"We want Good Neighbours to be a breath of fresh air in tense times," says Scott Verrill, with the band's boisterous self-titled EP mashing up sleazy indie, polished pop and the reckless joy of dance. Live, their chaotic show is sheer euphoria. "We've always said it needs to look and feel like a house party," adds Oli Fox.

The pair only formed Good Neighbours last year but things have happened fast. Their debut headline gig was at grimy London sweatbox The Sebright Arms, and 12 months later, they've played sold-out headline shows around the world. They're ending 2024 supporting Benson Boone in academies across Europe and will start 2025 playing before Foster The People on a four-week trek through North America.

Millions stream their music every month thanks to Spotify playlists like Romanticising Life and Good Energy while their viral Triple J Like A Version cover of Sabrina Carpenter's 'Espresso' gave the song of the summer a grubby indie twist, inspired by Phoenix's 2009 single 'Lisztomania'. They have also ticked things like 'perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live' and 'get a UK Top 40 Single' off a bucket list that started with packing out a local pub.

"It's so silly." That's the only way Oli can describe the past few months. "It doesn't matter how much I try and make sense of it, I just can't." He's hoping time off in December will give them space to process it all. "Right now, we're just rolling with the best feeling punches ever."

The band are talking to Dork a few days after they finished up their first ever UK headline tour with a celebratory gig at Electric Brixton. After a hectic year, it was the proof they needed that everything was falling into place. Before the show, Oli and Scott were loitering outside, "Watching fans getting so excited about heading inside the venue, seeing just how many people were actually working on our show… It was such a pinch me moment," says Oli. "There's been so many of them in recent months, and I don't want it to stop."

All Oli and Scott have ever wanted to do is play live. "It's just an unbeatable feeling, isn't it?" says Oli, whose first band saw him team up with his footballer brother and perform "the crappiest cover of Green Day's 'Holiday'." The pair called themselves Green Boys and never ventured outside of their attic. "It was an education," he grins. Scott is less forthcoming about those early experiments. "They were just really embarrassing."

They weren't looking for a career, though. "Growing up outside of London, there's nothing to suggest making a living through music could be feasible," says Oli. "You do it for the love of it." Neither of them comes from a musical family either. "Not having anyone around you that's actually done it means you don't have a path to follow," says Scott. The closest either of them came to an industry contact was a friend of a friend telling Oli they were related to someone who had known Frank Sinatra. Helpful, right?

They left those scrappy teenage bands behind and started individual solo projects that got picked up by major labels. Neither of them knew what they were doing, though, and they were both quietly dropped within 18 months. A little jaded, a little hurt, Oli and Scott stepped back from the spotlight and started working for others as writers and producers. It's how they first crossed paths.

After getting hired for the same project, they realised they had complementary skills. Oli has a knack for hooky lyrics with plenty of depth, while Scott's production can always elevate a track. After forming a team and working a number of stripped-down singer-songwriter tracks together, the pair wanted more. "It was starting to feel a bit like a 9-5," says Oli. So last August, the pair turned up early to work and made the sludgy, funky 'I Like' for their own amusement. They did it again the next day and ended up with 'Keep It Up'. "I'd just been fired from my fourth part-time job," says Oli, which meant that paying his rent was going to be an issue. "That song is basically a fuck you to society for not making it easier to exist."

Oli and Scott knew the track was a banger but couldn't picture anyone else singing it, so kept it to themselves. Every time they met up in the studio after that, they'd end up with another. "Good Neighbours really did start as a writing exercise but it quickly felt like the universe was trying to tell us something. I feel really lucky."

The pair had floated the idea of doing something together before, even setting up the occasional TikTok or Instagram account whenever they came up with a decent band name. "But we never took it seriously," says Scott. This new thing felt different. "We were both away for the weekend, but were constantly texting each other about what we'd created and where else it could go." And that, Dear Reader, is how good friends become Good Neighbours.

There were no rules on the project, but a shared love of 00s indie bands like MGMT and Passion Pit meant things came together weirdly fast, according to Oli. 'After doing so much introverted stuff, it felt like a playground of possibility." They wanted to share the excitement as well, uploading demos and unfinished songs online, because why not?

One of those was an early sketch of their breakout debut single 'Home'. "I wrote it after going through a tough time," says Oli. "I'd lost someone who was really pivotal to my upbringing and going home for their funeral, I just hated how that place felt." His girlfriend at the time met him at the station when he returned to London. "I just had this real visceral feeling of relaxation when we hugged. It's the first time I'd ever felt that maybe home could be a person and not a place."

He was back in the studio the next day to finish a song with Scott, but they started working on 'Home' instead. "It just needed to come out," says Oli. Sharing the snippet alongside the caption "POV: You've found the person that feels like home" on TikTok suddenly exposed Good Neighbours to millions of people. And they demanded more.

"If we'd been thinking things through, we probably would have finished the track before teasing it," says Scott, "We knew it was good, but we weren't expecting that reaction."

It came at a pivotal moment for the band. "We were having so much fun, but being British, it almost felt like we shouldn't be enjoying ourselves so much, and should probably stick to the safety of working 9-5, writing songs for other people," says Oli. "There was part of me that was thinking, 'But what if I spent all my time and energy on this thing and really committed to it?' The internet forced our hand, basically." Now they're all in.

'Home' was properly released in January 2024 and was followed by 'Keep It Up' in April. The five-track riot of 'Good Neighbours' dropped in October after a whole lot of live shows. "We were worried about being tied down as a TikTok band, so we've been trying to do as many gigs as humanly possible," says Scott. "We want to showcase the whole character of the band."

Their nostalgic indie-pop sounds like a sunny day, but there's a darker edge to it. "Scott's production is always blue sky vibes so it's been nice to weigh that down with lyrics that talk about things like grief. It's so cathartic to sing these big, expressive songs that mean so much to us," says Oli, taking inspiration from tracks like Bleachers' hopeful anthem 'Better'.

"We didn't talk about it when we first started but the message of Good Neighbours has become really clear over the past few months. We both grew up in small towns where it felt taboo to talk about your emotions, so hopefully being really heart on the sleeve with the lyrics can start conversations." The fact the music is so energetic, joyful and huge makes it easier as well. "There's something powerful about songs people can wail to, if they need it," says Oli. "Our shows really have become this release for people."

Good Neighbours are trying not to get carried away, though. "We don't really talk about the future because we don't want to overthink it," says Scott. "We're just taking things week by week."

"We've seen plenty of bands come and go within the year, so longevity is the main goal," says Oli, though playing Glastonbury, a headline show at Brixton Academy, and a summer spent playing festivals are all up there. "I think we're way bigger than we currently are, in terms of aspirations and the way things could go for us. We're not tied to a single genre either, so there's a lot of different directions we can move in, which is fun."

And their next move is a debut album. They've already been testing a lot of new music at live shows, and Good Neighbours are planning on getting the record out by summer.

"The blueprint is the same, but there are definitely some new vibes," says Oli, teasing a more experimental album that takes influence from overlooked 00s bands like Animal Collective and The Go Team. "I forgot how abstract some of that music was. We've been noticing the pockets of our shows where people could be moving a bit more as well. There's just no better feeling than seeing a whole room moving as one, so I think it'll be quite a beat-led record."

Releasing music as Good Neighbours never felt scary before. "There's fear now we've had some success, though," admits Oli. "Before, when things didn't work out, it was easy to take because it felt like I was wasting that opportunity anyway. I've never had things go this well before and you just really want to hold on to that feeling," he adds. "I guess we just have to trust that people connected to the music because it was us having fun. If we keep doing that, everything should be golden." ■