When Happyness first burst into the public conscience with debut single “It’s On You”, their spirited take on US college rock was as big a surprise as it was an instant hit. The resulting full length, “Weird Little Birthday”, went on to feature in many End of Year album lists. Worldwide tours, an NME Award, a re-issue on the much-loved labels Moshi Moshi Recordings (Bar/None in US), and millions of Spotify plays later, it is now just a few short weeks until their long-awaited follow-up “Write In” is released. As of today, anyone pre-ordering the album will receive new track “Bigger Glass Less Full” as a free download.  

Part-recorded at the band’s own Jelly Boy Studios, then finished with Adam Lasus in LA, Happyness shared some thoughts on Bigger Glass Less Full: “Bigger Glass started with an oblique strategy that we learnt from Terry Gilliam: apparently he made “Brazil” without ever reading 1984.  We were trying to sound like a Pierre Cavalli song we’d heard once a very long time ago. It couldn’t sound less similar if we’d tried… We added the acoustics when we were in LA mixing with Adam Lasus – as of now the only thing we’ve ever recorded outside the UK.”

Once the band return from this year’s SXSW, they’ll head straight out on a headline UK tour (including their biggest London show to date for April 28th), followed by European dates in May. Benji comments; “This tour is our first headline tour for a while now, and for the first time we’ll have two albums to play from, so we’re looking forward to it a lot. We’ve got a lot of expensive ideas for stage props that we probably won’t be able to realise by April.”