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Where Happü began
The piece later called Billy the Delivery Man appears in the recollections as both Song One and Happü Song One. It was the second recording, but the first one that was published, on 12 March 2023. Henry and Paul are cousins.
At the time, Paul and Henry were also playing with Jazz Fiction, where they learned songs and improvised with Petter Palmgren on saxophone and Hannes Bogatir Söderblom on piano. But this was a move in another direction: louder, heavier, and more open-ended.
The impulse can be traced back to an SMS Paul sent Henry on 13 January 2023. In an English translation of that message, Paul suggested making metal songs together, describing something more atmospheric, like Sunn O))) but with more structure, because fast playing was not his strength. Henry responded by mentioning stoner/sludge. Those references were about musical possibilities, not an attempt to imitate another group.
The speakers, a small Xenyx 1202 mixer and the Neutron were moved from Petter Palmgren’s house, where they played with Jazz Fiction, into Paul’s parents’ outbuilding on Finngatan in Delsbo. The Neutron is a hardware synth, and part of its charm is that it never seemed fully under control. It often felt as if it had a life of its own: sometimes it clicked into something unexpectedly right, sometimes it just clicked. Henry used a tube amp, and they played so loud that things started falling off the benches.
The room was narrow, crowded and difficult to fit into, with the drums placed in the middle. Nothing was planned. The session was recorded on a small Zoom H4n with microphones on the drums, and the rest was allowed to become whatever it became.
They simply pressed record and started. More than eighteen minutes later, they had something neither of them had ever made before.
One of the first Happü sessions, and the session where the music that became Billy the Delivery Man was recorded. The room was cramped and chaotic. Henry stood at the far end with the guitar, while the KeyStep and the Neutron hardware synth were placed on the bed behind the drums so Paul could turn around and reach them while playing. The red drum kit is the one Paul bought from Tomas Haake, who told Paul he had used it on recordings.
Later, after publication, while working on a difficult application for his day job, Paul kept returning to the recording. He listened to it over and over because the noise had something strangely meditative about it. Over the course of those eighteen minutes, ideas appeared, were explored, died away and were replaced by new ones.
This was also around the time when the name Happü appeared. The music did not sound happy at all, which made the name feel right. The logo came into being in connection with the upload to YouTube.
About two years after the first release, Paul changed the title to Billy the Delivery Man, borrowing a phrase his friend Kristin had said in Sydney: “Billy the Delivery Man just arrived”.
Publishing turned out to be part of the artistic process itself. Once something is published, it cannot simply be recorded and forgotten. It has to be faced.
The first person to hear the published piece was Anders Frank, Paul’s and Henry’s uncle. He found it artistically interesting, which gave Paul an important boost.
It was the second recording—but the first release.
H-13a English working version: Expanded from Paul’s recollections for editorial review; this is not a finalized translation of a historical English source.
The recording date is Paul’s firsthand attribution, cross-referenced with the photograph dated 8 March 2023, 19:56. The photograph’s time is not the time the musical performance began. Henry’s identification and the account of the room and equipment come from Paul.
The 13 January 2023 SMS is presented as an English translation/paraphrase. Its original wording remains private. Paul has stated that Henry approved publication of the conversation.
The recording date is Paul’s firsthand attribution, cross-referenced with the photograph dated 8 March 2023, 19:56. The photograph’s time is not the time the musical performance began. Henry’s identification and the account of the room and equipment come from Paul.
The 13 January 2023 SMS is presented as an English translation/paraphrase. Its original wording remains private. Paul has stated that Henry approved publication of the conversation.