MUSIC - Happy Out Interview
Happy Out are a Post-indie rock trio from Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. They’ve made a considerable name for themselves in their home county as well as in Derry/Londonderry due to their lively, energetic performances and relentless gigging. These performances have received a lot of praise, being described as “one of the most exciting and original bands”, as well as being “super tight and hugely entertaining”.
Their debut EP, Is, Was, Wasn’t, turned heads, receiving written articles from Chordblossom, Goldenplec and Hot Press Magazine. The EP was written, recorded and released by Happy Out themselves and gives perspectives on anxiety, grief and mental illness, shaped in part by death and losses.
Happy Out is set to release a second EP, Kaiju, with their first single, Terry Fox, already released. Terry Fox has been described by Happy Out themselves as a stylistic departure from their debut EP, however this only shows the broad range of talent and ideas that this band has in its locker.
Interview
First of all, would you like to introduce yourselves in your own words?
Ciaran:
We are Happy Out. We are from Donegal (which is the best place in the world). We put out a CD in January of 2020. We just put out a new single called Terry Fox, which was entirely done by quiet man Lee Russell. We really like fuzz pedals and hope everybody is having a good day!
How did you come to form as a group?
Ciaran:
I met Lee through mutual friends in 2014/2015. We were in a band called If She Falls, which was a pop punk kind of thing and that eventually folded. Myself and Lee continued playing together, pretty much once a week until around 2018 which is when we met Malcolm. At the time we were planning to do some recording and I asked Malcolm if he would be up to playing some bass in the recording, and the rest is History as they say.
Which artists did you listen to the most growing up?
Lee:
It is all so different. I know I listened to anything that was on Scuzz or Kerrang, which is like the same as a lot of people in Belfast and Derry. Through the guiding light of Ciaran and Malcolm I have found other artists. Pretty much anything on Scuzz or Kerrang was what I was listening to at that time.
Malcolm:
When I was a kid pretty much anything I listened to was whatever my dad had on. So, it was all like Johnny Cash or Christie Moore or Big Tom.
Ciaran:
I grew up in a household where no one was really into music. My mum really liked Bon Jovi and my Granny really liked Daniel O’Donnell but other than that there wouldn’t have been much music on. Then when I went to secondary school a friend introduced me to really weird American music like Titus Andronicus or Cymbals Eat Guitars or Beirut. I guess the band I listened to the most when I was younger was modest mouse.
Where do you draw inspiration from when song-writing?
Ciaran:
For the first CD we put out, a lot of that was inspired by pretty heavy stuff I was going through at the time. I had a friend who passed and then within a couple years of that I had a big influence in my life, a woman named Orla O’Reilly, passed too. For years I found that everything I was writing had parts of them, like little things that they would say to me or things I would think about them. The first CD we put out was me trying to exercise a lot of those thoughts and give those thoughts their space to exist so that I wouldn’t have to think about them anymore. It was a really cathartic thing to write like that. For stuff we write now, where I’m kind of trying to avoid talking about that stuff anymore, a lot of it comes from those thoughts you don’t want to carry around with you anymore and that you wish you could get out of your head.
Previously you’ve expressed that you “like feminism, repeal, positive mental health and LGBT+ spaces”, Is there a certain agenda to your music at all?
Ciaran:
I wish! I do try to write from that kind of perspective more and put politics in it. But I think the big issue for me is I just feel too uneducated all the time. I think we tackle mental health a lot and we definitely try to put positive messages of self-care.
Lee:
In terms of Terry Fox, it was about being good to yourself but to know when you need a kick up the ass to get things done and not being so feared of the outcome that you don’t even start working on yourself or whatever it is you’re thinking of doing. That has such detrimental effects to your mental health so you should try your best to take the first step and then the subsequent steps after.
Your quirky approach to music shines through in many ways, from the vary array of styles on each track through to an eight-track EP. What would you say is the defining character of your sound?
Malcolm:
I guess the energy and the passion. If you look at Terry Fox for example which is just Lee and an acoustic guitar or you look at Oh God No God which is three guitars, a fuzzy bass and massive drums, you can still hear the same passion in it. It’s something that whether it’s small scale or big scale we care about what we’re saying and what we’re writing. I think that kind of shines through regardless of what genre the song sits in.
It’s been just over a year since you released “Is, Was, Wasn’t”. Reflecting on your debut EP, do you think you’ve developed or changed since then and if so in what way?
Ciaran:
I would say a big thing for us was, with that first EP and the stuff that’s followed it, that there’s definitely been a clear through-line of natural progression in song writing and in ideas and goals, obviously as well because we’re playing more together and developing as musicians together. But I would say the biggest change is that with the stuff we’re writing now, I’m at least a lot less afraid to try something. I know you mentioned in the last question the array of styles we tackled with that first EP, which I do think is fair enough, but there were things that I was like I want to try this but we physically can’t and we don’t know how and even if we did we wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I remember having long, long practise sessions where we would breakdown the idea of it starts in this time signature, then it’s this time signature for a few bars and then it’s that time signature, which led to a lot of “oh god are we going to be able to do this”. But as we’ve developed I think we do this pretty much every song now. Another thing is tunings, I’ve gotten really into open guitar tunings and playing in keys that I wouldn’t know how to categorise.
Yeah, I would say less fear, less trepidation and more excitement in the process as opposed to self-doubt, which I think probably comes from getting to know each other better. I feel like when we started, for me especially, there was a lot of “am I good enough to be here”, cause when I’m playing with Lee and Malcolm it’s like am I as good as these guys and a lot of the time I don’t think I am. But again, as you develop you find yourself falling into the role you naturally fill anyway.
Your newest single “Terry Fox” is, as you’ve described, a stylistic departure from your first EP. What caused this change in direction?
Malcolm:
I think a lot of comes from the fact we were in a situation where would couldn’t play together. Even if Lee wanted a full band arrangement we couldn’t do that because we were locked in our own houses and unable to work with each other in that sense. So the idea of some softer acoustic songs came from necessity of us having so much to get out there but not really being able to do it together in the most traditional sense.
How will the rest of your upcoming EP differ from your debut EP?
Ciaran:
It’s completely different. I don’t think there’s a song on it that would even tangentially relate to the first EP, other than the closer track on the first EP which is an acoustic song. It’s three acoustic tracks and one track with all three of us. Also, this time we’re all writing one, whereas with the first EP a majority of it was me in my room because of the things we were talking about. Now we all get to talk about our own stuff and we all get to bring our own ideas. This track that we’re all working on has got me very, very excited but it’s also that part of you that’s like “can I pull this off” because it’s very different, but it’s very cool. I can wait for it to be honest with you, it’s the most excited I’ve been about something I’ve done in a very long time.
You’re known as avid giggers in the Irish Music scene. What performance has been a highlight for your group?
Ciaran:
It was Culture Night 2019, that was one of my favourite gigs we’ve ever done. They tried to throw Malcolm on to the roof. We were told we would get a full band stage but the stage was maybe 3ft by 8ft long and because we kind of had run of the show we could be as loud and weird as we wanted. The crowd was crazy, it was this tiny, little backend of a bar in Letterkenny and people were just headbutting, jumping off each other, it was mental. Malcolm threw his bass! It got quite high and then nearly collapsed the roof and someone saw that and went “let’s put Malcolm on the roof”.
You’ve mentioned that you’ve have been burned out by the pandemic. How has it affected you and your music?
Ciaran:
For me at least, it completely derailed everything. All the plans that we had, all the stuff we wanted to do, it really fell apart and it’s a big shame. I remember the moment we took it seriously. We were actually driving up to Belfast to do a gig and on the way there the gig got shut down and that was when I started to really be like “oh god, gigs are off, what are we going to do”
Once your EP “Kaiju” is put together and released, do you have any plans for a full album in the future?
Ciaran:
It’s really weird because when we put out our first EP, I got told by like 10 people we were making a big mistake. Like a lot of people, who knew more than me, would come up to me and be like “you know that’s an album you’re putting out and it’s really stupid to put out an album with no singles and call it an EP, like that is an album”. So, and I’m going to admit a big flaw here, I don’t really know the difference cause there’s fifty-minute EPs and twenty-minute albums, so it’s really just what you call it. If you want to call this second EP that we have coming out, Kaiju, an album, more power to you mate, I don’t care! I should say though, we have a lot of stuff that we’re working on and we have a lot of stuff that we’re really excited about and it’s definitely a possibility that we put out something much, much longer soon or even more conceptual and exciting. But for me, my big thought is if there’s tunes going, there’s tunes going and I just like putting out and writing tunes and that’s all I care about and people can do what they want with them. My big goal is to get a car ad, if we get a car ad I’ll be happy, specifically a Nissan Micra.
Malcolm:
As they say, at the end of the day the turf will be home, Ciaran.
Ciaran:
Exactly, the turf will be home! And I want you to print that in this interview because myself and Malcolm were talking one night and we said “do you know what’s a good Donegal saying… the turf will be home” and I’m pretty sure we’re the first people to say it. So if we can get it going and trending and people start saying it, I’ll be very happy!