3 Is A Band: Happyness

There would have been ample opportunity for me to come across Happyness before last Saturday, when they played 4Knots, because Happyness are relentlessly touring – Europe and North America and get obviously well received.  No surprise here. I came a little late to the festival but luckily right in time to see Jonny Allan (bass, guitar, vocals), Benji Compston (vocals, guitar) and Ash Cooper (drums) take the stage and own it!

Many of their songs on their debut album Weird Little Birthday (which they self-released in 2014 as two EPs and which got re-released when a label came along) sound mellow and just beautifully lazy, yet live they showed quite some energy… well, given this being a lazy Saturday afternoon! Not only do the three write their songs together aka everybody is a contributor, they also like to swap instruments and mics on stage and in the studio. This makes for an ever changing pace and visuals.

Happyness charmed their way into the hearts of the joyful New York audience and definitely in mine, and left us all… happy. Throughout the remaining day and festival, I ran first into Benji and later Jonny and had just the loveliest chats, still resonating with me, almost a week later. 

Listening through their in March 2015 released album Weird Little Birthday (USA: Bar None Records), it became quickly apparent that the (almost title song) Weird Little Birthday Girl would be my favorite track on the album, so I looked if there’s maybe…. maybe (!) a video for it and there is! And boy do I regret to not having known about this video when I chatted with Jonny…. would have had a hundred questions! Maybe the most obvious: “How did it feel?” And then the next: “How could you possibly stand it?”

But… watch for yourself and get wrapped in a mellow, soft and simply beautiful song:

Intrigued how this song might look “live” aka be played, there’s KEXP to the rescue! Watch Happyness live on KEXP, the segment starting right of with Weird Little Birthday Girl.

Listen to Happyness’ SoundCloud stream and follow them on Facebook and/or Twitter. If you can, see them live: