Hans and Dan – aka happydieyoung – came together in a perhaps unlikely setting. “We actually met at martial arts practice,” they tell us below. “As we’d both started practising Taekwon-do around the age of 10.” Fast forward to today and the pair have just dropped their second EP “SUPERHAPPY”, which draws on the pressures and dissatisfaction that can come with trying to break through as an independent artist in a saturated music industry.
They discuss the unglamorous reality of life for an up-and-coming act below, but equally, the joy they find in the small, but momentous wins. One larger victory has been their work with long-time collaborator and now producer to the stars, Askjell (Sigrid, AURORA, Amanda Tenfjord, ++), who alongside the duo, helmed their upcoming debut LP. Flexing their muscle for crafting compelling projects on “SUPERHAPPY”, however, happydieyoung deliver a rush of sensations told assertively with mesmeric effect.
We caught up with them about the theme of mental health at the project’s core, happydieyoung’s origins as a group, and their plans for the future. Head below to read now…
Hey, happydieyoung! How are you doing today? Where are we speaking to you from?
Hello Wonderland, we are very good, thank you! We are actually away from our home town of Bergen, Norway at the moment, attending the BY:LARM festival in Oslo. Lots of great acts and interesting talks this year!
Let’s start at the beginning, how did the two of you meet?
We actually met at martial arts practice, as we’d both started practising Taekwon-do around the age of 10. We were both slight outsiders, and Taekwon-Do helped us find both confidence and a sense of belonging. We started sticking together at practice and soon learned that we shared a passion for music, and thus a friendship was born.
And when did you decide to start making music together?
We have both been making music since our early teens. It all started when we discovered bands like Metallica and Guns N’ Roses, though we each started separate bands. Hans in particular was a huge fan of the music Daniel was making together with Askjell. That’s why he could hardly believe it when he was invited to join the band in 2012. Askjell’s career as a producer and songwriter has since skyrocketed, and nowadays he’s regularly working with artists such as Aurora and Sigrid.
Talk to us about the inspiration behind your band name.
In time we reached a point where we were ready to put hard rock and metal behind us, and give the project a rebirth. This meant coming up with a new name, and we spent several long nights spitballing ideas until Askjell suggested “happydieyoung”. We didn’t necessarily know what it meant at the time, but it gave us all a feeling of something that is both happy and sad at the same time, and we decided that this feeling summarized our music perfectly.
What has been the biggest pinch-me moment of your career thus far?
We believe the big pinch-me moments are all ahead of us. The reality as a small, independent band has so far been hard work, small victories, and many quiet moments of joy. We do experience a small pinch-me moment though every time a fan tells us that our music has helped them through tough times. It may be small, but it feels gigantic.
Congratulations on the release of your second EP, “SUPERHAPPY”! What was your mindset when going into this project?
Thank you! Honestly, the songs arose by themselves in a sense, as did the thread running through them – we only noticed when we put them together. Still, it was nice to discover how well they complement each other, and at that point, it was clear to us that they should be released as an EP.
The EP touches on themes of mental health, what prompted you to take this direction?
We always write based on our own experiences; the themes that arise are simply reflections of our lives. Our teenage years were tough, cast out as the weird and nerdy kids. Pursuing a career in music has been tough, with the constant doubt of whether it all leads anywhere. Love has been tough. Covid was tough. And so sometimes we spiral, as illustrated in “Dancing in Limbo”. And sometimes we daydream, as in “Happy Ever After”. And sometimes we doubt whether love actually makes us happier or just more miserable, as in “The Matador and Bull at the Ball”. But through it all, we know we have our friends to support us, and even hell is not so bad when your friends are there.
Do you have a favourite track of the EP? Do you often have different favourites from each other?
That is something that changes over time, as we might for instance make ourselves sick of a song, only to rediscover it later. But if we had to answer right now…
Daniel: For me, it would be ‘hell is not so bad when your friends are there’ because it was written during a period where I needed to hear the exact words that you hear in that song. i started this song alone in my room and most of the melodies, chords and lyrics just came to me without any effort. It almost felt as if I didn’t write it and it was just handed to me by some external force, and that is an amazing and rare feeling.
Hans: I’ve always loved “The Matador and Bull at the Ball”, but it was when I decided I should cut together a music video for it using footage from a public-domain movie that a deeper connection solidified. I decided to use :Come And See”, a Soviet WWII movie from the eighties, one of the most gut-wrenching yet beautiful movies I have ever seen. I cut the video together over many late nights, and it is now impossible for me to hear that big chorus without seeing the teenage girl Glasha tearfully screaming at a deaf Flyora that all of his family had been killed.
What do you hope people will take away from the overall effort?
If there is one message we would like to convey through our music it is: “You are not alone. You are not the only one feeling like this. It gets better.” If we could jump back 15 years to our younger selves, that is the same message that we would have give them. To have the courage to tell someone that you’re not ok, not just put a lid on it all and hide your tears behind a porcelain mask. To have the courage to ask for help.
And finally, what’s next for you? What do you hope to have achieved in five years’ time?
First off is the debut album, dropping sometime next spring, and gigs in Norway to support it. After that, it would be great if we could expand beyond the borders of our home country. In five years, we hope that we’ll have had the chance to visit every country in which we have listeners. We can’t imagine anything more amazing than to meet all the fans we’ve gotten to know online over the past few years and to share our music with them in person.