Felix about ‘Happy Hour’: “I had the idea of the title ‘Happy Hour’ for years, just lying as a note on my iPhone. I liked the concept because I didn't really feel like anyone had done it before, but I was always worried it would come across a bit cheesy. We had a breakthrough in the session when we started thinking of juxtaposing ‘Happy Hour’ with darker lyrics. I always liked opposing things like that, something like how ‘Stuck In The Middle with You’ plays during Reservoir Dogs while he cuts off a guy's ear. It’s kind of all fell together once we figured out how to attack it, and I kind of dub it my ‘uplifting loser anthem’. In that sense it felt sort of pop, but sort of unconventional, and to have Kiiara feature on it was unreal because I felt that her pop music has that same unpredictable quality. I remixed her song Feels back when it dropped because I got that same juxtaposed feeling when I first heard it. Full circle.”
He continues about the songwriting process: “The idea and lyrics for this song were created during a writing session in Norway with Hanne Mjøen and Jim Bergsted. I think my time in Scandinavia was really beneficial to my song writing process because they have this effortless approach to pop writing. I'm not sure if their music education is better, if it's the history of great Scandinavian pop acts, or if it's because they have nothing to do in the winter because there's only 3 hours of daylight a day, but you can feel it when you're there. That being said, I felt that pop sensibility fully existed without any of the pressures to 'write a hit.' Sometimes I find that to be the case when I write in the USA, so to step into an opposite environment was welcomed with open arms. The second thing that resonated with me was Norway has this slight 'younger sibling' relationship to Sweden, and I found that to be hugely relatable to how I feel the connection between being Canadian feels to America. It immediately felt like a second home.”
Kiiara says: “Felix and I have been meaning to work together on an original song of our own for years. I’ve always been a fan of his work. He’s incredibly talented. I remember him sending me a remix of my song ‘Feels’ a few years back and I was blown away. I’m really excited about our new song ‘Happy Hour’ it’s a melodramatic emo anthem lol both our specialty”
