better joy Tickets

“I like that the better joy sound’s evolving; it’s what we do as people, so it’s only natural the sound grows with me” says Bria Keely, better known by her stage name - better joy. A vivid indie-pop guitar project backed by a band, better joy fuses sparky melodies with strong guitars and pulsating bass lines, coated in lyrics that delve deep into all things vulnerable. Her second EP, ‘at dusk’, a sister EP to her debut ‘heading into blue’, reflects a moment in her life “where I just stopped trying to please anyone or caring whether the music I wrote ‘fit’ a mold. It’s not on anyone else to define what better joy is: it’s on me”. 

Originally a singer-songwriter, Bria’s route into the indie guitar scene wasn’t conventional: ‘I’m not one of those musicians who grew up on The Cure or played in guitar bands when I was a teenager: I was listening to pop and that’s about it!’. A piano player and singer from a young age, it wasn’t until uni when she sang at the piano after a night out that her friends encouraged her to consider music as a career and she started writing her own music. “I was pretty bad at first, but I just kept at it. And now songwriting is something I can’t live without: for me, it’s therapy”. It was during this period that she started to fall in love with guitar bands, from Wunderhorse and Phoebe Bridgers to 80s guitar bands like The Cure and Mazzy Star, influences that have impacted the sonic development of better joy. 

With her music described by BBC Radio 6 Music’s Chris Hawkins as bright, indie pop, better joy burst on the scene in 2024 with a string of singles and successful support tours; the start of 2025 saw a sell out of vinyls of her debut EP ‘heading into blue’ and a near sold out 10 city UK and EU debut headline tour in March 2025, ending 2025 as the opening support for Bastille in Manchester in November and main support for Amy Macdonald in November (UK tour) and February (EU) 2026. “I still can’t get my head round it, to be honest. I was playing to a Glasgow audience of 100 people in March and in December it’s to over 13,000 at the Hydro Arena: it’s a bit bonkers”.