page_title: Happyness (band)
section_title: 2013 - 2015: Weird Little Birthday
hierarchical_section_title: Happyness (band) / History / 2013 - 2015: Weird Little Birthday
caption_attribution_description: Happyness-Linen Building-Treefort2015-Credit-Kasey Elliott
context_page_description: Happyness are an English alternative rock band based in London, England, consisting of Jon EE Allan and Ash Kenazi.
  Their debut album Weird Little Birthday was released on 16 June 2014, later to be re-released in 2015 by Moshi Moshi Records in the UK / Bar/None Records in the USA, accompanied by four bonus tracks, including the previously excluded fan favourite "Montreal Rock Band Somewhere".
context_section_description: Initially meeting during educational pursuits, the core members of Allan, Compston and Kenazi shuffled in and out of various projects before making Happyness their primary output. Stripping their name out of the Brute Force song “Hello Moscow”, 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.”
  Performing their first show at The Square, Harlow in November 2013, the group self-released the Happyness EP soon after through their own Weird Smiling label. Recorded at their base of Jelly Boy Studios, the EP was mixed by Ed Harcourt and mastered by Adam Lasus, two collaborators who would also contribute to their full length effort, Weird Little Birthday, which followed on 16 June 2014; Harcourt contributing vocals to Pumpkin Noir, and Lasus taking over mixing duties. Grammy Award winner Greg Calbi also helmed the mastering process.
  Before long, the group managed to attract attention from a variety of labels who were keen to re-release their first effort. Both Moshi Moshi Records (UK) and Bar/None Records (USA) signed the group, commissioned a series of additional tracks and presented the record in its debut vinyl form in March 2015, which acquired further acclaim from NME, The Guardian, Sunday Times, Q, Uncut and Stereogum among others.
  Festival appearances followed, with Reading and Leeds Festivals, Green Man Festival, Bestival, South by Southwest and End of the Road Festival playing host to the group, plus tours alongside Mac Demarco, Speedy Ortiz and Suede.
  The group also won an award for Best Lyric at the 2015 NME Awards for the line "I'm wearing Win Butler's hair / there's a scalpless singer of a Montreal Rock Band Somewhere", lifted from the song of the same name.
caption: Happyness at Treefort Music Fest in 2015
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "6016", "Image ImageLength": "4016", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D610", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2015:03:27 12:50:12", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1036", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1150", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4488", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "2500", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:03:25 23:07:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:03:25 23:07:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "915241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "298/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "28", "EXIF SubSecTime": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "90", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "6016", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4016", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1004", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}