CREDIT: Facebook

Sitting on the grass during a spot of sun at Green Man Festival, my main impression of alt-rock London trio Happyness is that they’re having a great time during this year’s festival circuit; and rightly so! The reception to their second album has been excellent, and the trio have a brilliant live presence that really connects with the crowd.

 

Our conversation starts with guitarist Benji Compston telling me how they’ve been busy this summer, doing a festival “every weekend since the beginning of July”, and agreeing with bassist and guitarist Jon EE Allan and drummer Ash Cooper that it’s been “really nice”. Jon notes that he enjoys when they get to experience the festival as well as play it; “it’s much nicer getting to a festival the night before and kind of, getting on the level of everyone else here. It’s a very weird feeling jumping out a van after a six hour journey and running on stage and playing to a bunch of people who’ve been having a great weekend!” In that respect, their weekend of experiencing the fantastic Green Man festival has earned their “seal of approval”. They also enjoy using the live shows to perfect their music;

 

       Jon: We’re having a really nice time playing ‘Falling Down’ live right now, that's the first              track from the new album. Because we recorded it probably a tone too low? And we’ve                figured it out and now it's fun, before it was hideous.

 

After releasing their much anticipated second album Write In in April of 2017, the band deserves the excited reception they’ve been getting this summer. The album has been noted to be embracing a more dream-pop inspired sound than their first album, and is fantastic listening for a chilled out afternoon. The production is also smoother; Ash notes that they “bought a preamp called a focusrite”, and it has helped towards the smoother sound. His exact wording is maybe a little more graphic;

 

      Ash: It basically meant that the kick drum sounded like a kick drum and not… a farty push         on a taut skin.

​

      Jon:  That is one of the most disgusting sentences you've ever said.

 

The album certainly doesn’t sound in any way ‘farty’, rather it sounds coherent and sophisticated (much like Ash’s fantastic walking in his New Look 6-inch heels, which at this point in the conversation he then proceeds to demonstrate to me!). Jon calls Write In “less sound-scapey” than their debut Weird Little Birthday, whilst Benji notes that there are “less swearwords”. In fact, there are no swearwords on the whole album, an attempt to make it more suitable for all audiences;

 

     Benji: My three-year-old niece said to me when we were making our second album, can you      make it less sweary?

​

     Jon: And he went ‘yeah we can, but we’re gonna steal your toys and use them for music and      not give them back to you.’

​

     Benji: I did do that, shout out to arcadia’s bird

 

In terms of other bands the trio have been enjoying (and may influence future work), Ash recommends his “favourite band” Mush, which he describes as “somewhere between the strokes and television.” They also have high praise for Yakima, a scottish band who they’ve just been working with. In Jon’s words, they’re “phenomenally good” and “kind of Elliott Smith, Teenage Fanclub type crazy sh*t.” On a more important note, they introduced Benji “to irn bru and i now love it.”

 

When asked about interesting meanings behind songs on the album, the band settle on ‘explaining’ the environmental message of ‘The C is A B A G’;

 

    Jon: The C is A B A G is an environmental jam about the sea being the world’s ileostomy bag;     but you know the difference? You can change an ileostomy bag, but y’all can’t change the           sea.

​

   Benji: And that's why we need to take care of our oceans.

​

   Jon: Preach.

 

Their deadpan humour continues into their explanations for the spelling of the title, ranging from “ran out of words on the printing allowance”, to “twitter”, to “we’re just shameless kooks”. As much as I’d like to know the actual reason for the title, it’s great to see how much Happyness are enjoying their life as a band at the moment! They were a hit on the Green Man Mountain stage, triumphantly raising a golden mannequin leg which, as they tell me, they found at Deershed Festival;

 

   Jon: We found it in the middle of the night, it got confiscated from us by the festival staff            because they thought we were gonna hurt people with it

​

   Benji: That's quite a big allegation!

​

   Jon: I know, but then they decided that I was friendly [...] And then they delivered it back to us           before our show [...] it’s kind of come with us everywhere since.

Overall, it’s pretty clear that the band deserves the chance to enjoy this summer’s festival circuit. We can’t wait to see what Happyness do next! Give them a listen; Write In is out now on Moshi Moshi records.