On March 16th, Happy Tank will release their debut 11-track record titled U-F-uhO that is said to be a blend of singer/songwriter, alt-rock with post punk, jazz and hip hop sensibilities. The project was started by former Sublime horn-player Todd Forman along with his former 3rd Alley collaborator, Zack Walters.
Zack and Todd have been writing and collaborating on material for a number of years which is what eventually lead to Zack contacting Todd to initiate Happy Tank. Todd explains, “One day, Zack came to me with more focus in his eyes and said, ‘Dude, let’s get our shit together and do a legit new project with these songs we’ve got!” After Todd agreed, they spent the last year putting the record together.
The first official song that Happy Tank released was “Alien You Should Know” back in 2014. The song will be included on U-F-uhO when it lands on March 16th.
The album features guest appearances by Adrian Young of No Doubt on drums, Mike De La Torre of Zen Robbi and Matt Brein on bass, Kevin Miso on backups and beats by Kris Nature Boy Jackson of The Fiction collaborating over ten originals and one cover song, “Chim Chim,” from Mary Poppins. When asked why that song, Zack said, “I’m a huge fan of the antithesis and this song to me has always kind of haunted me with that, its a guy signing these lies to himself in a gleeful kinda way, which is tragically beautiful. We put a new twist on it though, guess it kind of goes along with my songwriting style, happy sounding music with dark lyrics.”
The live band consists of Zack on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Todd on keys, baritone sax and back-up vocals. Adrian Young on drums along with his wunderkind son, Mason Young, on guitar. Also on guitar is Alex Vo and versatile 6-string and upright bassist James Kee — Happy Tank will celebrate it’s album release at Harvelle’s in Long Beach, CA on March 30th at 8PM.
Happy Tank – U-F-uhO Track-list:
1.) Martian Year
2.) Weird Week
3.) Fantasyland
4.) Crutch
5.) Bring Me Down
6.) Hongos
7.) Alien You Should Know
8.) Marbles
9.) Strange Brew
10.) Enabler
11.) Chim Chim (Mary Poppins Cover)
Related Links:
Happy Tank Facebook
Happy Tank iTunes
Article By: Mike Patti
Watch: Happy Tank – “Fantasyland”
