Looking for the Happy
Looking for the Happy is written and produced by Peter Gabriel.
This is the Bright-Side Mix by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent. “I've always found it so much easier to write sad songs than happy ones and I thought, right, I'm going to challenge myself here.
I wanted to base it on a groove that made dancing irresistible, it felt like it was unleashing some joy. Although this is about the search for happiness, it had to have a chorus feeling like a celebration.
“If you can find what in today, in the now, is making you happy and what you're grateful for, I think it's a much better ride - a better vehicle to travel in - and as I get older, I'm trying to do a little less bitching.
“In the song I'm talking about trying to communicate with animals or connecting with nature, or sitting under the old oak tree with a cup of tea and appreciating that.
The simple things - opening up to what's good, while we're busy complaining about what's bad.
“Trying to get a handle on where you fit in life, that's part of what I write about a lot. Also getting comfortable with two contradictory ideas simultaneously has been part of growing old – like being a part of everything and a part of nothing.”