GoodLuck interview – Get Lucky Summer 2017
GoodLuck had Plett fans rocking into 2018 on the 31st of December 2017.
The Get Lucky Summer, special ‘NYE’ edition took place on the Bitou Rugby Club fields in Robberg Beach and ShowMe Plett had the amazing opportunity to interview GoodLuck. Here’s what Jules had to say…
GoodLuck
GoodLuck challenges audiences from around the world to take interest in a modern sound that is being hailed as truly African with the ability to cross over to an international electronic pop audience.
Here is an exclusive interview with the band about their sound and future ventures.
The name was inspired by the need for a name that would manifest good vibes towards our music, and in turn infiltrating our fans.
Who are the band members?
Ben Peters – electronic production and electronic percussion.
Matthew O’Connell – Keyboards and Saxophone.
Juliet Harding – live vocals and LED tambourine.
When did you form your band? What inspired you to make music together?
Jules and I have always had a love for electronic music and so when we started making remixes of our previous bands material, the bug really bit and we’ve never looked back!
In 2016 Matt joined the band and it’s been awesome, we’ve clicked musically and we are like a family now, which makes touring heaps of fun!
We love traveling and meeting new people, experiencing different cultures and trying food from all over the world and all of those things seep into our songs -they’re part of the substance we draw from and it’s what I think, gives us our unique sound, a blend of our South African heritage with all of the influences from around the world.
Brief history of your band and accomplishments?
- Signed international record deal with Ultra Music in the US & Sony B1 Recordings in Germany.
- 2017 South African Music Awards Winner of Best Pop Album.
- Sold out concerts in Cape Town, London, Johannesburg, Amsterdam and Berlin.
- 8 #1 charting radio hits in South Africa out of 11 radio single releases in 4 years.
- iTunes début at #2 on the album sales charts.
- Beatport #1 on the House charts with David Jones remix of ‘Taking It Easy’.
- Have performed with and opened for Pharrel Williams, Robin Schulz, Clean Bandit, Jungle, Bassment Jaxx, Paul Oakenfold, Groove Armada and more.
- Nominated for 5 SAMA Awards [including ‘Best Duo / Group’, ‘Best Dance’, ‘Best Pop’ and the coveted ‘Record of the Year’].
- Over 2million views on YouTube.
- ‘Back in the Day’ single achieved over 3 million plays on Soundcloud & 2.5 million streams on Spotify.
- Presented a Master Class at ADE [Amsterdam Dance Event] on sampling with natural sounds in Dance Music.
How would you describe your genre? Who Are Your Biggest Influences?
That could be a long, long list – our influences are so diverse, but to list a few… we love the great song writers of yesteryear – Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, Joan Armatrading, Dusty Springfield, The Beatles – their story telling really inspires us.
In the more recent airwaves – Faithless (who kinda started the whole live electronic scene), Disclosure, Nora en Pure, EDX, Stephan Bodzin and locally, super inspired by Black Coffee, the awesome guys from Strange Loving and pretty much all the SA artists who are pushing their craft as far as they can!
Do you write out your lyrics? What’s Your Songwriting Process?
Yes, we write our own music and lyrics. As a writer I prefer to not have a formula, it comes from the heart usually. I mostly write to music and put down lyrics to a piece of music that Ben and Matt have produced and write to how the music makes me feel. I sometimes write on topical subjects, things that effect me or I feel strongly about. So there’s no structure really, but we write about things that make people feel happy, from a sincere and honest place. We want people to feel good overall – that’s the goal!
Which songs do you perform most frequently? Do you ever play any covers? Do you have a set play list?
Our set list changes for pretty much every show – you have to feel out the audience and the mood in the crowd and take them on a musical journey that leaves them feeling the love and passion we have put into our music and hopefully very sweaty from all the dancing!
We occasionally will slip in a little cover song and of course there is our remake of “I’ve Been Thinking About You”, but we always put our own spin on it and turn it into something completely different from the original.
What was it like opening for Pharrell Williams?
It was amazing and a real honour to open for him in Joburg. As a song writer he is probably one of my biggest influences – he writes not only for himself, but many other artists. Just being around Pharrell is very inspiring.
Woolworths had sponsored cut out glow in the dark hands as an initiation campaign. However, Pharrell didn’t want to include it in his set, so we decided to do it. It was amazing! Thousands of glow in the dark hands – quite epic!
Do you have a record label? Are you a member of any music organizations?
In South Africa we are signed to Sony Music, who distribute our latest album “The Nature Within” which features a whole bunch of radio hits on it – mind boggling that we are onto our 7th single from the record already – there are some massive songs on there!
We are also members of SAMRO which is the local music rights organisation. Internationally we have deals with Armada Records in the Netherlands, Sony B1 in Germany and ULTRA Records for the rest of the world – so there is a big team of amazing people behind us who have helped with the success of this crazy adventure so far!
Anything you would like share – upcoming shows/tours or songs/albums?
We will also be doing our first Kirstenbosch Sunday concert on the 4th of March next year which we are super excited for – its been a long wait for us to get a chance to do a show there! We also have a brand new single coming out for the end of the year and it is aptly named “Saved by the Summer” – its a beautiful laid back song that is perfect for road trips and chilling on the beach and we love performing it live so keep your ear open for it!
Do you have a band website? Do you have a Facebook or Twitter? Do you use Bandcamp, Spotify or SoundCloud or other to share your music?
Do you have any last words about performing in Plett on News Years Eve?
This is like a dream come true – I grew up coming to Plett for summer holidays and the energy in the town around the festive season is just electric – the town is literally humming!
Hosting the biggest party to ring in the New Year is a huge responsibility – we have to top off the summer with a night to be remembered… so you can just imagine the planning and preparation that is going into Get Lucky Summer NYE!
The line up is insane – we’ve booked the best bands, the stage is massive, the venue is going to look beautiful and we are making sure that all the usual hiccoughs that plague big New Years events don’t hamper our fans.
Parking is going to managed very carefully and our bars are going to run a smoothly as possible. It is a family event and it is children friendly, so mums and dads can rest assured that security is going to incredibly tight. We have the best team working with us on this party and we are so excited to share what we have planned!
We want to say thank you very much for the Plett support. We would love to keep coming back and entertaining you!
Get Lucky Summer Website