According to Stabilo's current Virgin Music bio, it was back in high school that the band's founding members, Jesse Dryfhout and Christopher John, first “bonded over their love of Dave Matthews' guitar skills”. At the risk of sounding ignorant, I have to admit that I never even knew Dave Matthews had guitar skills. “Oh yeah,” stresses Dryfhout from his home in T.O., “he's always written really difficult parts to play, using a lot of fingerpicking and awkward modes. I just found that learning his songs really taught me how to play guitar.”

Matthews may not be as widely revered in six-string circles as Jimi Hendrix or Jeff Beck, but studying his challenging approach to guitar seems to have paid off for the former classmates at Surrey's Fraser Valley Christian High School. Between the two of them, the Stabilo mainmen wrote and sang the 13 tracks on Happiness & Disaster, which is currently sitting at No. 35 after 10 weeks on the Georgia Straight Top 50 album chart. The group's hook-filled pop drew the attention of Toronto-based manager Ray Danniels, best known for guiding the prosperous career of Canadian prog-rock kings Rush.

“His story was that he was just drivin' up to Kelowna one day, and his son put the record on,” explains Dryfhout. “He always thought we were an American band, and when he found out we weren't bein' managed I got a phone call from him, and the rest is history.”

Along with Danniels's music-biz cred, the radio-friendly sound of Happiness & Disaster bodes well for the success of Stabilo, which includes bassist Karl Williaume and drummer Nathan Wylie, music teachers both. The CD was produced by Brad Wood, whose credits include Liz Phair, Tortoise, and Sunny Day Real Estate. “He's amazing at getting guitar sounds,” raves Dryfhout, “and at keeping everything focused. He's great at really worrying about what we needed to worry about in terms of sound and parts and just the overall production. We don't have any complaints there.”

Back in 2002, when the group was known as Stabilo Boss””after the brand of highlighter pen its members used to jot down potential band names””Vancouver's now-defunct XFM started playing “Everybody”, a sing-along song off the band's self-titled indie release. It became the station's most-requested tune for a month and helped the group sell 5,000 copies of the CD.

“Everybody” has been tacked on to the end of Happiness & Disaster, but you only need to hear the disc's opener, “Don't Look in Their Eyes”, for a prime example of the band's catchiness. What sets that bouncy number apart is its pointed lyrical content. “Stick around I've got a hunch/We'll just bomb this town and then stop for lunch” croons composer Dryfhout cheerily. “Never mind those awful cries/You know it's not as real if you don't look in their eyes”. The song conjures the ongoing horrors of the war in Iraq, yet the tragic message is set to a decidedly sunny, upbeat vibe.

“If you listen to the lyrics on a lot of our tracks there's some darker stuff in there,” notes Dryfhout, “but then it's counterbalanced by a more positive tone. And that song is definitely meant to be reflective of all that crap that's going down.”

Stabilo plays as part of a Canada Day celebration at Surrey's Millennium Park on Saturday (July 1).