Kaktus Einarsson announce album Kaktus ‘Factoid Happiness,’ out September 18th via One Little Independent Records
In a world saturated with misinformation and manufactured ideals of fulfilment, ‘Factoid Happiness’ asks a deceptively simple question; what is it that makes us happy? The third album from Icelandic stalwart Kaktus Einarsson is out on September 18th via One Little Independent Records, and seeks its answers in community, equality, and the quiet resilience of family.
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Across ten tracks, Kaktus interrogates the systems that increasingly shape our emotional lives; algorithms, social media, and political polarisation. It explores how modern life dilutes attention, erodes certainty, and turns even our happiness into a commodification. “The title Factoid Happiness actually came first,” he tells us. “The word ‘happiness’ had been sitting in my notebook for a long time, before most of the lyrics were written. A lot of the album grew out of that idea, questioning what happiness even is, and where we’re being told to find it. We’re constantly being sold things as ‘truths’; feelings, knowledge, lifestyles. Algorithms decide what we see, what we believe, even what we think will make us happy. But a lot of that is unproven. It’s a factoid. Something that feels true but isn’t necessarily real.”
“it’s not always negative,” he continues. “Love is also a factoid. I can’t prove my partner loves me. I choose to trust it. But the same mechanism can also derail us, especially now that we consume fragments of mass media constantly, out of context, and mistake them for truth.”
Kaktus goes on to say that the album’s propulsive opener, ‘Borrowed Dreams,’ is “about identity, about belonging, and how we mirror ourselves in others. That’s always existed but the scale is completely different now. We used to have role models on TV we’d never meet. Now we carry thousands of virtual humans in our pockets, available 24/7, and the comparison has become overwhelming. At the same time, we’re never alone. We’re always in the company of someone through a screen, yet loneliness is increasing.”
‘Glycerine’ is juxtaposingly upbeat and alive with optimism, about love developing over time.
“It’s about the bliss and momentum of love, from the first spark of a crush into something deeper. Part of it was inspired by a holiday in Portugal, sailing down the Douro River at sunset with my partner and my family. It was one of those rare moments where time feels suspended. The lyric referencing ‘longest day’ comes from Iceland’s 24-hour daylight. The sun barely sets. That became a way of talking about feelings stretching, deepening, and ageing alongside you. There’s also a rap verse, which was not planned. I’d lined up a feature that fell through, so I demoed it myself. When we heard it back, it felt too honest to remove. It might be my shy moment on the album, but it had to stay.”
