The Happiness Project, by Charles Spearin

The Happiness Project

by Charles Spearin

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peg dunnem Saw a few of these tracks live a few months ago in Toronto...just blew me away, especially Vanessa. Favorite track: Vanessa.

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1.	Mrs. Morris 01:26	buy track
2.	Anna 02:50	buy track
3.	Vittoria 03:14	buy track
4.	Vanessa 07:51	buy track
5.	Marisa 03:58	buy track
6.	Ondine 02:30	buy track
7.	Mr. Gowrie 07:04	buy track
8.	Mrs. Morris (reprise) 02:56	buy track

about

These are my neighbours. My wife and I have two little kids and live in a multi-cultural neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. In the hot summer months all the kids in the neighbourhood play outside together and everyone is out on their porch enjoying each other's company, telling stories and sharing thoughts. A year or so ago I began inviting some of them over to the house for a casual interview vaguely centered around the subject of happiness. In some cases we never broached the subject directly but none-the-less my friends began to call it my "Happiness Project".

After each interview I would listen back to the recording for moments that were interesting in both meaning and melody. By meaning I mean the thoughts expressed, by melody I mean the cadence and inflection that give the voice a sing-song quality. It has always been interesting to me how we use sounds to convey concepts. Normally, we don't pay any attention to the movement of our lips and tounge, and the rising and falling of our voices as we toss our thoughts back and forth to each other. We just talk and listen. The only time we pay attention to these qualities is in song. (Just as when we read we don't pay attention to the curl and swing of the letters as though they were little drawings.)

Meaning seems to be our hunger but we should still try to taste our food. I wanted to see if I could blur the line between speaking and singing - life and art? - and write music based on these accidental melodies. So I had some musician friends play, as close as they could, these neighbourhood melodies on different instruments (Mrs. Morris on the tenor saxophone, Marisa on the harp, my daughter Ondine on the violin, etc.) and then I arranged them as though they were songs.

All of the melodies on this album are the melodies of every day life.

- Charles Spearin, founding member of Broken Social Scene and Do Make Say Think

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released February 10, 2009

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about

Charles Spearin Toronto, Ontario

Charles Spearin is a Canadian musician from Toronto, Ontario. He is a founding member of Do Make Say Think, KC Accidental and Broken Social Scene and also contributes to Valley of the Giants. Spearin composes and performs in a broad range of musical genres. ... more

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