Q&A with rising duo Goodvibes Sound

Alex and Angus from Goodvibes Sound just released their first album ‘The Institute’, a blend of upbeat and psychedelic songs. This may be the first full album for the duo formed in 2019 but they have already played on the Main Stage at The Big Weekend, UK; shared the bill with Nile Rodgers & Chic; made the cover of TIME and been selected as ‘one to watch’ by BBC Introducing, receiving airplay on BBC radio including BBC 6 Music.

We got to chat with them about how Goodvibes Sound came to be, their music and goals.

Hey guys! Congratulations on your first album release ‘The Institute’! Can you tell us how you started Goodvibes Sound?

[Alex]: Thanks! We started doing music together in late 2019 – I was helping Angus record some tracks, and that rapidly evolved into us writing stuff together. What really informed a lot of those initial sessions was wanting to make music for our friends to dance to, which they’d also find funny and psychedelic.

We were hugely inspired by a weekend we’d spent together with other musicians in Scotland at a venue hosted by one of Angus’s friends. We were there with about twenty other people, partying and making music from dawn till dusk. During that weekend there were a lot of funky basslines and groovy tunes, and when it came to writing together we really wanted to capture some of that energy.

What’s your creative process like? Do you split tasks or do you always work together?

[Angus]: There isn’t one way of recording or writing together, which I really like. Often one of us will bring an idea, and we’ll turn that idea into a song together. In other cases, one of us writes a fully formed song and it’s the other person’s job to help to bring the best out of it.

Sometime we’re just hanging out and jamming together and a song emerges! What’s Your Reason and All My Life are examples of that kind of thing. Where we’re chilling together and something naturally comes out.

What’s your favorite song from the album and why?

[Alex]: For me it’s ‘The Storm’ – the closing track on ‘The Institute’ . We’ve been on this journey through the album, where the character leaves their life behind in search of the Goodvibes Institute. They find it, and experience these revelations, but towards the end of the album a darker energy starts coming in.

‘The Storm’ is really the peak of this darkness, and I love the way the bass and fog horns blast in right at the end of the track. It’s also gets a big reception live which has helped me realise what’s good about it!

[Angus]: It’s ‘Sane Or Sinner’ for me. When we started collaborating we had both come out of these quite intense relationships, and subconsciously it informed quite a lot of the things we were connecting on music-wise.

The track is about being intensely into someone, but deep down knowing that the relationship is probably not good for you. It showed me that being open and honest about your inner feelings in a musical collaboration can teach you a lot about yourself and each other.

What are your goals in music in terms of right now? And next year?

[Alex]: Right now the focus is on making sure people hear the album, and that we manage to share the world of the Goodvibes Institute with people. We have an animated version of the album cover to accompany the full 50 minutes of the record, and also a couple more music videos to help build out the world.

After that, we want to spend the winter writing some new tracks and working on our live show so we can get on tour next spring and summer and share our music with more people!

What do you want people to take from your music?

[Angus]: Everything we write is based on our own experiences, but it’s channeled through the world of the Goodvibes Institute. It represents the space we’ve created together to do music and share our feelings and experiences with each other. We deeply connected on mindfulness, and for us a big part of that is making space to be joyful and present.

When we were younger we both wrote music that took itself very seriously, which has its place, but often being stuck in your own head and making a big deal out of things actually takes you further away from what’s real. Hopefully people take ‘The Institute’ as a trip, with ups and downs, and feel more connected with the world we live in.