On The Radar : Happydaze

The UK power-pop-punk revival continues with awesome DIY act Happydaze, a 4-piece from Edinburgh. I know I’ve wrote before about just clicking through links to bands and that’s exactly how I found Happydaze, totally unintentionally hooking me from the first listen.

Having recently released self-directed video for latest single ‘Go Wrong’ with only 2 other releases during late 2020 in the form of angst driven heartbreak ballads ‘What’s It For’ and ’Talk About’ their latest outing takes things up a gear. Pulling out influences from American metal core outfit A Day To Remember alongside anthemic blasts of Mallory Knox and the rock-ready stadium built emo-pop of Twin Atlantic and you’ve found Happydaze distinctive sound.

‘Go Wrong’ starts with a catchy riff (like all great songs) then within the first minute we are ploughing into a hook driven chorus, taking things down a notch through the verse and hurling us back into another chorus made for mosh pits.

We are less than a year into the birth of Happydaze and they are already getting plays on BBC introducing and Radio 1, being compiled into previous South Solar City highlight Yungbluds playlist ‘Misfits 2.0’ and receiving plaudits all round. With a lockdown light at the end of the tunnel Happydaze are sure to be one of the bands to look out for in a local music venue near you!

On The Radar : Hot Milk

 

As a 33 year old man I still have a feint grip on my teenage angst ridden 17 year old self, always looking for that pop-punk emo guitar driven craving, and I feel I may have just accidentally injected it into my eyeballs to get it into my bloodstream that little bit quicker in the form of Hot Milk.

Formed in the north of the UK, currently weighing in as a 4 piece consisting of co-vocals/Guitar Han Mee and Jim Shaw, bassist Tom Paton and on drums Harry Deller.

Hot Milk have a sound comes straight out of the early 00s pop-punk scene think ‘All We Know Is Falling’ Paramore vocals crossed with ‘Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge’ My Chemical Romance hooks and a splattering of ‘The Other Side’ by Tonights Alive.

The song that caught my attention ‘Awful Ever After’ is a catchy power-pop-punk banger with dueling vocal, energetic guitar riffs and hard hitting drum patterns. Other tracks include most recent release emo ballad ‘Glass Spiders’ and the extremely catchy ‘Wide Awake’ from EP ‘Are You Feeling Alive?’ (Available via every good streaming service and online shop).

With just over 2 years under their belts as a band, multiple tour slots with acts including Deaf Havana and You Me At Six alongside plaudits from rock royalty Foo Fighters it’s pretty clear to see that post-pandemic life for Hot Milk will see them touring Europe and beyond. Manchester has a new export and they are destined for worldwide success.

On The Radar : The HARA

 

 

Genre defying is one way THE HARA have been described by numerous others but to me that’s just the start of the sound of something quite special.

The 3-piece formed from an advertisement bringing together a multitude of influences and sounds, consisting of frontman Josh Taylor, Zack Breen on guitar and Jack Kennedy on drums.

‘Bite Down’ on first listen bought me back to the first time I’d heard Cardiff hip-hop/rap outfit Astroid Boys which then closely followed up with Brighton based rock 2 piece Royal Blood joined by St Albans very own Enter Shikari and if that’s not a whirlwind tour of the UK music scene then I challenge anyone to tell me otherwise.

The HARA already amass a huge back catalogue of tracks ranging back to 2018 including iTunes most listened indie rock influenced ‘Be Somebody’ lyrically driven roaring rock banger ‘Off The Edge’, hugely successful social commentating cracker ‘Tramp Brain’ and recent ‘Play Dead’ EP opener ‘Until It Happens’ co-written alongside You Me At Six’s Max Heyler.

At this point I’m feeling a little late to the party knowing The HARA have already topped multiple online charts, narrowly missing out on numbers 1s because of Artic Monkeys, but here I am. With a total 18.5k followers on Twitter, 14k subscribers on YouTube and an ever growing loyal fan base (Just the mention of them on my own Twitter produced 20+ retweets) it’s not an if but when The HARA hit the road that they’ll start to make even bigger waves.