London four-piece Tough Cookie have returned with ‘Happiness’, a cathartic follow-up to their debut ‘Emory’, accompanied by a tour-diary style video capturing their high-energy live presence. The single is out now via Gravity Records.
Where ‘Emory’ traced the jittery early stages of romance, ‘Happiness’ digs far deeper. Frontperson August describes it as “about a deeply personal experience of addiction and the pursuit of happiness and how they are woven together.” That uneasy tension seeps into the track’s DNA: bright, tangled guitars give way to crunching distortion, switching moods with little warning, as if chasing a fleeting high that never quite lands.
There’s a restless quality to Tough Cookie’s sound, somewhere between slacker rock and post-grunge, drawing on Pavement’s ragged looseness, the rawer end of Smashing Pumpkins, and the wired clarity of early 2000s New York indie. Yet it never feels derivative. Their songs, like their shows, carry a sense of personal urgency, grounded in August’s experience and delivered with defiance.
‘Happiness’ arrives on the back of a strong start. Their debut was quickly picked up by BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 1, with coverage from Clash, The Line of Best Fit and DIY. A string of chaotic live shows at venues like MOTH Club and Sebright Arms have already earned them a loyal following. They recently sold out back-to-back headline gigs at Third Man Records’ Blue Basement and are set to appear at The Great Escape in Brighton next month.
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- August
- Emory
- Gravity Records
- Great Escape Festival
- Happiness
- Indie Rock
- London Bands
- New Music 2025
- Slacker Rock
- Tough Cookie
