Happy Accidents

On the tail end of a UK tour in celebration of their sophomore album, Everything but the Here and Now, released earlier this year, the summery indie-pop band out of London-via-Southampton are on the way to something great with stunning growth into themselves and expanse into a new place sonically. Appropriately, then, they’ve nestled themselves amongst decorative house plants onstage, both a beautiful sight and a metaphor for the path they’ve found themselves on towards something new and bigger.

Happy Accidents are long-standing members of the Southampton DIY scene, starting their career playing shows at the coastal city’s stronghold The Joiners. From there, they were invited by El Morgan (of Personal Best and & the Divers) to play a show in Portsmouth, and from there began playing in London, where they’re now based. This is something so important to DIY scenes between cities; play one show, and it leads to another, hopefully connecting the dots across the UK. “One little spark, which leads to another spark,” is how Rich explains it. “I think it is important to have that scene in every city,” Phoebe says, “but it’s just scary. More cities are seeing it die a little bit, and you can’t connect the dots as much.” With important collective venues shutting their doors, not only in the UK but across the world as well – Silent Barn in Bushwick held its last show at the end of April, adding to the growing list of spaces in New York shutting their doors, amongst places like Shea Stadium, Palisades, Death by Audio, and 285 Kent – many bands and people connected to these venues are losing their connections that allow them to pursue music

for fun on a smaller scale. “Without those small, sort of grassroots venues, you just don’t have places for people to learn to play live and just have a go,” Phoebe points out. “It’s a great way to grow organically.”

Rich agrees: “If you didn’t have that base layer of live music on the smallest scale, it just seems unattainable. You don’t have anywhere to start.”

It’s here they’ve met all the people inspiring their music, and experienced all the social interactions that Rich takes into account when writing lyrics. “I get influenced watching other musicians, and

then I get a creative energy from other people,” Phoebe explains, “so I guess when you (Rich) are in a good creative mindset, and we’re both writing together, that’s where I’m at my best, and we’re creating something cool.” Playing shows, getting involved in the politics of DIY, and meeting people all over the UK and Europe where they’ve toured has been a big inspiration not only for their writing and their creative drive, then, but for the movements they follow. “The DIY community is so supportive in getting in people from all walks of life,” Phoebe says. “I don’t want it to die, so hopefully it won’t, because I know there’s a lot of people kicking back against that.”

Happy Accidents aren’t outwardly political, at least in songwriting content compared to other bands playing the festival, but that doesn’t mean they can’t take their platform for good use in the industry. “I feel like it’s important to, not send a message straight-up, but to lead by example,” Rich says, “live what you want; rather than say ‘this is the message’, show people.” For Phoebe, it’s the same; by playing drums, onstage, as a woman, it’s hard to avoid politics by simply that, and by pursuing this in a world where

she faces prejudice, she’s setting an example of empowerment for other women watching her.

Referencing an interview with Gem from Colour Me Wednesday from the film So, which band is your boyfriend in?, Phoebe encourages overcoming the double-whammy of stage fright and sour looks from sour men who think non-male performers can’t do their part for the others like her in the crowd watching. “You think maybe there’s a kid or a girl in the crowd who is also scared to play, and then if I’m scared to play and not showing them that it’s fine to play, then there’s no hope,” she says. “So sometimes, just being there and me playing, as a woman, I guess it’s good for me to be doing it. Because I know it took me so long to get in a band, when probably should have been in a band from, I don’t know, age eleven.” Where Rich was jamming with his brother from that age, Phoebe didn’t take part until she was eighteen, but she hopes setting the example will inspire just one more person to do the same.

While the politics aren’t so much apparent in the music – “it’s a part of the scenery of the music,” says Rich – they’re still working on be

ing strong enough to call people out. As a woman, it’s not a surprise that Phoebe’s simple presence has caused uncomfortable comments from staff and concert attendees. “Calling them out has a negative connotation, but it’s just standing up for yourself,” says Rich. “You have to just maybe be disliked, but stand your ground,” Phoebe says. “People might just want to know they’ve said something that’s not appropriate.” In another instance, seemingly innocent but threatening all the same, a fan in Germany came up to compliment Phoebe on her drumming skills, but finished off his sentence, again, unnecessarily, with, “I just love watching while you play, you just look so sexy.” It’s little bits and pieces like this, things that are absolutely inappropriate in these situations because not only are women being treated differently to (and as lesser than) guys, but it becomes threatening and discouraging for young women to continue to pursue music. “There’s a lot of little things that don’t seem super harmful, but they do still,” Phoebe says. “The broader picture is, there’s a lot of sexism around. It’s important to try and change it.”

For now, they’re going to make more music for the future, though it looks like what they’ll make will be an even bigger step forward than Everything but the Here and Now. Having just started work at a recording studio, there’s been a big change for Rich in that his job also touches on his creative output, instead of just office jobs. “I feel like there’s not as much pressure on the band now,” he says, “because there’s loads of other aspects in my life that have come together a little bit more. It’s not all or nothing, which means I feel like it can be more creative and less stressful.” Within that, something he’s hoping to do is make a record in terms of “how someone in other art forms might think about it – just detach every other aspect of being in a band form it. I just want to make things for the sake of making things.” Happy Accidents are moving forward in a beautiful-sounding way, and hope they bless your ears with their sweet sound very soon.