Good Neighbours’ “Dwelling” has been one of many largest viral success tales of 2024 to this point. Right here’s how the duo made it occur.
Basis
Earlier than they have been Good Neighbours, Scott Verrill and Oli Fox have been literal neighbors in an East London studio house final yr, intrigued by one another’s solo work bleeding by means of the steel home windows. “We may consistently hear what every of us was taking part in,” Fox recollects, “and on a spare morning, we did a little bit of free writing collectively.”
These periods hinged on shared influences — Verrill and Fox each draw from late-2000s indie–pop mainstays like MGMT and Ardour Pit — and “Hold It Up,” one of many first songs the duo wrote along with its booming drums and yelped vocal hooks, fashioned a mission assertion of types whereas the pair labored by means of demos in late 2023.
Discovery
In January, Good Neighbours recorded the oversize refrain of “Dwelling,” a bleeding-heart, whistle-packed anthem, and determined to drift the chorus on TikTok with out ending the remainder of the track. “It began out fairly rapidly — just a few thousand performs — and we acquired excited and mentioned, ‘If it hits 25,000, we’ll get a pint!’ ” Fox says.
Inside just a few hours, the “Dwelling” clip had crossed the 1 million mark, and main labels have been reaching out to the duo’s supervisor, Joe Etchells of Varied Artists, who signed the act in September 2023. “Dwelling” was rapidly fleshed out to a full track, debuted on the Billboard Sizzling 100 in February and has earned 77 million streams by means of April 25, in line with Luminate. As an alternative of grabbing that celebratory drink, Verrill and Fox acquired their worlds upended: “We’re consistently one another and going, ‘That is insane,’ ” Fox says.
Future
Final week, Good Neighbours introduced a worldwide three way partnership with Capitol Information and Polydor Information. And after lining up headlining exhibits in the UK and Europe for the spring and competition gigs for the summer season, Good Neighbours launched “Hold It Up” in April as their second single and are ending extra materials to be launched later this yr.
“We wrote a bunch of recent demos in January, and we’ve acquired like 10 from final yr — a few of that are in all probability higher than ‘Dwelling,’ which is very nice,” Fox says. Nonetheless, after recording individually for years earlier than becoming a member of forces, Verrill and Fox perceive how uncommon a breakthrough like “Dwelling” may be within the trendy music trade. “The entire thing has been such a contented accident,” Verrill says. “We’re nonetheless making an attempt to course of it.”
This story initially appeared within the Could 11, 2024, situation of Billboard.
