GOOD KID – A FASCINATING INTERVIEW WITH GUITARIST DAVID WOOD

By Ralph Beauchamp

Photos Rick Fleck

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

Good Kid 4 opens with the appropriately titled track “Bubbly” which features phosphorescent guitar riffs and a bouncy vibe. “From the Start” continues the vibrant soundscape. The lavish backbeat with hints of jazz flavoring is full of divine spice. “Summer”, “Break” and “Premier Inn” are all captivating with brazen intonations. “Dance Class” is truly awe inspiring. Its cinematic elements are groove laden and lush. Good Kid 4 is truly a testament to the songwriting and musicianship of Good Kid.

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

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

DAVID: We met up around 2014 while at university. Our first single, “Nomu”, was released in 2015. We really didn’t expect much from it. It was all about releasing music for our family and close friends. Then the song got leaked on a Reddit board called “Listen To This” which was pretty cool. The board put out new music that could be uploaded. “Nomu” got a ton of uploads and the video we posted got over 10,000 views overnight. We were totally flabbergasted. We couldn’t figure out how that 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 that point we were still just a bunch of friends scaping music together. That led to the next few years where we began to write more songs. We dropped our first EP in 2018 which went really well.

We let loose our second EP in 2020. That’s when things really began to escalate. Surprisingly, even though the pandemic had hit, we saw an increase in our listening base. What helped is the fact that a YouTube algorithm picked up our first two EPs. In our wildest dreams, we couldn’t foresee this getting to the point it has.

AMP: How would you describe your music?

DAVID: Fast paced indie rock. High-energy feel good music. But underneath this poppy and happy music lies a variety of layers. Sometimes there are pretty sad lyrics. We express themes like anxiety and dread. These topics are disguised by our buoyant rhythms.

AMP: Your new EP, Good Kid 4, recently released. How has the reception been?

DAVID: It’s been really really incredible. It kind of caught us off guard. We put out Good Kid 4 a few weeks ago and we already have fans singing all the words during our current US tour. It has been a phenomenal experience. Also, it’s surprising how easily we have incorporated the new songs into our live set. I’m proud how well our stage design and immersive visual effects works so forcefully with the collaborative artwork associated with the new EP. Shout out to our friend, Xierra (Xray.Alpha.Charlie) who is a fabulous YouTube animator. We were able to incorporate a lot of her visuals that she created for us in our live show.

AMP: What is “Nomu Kid” all about?

DAVID: “Nomu Kid” is our little guy. We felt our first single which I mentioned earlier, “Nomu” needed artwork. So we went to a high school friend of Jacob and mine named Gabriel Altrows who is an excellent artist in Toronto. He created this character for us and what we noticed was that people who listened to our music were also inspired by our “Nomu Kid” mascot. All of a sudden, other artists and fans began sending us their interpretations of “Nomu Kid”. It inspired us to roll with it and embrace their creativity. We love the idea that our music emboldens our followers.

From there, we started to roll out our own world of other characters. There is “Nomu Kid” and a scarecrow named “Cornelius”. All of a sudden, other figures kept popping up in our singles artwork. There is a monkee, “Mimi”, who has her own story. “Mimi” has her own animated video created again by Xierra for our track, “Mimi’s Delivery Service”. The whole concept snowballed from “Nomu Kid”.

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

DAVID: We are pretty savvy 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 pro streamers were posting their highlight reels on YouTube with specific soundtracks to enhance the experience. People started to ask if they could use our songs. We made a decision as a band to take the content ID off our tunes and made them DMCA free for Twitch and eventually the same for YouTube.

Therefore, gamers could essentially use our music without our approval. By making our music more accessible to streaming, we found it a great tool to get our music out there. It has led to some cool friendships with professional gamers. We have meet a few at our shows. We probably could have made a little more cash if we didn’t remove the DMCA but it has led to some great gaming collabs.

AMP: Who are the band’s inspirations?

DAVID: Our influences are widely spread out and we all have different musical tastes. Some of the bands that unify us are Bloc Party, The Strokes, Two Door Cinema Club and Fall Out Boy. There are quite a few newer bands that we enjoy in unison. We toured with Phoneboy out of NYC. They’re an amazing group. We got to play with or meet a lot of the bands that we admire. Another band we love is Last Dinosaurs out of Australia. They’re a really catchy indie band who are constantly putting 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 issues with social anxiety. I know many of our fans have similar experiences, so I want them to know that we hear them. Hopefully, our song lyrics are able to tell people we all go through things. We want our followers to have a symbiotic relationship with our music. A lot of people have come up to us after our shows expressing how our music has helped them cope in today’s social landscape. It’s important that we all connect in order to feel better.

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

DAVID: Current bands, Last Dinosaurs. As I mentioned before, they are a great group of musicians. They have the same ethos as us in incorporating fun guitar riffs. We are actually trying to be more like them (laughing). As to the past, it would have to be David Bowie. He would have been amazing to work with. Just hanging in the same room would have been 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 part of that. In the fall, we tour the UK and Europe. Between those two milestones events, it 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 growth.

AMP: Any last words for your fans?

DAVID: Keep being you. Keep trying to connect with us. We love all your artwork and creativity. We read all your messages and we are happy the effect our music has on our fans. In addition, A BIG THANK YOU!

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