I still remember the first time I heard Have a Nice Life. It wasn’t through a playlist or a recommendation, it was at Supersonic in Paris. The DJ played the song “Guggenheim Wax Museum” before the headliner took the stage, and within seconds, I was fascinated. It felt like being punched in the stomach by something ancient, gothic, and weirdly sacred. That track didn’t just sound dark, it sounded haunted.
How had I missed this band? Turns out, I wasn’t alone. Have a Nice Life has spent most of its existence under the radar: no marketing push, almost no interviews, just a myth slowly taking shape through word of mouth and a handful of intense live shows.
And somehow, “The Unnatural World”, their 2014 album, completely passed me by. Which feels like a failure. It’s the record I now play obsessively, though diehard fans will tell you “Deathconsciousness” (2008) is the real masterpiece. They’re probably right. But that doesn’t stop “The Unnatural World” from being mine.
Eventually, bits of their lives started to surface. Dan and Tim, two normal guys, family men. One’s even a high school teacher. Imagine being a teenager and realizing your teacher is behind one of the most emotionally crushing records of the 21st century. Do they know? Do they feel it?
For years, the band operated like a ghost, limited shows, just raw, overwhelming music that you either stumbled across or didn’t. It created a strange intimacy, almost like being in a secret club with no membership card.
That changed recently. Their current tour has pulled them into the light, and the reception has been massive. As The Guardian put it in their review of this year’s Outbreak Festival, the band’s set has been the best performance of the festival, especially when fans sang “Bloodhail” back at them with the passion of football supporters at Wembley. That image is perfect: sacred melancholy turned communal catharsis.
And here’s the thing: they’re not just good on record. Live, they’re transcendent. Guggenheim Wax Museum hits just as hard in a crowd as it did in that first night in Paris during the DJ set.
Three albums, nearly 26 years of existence, multiple lives on two continents, and a slow rise that defies every music industry logic. Have a Nice Life didn’t chase fame, but it might just be catching up to them anyway.
