The Sandbox: The Happy Accidents
By Lucy Kerr
Ahead of their gig at Sounds of Sandys this Saturday night, I was happy to get the chance to chat with The Happy Accidents. In our conversation, singer Daniel Lyons, drummer Joe Wang, guitarist Ian Glackin, and bassist Elisa Davis, made me laugh as we discussed the band’s history and musical influences. They also provided their insights into what makes the St Andrews music scene special, and what readers can hope to see at Sandys this weekend.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Hearing Aid (Lucy Kerr): My first question is pretty simple, but I was just curious how the band was formed?
Daniel Lyons: So us three [pointing to himself, Wang, and Glackin], we all met in [St. Regulus hall], right?
Ian Glackin: On the first day.
Lyons: At the wine and cheese night I met Ian. I met Joe across the stairwell while he was wearing an Avenged Sevenfold shirt.
Joe Wang: It was this one I'm wearing now. [Lifts Avenged Sevenfold sweatshirt to reveal Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt.]
Elisa Davis: I've been in the band for about a week. They had another bassist originally. But there was a message in the Signpost group chat saying they were looking for a bassist. And so now I'm here.
HA: Well, I feel like I can guess a little bit from the Avenged Sevenfold shirt, but I wanted to ask about the band’s musical influences. Are there any bands you guys would cite as particular inspiration for the music you play?
Wang: We do a big mix of different genres. I think with Elisa there's an even greater range of music now.
HA: Any specific bands that come up a lot in your set lists?
Lyons: With our early gigs last year and since then we've been focusing on a lot of covers of Green Day.
Glackin: We do two Rage Against the Machine songs. We like the hard and heavy rock and roll. We like to balance it with some alternative rock.
Davis: Very nineties.
Glackin: It's a lot of nineties stuff. We try to have some softer stuff too to try and balance out the mood. You know, you can’t head banging for an hour straight.
HA: I was hoping you guys could share what your experience has been so far with the St. Andrews music scene. I know you guys had quite a few performances last year. Is there anything you think is particularly unique or interesting about performing here?
Glackin: I think it's exciting just because I think a lot of people want to be a part of it. I don't think that's the case for lots of schools. And there's also opportunities, there's a lot of spaces to play. Like the rule is super easy. We started out just playing gigs there. And societies are always looking for bands for Wednesday nights, Friday nights and stuff for their socials. It just really feels like less emphasis on the DJ side of parties and more emphasis on live music as being music for parties here. I feel like that culture is kind of dying out and doesn't exist in some places anymore.
Lyons: The thing I like about St Andrews is that even though it's not the biggest music scene, it is a lot bigger than other places, but still a lot of people do sort of know each other within the scene. So you walk past someone who'll be the drummer for this other band. And you can be like, “oh, what's up?” We could have met at a random social and then now we’re talking about like gigs and stuff together. Especially in Signpost, you sort of get to know people just in general. So it's quite nice. There's a nice community around it as well, which is really lovely.
HA: You guys have already talked about this a little bit with your musical influences that appear on the set list, but is there anything you want to tease that readers should expect to see on Saturday at Sounds of Sandys?
Glackin: With our new band member, Elisa, we have some new influences, which is always exciting.
Davis: Yeah, I'm a big Bowie fan and I suggested we put ‘Rebel, Rebel’ on the set list. And we're really getting into it during practice and I think we're gonna do some audience interactive elements at the gig. Hopefully if everything goes well.
Glackin: We've never done a Smith’s song before in our set, so that will be new.
Lyons: Elisa introduced The Smiths to us as well.
Glackin: You have a very Morrissey voice.
Lyons: Do I? I don't know if I should say that as a compliment or an insult.
Glackin: Is that not a compliment? You don’t have a Morrissey personality.
HA: For the last question, I wanted to ask you guys if there's anything else that you want any readers to be on the lookout for from you guys this semester? Anything on the horizon or just where people can find any announcements from you guys?
Lyons: Yeah, well we have a band page on Instagram.
Glackin: We're trying to be a little bit more active on it. More than there is currently.
Davis: So we might have a few new things coming on there and some more content.
Glackin: We're going to try to do our part to get people to come out for gigs.
HA: Can people still expect to see you at The Rule and other spots around town?
Glackin: Definitely. We’ve got more gigs later this semester, I think in November. And we're always trying to find more stuff to do.
Lyons: We’ll play loads more new songs, a lot of new material coming out. Especially lots of stuff we didn't play last year. A lot more lighter songs.
Wang: Yeah you should expect to see us around more, absolutely.