HAPPY ABANDON TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM FACEPAINT, AVAILABLE TOMORROW, AUGUST 25TH ON SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS

LISTEN TO

FACEPAINT HERE

Happy Abandon, composed of three friends – Jake Walts, Justin Ellis, and Peter Vance – formed in early 2015 and crafted Facepaint in the process of coping with the simultaneous and unexpected loss of three dear friends in three separate incidents. Together, the band dealt with these heartbreaking deaths, along with the usual trials and travails of everyday life. The end result is a composition of soaring songs and string-laden production fueled by the passion to connect with every possible human emotion.

The album takes off with the foundation track “Ivory Bound,” before jumping into the fast-paced full-range motion of “Beneath Our Feet,” then sails through the well-rounded motions of “Love Like Language” and “Take Me” before stepping into the intricate first single “Severed Seams.” This song, in the words of Peter Vance, “marks the transition between my older roots of folky, acoustic, singer-songwriter music into the more dynamic, ambient, and cinematic sound that is found in the songs that I write for Happy Abandon. The song fell into a period of my life where I found myself floating about aimlessly. The song itself talks of discomfort in the domestic lifestyle that comes from being a young adult, and transitioning into new and unexplored facets of life. Sometimes this wanderlust requires disconnecting from the comforts you relied on. It has always felt like the best representation of what Happy Abandon is all about; intimate and thoughtful, yet dramatic and intense.” The soundscape journey continues with “Choice,” “If I Stare,” and “Stop Taking Care Of Me,” offering a contemplative adventure building up to the climax of “Heavy Lines” before finishing out the equation with “Cursed or Worse.” “Heavy Lines” premiered Wednesday in Clash Magazine and was deemed “a bewitching, emotive song that only reveals its depths over several listens,” with “uniquely heartfelt songwriting betraying an enormous amount of honesty.”

In support of the new album, Happy Abandon will be on tour from September to November, hitting stages in Denver, Portland, Los Angeles, and Austin, among others. The band has a penchant for heavy production and multi-layered harmonies to “portray musically what the lyrics are trying to convey,” says Vance. “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 an experiential show.”