Interview with UK’s Happyness

by Ashley Kolpal

Happyness are a friendly trio from South London. Full of cheek and becoming irreverent, Jonny Allan, Benji Compston, and Ashley Cooper’s bright wit made them effortless to talk to. The band released their self-titled EP on January 6 after years of playing around London under different names.  Their beginnings, John DeLorean, and Wilco’s iconic towers were just a few of the ramblings touched upon when catching up with Happyness.

Ashley Kolpak: How did you get started?

Benji Compston: We’ve been playing in bands for a while and have known each other for some time too. Around a year ago it got to a point where we were all writing similar music. At first we were very do-it-ourselves. Around this time last year, we had 20 to 25 songs that sounded great, but at the same time we were a little bit industry shy. We were enjoying being a band, our friends and family thought we spent a lot of time doing nothing, pretending to be in a band just to get laid or doing something bleary-eyed.

AK: How does London shape or inspire your music?

BC: Musicians like Ed Harcourt, he’s a big inspiration. Talk Talk… lots of musicians influence us.

Jonny Allan: Whether it’s intentional or not, it’s influenced our writing. It’s not necessarily the positive aspects. Feeling disillusioned with the city, it’s easy to get a little bit lost there. It’s the same in Chicago. We’re tiny. When you’re a small band there is a lot of high-profile stuff going on. We spend so much time doing it on our own. There’s such a musical heritage here. Also, we’re inspired by a lot of American bands with different sounds.

AK: Speaking of American bands, your EP has definite Wilco and Yo La Tengo subtleties. What draws you to these alt-country/pop bands?

AC: We watched [the Wilco documentary]“I am Trying to Break Your Heart.” It’s a very intimidating thing to watch when you are trying to make an album. It feels so effortless. The story of making an album, they get dropped, but they’re confident in what they’re doing to not worry what anyone else is thinking.

JA & BC: It makes a really big impact, the kind of way they go about things. It’s just reassured us that what we’re doing is cool and worth the time.

AK: Share with us some highlights from your recent tour and shows

AC: It was so brilliant! At one venue, we were something very, very different than the crowd was used to, which was more hard rocking.  At one of our shows, there was slow dancing in the crowd! It’s a shame, the culture of slow dancing has gone out quite a bit. We should bring it back!

JA: It was really exciting to play live again.  We all play different instruments when we’re playing live. There’s only the three of us, trying to figure out what’s going to sound best and who’s playing what. It all seems to come together.

AK: Now perhaps the obvious question… Happyness with a “y”?

BC: [replies in a slightly surly manner, accompanied by a cocked eyebrow] ’Cause happiness with an “I” was already taken?

AK: I deserve that. Who knows? It could be anything.

BC: We didn’t have a band name for a while and while we were recording, we never found one we were happy with. One night we were reading and the word happiness came up.

AC: We came up with a lot of names based on that, mostly through Googling it. (Natch).

AK: Big plans for the EP release?

AC: We’re going to Dublin for it! We’re playing a show that night. And then the next night we have to wear suits. The show is basically honoring John DeLorean!

AK: Any plans for the States/North America sometime soon?

JA: We’d love to come to the States! We’ve worked with Adam Lasus, we’re really inspired by him. We’ll coincide. We’re planning to have him mix some of our stuff.

Here’s to hoping the boys will bring slow dancing to North America one day, but in the meanwhile there’s Happyness’ self titled EP.