LA-via-Singapore artist Linying shares her effervescent new single “Happiness,” the final preview of her new EP House Mouse, out now via Nettwerk; listen to House Mouse HERE.
The track arrives with a Michelle Mei-directed video filmed with a spirit of playful spontaneity on an island in the Philippines, which premiered earlier at NYLON alongside a Q&A. “
Happiness” is a sonic burst of pure euphoria, rushing forward on pulse-quickening rhythms as Linying channels the thrill of post-breakup freedom. “I used to feel all endings with one-dimensional grief, but this one had complexity—there was pain and liberation but also fear; there was the thrill of new desire, so messy and lighthearted at the same time.
And then there was the peace of knowing it was all going to be okay,” she explains. “It was blissful and instinctive, and the song kind of wrote itself.”
Of the video, she says to NYLON: “We traveled through Siargao over 10 days with Michelle’s expensive camera and my toy camcorder, filming whatever we wanted, and only when we felt like it.
We surfed, we shared meals with new friends, we bathed in rock pools and painted our faces with clay pebbles and devoured coconut after coconut (in all imaginable forms).
I’d scramble into an outfit and full makeup once we saw that the light was good, and we’d shoot without a plan, looping the song over and over but never getting sick of it.
I also think we gave a pair of fruit sellers on the street what was possibly their highest grossing day on record…My biceps were sore the next day from lugging bags and bags of watermelon and papaya. It was wonderful. I couldn’t forget it even if I tried, but I’m so glad we have this to remember it by.
“Happiness” follows the EP’s previous singles “Porcupine” and “Take Me to Your House,” which earned support from Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar, Ones to Watch (playlist), Northern Transmissions, Best Song Ever Podcast, and more.
Linying’s debut album There Could Be Wreckage Here—a 2022 release made with musicians like former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla—earned fantastic press from NPR Music, NME, Bitch Media, and others.
On House Mouse, Linying follows her intuition toward a kaleidoscopic form of dream-pop that’s bursting with radiant imagination and heavenly melodies. It’s proof of the wild magic that comes from letting go and leaning into your most unfettered impulses.
Mainly co-produced with Jon Graber, the EP was recorded at a Los Angeles studio that Linying describes as “a haunted mansion full of every instrument you could ever imagine.”
As they experimented with unusual instruments like the EBow and erhu and tack piano, the duo also worked with musicians like Jordan Blackmon (former live guitarist for Toro y Moi) and constructed an elaborate sonic world around Linying’s up-close examination of her inner life and all its complexity.
