Would you believe us if we said we've been saving a special nugget from our weekend in the magical Blue Ridge Mountains at FloydFest '24 ~ Horizon?  One of FloydFest's most captivating On-The-Rise artists, Happy Landing, took some time to share their impressive musical journey with us. Known for their high-energy shows, astronaut jumpsuits, and psyche-infiltrating choruses that leave even my three year old Ba-ba-ba-ba-da-ba-da-ba-ing throughout the house, Happy Landing has become one of the most buzz-worthy bands in the indie-folk scene. Between their two explosive Floyd sets, the five Mississippians opened up about big dreams becoming reality, pairing lyrics with melodies, and how a fiddle is just a violin with a little stank put on it.

Mark your calendar for November 14th when the "Avengers of Folk-Music" bring their signature sound and infectious energy to Pearl Street Warehouse. Whether you've been having flashbacks or FFFOMO (FloydFest FOMO, iykyk) it's a show you truly do not want to miss.

Now that you've marked your calendar, read on to hear the creative process behind Happy Landing's debut album, Golden, as well as their excitement for this fall's Golden Tour.

Liz Pappas:  Why don't you tell me your names?

My name is Andrew Gardner. I am the fiddle and mandolin player in the band.

My name is Keegan Christensen. (vocals, keys, bass)

My name is Jacob Christensen. I play drums and sing a little bit.

My name is Wilson Moyer. I play electric guitar and bass.

My name is Matty Hendley and I play singing and guitar… I play karaoke.

(laughter)

Liz Pappas:  How'd the band come to be? Give me the Happy Landing origin story.

All: College? Yes, yeah. We met in college. We all went to the same school: Ole Miss!

Jacob: Yeah, I think we all just kind of knew each other in one way or another. And Matty had conceptualized the project and wanted to make a band, and he knew that I kind of played drums, so he asked me to play drums in the studio on our first EP And then after the EP came out, we kind of got together. We're like, we need Keegan, we need Wilson, and then let's get Andrew.

Matty: Like the Avengers.

Andrew: We're essentially superheroes.

Matty: We're the Avengers of folk music.

Keegan: ....that was a joke.

(laughter)

Liz Pappas:  And the ensembles? Whose idea was the matching jumpsuits?

Andrew: That was a group decision. I feel like Keegan played a role in finding the right suit and kind of like proposing them. We had astronaut suits—

Wilson: Women's Amazon costumes.

Andrew: —Women's Amazon Halloween astronaut costumes.

Matty: But we rocked ‘em. They looked good.

Andrew: And they were ample in the hips. Let me tell you, we were ready to give birth. Honestly, we were looking pretty sassy. But the idea basically came from Happy Landing. The name came from Matty’s grandfather, who was a parachuter in the Air Force. As they would kick guys out of planes the sergeant would go “have a happy landing!” So it made sense to us, I think, to kind of keep that aerial tradition to flight.

Keegan: And we have a moon in our logo.

Andrew: So we're like, happy landing on the moon.

Jacob: I guess the original inspiration was like we were going on this tour with The 502s. They were killing it, they're still killing it, but at this time, we were nobody, and we had never really toured a lot.. maybe a little bit the summer before. So we were like, ‘how can we get people's attention so that they remember us?’ Because we're just the measly little opener, we gotta make sure people walk away and at least remember us as the band that had the spacesuits, you know?

Keegan: That’s what sparked the idea of the jumpsuits.

Jacob: That was the original, ‘guys, what do we do to get people to latch on to us and remember us?’

Liz Pappas:  Well, it's working.

 Jacob: And it's still working!

Liz Pappas:  Believe me, you guys do not need the jumpsuits to capture attention. However, it does add a little special sauce.

Liz Pappas:  So, Golden: your first album. What was the writing process like?

Keegan: Well Matty wrote most of it.

Matty: Gosh, it just kind of came together over the last couple of years. You know, some songs are like leftover from other EPS that didn't make it, weren't ready yet. And then it's like.. all right, it's their time.. these songs, let's finish them.. let's record them. A lot of these just came together over the last year and a half and made sense cohesively. We just were thinking to ourselves, ‘what's fun? What would be fun to play live?’ because sometimes you write a song and think, ‘Oh, this is great, but how's it going to be live?’ And I think that's what we really went into the studio with, too. You know, we played live enough now that we can kind of anticipate how it'll feel to play live and how it'll look to an audience, and I think that's kind of what the process was for this record.

Liz Pappas:  Your performance is jam-packed with energy from the first note. Do you feel like it just comes naturally or sometimes are you like ‘Man, where am I gonna find this?’

Jacob: I think it usually comes naturally. Obviously with how much we tour and how often we're playing shows, every once in a while it's just like… I am so tired. But I mean even then, even when I'm feeling like shit or just so tired that I feel like I don't want to play, as soon as we get on the stage, it's like, ‘let's go!’ There's people here to see us! For me, it's very much like feeding off the audience and feeding off the vibes and usually that carries me through.

Matty: And it must be the nature of the music too, because that’s the only way we know how to play really.. together in this group, is hard and fast and fun.

Jacob: Yeah, I feel like we were all born to perform. I think that might be a part of it. It’s like, ‘let's just rip it.’

Liz Pappas:  There’s a lot of multi-instrumentalists here. Who takes the cake for the most? Playing Karaoke counts!

Keegan: You two probably have the most (pointing to Andrew and Wilson).

Wilson: It would be between me and Andrew.

Andrew: I don't know how many I would feel super comfortable playing on stage, but I think we've been playing long enough that we can just kind of like, noodle on some stuff. It's always fun when you feel like a song could use an instrument, and maybe it's not necessarily in anybody's real wheelhouse. Wilson had been picking around on some banjo recently, and we're like, ‘okay, this song kind of feels like it has a banjo vibe to it.’ And not only do we now have banjo, but we have Wilson's take on the banjo and he's incredibly competent and skilled at it, but at the same time it's like this own unique flavor that only Wilson can bring to that instrument. I think that's pretty cool.

Wilson: I think a philosophy you and I share that has just gone into that is ‘I want to know how music works,’ and then an instrument you give me is just a new toy with a sound that only belongs to me, which is the funnest part. Like, ‘there's a great line here… I can hear it in my head… I can sing it for you… what it belongs on is the 12 string mandolin.

Andrew: Literally! And there's physical limitations to each instrument that make you play a different way. I'll play like a line on the guitar that I wouldn't play on the violin, because the fingerings are different and the strings are a little different as well. So I don't know, I think it's kind of fun to have like an orchestra of instrumentation going on. It leads to different kinds of ideas.

Liz Pappas:  Wait, violin or fiddle??

Andrew: It's whatever you want to call it; fiddle and violin are the same instrument. Fiddle is a colloquialism of people in Appalachia who were playing this thing and for whatever reason, they called it the fiddle. I always say that a fiddle is just a violin that you can spill beer on.

Liz Pappas:  Favorite lyric? Mine is ‘wipe your nose, sugarboy.’ (My, My, My) 

Matty: That’s funny. You know it's actually from a Flannery O'Connor short story. There’s this little kid and he's like eating donuts or something, and his nose is running, and she goes, ‘wipe your nose sugarboy!’

Wilson: My favorite would probably be ‘come on lose the gun and fight me like a man.’ 

Keegan: "Lose the Gun", that’s a good one.

Andrew: In Arkansas, when the verse comes in, Matty goes ‘sharp jaw, crooked teeth!’

Keegan: There's so many!

Wilson: You know what, honestly, I would say ‘you gotta know when to stop the hurt and when to bleed' (October).

I think there's this really tough thing about lyricism where you can get a really good job done, just saying what happened or how you feel about it, just talking about your high school sweetheart and actually moved away, and, you know, we had to go long distance. I get fired up when we're singing this song on stage, like there's something that matters to what we're saying right now and how it's being said. I think there's a lot of really cool moments that I feel like I'm so fired up for because the lyrical thing that's happening is cool, but also it actually paired with the music is this really good feeling.

Matty: I would say for me, same song, (My, My, My) ‘some days I wish we didn't have to die.’

Jacob: I love Good Dogs too, kind of a sneaky bonus track. 

Wilson: We definitely all stand on the business of that song, though. I think we're pretty proud of it.

Keegan: Mine’s in Lose The Gun. “Well, I'm better off dead with an undivided heart, than to live to see myself turn toward the dark.” If I’m not singing it, I’m like ‘wait, am I actually saying the right words?’ It makes you really think about what you're singing.

Liz Pappas:  Do you have any last tidbits that you want the world to know?

Matty: We have a tour! Our debut album tour, It's called The Golden Tour, and we're doing coast to coast all across the country. Our U.S. fall tour: check it out. HappyLanding.band Come see us.

Liz Pappas:  You guys coming to DC?

Jacob: Pearl Street Warehouse! November 14th. (See performance details and ticket link below)

As Happy Landing continues their Golden Tour, the band is ready to deliver the same high-energy performances that have captured audiences nationwide. Be sure to catch their live show at Pearl Street Warehouse in Washington, D.C. on November 14th for a night of unforgettable music, featuring songs from their debut album Golden.