Have a Nice Life is an American rock band founded in Middletown,

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

in 2000 by Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga. The duo is best known for their 2008 debut album '' Deathconsciousness'', which received little attention from professional music publications upon release but rose to "

cult classic A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...

" status through its spread among online communities. Have a Nice Life began regularly performing with a full band in 2017, and their third album, '' Sea of Worry,'' was their first release to feature members of the live band.

History

Have a Nice Life was formed in 2000 by Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga of

. The band's earliest demos contained sounds similar to new wave music and the gothic rock band

The Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band formed in Leeds in 1980. After achieving early underground fame, the band experienced a commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s, sustaining their success until the early 1990s, when they halted th ...

. At first, both Barrett and Macuga played the acoustic guitar, self-distributing their home recordings on

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

. The band recorded their debut album '' Deathconsciousness'' on a budget of less than $1000, losing the original master files for the recordings in the process. It initially did not receive much recognition upon its 2008 release but gained traction through discussions on online communities and

word of mouth Word of mouth is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others a ...

. The band have since developed a cult audience as a result of ''Deathconsciousness''' online popularity. The band followed up with the

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

'' Time of Land'', released as a free

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

in 2010. On January 27, 2014, Have a Nice Life released their second studio album '' The Unnatural World''. According to

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the album has received generally favorable reviews. In 2017, Have a Nice Life performed alongside

the Chameleons The Chameleons are an English rock band formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in 1981. The band's classic line-up consisted of bassist and vocalist Mark Burgess (now known as Vox), guitarists Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding, and drummer Jo ...

at the Strange Day Festival in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...

. Barrett and Macuga recruited Myke Cameron, Ian Gustafson, and Rich Otero to join their live ensemble for the performance. The group performed multiple warm-up shows in advance of the festival and ended the year with a sold out performance at Brooklyn Bazaar in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The band performed two sets at the 2019 edition of the Dutch festival Roadburn including a performance of ''Deathconsciousness'' in full. On November 8, 2019, Have a Nice Life released their third studio album '' Sea of Worry'', their first album to feature a full band. Have a Nice Life performed a surprise secret set at the 2023 edition of the

Roadburn Festival The Roadburn Festival is an annual music festival held each April in Tilburg, Netherlands. It was founded by Walter Hoeijmakers and Jurgen van den Brand in 1999, who ran a stoner rock blog of the same name. The festival has been held at Tilburg ...

on the day before the ensemble was scheduled to perform as Giles Corey. Have a Nice Life also performed at Sick New World in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

on April 27, 2024. Have a Nice Life released a cover of Low's song "When I Go Deaf" in April 2024 in tribute of Mimi Parker. The song appeared on The Flenser's Low tribute album '' Your Voice Is Not Enough''. In October 2024, Have a Nice Life was featured on the song "Car Wreck" by the band Bear Hands. Barrett was bandmates with Bear Hands bassist Val Loper in the band In Pieces before Have a Nice Life. Outside of music, Barrett runs a real estate marketing agency and Macuga is a high school English/History teacher.

Influences

Have a Nice Life have mentioned the likes of My Bloody Valentine,

Joy Division Joy Division were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Ian Curtis, guitarist and keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris (musici ...

, New Order,

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

Sunn O))) Sunn O))) (pronounced "sun") is an American drone metal band formed in 1998 in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. The band is known for its distinctive visual style and slow, heavy sound, which blends diverse genres including doom metal, ...

, Xasthur, Lurker of Chalice,

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

, Swans,

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

, and the philosophy of

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

as influences on their music. Barrett said that the duo takes inspiration from

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

, Magic: The Gathering and the 2000 novel '' House of Leaves''.

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Deathconsciousness'' (2008) * '' The Unnatural World'' (2014) * '' Sea of Worry'' (2019)

Compilation album

* ''Voids'' (2009)

Extended play

* ''Time of Land'' (2010)

Demos

* ''Have a Nice Life vs. You'' (2002) * ''Demos 06'' (2006) * ''Powers of Ten'' (2006)

Singles

* "The Big Gloom" (2006), released promotionally as a free download on the band's

account. * "Bloodhail" (2008), released promotionally as a free download on the band's Myspace account. * "I Don't Love" (2008), released promotionally as a free download on the band's Myspace account. * "Sisyphus (Demo)" (2023) * "When I Go Deaf" (2024)

Live album

* ''Live at The Stone NYC'' (2010)

References

External links

"Have A Nice Life"
Enemies List Home Recordings. Retrieved February 25, 2013. {{Authority control 2000 establishments in Connecticut 21st-century American musicians American ambient music groups American post-punk music groups American post-rock groups Musical groups established in 2000 American shoegaze musical groups