The stage is awash in deep red hues, splashing an ominous glow on the walls surrounding the band as smoke billows from the floor and begins to fill the room. The band members' silhouettes cut through the density and they begin to play, creating an environment that is ornate and almost tactile, one that requires almost all senses. "It's a show," insists lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter Peter Vance, alluding to the band's penchant for heavy production. From their usage of backing tracks, multiple part harmonies, and even the giant moon that hangs behind drummer Jake Waits, Happy Abandon are intent to set the scene, to create an environment. "We want to put on a show. If you just want to listen to the album, you can do that at home. But when you come and pay for a ticket we want to give you a show." "That was all Jake's idea," adds bassist Justin Ellis, noting how Waits often looks at the bigger picture, the grander scheme when approaching the band. "He was the one who thought we should have production and he went home and figured out how to do it. Figured out how to make our shows an 'experience.'" Happy Abandon trade in high drama. From soaring songs to string-laden production, the aforementioned light and fog that accent the mood and set the scenery for their live shows, to the way Vance, Ellis, and Waits talk about their music -with determined passion, vivid detail, and engrossing vigor - they bring with them a sense that much more is at stake than just writing and playing songs. There is something deeper at play here, something far more important. Forming in early 2015, the members of Happy Abandon were hardly strangers. Operating in the same circles that are the cogs of any small, tightly knit scene, Vance, Ellis, and Waits had known each other for years before as students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Within a few weeks of first playing together, they worked their way onto bills at local shows and by year's end Happy Abandon was hitting the road, touring through nearly every state east of Texas and Canada. It was at SXSW that the band initially hooked up with North Carolina music denizen and future label head Stephen Judge, playing multiple slots at his annual SXSW party. From there a relationship was born that would eventually lead to Judge's offering Happy Abandon a recording contract via his freshly re-branded label Schoolkids Records. The band continued to write, to tour, and to fine-tune their performances when, in late 2016, they suffered the unexpected loss of three dear friends in three separate incidences. In dealing with these heartbreaking premature deaths, in concert with the trials and travails of everyday life, the songs began to pour out en masse, with subjects ranging from personal loss to abandonment to homelessness - which singer Peter Vance suffered for a stint - to heartbreak to the indomitable power of will. It was through this lens that the band began to see this new set of songs on a grander
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- Format Detail: LP w/ DL
- Genre: Rock
- Format: Vinyl
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