Artist Feature : HAPPY LANDING
words By Easton Parks and photos by Sumter Sessoms
HAPPY LANDING at Summerfest (Sumter Sessoms)
Being one of the more grateful and joyous groups I’ve had the pleasure of talking to, HAPPY LANDING made the most of a rainy Summerfest. With an explosive, rock-stomping performance to a shamefully low amount of people (probably due to the weather), it’s clear that they all really love to have a good time. Standout songs from their set include “State Line” which brought the crowd a fiddle solo, “Let Me Out” which is a super catchy folk-pop song from their forthcoming album and “Arkansas” which was a very fitting, triumphant yet somewhat melancholic, end to their set.
Before catching their set, I caught up with the band behind the Generac Stage where their sincerity was more than apparent.
HAPPY LANDING at Summerfest (Sumter Sessoms)
Why do you make music? And what do you want your legacy to be?
Andrew Gardner (fiddle, mandolin, vocals) - I play music because I really like playing music. I just love to do it and I've done it for a long time. I feel really thankful that I get to do it with the people that I'm with right now and it kind of just feels like everything in our lives and the trajectory of the band has just kind of been like a big existential thumbs up. It's just like, keep going keep doing it, you know what I mean? It just feels like we haven't really hit a big wall that has made us reconsider, and for that reason, we're just gonna keep riding this train and see what happens.
When y’all write music, who do you write it for? Do you write it for yourselves? Maybe your younger self? for others? Are there any people that you write some for specifically?
Matty Hendley (Lead vocals, acoustic guitar) - Ex-girlfriends. Well, there's some truth to that. A lot is like, love and loss. I feel like storytelling is an integral part of humanity from the ancient Neanderthals to the modern Gen Xers of today. I feel like stories are what keeps the culture. Stories feed culture. I just feel like whoever is out there and needs to hear something at a particular time, you know sometimes you hear a song and you're like, “Whoa that hits me”, but it may not hit the person next to you that way. So you know, it's just for whoever needs to hear something, I think, at any given time. But ex-girlfriends is a good answer.
Jacob Christensen (drums, vocals) - I can't speak for where it started for you (referencing Matty), But I feel like gets to a certain point where we have people that care about us, you know? I feel like I'm doing this because it feels right and it feels like the only thing that gives me joy in life is doing this. I didn't know that that was the case until we started doing but here we are. And knowing what I know now I think I'd rather I'd rather die in my sleep and be doing anything else.
Matty - And really for ourselves a lot of times, it's like helps. I think it helps us as people make sense of the experiences we have, or the experiences we hear about other people because some of the songs aren't about us, they are about other people or even fictional characters, but there is a piece of us for sure.
I just listened to the new LP. I find a lot of the themes to be rooted in nostalgia, maybe home or old friends. When you listen back to your music, do you see people? Do you see your family? Do You see your hometown, anything like that?
Wilson Moyer (bass, electric guitar) - It's kind of hard to not see a lot of Oxford, Mississippi, where we all met. And now also Nashville, we've been living for a while, and our music and our experiences on the road, so much of it. Even before we started touring, we were writing music about wanting to be doing what we're doing now and now some of the music sort of turns out to be about living the life we're living. So yeah.
Do you have any favorite musical moments across this new album? I know I love that break in the second half of “Goin’ Home”. That's really fun.
Andrew - Dude, I love that. There's like a little moment in “The Family Band” where we're currently transitioning into different sections. And it like goes into this, almost like hokey, real kind of back-porchy sound. And it's a moment where me, Wilson and Jacob really get to play together and it's always a fun one to listen to and specifically play live. It's a really fun time.
Matty - There's a moment in “Marriage Song” that’s very cinematic almost, like we all just kind of come together and it's very ethereal and orchestral that's probably one of my favorite moments. I just got married and we danced that was our first dance marriage song.
Any fun hobbies, books or new music you've been listening to?
Jacob - This band called Geese, we saw them at Bonaroo. I didn't know anything about them until we saw them at Bonnaroo and it's all I've been listening to since.
Keagan Christensen (piano, vocals, bass) - I feel like we're on a Bonnaroo kick right now because we were there a week ago, and I feel like I saw a good amount of people that I wanted to see, and a lot of people I just like ended up walking by. Khruangbin was a good one. That's one that I didn't think that I would like want to listen to after. I mean, Chappell Roan, obviously, I was looking forward to that show. So it was so good.
Wilson - I’m gonna be reading “One Piece”
Is there something either reassuring or frightening about the permanence of your music?
Jacob - I think I think it's cool that we'll be able to look back 10-20 years from now and be like “Dude remember when we were just children?” We say that all the time because we're married, me and Keagan, we always say kind if in a joking way “Our kids better think we were so cool.”
Keagan - Your grandkids could be like “Look how young they sounded or looked.” We have so many pictures of us. I’ve seen some pictures of my grandparents but…
Andrew - That’s so true
Jacob - More importantly related to your question, I think the back catalog through the years will tell a story of us as a band and us as people. I'm glad you asked that question because that's something that I think about a decent amount. I wasn't really a drummer before this band started. So you go back and listen to the old EP, the first EP me and Matty recorded with his brother and his sister-in-law. It was like, “Yeah, what was I doing?” You know, and now I've been practicing and getting better. And then obviously, we got these three guys. It's just a whole story that can be told through even just from the first EP to now, and it's been less than four years really.
Andrew - I always view creative work, and I'm kind of borrowing from Rick Rubin here but like I have mixed feelings on him anyway, but he makes the point that it’s just a bookmark, like a history textbook passage of where you were at when you made this when you were creatively inspired to make this specific thing. And I think that's really valuable and it's always gonna be really fun to be like 50 or 60 or however old I am, to look back at what I was like as a kid or what I'm like now and remember the headspace that I was in, the values that I had and the beliefs that I shared. And then the other thing that I was kind of pointing out was also, I don't have any pictures, or I wish there were more pictures of my parents. The cool thing about this job is that we're just like constantly being photographed. So I'm definitely gonna be thankful to remember myself visually when I was like in my peak physical condition. Yeah. and hopefully, I can get that gift to my kids one day.
Jacob - “Back when your Papi was a spring chicken before he went bald and grew 80 pounds”
With an album coming out, a tour in the fall and much more in the future. What are y’all looking forward to the most?
Andrew - Well, we were about to play Summerfest that's really exciting. I'm really pumped on Lollapalooza, we're gonna hit play that summer, right at the tail end of the summer. And man Chicago is like my favorite one of my favorite cities. It’s just cool up here, man. It's, it's a good time. And everybody really gets into music, which is fun.
Matty - This is a more kind of like, big picture thing. I'm just excited to see where we'll be in a few years. People can tell you all day long, you're gonna be huge and all this stuff. It's kind of like from my siblings having kids, they're like, “I just can't wait to see what they're going to become.” Like, man, I can't wait to see what we're going to become in a few years. And just to be able to look back on this time and be like, “We didn't have anything to worry about”, you know? Or maybe we did. So yeah, that would be my answer.