The Happiness Project

Concept

The project began with casual interviews Spearin conducted with people in his neighbourhood about happiness. After each interview, he listened for moments where meaning and melody intersected—the thoughts expressed and the sing-song cadence of the voice. Spearin noted that people normally do not pay attention to the movement of lips and tongue or the rising and falling of voices during conversation, only noticing these qualities in song. He wanted to blur the line between speaking and singing, between life and art, by writing music based on these accidental melodies. Musician friends played the neighbourhood melodies on instruments such as the tenor saxophone, harp, and violin, and Spearin arranged them as songs.