When Australian electronic singer, songwriter and producer Alison Wonderland talks about her single "Happy Place," she does so with her eyes down, one slender finger tracing circular shapes on the table top. It's a song about triumph over darkness, and it's very rewarding in its final product, but it didn't come from its namesake.
"I was actually in the dark," she says. "When you've got depression, you don't really have any insight into what you wanna do, so you don't wanna leave your room. I was feeling like that. It's hard to even remember what's good about yourself when you feel that way, and I was just desperate to see some kind of light."
"Happy Place" purposely plays on the wild ups and downs of mental illness. It opens with airy strings and grounding chimes as Wonderland sings about her struggles to remain in sunny spaces. Tensions grows as the build leads to a jungle gym of clashing noise, landing in one of Wonderland's wildest creations to date.