Kevin Bronson on February 10th, 2016

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Two and a half years on from the release of their sophomore album “Amethyst,” L.A. indie-rockers Happy Hollows find a truly happy place on their new single “Way Home.” It’s a song about the anxiety of being away from home and then returning to big changes, its skeleton having been penned by singer-guitarist Sarah Negahdari during the time she spent on the road as Silversun Pickups’ touring bassist. A starburst of pulsing, vintage synths and Negahdari’s typically lightning licks, “Way Home” is a heart-pounder that finds Happy Hollows stretching out into more complex sonic territory.

The band — Negahdari along with Charlie Mahoney (bass, synths), Matthew Fry (guitar) and Dan Marcellus (drums) — made the song with producer Lewis Pesacov (Best Coast, et al), and its web of electronics proved a challenge. “We wrote the music to the song organically, and then made a demo,” Mahoney explains. “There were four or five synth tracks in the end, so we were worried we couldn’t play it live in the studio and that we’d have to do it as a series of overdubs. To get around that, we created MIDI tracks for all the synth parts, dumped those into Ableton, and then sent the MIDI back out to all the synths simultaneously when we recorded. That way, we could play all the tracks to the song live. There are no overdubs on the song. It was all played in one single take — including the vocals.” The single will be released Feb. 23.

||| Stream: “Way Home”