Why We Play

The freedom not to compromise

When Happü started, we knew very little about recording. Nobody should expect studio sound from those early sessions. But there is something valuable in that basic sound. To me, it is honest. And honesty has always mattered.

I do not want to make something perfect, particularly in an age when AI offers new kinds of apparent perfection. I make music from our recordings that I want to hear myself—music that nobody had played in exactly that form before. We may never make money from Happü, or play to an audience. So why would we compromise?

Our influences should be audible. Black Sabbath matters enormously to me: four musicians who made something revolutionary without being able to see the extent of what they were doing. They were talented, and their early jazz influences are part of what I love. I find it fascinating that artists may not understand what they are creating until much later.

Sometimes I am tired of hearing myself. Then I listen again and realize that small changes matter, even when I could not sense them while playing. In improvisation, we can find musical possibilities we did not know we possessed.