What brings you happiness?
It seems like such a simple question but in 2026, happiness can seem harder than ever to find. That’s why on his third solo album, ‘Factoid Happiness’, Icelandic musician has made it his own personal mission to explore what it means to be happy in today’s disconnected, misinformed and algorithmic world. Ahead of the album’s release, CLASH caught up with Kaktus alongside his friend, collaborator and renowned musician, .
For Kaktus, the story of this project began at the end of the album cycle for his previous effort, 2024’s ‘Lobster Coda’. In his mind, music along with his family had always been the thing that had brought him joy. However, after returning from tour and getting back to family life in Iceland, he suddenly found himself having a bit of an existential crisis.
“I did a great album, had some amazing shows, but still I felt – did anything move? Does making music make me happy, or have I sold myself the idea that making music brings me happiness? Because I think it gives me also quite a lot of anxiety and stress!” Kaktus says candidly. “At the same time in the parenting role; so many people online in my algorithm are trying to teach me how to raise my kids, by putting out these facts which are obviously not facts, as these people are no specialists.”
It was this frustration under which ‘Factoid Happiness’ was born, with Kaktus set on creating an album that was bright and optimistic, but also confronts the systems that increasingly shape our emotional lives: social media algorithms and political polarisation.
“You have world leaders being able to talk to the whole world and blasting out ideas that are so untrue, and colouring people’s minds with it. It’s nothing new, but it’s on such a larger scale now. I live here on a small island and I can go, pick my kids up from school, and the only thing they must watch out for is a car or electric scooter. Then I come home, I turn on the news, and there’s all this horror that is happening in the world. But it’s almost like I can just go “click”, I don’t need that in my life… and its gone.”
“Because of that, it’s so easy for me to feel a little privilege shame. Should I participate in the social media anger that is happening there, or is it enough that I care? Or should I write something, should I say something?! I think this album in many ways is my act towards that. Instead of posting on social media, I tried to do something beautiful instead. And the message I want to get out from this album is the hope or belief that human connection will survive and we can live in a loving place.”
Despite mostly being isolated from the world’s horrors in his home country of Iceland, occasionally Kaktus does encounter influenced ignorance through visiting tourists. It was one such unpleasant interaction with a homophobic preacher in Reykjavík’s rainbow street that inspired the album’s lead single, ‘Follow’.
“I was walking home with my kids in the twin stroller, and I started to hear this woman. She looked at me and said: “You, as a straight person and a father – you know what I’m talking about!” And I’m like, what the f**k just happened? You know, it was correct – I am straight, and I am a father. But because I’m a father, I can’t be gay? Because I’m a straight person, I would understand what she was talking about? I couldn’t believe it. I basically walked up to her, turned the stroller around so that she would not see my kids and the kids would not see her, and I just told her very politely “You’re in the wrong place to be delivering this message. You’re a visitor here in my city, go away and don’t do it anywhere else.”
“She was livestreaming everything and started to point attention to the livestream that I was here harassing her. But what was so beautiful about this moment is that another young guy came along, he joined me and then another young man. Suddenly, we were these three dudes from Iceland, shutting this down. And that’s what I started to write about, it’s that everyone will follow and we can fight this silly s**t. But as I’m going to leave, I turned to her and said, “Just so you know, I’m an angel sent from God to test you – and you just failed.””
Following the incident, Kaktus received an outpouring of thanks from his friends in the queer community for taking the fight for them, something he couldn’t understand at the time as to him – and indeed most people – he was simply just doing the right thing. As he begun to write the story down in the form of a song, it was only then that he thought of his friend, John Grant.
The pair had originally met in 2015 at an art exhibition in Iceland (where John also lives), before Kaktus’ band were brought in to support John on tour in 2016. However, it wasn’t until the COVID years that the pair became close friends, sharing a studio space together and bonding over Icelandic profanity. Once Kaktus had the lyrics to ‘Follow’ nailed down, he reached out to John over an iced latte to discuss his involvement in the track.
“When I saw John read this lyric, it just clicked – I realised I’m not going to sing this song alone. I said to him: “John, you come from a very strict Catholic environment in the States… you fought this, you broke out of this, and that made you who you are today.” I asked him if he wanted to sing the song with me, he said yes and came to the studio without having ever heard the song, he had just read the lyrics. And he did this amazing job.”
“The thing is I had allies when I was young, but I just didn’t realize it. You know, it wasn’t even an option for me to admit that I was gay” shares John, commenting on how he felt after reading Kaktus’ words. “I thought I better definitely take advantage of this now at this early-late stage in my life. I just thought what a beautiful lyric it was, you know? It just really hit me hard, and I thought there’s no way I cannot take part in this. It felt really good to me, that’s all I can say.”
The pair then worked with director Nikulás Tumi at Reykjavik’s oldest theatre to bring the song to life through the music video, which sees Kaktus join John in putting on his trademark, flamboyant make-up. Kaktus reveals they had a short timeline of just 48 hours to come up with the idea, shoot the video before John had to leave for the States, edit it and sign it off ready for the clip to premier on YouTube the following Thursday.
“I wanted to step into John’s world” says Kaktus on the notion behind the ‘Follow’ music video. “And this is the magic of moviemaking; some stuff just happens and it’s way richer in concept than it was ever planned to be. We didn’t know what was waiting for us in the location. Nikulás, the director, he called me when I was on the way to the theatre and says: “Were you thinking about using this make-up room?” So, he deserves a lot of praise for figuring out all the shots and managing to do stuff that I hadn’t foreseen that we could do.”
Beyond ‘Follow’, collaboration is indeed at the heart of ‘Factoid Happiness’. On this project, Kaktus invited more people to be involved in the creative process – more vocalists as well as musicians. The result is an album that is richly textured and eclectic in nature, shifting frequently between indie-rock rhythms and disco-inspired grooves, to more ambient electronic textures, sophisticated pop moments and intimate ballads. Aside from his friend John Grant, the record also has contributions from the likes of English songwriter and classical French composer, .
“I think it’s something that happens as you mature and also maybe with the concept of the album” Kaktus explains on his cooperative approach to music-making. “To have more people involved and more dialogue. Because music is ultimately a dialogue between frequencies, time and instruments. But then it should also be a conversation between the people who make it too.”
So, with ‘Factoid Happiness’ set to finally be released this week, the big question is – did Kaktus and John find out the source to their own happiness?
“Usually it’s buying vinyl,” says John. “I have a tiny little stack next to me right here that I’ve been working on since I got to the States. But it’s really an expensive endeavour these days, I have to say!”
“I mean, of course, it is family and for me to be happy with the family” reveals Kaktus. “And I’m also competing as a middle- and long-distance runner. Running has really changed how I look at even the art of music. There’s a goal there that I can work towards by training hard enough so now, in music, I’m just doing the music without basically any goal, other than to create it as honestly as possible. I’m not following my social media numbers at all, and I think the running has made that possible for me. It’s taught me there’s a goal that I can achieve and it’s in my hands to achieve it. You know, we can’t control the streaming numbers – that’s obvious. So, I think it has made me happier with myself and my music.”
Factoid Happiness by Kaktus Einarrsson is out now featuring the single ‘Follow’ with John Grant. Kaktus will also play a special album launch show at Paper Dress Vintage in London on Wednesday 21st October.