During the fall semester, Alejandro and Vivian interviewed the indie rock band, The Happy Fits, before their show at Emo’s. Members Calvin Langman, Nico Rose, Luke Davis, and Raina Mullen sat down with the two interns for a detailed interview, ranging from a deep dive of the history and forming of the current lineup of the band to their shared favorite moments together. Discover the band’s favorite performances, personal connections to music, recurring themes in their music, and much more here on KVRX! Don’t forget to check out the DJs’ concert reviews too!
🟢Calvin: I’m pretty sure that Luke and I did an interview, like seven years ago, with you guys? It’s on YouTube.
🔴Raina: That is so cool.
⚪Alejandro: That was at the start of y’all’s band, right?
🟢Calvin: I think it was our first tour. Where did we play in Austin? Was it just Hole in the Wall, maybe? Yeah, and it was those-
🔵Luke: Those People’s Wedding! They came out with 50 people, and we were like, woah, Austin’s turning up, and they were like, we just brought our whole wedding.
🟢Calvin: They didn’t really intend to stay, and then they just felt bad for us, that they brought like 100 people, and then they told everyone to stay for us.
⚪Alejandro: That’s a pretty fun story! So, you guys are called The Happy Fits, and you guys have got to be one of the happiest bands I’ve ever heard. So what makes you so happy?
🟢Calvin: Oh man, well, we get to do this for a living, that’s pretty awesome.
🔵 Luke: I was just gonna say, I think an important part of our music is that it sounds happy, but then the lyrics are not as happy as it sounds. They’re usually about heartbreak or longing, and so, I think part of Cal’s great songwriting is that he makes it super catchy and upbeat, but then you dive deeper into the lyrics, and you’re like, oh, maybe they do have feelings, besides this one.
🔴Raina: That’s such an impressive—it’s able to do that. Like at the same time, you know, I love that so much, it’s beautiful.
🟣Nico: Dancing through the pain. It’s a good juxtaposition of sad lyrics versus happy music. I feel like it’s kinda easier for the listener to latch onto it and be like, ‘oh let me dig deeper into what this means.’
🔴Raina: Would you describe that as a way that you kind of cope with what’s going on in your life? Like, through the music?
🟢Calvin: Yeah, definitely. I think up until like six years old, I was a really angry child. Then I realized no one likes that. *Laughter from Raina* I was like, ‘Why am I so angry all the time?’ And then I realized it’s so much nicer to just be nice.
🔵 Luke: Yeah, I think I learned that at 27, when I was a little older.
⚪Vivian: To also kind of piggyback off that original question, what’s like the origin behind the band? Like what’s y’all’s origin story. How’d you meet, like what’s the inspiration behind this awesome thing you’ve got?
🟢Calvin: Me and Luke went to the same high school, then like, the summer before college we recorded our EP, just for like friends and family, put it out into the world, and then like spotify, took a big liking to it, so we just decided to drop out, cause it was like a once in a lifetime opportunity. And we basically, like, googled our way into DIY touring, finding management, finding a booking agent.
🔵Luke: Calvin was sending… THOUSANDS of emails a day, and then I was on Bandcamp, and I was just like, ‘This band rips! Maybe they can open.’ and then their last album was in 2012, and I was like ‘dangit.’ There were a lot of mistakes being made to learn, ‘oh, ok, this is how it works, this doesn’t…’And then two years ago, we met- I mean, we’ve known Raina and Nicole prior, but we ended up having them as hired guns, and secretly wanted them in the band the whole time.
🟣Nico: They asked us to audition, we both said yes, we sent in audition tapes, and it was to be, yeah, hired guns on a tour with them. And then, uh, if it all worked out, we’d be in the band writing music, and I think they secretly wanted it to work out the whole time. We came in guns blazing.
⚪Alejandro: I definitely noticed Raina and Nico’s contributions on the new album. I noticed there was a bit of a stylistic change, most notably in the album art but also in the music itself.
🟢Calvin: I think uh, Adele had like three records, and that was like, her trilogy of 17, 19, and 21, right? So our trilogy of the first three records are, y’know, that artwork, and then we’re like, alright, we’re a different band now, let's stay true to the way we are, let’s still incorporate the apple, the fruit that fans want, But lets see how we’ve matured, bring other elements into it as well.
🔵Luke: Yeah, I think it brought a whole new life to y’know, the work of having Raina and Nicole come in having such fresh ideas and being so eager to write, and um, and at the time it was my newfound sobriety that revitalized that much more- having, y’know, Raina and Nicole come in and be such open, human beings and so creative cause, when you’re writing, y’know, it’s a very vulnerable place. So to be able to build the foundation that we did so quickly, I don’t think- It doesn’t, it’s easier said than done. It just happened so naturally in such a beautiful way that created this new organic style that stayed true to our old self.
🟣Nico: And it’s natural evolution for musicians to like, just travel into different sonic worlds on records, so I feel like it’s just a natural thing to do as musicians get older and new people obviously join the group, and change it up a little bit.
⚪Alejandro: And it keeps it fresh as well.
🟣Nico: And that same essence of original Happy Fits is still threaded through.
🔴Raina: It’s like progression, it’s like, loving the older past, but then also being open to what’s new.
🟣Nico: It’s been a very collaborative environment, and we all get to put pieces of ourselves into the music to make it what this formation is.
🔴Raina: And like, two girls playing guitar!
🟣Nico: Which is so badass.
🔴Raina: That feels really special.
⚪Vivian: Have y’all been performing your entire lives? Or what brought you to this pathway?
🟢Calvin: I guess I have been performing. Like, I started kinda when I was six. My piano teacher, at the end of every school year, we’d do like juries, I don’t know why, I don’t know who it was for. But we’d just have to like-
🔵 Luke: Juries are terrifying.
🟢Calvin: My mom would pick me up early from school, and then I’d just do a private-
🔴Raina: What’s a jury?
🟣Nico: It’s a performance, like a showcase.
🟢Calvin: But you get graded on it, by like, a person from the New Jersey Piano Teachers Association.
🟣Nico: It’s very common in college classes as well, specifically performance classes.
🔵 Luke: I specifically chose my degree, also because there was no juries and all my friends were miserable. And I was like, I don’t have to do them. But I still had to take tests.
🔴Raina: As you can see, I was not performing my whole life. That’s a new term.
⚪Vivian: Yeah, I didn’t know either. Thank you for answering that.
🟣Nico: Um, I kinda have been, in like, uh school choirs, and musical theater, stuff like that, talent shows, just wanted to get out there and like, practice.
🔵Luke: From when I was like, 12, onward, I had like orchestra, and then it got to like, show choir, and then eventually marching band, and then wind ensemble. So my first, like, rock concert, or I guess my first out of school concert, was my senior year, I did Battle of the Bands. And then from there I played with pop artists for a bit, and then Cal asked me to play, and I was kinda straying away from drums for a minute, then it brought me back in, and I love it.
⚪Vivian: Were there ever any moments in y’all’s lives where you were like, second-guessing what you were doing? Or have you always been confident?
🟣Nico: I think for me it was always just kind of a hobby that I had on my own, and then when I was in college, I started playing in bands, like it was my junior and senior year of college, like local LA bands. But I thought I was gonna be a copywriter, work at an ad agency. I have an English degree. I wanted to go to UT, but I did not get in, but being an English major is super fun. It really kinda teaches you this comprehensive view of the world. But I really enjoyed it, and I think I just thought, you go to college, you graduate, you get a job, and music was always on the side, and really fun, but at the same time, I tried really really hard at it, and I don’t think I registered that that was happening at the same time. So I kinda just assumed I’d get a job, but then, everything kinda fell into place, and I played in bands, played as a hired gun guitar player, and now I find myself here.
⚪Vivian: Do you think your English degree influenced your songwriting skills?
🟣Nico: Yeah, I think in terms of just reading a lot, like hearing what other people have to say, kind of knowing where to, for me it’s about like, scraping the bullshit, I guess? And I feel like all great novels that I’ve read have this directness to them that I really like? And you’re allowed fluffy descriptions and everything, but like, there’s points to everything, I think that kind of helps me narrow down lyrically what I like to come across.
⚪Alejandro: I’m really curious about each of y’all’s individual influences and how that shaped the band. I’d love to know what each member’s musical inspirations are.
🟢Calvin: Um, there’s this Croatian Cello duo called Two Cellos, and they put out their first cover of Welcome to the Jungle, AC/DC, when I was in 5th grade, and I was like, that’s awesome, and I want to play Cello like that. And I listened to a lot of classical rock growing up on this radio station, 99.9 The Hawk. So I knew a lot of rock music. I didn’t know who it was by or what the songs were called, but it was all that was playing in my house growing up. So that was probably my biggest influence that inspired me to put cello in a rock band.
🔵Luke: My dad showed me Good Times, Bad Times by Led Zeppelin, and I was like ‘this is so cool’ and from there it kind expanded through him and my mother, like they were showing me a lot of country, my mom loved country, and then my dad was showing me Aerosmith, Deep Purple, the Who. And then I kinda started getting in my own world, and my sister was showing me Sum 41 and Blink. And then, when I went on my own path, I think what was really inspiring in the beginning years, the formative years, was Circa Survive. Anthony Green was a huge influence on me in High School. And then, I started getting really into Royal Blood, and I had a heavier metal side, Metallica, and all that stuff. But I think at the time, The Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes was what I was super into at the beginning of the band. And then now, throughout the nine years, we’ve gotten to explore so much more music; it’s become so much broader because they also have such different tastes that I kind of feel like a sponge. It’s great, I have my own curators that just tour with me every day. I’m like, ‘this music’s cool, I like it.’
🟣Nico: We listened to the Geese album in the green room yesterday.
⚪Alejandro: Everyone’s been talking about Geese
🔴Raina: They’re the hot moment right now. Uh, I grew up listening to a lot of Motown music cause my dad would host these car shows, and it’d be just Motown and classic oldies like the Ronettes and Emily Brothers. Then uh, when I was a teenager, I was really into pop punk music, Paramore, went to Warped Tour a few times. Fall Out Boy was in the fan club. Panic At The Disco, y’know, the popular ones at that moment. I also was very into Americano music, which is like the opposite of that. And I love singers and songwriters from the 70’s. 70’s rock bands. Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, The Grateful Dead. It’s a very vast understanding of music, and like an enjoyment of it all. Yeah.
🟣Nico: I think my taste, also from my parents. My dad used to play all of classic rock, The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, everybody, and then it kind of just shifted into loving Indie Rock a lot, and being really inspired by that. Early Kings of Leon, and The Strokes, and Alabama Shakes. And now I really can’t get enough of the Pop girlies. I feel like there’s something so, like, attainable with all of that, in with writing, like our music too. I don’t know, there’s something about it. I really like it.
🔴Raina: They really create worlds that you can live in when you listen to their music.
⚪Vivian: I feel like that’s so cool. I feel like I grew up with lots of types of music around me. It’s so cool to hear that from you guys as well and see how it blends into your own style of music. So, going off of that too, how would you guys describe your genre of music? Like, did you stick to one thing or put a lot of different things into it? What would you consider it?
🟢Calvin: Definitely, alternative rock. Very new rock. I think that’s the best way to put it.
🔵Luke: I always say indie rock with cello. I feel like cello’s just kind of its own genre because it really adds so much to the music, and it stands out.
🔴Raina: Yeah, someone asked us this the other day, but it was like a friend backstage, and they were like, “I don’t know where to place your band. Like, I can’t compare you necessarily to other things that are happening right now, and I think that’s great as a band to be in a place that’s not placeable. But, you know, it’s four-part harmonies and rockin’ cello and killer guitars and bangin’ drums.
🟣Nico: One thing I’ll add is I have these pickups in my guitar that I bought and replaced the pickups in my guitar with and they’re specifically made for 70s anthem rock, which definitely kind of melts in the four part harmonies and the drama of it.
🔴Raina: Absolutely.
⚪Alejandro: That’s really cool. I definitely noticed the guitar tones were very recognizable on the new album.
🟣Nico: Hell yeah.
⚪Alejandro: Do you modify your guitar a lot?
🟣Nico: The guitars that I’m playing for this run are both older Gibson models. I have a SG and a Les Paul. I just replace the pickups on both of them, so my 70s anthem rock guitar for all the like “I think I love you” and the upbeat, anthemic songs. I have the Les Paul that has a, I’ll get nerdy, noiseless p90 pickups, which just means heavy, heavy, heavy. I get to play “Mary” with those and all the dirtier songs.
⚪Alejandro: That’s awesome.
🟣Nico: Yeah.
⚪Vivian: So far, do you guys have an all-time favorite performance? And if you do, where was it and why was it your favorite?
🟢Calvin: Corona Capitol was special.
🔴Raina: That’s what popped right into my head too.
🟢Calvin: It was the first time we played as this formation. It was also the most people we’ve ever played in front of.
🔴Raina: It was so big.
🔵Luke: It was huge.
⚪Vivian: Where was it?
🔴Raina: We were battling the odds on that day with weather. It was in Mexico City.
⚪Vivian: Mexico City, okay.
🔴Raina: Corona Capital.
⚪Vivian: How many people do you think was it?
🟣Nico: I think it was 80,000 people or something
⚪Vivian: Wow. That is a lot.
🔴Raina: There was like a giant brushfire in the mountains and all of this smokey wind was blowing into the festival grounds basically and we were struggling to sing that day very much but we did it.
⚪Vivian: Oh my gosh.
🟣Nico: We had asthma, bronchitis but we pulled through. We did it.
🔵Luke: They had been on tour and I took a break for sobriety and that was my first show back and it was to say the least, pretty terrifying ‘cause it was like, you get up there and there was a lot of people and I was like, “Okay, this is it.” I had obviously rehearsed with Raina and Nicole (Nico), but it was our first time as a live performance and it clicked so well and it made so much sense because the crowd was so engaged in a way that we had not really experienced before, or at least I hadn’t. So super, super special.
⚪Alejandro: I’m glad it turned into a great performance. That’s really awesome.
⚪Vivian: Wow. Yeah, I wish we could’ve been there. That actually would’ve been so cool.
🟣Nico: There were really amazing backstage tacos too.
⚪Vivian: That definitely would help I feel like.
⚪Alejandro: Nice.
🟣Nico: Yeah.
⚪Vivian: What is y’all’s favorite part of being a performer? Or being a musician, specifically?
🔴Raina: I think my favorite part about being a musician is being able to play with other people. It’s one thing to be a solo artist and kind of carry all that weight on your own and like generally, we can write songs that way, on our own, and bring them to the table to each other, but the feeling of playing with your friends and playing with others onstage, energy to bounce off of, if you’re feeling a little low and somebody else is feeling higher than you, they can bring you up in energy in that kind of sense, if that makes sense.
⚪Alejandro and Vivian: Yeah, it does make sense.
🔴Raina: I feel like that’s kind of my favorite thing is the playing with others.
🔵Luke: I mean getting to explore the world with my three best friends is pretty awesome. You don’t get to say that that’s your job really in any scenario besides this one. I think also meeting the fans and how important that music was for them and how I think about how when I was going through really difficult times how artists really carried me through the weight and the sluggines and didn’t make me feel so alone with how I felt. Having fans come up and be like, “That did that for me”, is something I think carries so much weight and they don’t realize how much it truly means that our music can give them that feeling of peace or understanding that, you know, we sometimes don’t have ourselves.
⚪Vivian: Music is so transformative and it’s the best thing in the entire world.
🔵Luke: I mean it traverses through time and language. It doesn’t matter. It’s like one of the only things that can bring people together from such different cultures and mindsets and perspectives.
🟢Calvin: Oh yeah, I mean to piggyback off that, there’s this girl in Birmingham in the U.K., after our show that we played, she came up to us and she said like, “The last time I saw you guys in Birmingham, you guys played the song “Little One” and you dedicated it to the LGBTQ community there and my dad was there. He had never really accepted me until after that performance.” That really touched my heart. And the other day in Orlando, somebody proposed at our show.
🔴Raina: Yeah, it’s crazy.
⚪Vivian: That’s beautiful. That’s amazing.
🟢Calvin: To like, be able to be having a lot of fun up there and also meaning a lot to people and like everybody’s interpreting it in their own way, there’s nothing better than that.
🟣Nico: I can’t agree with everything that they just said more. The connections with people, the connections with each other. I think one of my favorite things simply is the after show hang that we have. It’s just really nice and…
🟢Calvin: Giggly and goofy.
🟣Nico: Yeah, we’re just goofballs. And we play the show and we take it really seriously and it’s very awesome to be up there, and doing the thing. And then after, we just get to eat our McFlurries and postshow food and laugh about stupid stuff that we say. And it’s like very cute.
⚪Alejandro: Are you guys having a good time on tour so far?
🔵Luke: Yeah.
🔴Raina: Without a doubt.
🟢Calvin: This is awesome.
🔵Luke: I feel like a princess on this tour. We have the best crew ever. It’s, you know, us four and we have seven other incredible people with us. They make it so seamless and so effortless that, you know sometimes, the road can wear down on you. Not that it still doesn’t every now and then, but they make that process so much easier. And some of these people it’s the first time we met them was like not even like a month ago, maybe less. It just feels like a family on that bus and to have that comfort and not having to feel like you have to show face for anyone there and you can just be you is a really comforting and beautiful feeling.
🟣Nico: We’re all doing Thanksgiving together too, so it’s a chosen family.
🔴Raina: Road Thanksgiving in Minnesota?
🟣Nico: Minnesota, yeah.
🔴Raina: I’m like, “where are we gonna be?”
⚪Vivian: Where at?
🟣Nico: Minneapolis.
🔴Raina: Yeah, I mean being a musician is like the most fun thing in the world. This tour’s been so much fun and like every night, Nicole gets to say, something before we play the song “Lovesick”, and she’s like, “Whatever city, are you feeling lovesick?” And they all go, “We’re lovesick!” It’s great. It’s so much fun.
⚪Alejandro: There’s one last thing. You guys have been doing a food drive at your shows recently?
🟢Calvin: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
⚪Vivian: That’s amazing, by the way.
🟣Nico: Thank you.
⚪Vivian: That’s so cool. I love that.
🔵Luke: Thank you.
⚪Alejandro: Yeah, I mean that’s such a great thing. I was wondering if like there is something specific that inspired it. Or did you just want to do general good?
🟢Calvin: It was Raina’s idea. She kind of regrets it too, but it’s an amazing idea.
🔴Raina: Thanks guys. No, we had some other ideas for what we call “fan activation activities” in certain cities that we’re just trying to like meet more of our fans in. And the other ideas that we came up, I felt like weren’t good enough. And the closer we got to the tour starting, obviously, the political climate is a little dicey and I recognized that SNAP benefits were being somewhat taken away and I thought it would be a really cool thing and easy and nice for all of us as a community, a Happy Fits community to show up for the cities we’re playing.
🟣Nico: And people are showing up and donating and like giving back.
🟢Calvin: Yeah.
🔵Luke: It’s really special. I think we’ve always since the beginning of the band, we’ve always like done fundraisers and drives too. We’re so lucky to be able to get to do what we do. And you know to have that, we’re so grateful. It’s because of our fans, who believe in us. It’s like the least we can do is try to help in ways where people aren’t as fortunate. It’s awesome that we even have the opportunity to do so.
🔴Raina: Yeah, it’s a great question.
⚪Vivian: What have been some of the past fundraisers that you guys have done?
🔵Luke: I think we’ve done cancer as well and a lot of the LGBTQ+. Some of our merch sales are going to that on this tour as well.
🟢Calvin: We did a lot of mental health things over the pandemic.
🔵Luke: A lot of mental health. You know, there’s some stuff that’s affected our personal lives too that like through that, it’s like, “Yeah, this needs more.” There’s some people that don’t get this opportunity, these outlets to do this and so, it just felt really important. It’s like the sign of the times. It’s like these moments we go through.
🟢Calvin: Yeah, people need this.
🔴Raina: Definitely.
⚪Vivian: I think that’s beautiful. It just sounds like you guys are amazing as people. You’re just very kind.
🔴Raina: I mean it tells more about our community than us.
⚪Vivian: I think it’s a mixture of both. Sorry, we’re taking up all y’all’s time before the show.
🔵Luke: This is the most time we’ve had in between like any time of a show.
⚪Vivian: Oh really?
🔵Luke: Yeah, so it’s great.
⚪Vivian: Wait, why is that? If you don’t mind me asking.
🔵Luke: It’s just the crew and the way that the tour is set up. We just are, like I said, I feel like we’re a good size. It’s great that we get the opportunity to sit and you know, talk to you guys and get to do stuff like that.
⚪Vivian: We really appreciate it.
🔵Luke: So don’t stress at all. We’re so happy to be here.
⚪Vivian: Yeah, y’all are incredible. You had like the best answers ever.
🟣Nico: Awwww. Oh, thank you.
⚪Vivian: This is my first time interviewing a band, so obviously if it’s a little… Y’all are giving us so much to work with.
🔵Luke: No, you’re doing great.
🟣Nico: You guys are great.
🔴Raina: You have to start from somewhere.
⚪Vivian: Exactly, yeah. And I think it’s so much fun. It’s so fun to go meet people and interview these people with incredible lives and different perspectives.
🟢Calvin: Don’t forget about us in ten years when you’re with Rolling Stone.
⚪Vivian: Oh my gosh. Don’t even say that. I could never.
🔴Raina: We really appreciate your thoughtful questions.
🔵Luke: You guys are great.
🟣Nico: And hook’em horns!
⚪Vivian: Thank you. We appreciate that. We love UT.
🟣Nico: It’s this, right? (does the hand gesture)
⚪Vivian: Yeah, no, you’re right. Hey, if you guys want to come on campus tomorrow…
🔵Luke: I don’t think we’ll have time.
🔴Raina: Unfortunately, we’re going to be in El Paso.
🟣Nico: One of our favorite pastimes is walking around college campuses on tour. I’m not even kidding.
🔵Luke: That’s so funny.
🔴Raina: I do it at home. I love it. I do it at home in Philly all the time.
⚪Alejandro: Do you think I could take a picture of you four real quick?
🔵Luke: Yeah, of course.
🔴Raina: A picture of all of us or just the four of us? We’d be happy to get one…
⚪Alejandro: Just the four, I guess.
🔴Raina: Okay, alright. We’ll stand.
🟣Nico: Should we stand up?
🔵Luke: We also could get Tom, you know, to take a picture. If you guys want a picture.
⚪Vivian: That would be good.
⚪Alejandro: I have a friend who introduced me to you guys. He’s going to be so jealous.
🔴Raina: Oh nice.
🟣Nico: Take a picture and send it to them. Make them jealous. Let’s go downstairs. Don’t forget your phone, whoever’s phone it is.