Good Neighbours talk viral hit 'Home', playing Reading & Leeds Festival, and staying grounded • Interview • DIY Magazine

Viral fame can bring about its own unique set of challenges, but you’d be hard pressed to find two individuals handling the eye of the storm much better than Good Neighbours right now. “It’s like winning the lottery and then buying your first shitty car basically,” laughs Oli Fox from a sun-soaked London beer garden.

It’s the night after the band’s sold out headline at Shoreditch’s Village Underground, and the pair – completed by Scott Verrill – are all smiles as they discuss the moment their track ‘Home’ became the year’s first musical TikTok sensation back in January. Having since amassed an eye-watering 250 million streams within the space of a few months, Verrill describes it as “like a siren that went out around the world, and now we’re starting with some core fans who are eager enough to see what the next move is.”

It’s a humble attitude given you’ll struggle to complete a casual scroll on socials without hearing their serotonin-lifting anthem over travel videos or glorious summer montages at the moment. It’s not hard to see why it’s become a go-to choice either; with dancing keys and a catchy whistle segment, the ballad unlocks an effortless nostalgia for simpler times, drawing from late-noughties icons like Passion Pit, MGMT and Foster The People.

The track was born from a quiet writing retreat in Somerset. After uploading a chorus to the app, the pair soon found themselves needing to quickly finish the song to meet the immediate demand. “We uploaded that part and didn’t think any more of it,” recalls Fox. “Then we went to this breakfast and, by the time we came out, it had hit 50,000 views. From the walk back to the car it had tripled again.” As soon as the pair returned to London, they made a beeline for their studios and had a mix sent for mastering late in the evening.

“Now we feel like we deserve these big moments and we’re able to take it in our stride a little bit more.” — Scott Verrill

It wasn’t down to chance that the pair stumbled upon such a shamelessly feel-good sound, however. Having already worked collaboratively in their London studio as a writing and production partnership for other artists, the two musicians couldn’t help but notice a gap in the type of music people were making. “A lot of it was quite self-deprecating, ironic and sad,” explains Verrill. “We wanted to push for something joyous, big and reverb heavy.” Fox says it was all about cutting loose. “It was like, ‘OK, we’ve done our job for the day now, let’s be a bit naughty’.”

Though writing Good Neighbours songs has always been the pair’s outlet for creative fun, their follow-up single ‘Keep It Up’ was born from a difficult time in Fox’s personal life. “I was working at this boujee coffee shop around the corner from our studio, I honestly just didn’t give a shit about it and they realised it pretty swiftly,” he explains. Though there’s no shortage of work for budding baristas in the Big Smoke, it still felt like a do or die moment. “I was so down in the dumps because I needed it to make my rent. Scott was in the studio so I went around to chat. He had the chords running and I was just like, pass me the mic. I was singing at the top of my lungs and it was so liberating.”

He explains that a cocktail of emotional honesty and feel-good instrumentation set the blueprint for the whole project moving forward. “Scott’s productions are so bright and exuberant, it shines this different light on the matter. We’ve got this lovely rub or realness, but this huge expansive sound that lets everyone know it’s OK.”

Although, from the outside, it might seem like Good Neighbours have come out of nowhere, the pair explain they’d been toiling as solo artists for years before their pathways finally crossed. Verrill muses: “We spent so long in our previous musical lives working away, now we feel like we deserve these big moments and we’re able to take it in our stride a little bit more.”

With that in mind, it doesn’t necessarily feel like they’re short-circuiting the system in heading straight for the bigger stages. “I don’t think either of us were really loving playing alone,” Fox says, looking back. “We both grew up playing in bands. I personally fell out of love with it massively, I didn’t know what music I wanted to make so I just took a step back and became a songwriter just because it meant a bit more creative freedom.”

After the bulk of their workload became Zoom sessions with artists overseas, the duo suddenly realised they had this time to burn themselves. “The whole project was born out of this spare energy that was always sitting between us that we’d never used,” explains Verrill. But those hard yards of working together resulted in a natural chemistry. “Those couple of years were really helpful. We both dabble on all instruments so we just jump in and out of each other’s places and it’s really fluid.”

Given the project was born from a place of fun and freedom, the band plan on keeping it that way, even as the pressures from their fans and the industry begin to grow. “Ultimately we started this project for us as a writing exercise and that’s where all the joy came from,” says Fox. “I don’t think that spark should ever go; as long as we keep the blinkers on in the best way possible then the magic will continue.”

Having largely processed their overnight rise via screen-based metrics and numbers so far, now the pair are relishing the thought of a packed festival season including milestone performances at Reading and Leeds. “Just playing on an outdoor stage feels so right for the music,” says Verrill. Fox nods: “Everyone’s takeaway from the shows we’ve done is that it should be on a bigger stage. It’s heartening to hear that because we want to be that festival band that lifts everyone up.”

Taking stock of their whirlwind six months, the band are trying to take it one day at a time. “We had no plans for the band, we just had a bunch of songs that we loved,” says Fox. “We didn’t have any expectations so we do feel blindsided in the best way possible.” Verrill says they’re thankful to have each other through such a dizzying time: “You celebrate all of the wins together, it feels like the perfect chemistry. Nothing has been overthought, we’re just making it up as we go which is better for our heads not to jump too far ahead; we’re just letting it happen and setting our own benchmarks. Right now, everything is this beautiful happy accident that just keeps working. Let’s just hope that continues and then we’ll be two very happy boys.”

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