{"id":104083,"date":"2020-09-30T19:52:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T00:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=104083"},"modified":"2020-10-03T10:11:38","modified_gmt":"2020-10-03T15:11:38","slug":"local-musician-qa-matthew-hendley-and-jacob-christianson-of-happy-landing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/local-musician-qa-matthew-hendley-and-jacob-christianson-of-happy-landing\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Musician Q&A: Matthew Hendley and Jacob Christensen of Happy Landing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matthew Hendley<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Matthew Hendley of Happy Landing, photograph by Brian Barisa.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Which famous musicians do you admire? Why?<\/strong>
The first thing I learned on piano that I actually enjoyed played was Billy Joel. I ended up playing “She\u2019s Got A Way\u201d in the 8th grade talent show and that was the first time I ever played music in front of around 2,000 students and teachers. Recently I have gotten into folk and indie music. My inspirations have been The Lumineers, The Head and the Heart, Vance Joy,
Mumford and Sons, and more. I definitely have taken my own writing style I have developed but they have influenced by writing style a little bit with the different imagery they portray in their songs and their style\u2014I definitely try to emulate that in some of my own songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown:<\/strong> Madison, Mississippi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you perform in public? Describe those occasions? Concerts, radio, TV?<\/strong>
We are going to try to do a series of really small shows following COVID guidelines in the next few months to promote the release of our music. It is a hard time to get into the music scene, but it is a good time to work out the kinks. The small shows will be a good way to play together to become even better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favorite Quote:<\/strong>
\u201cLife is entrusted to man as a treasure which must not be squandered, as a talent which must be used well.\u201d \u2013Pope John Paul II<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your fondest musical memories growing up?<\/strong>
Growing up, I spent every Fourth of July going to my grandparent\u2019s land that my grandfather named \u201cHappy Landing.\u201d My cousins and I got together and formed a band called \u201cC.U.T.E\u201d (Cousins Unite to Entertain). We just started playing every Fourth of July together, and we put on a concert for our family. Those are some amazing memories. My cousins and my brother and I will share them forever, which is why I wanted to name the band after Happy Landing because it is such a special place for me. And my grandpa just passed away right before the songs came out so it is kind of a great tribute to have the EP come out right after he passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacob Christensen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Jacob Christensen of Happy Landing, photograph by Brian Barisa.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a favorite Happy Landing Song?<\/strong>
“Love and Death.” Lyrically it is his best writing and personally I am pretty satisfied with how drums turned out. Dynamics and lyrics (most well rounded).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which famous musicians do you admire and why?<\/strong>
From a drum inspiration standpoint, my favorite band as of right now is Hippocampus. The drummer specifically is incredible and the stuff he comes up with is \u201cepitome of having a gift.\u201d I admire him in that sense.
Also, Young the Giant. I have listened to them since middle school. They would have to be my overarching favorite band. MuteMath is a really good band that a lot of people don\u2019t know about. Their drummer, Darron King, is a beast and an amazing performer. There is a new Nashville punk band named Vanosdale. Their drummer is exceptional and one day I want to be on his level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown:<\/strong>
Fort Mill, South Carolina (small suburb of Charlotte) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your fondest musical memories?<\/strong>
My earliest memory of playing drums in a band was with this kid that lived up the street from me who played guitar. We would move the drum set into my garage and we would just make a bunch of nonsensical musical noise. As a ten year old, it made me feel like the teenager that was playing in a garage band or like something out of a movie. Another one of my favorite musical memories is from last year with my old band Vulpes \/ Vulpes. A girl that goes to Delta State DM\u2019d us on Instagram and asked if we wanted to play for a Halloween party. That was a lot of fun and one of my favorite musical experiences so far. Playing music in front of a crowd with your friends is something that gives me the most passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where would you like to see yourself in five years?<\/strong>
Being optimistic, I would love to be on tour, either signed to a label or not signed to a label. I feel like our music has the quality and interest to attract a record deal. It would be cool to do that and get more exposure and notoriety with our music, but if not I would still love to be touring the country and playing music with two LPs released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew Hendley Which famous musicians do you admire? Why?The first thing I learned on piano that I actually<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":104097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7887],"tags":[17076,17075,17074],"class_list":["post-104083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-music","tag-happy-landing","tag-jacob-christianson","tag-matthew-hendley"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/2020-9-30-Happy-Landing.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}