GRAMMY-nominated trio Mansionair have finally unveiled their expansive, intricately crafted full-length Happiness, Guaranteed. via Glassnote Records.
Produced by Jon Gilmore (The 1975), the project is the result of a creative process with no expectations at the outset, writing for the sake of writing and letting the music naturally guide them forward. Thus arrives a complex offering, both sonically through their notably evolved indie-electronic sound, and lyrically as they examine everything from blind consumerism to the painful end of relationships. In the coming months, Mansionair will build upon the buzz of Happiness, Guaranteed. as they embark on a summer North American tour bookended by performances in New York on May 31 and Phoenix on June 25.
In an EARMILK exclusive, the Mansionair trio give a personal take on each of the 9 A-Side tracks gracing their latest album.
"Shallow Water"
We wrote Shallow Water at a point when our friendships within the band were not in a great spot. We were fighting a lot about really petty things and this song was the result of working through them. It felt very vulnerable to be so explicitly honest about our relationships as friends but In doing so, we’ve come out the other side stronger and closer as a band than ever. But hey, if Fleetwood Mac can do it, why can’t we?
"More"
This song came out of a writing trip we did together in a secluded air BnB we rented down the coast from Sydney. We just set up in a room and jammed for ages and this one was the first song we really felt had some legs. We were experimenting with ways to push ourselves out of our comfort zone with writing and we decided to write something in 5/4. The groove and bassline came quite quickly and we found it worked really well with a big expansive chorus of "I want more!" that had been floating around in Lach's head. When we finished the song we knew we had one of the first pieces of Happiness, Guaranteed, and it felt like a great statement to start the album with. Lyrically, we dived headfirst into some of the frustrations we were feeling with modern living and sonically the song was much more upfront and energetic which carried on into the rest of the writing process.
"Happy Now"
We'd been making the record for almost a year at the time we wrote this song. We'd just rented a new studio and we're settling into the space, coming in to finish the songs we'd already worked on. One morning after attempting to work on an existing idea… Lach & I had hit a creative wall. We wanted to write something new. I had just come back from a trip away where I had had a discussion with a good friend of mine. I was talking about my happiness, and I remember exclaiming, "if I can't be happy now with what I've got, I don't think I'll ever be happy…" I had written this thought in my iPhone notes, ready to place into a song whenever the time felt right. Now back in the studio, Lach began to tinker, unbeknownst to him I had this phone note open. And I was humming a melody along in my head, trying not to distract him from what he was looking for. As he began to build out this musical idea, I began to flesh out more and more lyrics. Before too long we took a moment to talk about what we were both playing with. Almost immediately the ideas collided, they were a perfect fit. & the idea was formed. This doesn't often happen in the studio, but when it does I feel very lucky to be a songwriter.
"The Trouble With Us"
This song had a similar trajectory with More. It came out of the same writing trip and we were in a similar headspace of trying to experiment with some unconventional ideas. The concept started with us trying to write a song that changed tempo/time signature, which we had never done before. Switching from 3/4 to 4/4 is probably the simplest transition and we found the music came together really easily. Once we got back home we honed in on lyrics and again went for a big expansive chorus. The song takes a slightly different look at relationships and how we lean on our partners. This to us was both a good and bad thing and that complex contrast was really interesting to us.
"Mirror Me"
Mirror Me might be one of the first songs that Mansionair ever wrote. We’ve been playing it live since about 2014. It didn’t make the first album because it felt too sonically foreign to the rest of our first album Shadowboxer. However, once we realised ‘Happiness, Guaranteed.’ lived more in a ‘live-band’ space we knew it could perfectly sit amongst the new songs. It was a good reminder that no idea is ever dead on the cutting room floor, sometimes just the context isn’t right.
Mirror Me might be one of the first songs that Mansionair ever wrote. We’ve been playing it live since about 2014. It didn’t make the first album because it felt too sonically foreign to the rest of our first album Shadowboxer. However, once we realised ‘Happiness, Guaranteed.’ lived more in a ‘live-band’ space we knew it could perfectly sit amongst the new songs. It was a good reminder that no idea is ever dead on the cutting room floor, sometimes just the context isn’t right.
"Adeline"
This idea was the VERY first idea I wrote for this record. It was summer 2019, just before we released shadowboxer. I was playing around sending an arpeggio to a soft piano plug-in, out poured some lyrics and then some chords and I closed up the session and forgot about it. Fast forward a year, I found this idea on my hard drive. I sent it to the boys and we refined it together, it was the perfect interlude. This song is about a metaphorical car crash, spinning out of control within my relationships. Sometimes we do so much to protect ourselves we forget to think about the others that surround us. This song was a reminder to stay selfless.
"Rapture"
Rapture was also born from that initial cabin writing trip. The relaxed mood of the verse shows the kind of energy we had at the time and I remember we jammed on this idea for about 30 minutes. We loved the warm sinking feeling from the drums and bass and that initial jam is where most of the melody and lyrics were born as well, which is quite rare for us. The lyrics that formed out of that jam all seemed to tell the story of someone who is engrossed by someone or something. We pieced together the best of the lyrics and melody and it revealed itself to touch on struggles of getting completely lost in something/someone and almost being addicted with that feeling. A lot of the fire imagery is referencing that pull into our desires. When we were finishing the production we wanted the choruses to really explode to match that concept.
"A Little Lost"
We took a writing trip down to Berry, NSW. to work on some new ideas. It was so uneventful, whilst we did enjoy playing, I was empty creatively, I'd lost my way with making music, burnt out from the pandemic and struggling to hold hope. We packed up after a few days of working and felt like we didn't land on anything for the record. BUT we had, a few weeks later Alex sent over a recording of this jam, and I was instantly in love with it. I had to do the song justice, and I wrote down exactly how I felt that week, I had a conversation with my partner who had said something like don't stress if you're a little lost… you don't have to know everything right now. And so the song came to be. A reminder that sometimes life takes the path less traveled, and sometimes the long way round.
"Facedown Domino"
This song went through about 10 different versions before it arrived at it’s current form. We were working on it in peak lockdown period and the overwhelming desire to play live music was deciding a lot of the production choices. We wanted something big/brash and angry which was a response to how we were feeling at the time. The song is about accepting frustration and failure, about accepting exactly where you’re at in life and working with that reality.
"Shallow Water"
We wrote Shallow Water at a point when our friendships within the band were not in a great spot. We were fighting a lot about really petty things and this song was the result of working through them. It felt very vulnerable to be so explicitly honest about our relationships as friends but In doing so, we’ve come out the other side stronger and closer as a band than ever. But hey, if Fleetwood Mac can do it, why can’t we?
We wrote Shallow Water at a point when our friendships within the band were not in a great spot. We were fighting a lot about really petty things and this song was the result of working through them. It felt very vulnerable to be so explicitly honest about our relationships as friends but In doing so, we’ve come out the other side stronger and closer as a band than ever. But hey, if Fleetwood Mac can do it, why can’t we?
