better joy

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      "details": "“I like that the better joy sound’s evolving; it’s what we do as people, so it’s only natural the sound grows with me” says Bria Keely, better known by her stage name - better joy. A vivid indie-pop guitar project backed by a band, better joy fuses sparky melodies with strong guitars and pulsating bass lines, coated in lyrics that delve deep into all things vulnerable. The upcoming EP ‘at dusk’, a sister EP to her debut ‘heading into blue’, reflects a moment in her life “where I just stopped trying to please anyone or caring whether the music I wrote ‘fit’ a mold. It’s not on anyone else to define what better joy is: it’s on me”. \n\nOriginally a singer-songwriter, Bria’s route into the indie guitar scene wasn’t conventional: ‘I’m not one of those musicians who grew up on The Cure or played in guitar bands when I was a teenager: I was listening to pop and that’s about it!’. A piano player and singer from a young age, it wasn’t until uni when she sang at the piano after a night out that her friends encouraged her to consider music as a career and she started writing her own music. “I was pretty bad at first, but I just kept at it. And now songwriting is something I can’t live without: for me, it’s therapy”. It was during this period that she started to fall in love with guitar bands, from Wunderhorse and Phoebe Bridgers to 80s guitar bands like The Cure and Mazzy Star, influences that have impacted the sonic development of better joy. \n\nWith her music described by BBC Radio 6 as bright, indie pop, better joy burst on the scene in 2024 with a string of singles and successful support tours; the start of 2025 saw a sell out of vinyls of her debut EP ‘heading into blue’ and a near sold out 10 city UK and EU debut headline tour in March 2025. And 2025 isn’t slowing down: she’s the main UK & EU support for Amy Macdonald in November and February 2026. “I still can’t get my head round it, to be honest. I was playing to a Glasgow audience of 100 people in March and in December I’ll be playing to over 13,000 at the Hydro Arena: it’s a bit bonkers”.\n\nProduced by Mike Hedges (The Cure, Manic Street Preachers, U2), mixed by Caesar Edmunds (Wet Leg, Beach House) and Robbie Nelson (Rolling Stones, Gregory Porter, Beck) and recorded at Chale Abbey Studios on the Isle of Wight, the 6-track EP, ‘at dusk’ is the antidote to the previously sunny introduction to better joy, ‘heading into blue’. Where naivety and openness shone through before, ‘at dusk’ is more contemplative and vulnerable. “It’s so normal to go headfirst into something, whether it be a relationship or a situation, with positivity and excitement, then for reality to leave you a bit jaded and changed” she explains. Whilst the bright and jangly guitars still shine through, it’s lyrics like ‘I never showed you the heavy metal in my bones’ and ‘watch me push against the clouds’ that clearly mark the tonal shift. But in true better joy fashion, the whole EP is uplifting and whilst it acts as a bookend to the debut EP, it leaves the listener hopeful for what music is coming next; the EP is “closing a chapter of my life where insecurity and self-doubt dominated my everyday experience. It’s me accepting the vulnerability that I felt and kind of promising that I’m gonna back myself from now on”. \n\n‘At dusk’ dances the indie-pop line with authenticity and joy, mixing dark and light tones and sounds, with a big injection of nostalgia. The first single, ‘this part of town’ is about embracing the unknown of relationships and acknowledging the fear that comes with vulnerability: “Eurgh, I hate being vulnerable, it’s really not my bag, but then I realised it’s such a universal feeling and sometimes you just have to accept it comes with being in unknown territory”. ‘steamroller’ is a dark and haunting anthem for anyone who has ever been trampled on by a ‘steamroller’. Bria recalls holding it back from her live set until her team encouraged her to try it, and the first time she did, she burst into tears - something that still happens now. ‘plugged in’ is a love song, for those people who go through their life believing they’re not made for love, until they meet their person and ‘i’m there’ is a thank you to the person who waited for you to come home to them. ‘big thief’ is about taking back your power, before the EP finishes with the beautiful ‘so long’, a goodbye to something that could have been.",
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