Happyness (band)

History

The band played their first show in November 2013 and have since done various UK, European and US tours, supported The Dandy Warhols, Speedy Ortiz, David Thomas (musician), Suede, and Mac Demarco (among others), played festivals including Reading and Leeds, Bestival, Green Man, End Of The Road, Pickathon, Down The Rabbit Hole, 4 Knots, CMJ (2014, where they were widely regarded as one of the key acts that played) and SXSW.

Having written and recorded their first album almost upon forming, their 1st release was "Happyness - EP" in December 2013.

They self-released debut album "Weird Little Birthday" in the UK in June 2014, supported by the singles "Great Minds Think Alike, All Brains Taste The Same" and "Anything I Do Is All Right". The latter was also released with 3 new tracks as a debut 4 track EP in the USA in October 2014. "Weird Little Birthday" was mixed by Adam Lasus (Yo La Tengo, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! Etc.) and mastered by the legendary Greg Calbi, receiving great acclaim from NME, The Guardian, Sunday Times, Q, Uncut and Stereogum among others.

The album was re-released with bonus tracks in March 2015 by Moshi Moshi Records in the UK and Bar None Records in the USA.

Happyness won the 2015 NME Award for Best Lyric for the line "I'm wearing Win Butler's hair / There's a scalpless singer of a Montreal rock band somewhere" from the song "Montreal Rock Band Somewhere".

The group’s name comes from the Brute Force song “Hello Moscow”, which includes the line “Where is happiness, people? Where is happiness?”. The band have explained the misspelling as a tribute to the Happy Shopper brand of convenience goods: “It's probably more of a 'satisfied with the quality and standard of...' kind of happy. Like Happy Shopper.”