“I’ll never spend this long on an album again,” Illy tells Apple Music about his sixth LP, The Space Between. The Melbourne rapper born Al Murray began working on the album just months after 2016’s Two Degrees, but due to touring, the lengthy writing process, other commitments, and the pandemic—it was initially slated for an early 2020 release—its release comes almost four years after it was first conceived and more than a year and a half after its first single, “Then What.” The ideas and themes on the album all stem from Murray’s own life, experiences, and relationships, and while he didn’t change or update the tracks to reference the pandemic, he put the extra time to good use. “I had pretty much finished the album, and then I had plenty of time to just drive myself nuts, tinkering with it and fine-tuning things that I wouldn’t have normally done to the degree that I did,” he says. “Mostly small things, basically just to keep my brain occupied. I had a pretty strong idea of the album that I wanted to make prior to COVID, so I didn’t make any drastic changes.” The album is a reflection on not only his life during the time in between albums, but his entire career to date, and it packs emotional punches alongside the fun, frivolous tracks that’ll (eventually) ring out on festival stages. Here, Illy sheds light on every track on The Space Between. Wave “People sometimes forget that there's not many people who've been on as many stages as me in this country, in my genre. There's not many people that have had the longevity that I've had. And I don't like to blow my own trumpet or whatever, but sometimes I think because I play it quiet and I just go about my business, that sometimes people forget the things that I've done. And I wanted to come back with the track that reminded them.” Loose Ends (feat. G Flip) “The same as with a lot of my songs, I had written the hook and had a demo with me singing, but I knew I wasn't going to be the final vocal on it. G [Flip] has had such a great few years, and she's from my area of Melbourne. We know a lot of the same people. And when it came time to pitch it to artists, she was at the top of the list. So she just came on and did her thing.” No Feelings (feat. Carla Wehbe) “I wrote that at a point where I was out of a long-term relationship and was just enjoying being single and meeting people that were also enjoying being single. This is about both people involved in short-lived relationships, where you’re going in with both eyes open and accepting it for what it is. It doesn't mean that it has to be emotionless, but I think society in general puts so much emphasis on there needing to be deeper meaning in things. It's not a bad thing as long as both people know what to expect.” Codes “It’s about getting lost in the excess and enjoying it, but just knowing what you're getting into. Just knowing the shallowness of those little cheap thrills. I wrote it at a time where I was pretty going full-on, traveling, partying a lot. It was right in the guts of working on this album, and I was also being let down by some people. I've been in the industry for a while, but I’d had my eyes opened to how some people operate, and was feeling quite disillusioned with everything. So I was going harder rather than doing the responsible thing.” Mirror (feat. Wrabel) “It was written at the end of a relationship: before the dust is settled, when there’s still a lot of rawness and nerves and feelings, and more than enough blame to be thrown around. It goes with ‘Loose Ends,’ when you're looking back at the good times and you accept that it is what it is. With ‘Mirror,’ you’re still in the middle of processing it yourself and you’re like, ‘I'm not ready to give an inch on any of this shit.’” I Myself & Me “This is the last song that was written, at the very start of 2020. I’d just been through the wash, I was just off everything—the partying, the travel, the being alone. It all caught up and I was just sick of dealing with myself. I didn't want to write about that in a despairing way, because I think there's enough downer moments on the album, so it’s more just exasperated than depressed. It was just like, ‘Can you just fuck off for a second and give me a moment to breathe?’ That’s the thought behind it. I can be a pain in the ass to myself, let alone anyone else.” Last Laugh “It’s not a track that takes itself too seriously. There's not a whole lot of deeper meaning to this one; it's probably the lightest track in the album. It's just about poking your tongue out at people that doubt you. I’ve had it throughout my whole career–people say whatever they want to say—but it hasn't stopped me from trying to push myself and achieving what I want to achieve. So I enjoy reminding them of that sometimes.” Cheap Seats (feat. WAAX) “It’s just about staying young in your head and moving on, but not forgetting that the simple things are great. Some of the happiest times were when my buddies and I were broke, or still in school, and didn't have the things that we have now, but it being more than enough. You go along and get all this stuff, and it’s nice, but it’s not necessary.” Then What “It’s about when you're on one and everyone wants to be around you and everyone loves you. And then, when you're not, that phone stops ringing. It’s so cliché, but it's so true. People want to be around people that they perceive as having momentum, and then they drop you. I'm sure it's the same everywhere, but I can only reference this industry, and it is the fucking truth. I just wanted to make fun of the fact that people can be shit.” Lean on Me (feat. Robinson) “It was written for someone really close to me when they needed to know that someone was there for them. It's not just a reminder about having the back of people close to you, it’s a celebration of it, because that only comes from love. It’s just a reassuring love song to a friend.” Race to the Bottom “Where ‘Codes’ is about reveling in getting lost, this is the flip side, where the excess and cheap thrills catch up to you. You can lose control and you end up getting hurt, by yourself or by others. And you're going to realize where you're at when you're already way too far into it. It written at that point for me—I’d been let down and hurt, and I’d had too much time by myself, in my own head, and was just doing too much. It was getting to that point where the things start to break.” Lonely (feat. Guy Sebastian) “It’s a song about my mum, who was really sick for a while. I have a really close relationship with my parents and my family and they’re getting on in life. At some point, someday, you're going to have to face the fact that not everyone is going to be around. It’s a heavy thought and it's a conversation I've never been able to have because it's just too much. I wrote this song after being in the room when my mum said goodbye to her mum. It’s just as real as it gets. And it's hard to say it in person. So the way that I do it, the way I always have, was write a song about it.” The Space Between “It has a lot of weight for me personally. I feel every lyric of this song. It's all the themes that the album touches on condensed, but more literal, more autobiographical. At face value it’s about where I’ve been since Two Degrees, but if you zoom out, it's really talking about my whole career. So much of the album is about things being lost or gone, and I felt like there wasn't enough emphasis on my gratitude for my career.” Best Mistakes “It's about acknowledging that we will forever fuck up, but all we can do is try our best and be good to the people we care about. It's about going through a storm and coming out the other side, drenched and beat up, but still here for another story and ready to go again. It's a song about taking life on. And it had to be the outro.”