Rome-Born Artist Iago Haussman Transforms the INXS Classic Into a Dark, Cinematic Portrait of Love That Refuses to Leave

From L.G.R. Storefronts Across Rome to Collaborations With AEA Microphones and Andrea 925, The Spikes Continue Building a World Where Rock, Fashion and Visual Culture Collide

The Spikes don’t simply release records. They build worlds around them. For Rome-born artist Iago Haussman, a song can move from the recording studio to a fashion campaign, a film set, a gallery wall or the storefronts of an Italian eyewear brand across Europe. A singer-songwriter, published poet, painter and sculptor, Haussman has built The Spikes at the intersection of rock, cinema, fashion and visual art, and now he’s taking that instinct to one of the most recognizable love songs of the 1980s. Originally released by INXS in 1987 on their landmark album Kick, “Never Tear Us Apart” became one of the Australian rock band’s defining songs, with Michael Hutchence’s unmistakable vocal and the song’s dramatic arrangement helping it endure across generations. 

With “Never Tear Us Apart,” The Spikes step inside the INXS classic and change the emotional point of view. The original’s sweeping declaration of a love that cannot be broken becomes darker and more intimate in Haussman’s hands: a song about what remains after two people have already been torn apart.

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The synth drones longer. The tension builds slower. The romance is still there, but now it carries the weight of distance, memory and an ex-lover you can still almost feel in the room. That is where The Spikes live—somewhere between beauty and unease, romance and obsession, the cinematic and the deeply personal. 

“The first time I listened to the song I was madly in love with a girl, and listening to these lyrics of longing and yearning to never be apart from that person really struck a chord with my heart,” Haussman shares. Rather than recreate the original, Haussman focused on the element that had always pulled him into it: the tension created before the vocal ever arrives. The Spikes preserve that anticipation while stretching it into something more atmospheric and distinctly their own. “Something I love about the original is the beginning string section slowly building up to the verse,” he says. “I’m a big fan of how the build-up comes up right when the vocal comes in. That was something we tried to keep by extending the intro and giving it a more droning sound with the synth.”

What began with Haussman at the piano and Max on guitar evolved into a recording he considers a centerpiece of the project. “I knew that I wanted this song to be the crown jewel of the record,” Haussman says. “So we approached it with the thought of how we get to the nitty-gritty of what the emotion of this song is. Somehow we ended up with a far more emotional version of this tune, which I think suits the song well.”

That same instinct to push beyond the expected has followed The Spikes across mediums. The critically acclaimed First Light established Haussman’s cinematic, genre-defying approach, while the music video for “Garden Song” has surpassed 120,000 views on YouTube.

In 2026, that creative world expanded into fashion with L.G.R.’s The Session, a Spring/Summer campaign shot in Haussman’s native Rome and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Michael Haussman (Madonna, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake). Inspired by Jean-Luc Godard’s Sympathy for the Devil, the campaign captured The Spikes inside the recording studio and extended the project into L.G.R.’s flagship stores across Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice and Paris.

The Spikes have also collaborated with AEA Ribbon Mics and Andrea925, further positioning the project in a space where music and visual culture are increasingly inseparable. For “Never Tear Us Apart,” however, the scale of that creative world narrows back down to one person, one memory and the strange permanence of something that was supposed to be over. “I want this song to haunt my listeners, and to hopefully bring back certain memories of an ex-lover,” Haussman says. “I wanted them to be able to listen to this song and almost feel the breath from their mouth, the taste of their lips and the feeling that even though they aren’t together anymore, there is something far greater, which will never tear those emotions apart.” The people may separate. The feeling may not. For The Spikes, that is where “Never Tear Us Apart” begins again.

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