Oli Fox and Scott Verill are on their inaugural tour as a band, gearing up for their first show outside of their native England.

The venue is Dublin’s Workman's Club. I assure them that the muted WowBurger colourway and faded upholstery usually look a lot nicer, especially with the lights dimmed. They don't seem to mind, they're happy to get away from helping set up for the gig for a half hour or so.

Hailing from Essex, vocalist Oli caught eyes and ears in 2018 when he supported Sigrid on her UK tour. Producer Scott meanwhile, previously operated under the moniker kwassa, and is among the youngest artists to grace the hallowed fields of Glastonbury when he played a set with his childhood band ‘The Theory of 6 Degrees’ many moons ago.

Together they form Good Neighbours. The alias is as obvious as it sounds, with the pair having studios next to each other in East London.

“We were doing lots of pop and dance stuff for other people”, says Scott. “It felt formulaic after a while, and made us desperate to do something different and go against all the rules we’d been following. I think our experience has made us more industry-savvy, we definitely trust our gut more rather than relying on outside opinions."

“Last summer we got in early one day and both fancied just writing for the hell of it,” adds Oli. “We were like, ‘shit, this is really good’, but we didn’t know what to do with it, because we didn't really want to be artists.”

Good Neighbours at The Workman's Club, 27 May 2024. Copyright Bailey Shropshire.

Their sound is a throwback to the good ‘ol days of mid ‘00s alternative, evoking acts like MGMT, Passion Pit and Phoenix.

“Production wise, a lot of stuff has become really minimal, dry and close to the mic,” says Oli. “I miss opposite of that, where it’s super expressive and bombastic. We try to get as much reverb as possible on the mic. I'll sing as high as I can and Scott will play the synth as wild as he can.

This nostalgia-hued approach led to the creation of their viral hit 'Home', which has been streamed hundreds of millions of times online. The song is so viral in fact, that it exploded before they could even finish it.

“A friend convinced us to put something on TikTok which would grab people’s attention,” they say. “The chorus was big, straight to the point and quite open in its message.  We hadn't worked on the rest of the song yet, and only wrote and recorded the verses the day it popped off. The mix is crap. When you listen back to it, it distorts on every chorus, but that’s kind of the charm.”

With an EP in the pipeline, do the lads see a future in TikTok hit-making?

“We wouldn't have pictured ourselves as being a band that was TikTok-associated before,” Scott says. “It just happened to go well and now it's something we use."

“It's a tool,” supplements Oli. “As soon artists start saying ‘we need a strategy for this or that, and then it will work on TikTok,’ then its rubbish. If you think it’s a cool song, then playing it to millions of people you’ve never met can be a good litmus test though.”

Good Neighbours at The Workman's Club, 27 May 2024. Copyright Bailey Shropshire.

Did they ever anticipate that level of response to the track?

“I don't think we anticipated it at all. The fact that we didn't even bother finishing the song, showed how much we cared for it,” Oli quips. “But the reaction was mind-blowing, especially because of the speed of how it happened.

“'Home' is such an anomaly, not just for us, but for any new artist. It’s so much bigger than anything I can relate too. It feels like we're working for Good Neighbours and Good Neighbours is doing really well. It's very out of body. It’s the best keys in the engine that you could ever have.”

Songs on TikTok often go viral when they're associated with a certain trend or style of video. ‘Home’, the duo explain, was attached to emotional clips of people reuniting with their loved ones and showing off their favourite places.

“It made the internet feel really lonely,” laughs Oli. “All the single people hated the trend. But then someone made an anti-trend of that and then that took off. So it was like, ‘sweet, that works for us as well.’”

They followed up the mammoth hit with ‘Keep It Up’. The track is indicative of their blue sky state of mind, penned after Oli, already having struggled to juggle jobs in pubs, flowery delivery and wedding singing, was fired from his last remaining profession in a café.

“I was in the fucking worst place,” he says. “But I knew I wanted to go and write with Scott, it made me commit to music. Blue sky mentality has always been our motto. I’ve always loved the idea of creating a space where you can talk about anything,  whilst never feeling bogged down by the music.”

“It's really sad,” he adds, expanding on the financial plight of the young artist. “There's a lot of people in London that aren’t full time, and could be so good if they took the leap, but it's terrifying. When the risk is you not being able to afford your rent, you're going to work a part time job.

“I wish there was a scheme within government, or some sort of bursary, to help people come to London and have a crack at it for a year.”

• Listen to 'Home' on Spotify below.