved to make music together has become an ongoing creative partnership between the two families.
Fletcher’s account of writing “Other Spaces” reveals an intriguing curiosity about the origins of creativity. He admits that he once found it pretentious when songwriters described their compositions as something that simply came to them, although his own experiences have made him reconsider. He’s become fascinated by the nature of thought itself, questioning how much of what passes through our minds truly originates with us, and whether inspiration sometimes emerges from somewhere we cannot fully understand. “Other Spaces” began with an uneasy feeling about a relationship, particularly the frustration of recurring conflict and the difficulty of understanding why it happens. Within ten or fifteen minutes, the song had taken shape, leaving only the editing and polishing. Fletcher considers it one of those rare songwriting gifts.
The single was recorded at Monkey Holler Recording in Nashville, produced by Michael Feeney, who also contributed background vocals alongside Maddy Ferri, and mastered by Geoff Michael at Big Sky Recording in Ann Arbor. While Fletcher wrote the lyrics, the music is credited to all four members, with Carter Fletcher on bass, Cole Pulford on guitar and backing vocals, and Jim Pulford on drums and percussion. With a nod to The Replacements, this song is superb and has all the familiarity and pleasure of a good rock song, while the lyrics reveal how difficult it can be to feel close to someone even when the desire is still there.
With their eight-track debut album, Forever, expected in early 2027, Strawberry Lake have more to share beyond this first single. The music they’ve spent the past few years developing together is finally reaching listeners outside the venues where they’ve performed, and there’s plenty to look forward to as the album approaches. Gage’s idea was to bring these musicians into the same room, and now their songs are beginning to travel well beyond it.
“Other Spaces” is out now, with Forever expected in early 2027.
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