Happiness

“Are you looking for happiness?
Are you looking for something better?
Do you ever feel emptiness?
Are you scared it’s gonna last forever?
Don’t give it away, don’t give it away.

I don’t want your happiness,
I don’t need your happiness,
So never show me happiness,
I don’t want your happiness.

Everybody needs sanctuary,
Everybody needs hope and fear,
But not everybody needs a preacher,
So don’t tell me what you want me to hear.
And don’t give it away, don’t give it all away.

I don’t want your happiness,
I don’t need your happiness,
So never show me happiness,
I don’t want your happiness.

I don’t want your happiness,
I don’t need your happiness,
So never show me happiness.
I hope you find happiness.

We don’t need your cheap salvation,
We don’t want your sympathy.
We don’t need your cheap salvation
Over and over again.

We don’t need your cheap salvation,
We don’t want your sympathy.
Don’t need your cheap salvation,
Happiness.

I don’t want your happiness,
I don’t need your happiness,
So never show me happiness,
I don’t want your happiness.

I don’t want your happiness,
I don’t need your happiness,
So never show me happiness.
I hope you find happiness.”

[ Happiness – Hurts ]

Sarcasm. Black humour. Ill-concealed bitterness. Indifference. Emotional self-sufficiency. A bit of resentment. Self-consolation. Silenced hope. This wonderful song by Hurts portrays anything but what it says in the title. The relationship between the lyrics and the title is pretty much an oxymoron, and this was so intriguing that I wanted to do something about it.
And then BriarRose asked me if I wanted to take part in a project of hers featuring indifferent-looking people with skull make up. I gladly accepted, as it would be a new challenge for me as a model, and we included the idea in our upcoming meeting. Then, when listening to the song, I immediately found a connection between the two things and the idea stuck: a photo of a skull-me hooded in a black veil looking indifferently over my shoulder with Happiness as a title would create the same kind of oxymoron the Hurts song created. Thus, joining BriarRose’s and my ideas, we came up with this photo, which I truly love. It’s most definitely what I wanted for this song.
I’d like to remark that the shooting, postproduction, hair and, in particular, make up is all Briar Rose’s, so all praise goes to her.