Just under a year ago, on the flight back from Primavera Festival in Barcelona, I had this sudden inspiration to make an EP built entirely around piano licks. The fact that I have no idea how to play the piano mean absolutely nothing to me, I just wanted to make one. And here we are.

This is my first solo work in almost three years, so it’s just nice to get something out. It’s quite a happy little record for a bunch of songs about break ups.

I Could Eat

Everybody Lied When They Told You They Loved You

Don't Worry No One Knows It Was You

ASCII pr0n

Secretly Waiting For You To Die

The idea for this hip hoppy release came to me three years ago. The approach seemed simple enough on paper: go through every status update I’d ever made from 2009 - 2013 (literally thousands), pick out my favourite ones (hundreds) categorise them under relevant topics (like sex, drugs, women, religion, advice, etc), whittle those collections down to 24 per each theme (meaning 8 updates per every 16 bars, three verses which gave me two bars to say a line and then set up the next one) and hey, there you go, lyrics! Obviously, it wasn’t that simple in the end because it took me three fucking years to finish.

But the outcome was definitely worth the wait, and as my second EP already this year, it’s a great testament as to how fertile my creativity tree has been of late.

TRIGGER WARNING THOUGH: Some of these lyrics may be deemed very offensive to sensitive ears. I’m sorry. Hopefully you can rationalise them on the humorous and artistic level they were always intended to be.

I Know How This Works Because I've Done It Before

You Make Too Much Noise When You Cum

Just One More Sleeps

Fear Of A Female Planet

You're All Up In My Everything

Interestingly enough, this was only the second song I wrote in Cubase ever, back in 2008, based massively on Aphex Twin and Massive Attack. My guilt also feels it necessary to point out that I completely stole the line “Jesus Was A Fucking Liar” from the song The Zimbabwean Sea Shanties Of The Swashbuckler by Mod Flanders Conspiracy. Sorry guys! Was too beautifully offensive not to use. 
Time has been good to this effort, as it stands as one my favourite Coming Down Happy songs to date, probably because this is where the fun and games end and Satan begins.
(side fact: Pinelands is where I grew up during the majority of my teenage youth)

Here's One For The Pinelanders

After writing songs since he was 5 years old and performing in bands since he was 9, Jared Woods (hatched and grown in Cape Town, South Africa), realised what was wrong. It was the simple essence of bands themselves: a collaborative collection of ideas which ultimately resulted in compromised visions and a cock-measuring competition of egos. It was with this epiphany that the protagonist figured out a new route to fully express his musical passion. Going solo. It was genius, as this approach ensured that the band would never have any reason to break-up, and that he and himself would hardly ever argue about direction. It’s the whole “if you want something done right...” cliche, all over again.

So after lengthy conversations in his mind on the cold cobbled streets outside London pubs (where Jared had since relocated to chase the dream), Coming Down Happy was born. But despite the fact that the seed was planted as early as 2008, it took over 4 years for our hero to stop picking his nose and smelling his own farts, eventually finding the strength needed to grant this project its final lift-off, in 2012. The reasons for this delay were many, and not exclusively a result of laziness. No, instead this hindrance was owed above all else, to the approach in which Jared had chosen to release said songs, by creating something much more elaborate than your average musical project.

Inspired by a recent lengthy heartbreak he had endured in 2009, the center of Coming Down Happy told the fictional tale of one rockstar named LegoTrip, who meets an evil girl that curses him with her poisonous vagina, causing him to fall deeply and irrationally in love with her. This story was not only communicated via the means of lyrics, but also with the aid of a comicesque-musical, each song supported by hundreds of cartoon images, carefully stitched together in video format, introducing a surreal world of characters and events. The whole concept was to be composed, sung, rapped, screamed, mixed, drawn, video-edited, and web-designed/developed by Jared Woods alone, and all of it available to the masses for free (with a planned comic book in the works, too). The project was so intricate, in fact, that the boy had convinced himself that when the original 4 part EP was released, he would surely be propelled into superstardom.

No such luck, as almost the opposite took place. Due to the careless practice of mentioning real people and situations by name, blurring the line between reality and fiction, the outlet encouraged a vicious backlash to ensue, resulting in hate mail from anonymous listeners as well as his own parents, and even some seriously violent threats to his well-being. But this didn’t bother Jared as much as the lack of fame did, and he fell into a deep depression for months following.

However, time has been good to the healing process, and the show must go on. And even in those dark days, Jared never once turned his back on the music, always letting the ideas stew, calculating his next move. A couple of even less successful singles later, and he was ready to continue the story he had started, following the turmoil of LegoTrip once again, observing the fight against misery in The Black EP sequel. This 4-track offering will be released song-by-song sporadically over 2013, in hopes that our cartoon friend may find some peace, and that Jared may find some fame.

But regardless of outcomes, one thing's for certain: this abrasive, sample-heavy, multi-media, genre-crossing musical approach (standing currently as a hybrid of hip-hop flows, metal screams, horrorcore contexts, dark electropop ideals, scat scoobi-doo-bahs, dubstep drops, trip-hop sleeps, house-music satires, post-punk deliveries, raggamuffin irieness, and drum 'n' bass breaks - to name a few) featuring perverted adults themes (subjects including genitalia, mensturation, ejaculation, devirginizing, Satanism, blasphemy, suicide, abortions and murder) which are unnecessarily offensive without losing a sense of humour and cartoon cheerfulness... will always be completely unsignable, unmarketable or indescribable. But, hey, at least it will give you something to do with your afternoon.

Coming Down Happy

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