Spiritual, but not necessarily religious, is probably the best way to describe displaced Englishman and Haligonian songwriter Jont Openheart. His music has progressively been making the journey from the commercial (“Someone to Love Me”) to something more therapeutic. His latest release, “Thank You For My Happiness” is a straightforward exercise in gratitude and bootstrapping as Jont manifests an aura of positivity.
Deceptively simple in terms of songwriting, “Thank You For My Happiness” slips in many of the hallmarks of Jont’s music and then some. Amidst Jont’s carefree dancing can be a string quartet, a choir, and the even less common backing of electronic beats. Jont also notes there’s a sitar and harmonium hiding somewhere in all that like a sonic game of Where’s Waldo.
For all the enthusiasm the song seems to embody, “Thank You For My Happiness” comes from a place on uncertainty. Jont explains that the song was inspired by opening up to a lover about something he felt they would reject him for, but instead found acceptance and empathy. It’s the crash after coming down from a high, maybe even a little guilt tied in for good measure, and the attempt to reconcile in the aftermath.
“Even though this is one of the catchiest, most infectious ‘happy’ tunes I’ve ever recorded, the root of it comes from not feeling happy,” explains Jont. “I first came up with the mantra-like ‘thank you for my happiness’ refrain at the end of a hedonistic couple of nights at a festival in Nova Scotia (Chappychat). It was time to go home, and my energy was depleted and even though I had nothing to be unhappy about, I was feeling low. I sat in the corner of someone’s camping area and started chanting this phrase ‘thank you for my happiness’ over and over, imagining this golden light inside me. And I started feeling better.
“The full song came a little later and starts out from a point of real crisis, depression, when you are feeling like there is this thing that is at the heart of your being that you feel ashamed of, that will stop you from ever experiencing real love. You finally build up the courage to own it and honestly declare this hopelessness to your friend or lover, and when they don’t run away or reject you because of what you think is your weakness, but support you and say that ‘we’ll get through this together’ – a huge weight is released.
“‘Thank You For My Happiness’ is the sound and feeling of that weight of shame and hopelessness being released, and of the vision of a life without love being wiped away in an instant by solidarity, empathy, by love itself.”
So , once again, Jont is proving it’s fairly possible to dance your way back to happiness, but it helps to know you’ve got someone who will support you when you feel you’re going to fall.