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Bridges frames the record as a deliberate shift toward movement. “For me, happiness is not a feeling that you chase,” he said. “I want this album to be something that lingers with people and lingers in people’s bones.” That desire to reconnect with the physical side of performance - putting the guitar down and dancing at the front of the stage - shaped the sessions from the start.
The collaboration came together quickly. After crossing paths at festivals, Bridges, Lloyd-Watson, and Kitto booked four days in a Los Angeles studio in April 2025. They set themselves a single rule: “We aren’t leaving until we have a full track at the end of the day,” Lloyd-Watson said. By the final afternoon they had six completed songs, half the finished LP. The spontaneous approach was intentional. “First thought is the best thought,” Lloyd-Watson explained. “That’s where the emotion is. Anything after that becomes intellectualised, and that’s not really where music excels.”
That instinct-led method carries through the whole record. Kitto pointed to Bridges’ own priorities: “Leon said he wants to have music that he can dance to. He wants to have moments where he can put the guitar down and just dance and perform at the front.” Pino Palladino and drummer Eric Harland were brought in for “Take My Hand”, laying down their parts in a single take. “We said, ‘One take, go,’” Lloyd-Watson recalled. “That’s how music used to be made.”
Across the LP, Bridges’ voice remains the anchor, but the production pushes his sound into warmer, looser territory. Happiness Anytime commits to letting the rhythm lead. Bridges will present the songs live with an expanded stage production - vinyl DJ, horn section, three backing vocalists - that nods to Jamaican dance hall’s communal spirit and puts him back out front, dancing.
Tonight, Bridges plays the second of two last-minute pop-up shows at London’s Jazz Café, crowd-testing the new material.
Happiness Anytime artwork
English (US) · 