Happily Almond is back from hiatus. The quartet consists of Harriton juniors Charlie Åkerblom, Spencer Cohen, Tristan Fogt and Benji Hoog. With their first show of the year coming Saturday June 7th, the band sat down for a brief interview about what they are doing, how they got here, and where they are going next.

Harriton Banner: What is the story behind Happily Almond, the name and the band itself?

Tristan Fogt: Alright, so the story behind the name is as follows. We were trying to come up with a legitimate name for a while. Everything we came up with we would Google next to the name “band” to see if it was taken, and just about anything is taken. Spencer kept on insisting on variations of almond; I think one of the suggestions was Menacing Almond. He was having an almond thing. To my understanding, we just pacified [him] and gave [him] almond and said, “you know what, let’s just throw an adverb in there.” The first one we got was happily.

Benji Hoog: This is news to me ‘cause I joined the band later, so I just found that out for the first time. That’s awesome. I just kind of accepted the name.

TF: Oh, and the story behind us. We all ran cross-country and we were like, “We all play instruments. Let’s make a band.”

HB: So who does what?

BH: Drummer.

Charlie Åkerblom: [To Tristan] Singer. [To himself] Guitar. [To Spencer] Keyboard.

TF: [To Spencer] Bass, vocals. [To Himself] Keys, vocals. [To Charlie] Guitar. [To Benji] Drums.

HB: What do you consider your “target audience”?

TF: Us.

BH: EDM listeners.

Spencer Cohen: Kids around the neighborhood. Kids trying to get a new culture.

CA: Michael Lipson for sure.

HB: Do you have any pre-performance rituals?

TF: Kind of freak out?

BH: These two [Tristan and Spencer] say, “We don’t want to play this show.” We [Charlie and myself] get mad.

TF: That’s the ritual.

SC: And Sunkist.

BH: That’s totally honest.

CA: That’s usually what happens. “Guys, you kinda not want to play this show?” And we freak out. We flip.

SC: And then we end up being convinced.

HB: What musical icon do you identify with most as a band?

SC and CA: Kanye West.

BH: Calvin Harris and Inside the Velvet.

CA: And Kanye West. And Jules Stone and the Safari Queen.

SC: Pitbull. Both the breed of dog and the artist.

HB: Rumor has it one of your songs is about someone specific. Care to elaborate?

BH: The answer is “no.” That implies that there is a song so we need to fix that up. No and no.

TF: That might be a reference to Sun and Stars in which case yeah, that’s Elena.

SC: No, the song isn’t Elena. Then [Tristan would] be dating a song.

BH: The song is not in 6/4, it’s in Elena.

HB: What would you say is your deepest song?

SC: I think the lowest is in drop A.

TF: Spencer can hit a B1. Charlie can get a D flat and C in the morning. I can maybe get a D in the morning and an F consistently.

SC: Those are our low notes, yeah. Those are our deepest notes.

HB: Is there anything you would want to change about Happily Almond?

SC: A basic audience would be nice. Maybe some donations, I don’t know.

TF: We have a fan, remember? That guy we opened for was like, “You guys were really tight. I was looking forward to a next show.” We have a fan.

HB: If you had complete say, what would be the next step?

TF: The systematic genocide of all turtles.

CA: Make all sloths ripped. All sloths should be jacked as hell.

TF: They do P90X ‘cause they’re xylophobic but they live in the forest, so what are they going to do?

There you have it: Happily Almond from the members themselves. Interested? Stop by the New Leaf Café Saturday June 7th at 7:30 P.M.