After emerging five years ago under the moniker Sweet Joseph, Daryl Johns is returning next month under his own name with his first full-length collection of songs. The self-titled album drafts off the cool Betamax-era nostalgia of his 2019 hypnagogic-pop single “Corner Store” while leaning into his more recent work within the jazz scene recording with Pedro Martins and touring with Immanuel Wilkins. And naturally, coming off a stint in Mac DeMarco’s live band, as well as releasing Daryl Johns through Mac’s record label (namely Mac’s Record Label), the latest single is about the simple profundity of pizza and hot dogs.
Clocking in at under three minutes, “Happy” is a head-empty jam in a very different way from Pharrell’s decade-old earworm (derogatory)—instead, the title encapsulates the primal sense of joy that hits when the Domino’s Tracker hits the final bar, with the breezy instrumental tune effectively translating that joy to beach-ready lo-fi bliss. “‘Happy’ celebrates very simple things that are at the same time very important to keep a person alive,” shares filmmaker Salvador Cresta, who created a video for the track which very much expresses what Johns seems to be all about. “The sun. To be barefoot in the sand. The food. And above all, the music. Daryl has this written on his skin: ‘I Love Jazz.’ There are no HD paradise landscapes in bikini, just a group of good friends throwing a ball on the beach. No abundant banquets, either—just pizza and hot dogs. A succession of simple and ordinary good times...those kinds of moments that can go unnoticed, but after a long time they end up becoming our best memories.”
Make some memories with the clip below, and pre-order Daryl Johns here before the record arrives November 22.
