GOOD KID – AN INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST DAVID WOOD

GOOD KID – AN INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST DAVID WOOD

By Ralph Beauchamp

Rick Fleck photos

David Wood is one of the guitarists of the glorious Canadian indie band, Good boy. Our correspondent, Rick Fleck, recently reviewed their live performance at the Sinclair in Cambridge, MA (see related below). In addition to wood, Good boy It consists of Jacob Tsafatinos (Guitar), Nick Frosst (Lead Vocals), Jon Kereliuk (Drums) and Michael Kozakov (Bass). The band just dropped the titles of their latest EP Good boy 4 to rave reviews from critics and fans alike. Their sound is a combination of upbeat beats and explosive indie textures. However, some of their enjoyable grooves hide deeper themes of social inadequacies.

Good boy 4 opens with the aptly titled track “Bubbly” featuring glowing guitar riffs and an intense atmosphere. 'From the Start' continues the vibrant soundscape. The rich backbeat with hints of jazz flavor is full of divine spice. “Summer”, “Break” and “Premier Inn” are all seductive with cheeky undertones. “Dance Class” is truly awe-inspiring. His cinematic elements are groove laden and rich. Good boy 4 it's truly a testament to his songwriting and musicianship Good boy.

David Wood was kind enough to spend some time with AMP during their extensive and sold out US tour.

AMP: Can you give us a little history of the band?

DAVID: We met around 2014 at university. Our first single, “Nomu”, was released in 2015. We really didn't expect much from it. It was to release music for our family and close friends. The song was then leaked on a Reddit board called “Listen To This” which was pretty cool. The board released new music that could be uploaded. “Nomu” had a ton of downloads and the video we posted had over 10,000 views overnight. We were totally surprised. We couldn't understand how this could happen.

From there, someone at Spotify added it to a playlist that had a few hundred thousand subscribers. This was our first foray into the realm of making real music, even though at the time we were still just a bunch of friends digging music together. This led to the next few years where we started writing more songs. We dropped our first EP in 2018 which did really well.

We dropped our second EP in 2020. That's when things really started to take off. Surprisingly, even though the pandemic had hit, we saw an increase in our listener base. What helped is the fact that a YouTube algorithm picked up our first two EPs. In our wildest dreams, we couldn't have predicted that he would get to where he has.

AMP: How would you describe your music?

DAVID: Fast paced indie rock. Good music with high energy. But beneath that poppy and happy music lies a variety of layers. Sometimes there are very sad lyrics. We express issues such as anxiety and terror. These issues are masked by our intense rhythms.

AMP: Your new EP, good boy 4, recently released. How was the reception?

DAVID: It was really incredible. It caught us off guard. We got out Good boy 4 a few weeks ago and we already have fans singing all the words during our current US tour. It was an amazing experience. Also, it's amazing how easily we've incorporated the new songs into our live. I'm proud of how well our set design and immersive visual effects work so strongly with the collaborative artwork associated with the new EP. Shout out to our friend Xierra (Xray.Alpha.Charlie) who is an awesome YouTube animator. We were able to incorporate many of her visuals that she created for us into our live show.

AMP: What is “Nomu Kid”?

DAVID: “Nomu Kid” is our little one. We felt that our first single that I mentioned earlier, “Nomu” needed artwork. So we went to a high school friend of Jacob's and mine, Gabriel Altrows, who is a great artist in Toronto. He created this character for us and what we noticed was that people listening to our music were also inspired by our mascot 'Nomu Kid'. Suddenly, other artists and fans started sending us their renditions of “Nomu Kid”. It inspired us to roll with it and embrace their creativity. We love the idea that our music encourages our fans.

From there, we started to open up our own world of other characters. There is “Nomu Kid” and a scarecrow named “Cornelius”. Suddenly, other figures kept appearing in our singles artwork. There is a monkey, “Mimi”, who has her own story. “Mimi” has her own animated video that Xierra recreated for our track, “Mimi's Delivery Service”. The whole concept came from “Nomu Kid”.

AMP: Your music seems to have earned star status in the gaming community. How did this happen?

DAVID: We are pretty smart when it comes to computers. Since we are all programmers, we play a lot of video games. We watch a lot of Twitch and competitive Starcraft. So what we quickly realized is that professional streamers were posting their highlights on YouTube with specific soundtracks to enhance the experience. People started asking if they could use our songs. We decided as a band to remove the content identifier from our tunes and DMCA them for Twitch and eventually the same for YouTube.

Therefore, players could essentially use our music without our approval. By making our music more accessible to stream, we've found it to be a great tool to get our music out there. It has led to some good friendships with professional players. We have met a few at our shows. We probably could have made a little more cash if we hadn't taken down the DMCA, but it led to some great gaming partnerships.

AMP: Who are the inspirations of the band?

DAVID: Our influences are widespread and we all have different musical tastes. Some of the bands joining us are Bloc Party, The Strokes, Two Door Cinema Club and Fall Out Boy. There are several newer bands that we enjoy together. We toured with Phoneboy out of New York. They are an amazing team. We got to play or meet a lot of the bands we admire. Another band we love is Last Dinosaur out of Australia. They are a really catchy indie band that consistently puts out good music.

AMP: What do you want your listeners to feel when they listen to your music?

DAVID: For me, I want our listeners to feel heard and seen. We try to tell stories with our songs. For example, “Bubbly” is a tune I wrote about my problems with social anxiety. I know many of our fans have similar experiences, so I want them to know we hear them. Hopefully the lyrics of our songs are able to tell people that we all go through things. We want our followers to have a symbiotic relationship with our music. Many people have come up to us after our concerts expressing how our music has helped them cope in today's social landscape. It's important that we all connect to feel better.

AMP: If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?

DAVID: Current bands, Last Dinosaur. As I mentioned before, it's a great group of musicians. They have the same ethos as us in incorporating fun guitar riffs. We're actually trying to be more like them (laughs). As for the past, it would have to be David Bowie. It would be amazing to work with him. Just hanging out in the same room would be a thrill.

AMP: What's next for Good Kid?

DAVID: We have Lollapalooza coming up this summer which will be our first festival. Totally excited to be a part of this. In the autumn, we are touring the UK and Europe. Between these two milestone events, there will be more writing. We are always looking towards the next project. Hopefully we can be productive and carve out some amazing tunes. We want to continue our musical development.

AMP: Any last words for your fans?

DAVID: Keep being you. Please keep trying to connect with us. We love all your artwork and creativity. We read all your messages and are happy about the impact our music has on our fans. Additionally, A BIG THANK YOU!

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