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 : 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.

 

 

On The Radar : Atlas Genius

Remember when I said the southern hemisphere was creating some great music over the last year, well, I’m not going to say it’s the weather, or possibly something in the water but there are some wonderful sounds coming from down under.

Radar 3 piece Atlas Genius hail from Adelaide, they grew up among a very musical family and were heavily influenced by The Beatles, but fame wasn't to come first hand in their native country.

A track recorded in their very own self built recording studio by the name of ‘Trojans’ was scooped up by US blog Neon Gold which catapulted them into the spotlight. Since then they have charted in the US Billboard chart and gone top 10 in the US Digital charts, as well as appearing on numerous American chat shows and becoming Zane Lowe’s next hype on Radio 1.

Radar track ‘Symptoms’ is Bastille, with a twang of Empire Of The Sun and just enough Foster The People to get by. It’s an acoustic guitar layered with a persistent drum beat nicely partnered with some dulcet tones. A melodic lo-fi pop hit that’s going to surf its way into the UK charts within the year. And I ought to mention, they've just finished a tour with previous Radar band Imagine Dragons.

You can catch Atlas Genius debut at London’s Elektrowerks (Tickets : http://www.livenation.co.uk/artist/atlas-genius-tickets)  on 7^th May, a day after the release of radar track ‘Symptoms’.