For Armon Jay’s third and latest solo effort, aptly titled The Dark Side of Happiness, the burgeoning auteur took matters into his own hands, writing, recording, arranging, engineering and producing every song, and playing virtually every instrument at his home studio in Franklin, TN.

On his new album, Armon has turned his crisis of faith – all that anxiety, frustration, neuroses, self-doubt and compulsive behavior – into art, yet another step on his ongoing artistic journey. The Dark Side of Happiness isn’t just personal, but intimately so, a quiet record with subtle dynamics, but emotionally intense, almost as if we’re privy to Armon’s conversations with his conscience.

“Some days, Depression is real life for me, and other days it isn’t. Most days, are somewhere in the middle, which can be the strangest. This album explores the dark sides of those days.”

Armon spent nearly 14 hours a day for two months recording the album, barely getting any sleep. “As heavy lyrically as the album is, it was the most fun I’ve ever had making music,” he insists.

“I woke up every day with a feeling of purpose which felt right. It felt good.”

Working with mixer Zach Hanson from Justin Vernon’s April Base studio outside of Eau Claire, WI, where Bon Iver albums are made, proved to play a major role in how it turned out after Armon recorded “in the box,” using UAD interface and plugins. “I credit Zach with bringing that analog warmth to the album,” says Armon, adding kudos for Jeremy Larson, who recorded and arranged the strings for three tracks (“Lighthouse,” “Break the Habit” and the title song) and Abby Gundersen, responsible for the violins on “Stay Grounded.” Armon reserves special praise for L.A.-based engineer Gavin Lurssen, who has now mastered all three of Jay’s albums, this time using entirely analog gear.  “I was so fortunate to be in the studio when he mastered the album,” Armon recalls. “It was such a special moment for me, almost surreal to hear it so up close. In the end, the challenges that came with producing my own record, and succeeding at it, helped me make some peace with the subject of the album.”

“Taking that solo approach worked out well, too, though it didn’t come without challenges.”

Armon recalls “all the days of fighting with sounds coming from my house, like the air conditioning unit right outside my studio, or even kitchen noises while recording guitars in the adjacent living room. Or the late nights where I was so far down a rabbit hole with just one vocal harmony that I couldn’t see straight or staring at my computer until I was dizzy and nauseous. There were times when I wondered just what I had gotten myself into.”

Indeed, songs like the title track, “Half Life” “Break the Habit” and “All the Same” tackle his periodic bouts of depression with unflinching honesty. The minimalist music, much of it piano-based, with strings and other effects was inspired by such unlikely influences as Brian Eno and John Prine (“He has a way of igniting a sense of urgency in me to make a record”).  Armon’s other musical touchstones include such avant-garde musicians as Icelandic producer Olafur Arnolds, known for mixing strings and piano with loops and beats; Spotify-spawned ambient/chill composer LUCHS; West German post-minimalist/film scorer and “Sleep” composer Max Richter and German musician Nils Frahm.