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Headliners

Goodboys: The Story So Far

The rise of British house music duo Joshua Grimmett and Ethan Shore from bedroom producers to Grammy nominated chart toppers has been a meteoric one to say the very least. Headliner recently caught up with the boys following the release of their latest dance anthem on Atlantic Records, Black & Blue, to reflect on what has been a whirlwind of a musical journey so far.

There’s something instantly likeable about Grimmett and Shore AKA Goodboys when they join Headliner on a Zoom call from their studio located in the depths of London’s Soho.

Catapulted from being two best friends making music for fun to one of the most sought-after producer/songwriting acts in the world, Goodboys burst onto the scene in 2019 with their debut feature Piece of Your Heart – written with Meduza – which has now amassed billions of streams. Their follow up Lose Control was met with similar praise, achieving platinum and gold sales internationally. Both tracks share an irresistible blend of infectious hooks and melodies; two massive earworms for every dance music fan, created by two dance music fans.

“We’ve been locked in the studio just creating, creating, creating,” replies Grimmett when asked about the pair’s activity of late. “Our rise was very different to most – as an artist project we hadn’t been working together for five years and then had a hit. Our first song became massive, which made it slightly difficult after that to work out what we actually sound like. We’ve almost had to rewind a bit and do things the other way around, which is what we’ve been doing these last two years during the pandemic.”

“It allowed us to pause for a second and really try and carve out a new sound and a new direction for Goodboys, and figure out who we want to be,” adds Shore. “Obviously things have been tough, but we’re trying to look at it like a blessing in disguise.”

THE PANDEMIC ALLOWED US TO PAUSE FOR A SECOND AND REALLY TRY AND CARVE OUT A NEW SOUND AND A NEW DIRECTION.

Goodboys’ music is instantly recognisable from the signature pitched down vocal that usually comes in big on the chorus. Provided by Grimmett, it’s this vocal and its combination with insanely catchy melodies that have seen the duo go on to write songs for a number of other huge dance acts.

“In the studio, we normally start with an idea or concept, then we write the song and the production comes afterwards,” he says. “It’s slightly different for more clubby stuff, but we generally feel like a song should be able to stand up on its own, just over piano.”

“Over lockdown, there was way more collaboration for every DJ, because people realised how easy it was to just jump on a Zoom or send beats back and forth,” Shore adds. “I think one thing we’ve really started to let go of is feeling like we need to do it all ourselves, and we’re big fans of other DJs, so we like to reach out to people who A, we’re fans of, and B, can do one thing really well. We’re huge fans of people like Vintage Culture and Imanbek, and opening up the collaboration window to work on projects together is just amazing. It’s always a fun muscle to flex in the creative process.”

Black & Blue

Chunky basslines and that instantly recognizable vocal hook make a return on Black & Blue, Goodboys’ first single of 2022 which was released in January via Atlantic Records. Headliner learns that the track came together rather seamlessly…

“We were actually on a writing camp for Galantis, and had to deliver a particular song one evening at 6pm,” recalls Grimmett. “It got to 5.10 and we’d already done the song, so we agreed that we’d try to blast out another idea for ourselves. We pretty much did the whole thing there and then; 80 percent of what you’re hearing on the final version was done in that 45 minutes. It’s the original vocal and we never re-recorded it, except for adding in the middle eight – it was just one of those magic moments in the studio where everything comes together. It was the right idea at the right time and we had amazing people in the studio with us on that day.”

“The verse and pre are quite serious, but the energy that we had in the room, you can feel in the chorus, because it has that kind of R’n’B melodic structure to it,” adds Shore. “We were just willing to let the hook speak for itself and not overthink things.”

Grimmett mentions that they recently received a plaque marking a combined five billion streams for both Piece of Your Heart and Lose Control, and admits that this truly was a mind-blowing moment for the pair. It was arguably their ability to bring the unique Goodboys sound into the mainstream that resonated so powerfully with listeners, as Shore describes:

“It was really exciting to be a part of because that sound already existed, but it was much more underground. A lot of these sub genres were already around, but I think that for whatever reason, those tracks caught everyone’s ear in a real popular culture kind of way, where they quickly reached the radio and then dancefloors. It’s shining a light on a category of dance music that didn’t necessarily get much attention, but now you see it everywhere, which is amazing.”

Piece of Your Heart was Grammy nominated in 2019 for Best Dance Recording, however it was the follow up, Lose Control, that really made the duo start to believe in their ability.

“When your first song is that big, it’s always in the back of your mind like, are we actually even good at this? Was this a fluke?” reflects Grimmett. “After Piece of Your Heart, we probably wrote in excess of 30 or 40 songs before we got to Lose Control. We were in a studio every day for months on end with Meduza and every writer you can imagine. When that song did just as well, it was like a breath of fresh air because it gave us the confidence that we could do this again.”

“It’s hard to do a follow up in any category of music,” adds Shore. “And I think to swerve the one hit wonder bullet is very difficult, so that was definitely one of the highlights for us so far.”

When it comes to the live aspect of their craft, the bookings are now starting to come across the desk. Goodboys’ explosive DJ sets are in high demand worldwide, but in Grimmett’s words, “we want to hold it tightly and loosely just to manage expectations.

“There’s a couple of big festivals in Europe that we’ll be hitting, and we’re around two thirds of the way to getting a US visa as well, so that will obviously open up a whole new world to us, which has been a long time in the making with COVID.”

And while it surely won’t be long before Goodboys grace the stages of North America’s biggest festivals, the duo already have a bunch of releases planned for this year on specialist music labels with more club-oriented music.

“That is one of our big shifts for next season – getting back to what we love,” adds Shore. “We’ve been away for a little while, but we’ve stayed above water, and I think now we’ve got a nice backlog of music, it’s just a matter of firing it out.

“On Atlantic, we’re going to be releasing some more tracks like Black & Blue and some more poppy, commercial stuff. So this is the year of lots of music from Goodboys!”

You can listen to the full interview with Goodboys on Headliner Radio here: