Good Kid is a five-member indie rock band from Toronto, Ontario. It consists of five members: lead vocalist Nick Frosst, drummer Jon Kereliuk, bassist Michael Kozakov, and guitarists David Wood and Jacob Tsafatinos. The band's mascot, known as Nomu Kid, is primarily featured in their marketing and social media. They released their first self titled EP, in 2018, followed by Good Kid 2 two years later. In late 2020, the band gained popularity through the use of their music on Fortnite streams. The band released their EP Good Kid 3 on April 14, 2023, which contains two of their most streamed songs on Spotify, Mimi's Delivery Service and No Time to Explain.[1] The band has chosen not to issue DMCA strikes so that their music could be used in streams. Most recently, they released their fourth EP, Good Kid 4, on March 27, 2024. This EP has their most popular track, a cover of Laufey's From the Start, which gained over 100 million Spotify listens since its release.
Good Kid was formed in 2015 as a hobby while all of its members were studying primarily computer science at the University of Toronto. Good Kid's first song, "Nomu", was released on October 13, 2015.[2][3] It introduced the band's mascot, Nomu Kid, who was named after the song. Nomu Kid was created by artist Gabriel Altrows, who has continued to work with the band since.[3] In the following years, the band released more singles: "Atlas" on May 13, 2016, "Witches" on June 6, 2017, and "Tell Me You Know" on June 4, 2018. Their first EP, titled Good Kid, released on June 15, 2018.[2][3]
In mid-2020, the band began releasing singles that would later be featured in their second EP, titled Good Kid 2. They released "Everything Everything" on July 20, "Drifting" on August 28, and "Down With the King" on October 2. Good Kid 2 was released on November 6, 2020. Its lead track, "Down With the King", was based on Donkey Kong Country; the lyrics describe the singer being stuck on the game and calling their friend for help.[3][4]
Following the release of Good Kid 2, Good Kid launched an alternate reality game on social media to promote a tie-in browser game called Ghost King's Revenge. The premise was that their mascot, Nomu Kid, had gone missing, and was captured by the antagonist of the game.[4]Ghost King's Revenge featured a soundtrack consisting of both original music and chiptune arrangements of every Good Kid song featured on Good Kid and Good Kid 2.[3]
By mid-2021, Good Kid had experienced a surge of popularity with the Fortnite community. Fortnite streamers on sites like Twitch and YouTube would often play Good Kid music in their streams, introducing it to their viewers. This extended to high-profile players such as FaZe Clan and Bugha. The band members began participating in these streams, retweeting Fortnite montages that included their music.[4]Fortnite players campaigned for Good Kid music to be added to the in-game radio.[3][4] In response, Epic Games asked Good Kid to send in two of their songs for inclusion. Epic Games settled on Witches, which was added that June, to positive reception by the band. Their song Orbit would also be added in late October of that same year.[4]No Time to Explain would also be added in late 2022.[5][non-primary source needed]
In response to controversy over DMCA claims, and the number of people including their music in streams, Good Kid said it would not issue takedowns against streamers.[4][6] According to Tsafatinos, this reaction came from the band's observation that most streamers were young people who "just wanna play the music that they like on stream", and likely did not know about the DMCA system.[4] A separate interview in 2024 with Tsafatinos later clarified that data showed that it was more financially viable for Good Kid to allow others to freely use their music on YouTube than if they were to monetize it through YouTube's Content ID system.[7]
In 2023, the band performed a sold-out tour across the UK and Europe alongside Lovejoy.[8] On June 20, 2023, Portugal. The Man announced Good Kid as a special guest for their Canadian tour running from November 6 to November 18.[9]
The band has cited Bloc Party and Two Door Cinema Club as influences.[2] Bassist Michael Kozakov has stated in an interview that the band pairs their indie rock with influences from other rock genres, namely punk rock and J-rock. He also described the band as "incredibly open to anything new".[8] The band has also taken influence from video games, internet culture, geek culture, anime, and manga as sources of inspiration for their songs.[7][8]
The band's music contains elements of storytelling and has developed a complex lore with a large set of characters. This has been attributed to artwork created by Gabriel Altrows in tandem with the band's music.[3][8] Rayner also noted that the band has been de-emphasizes personal stories in their work[3], though Tsafatinos has stated that the song Mimi's Delivery Service was based on his girlfriend[a][7].
All members of the band are employed as programmers outside of the band, continuing work remotely while on tour. Frosst is a co-founder of Cohere, an artificial intelligence company oriented towards businesses.[2][11] As of July 2024, Tsaftinos was reported by The Canadian Press to be a software engineer for Uber.[11] Kozakov has stated he works in AI.[8]
↑ This is despite similarities in theme and name to Kiki's Delivery Service, which Tsafatinos has acknowledged are very similar and even had Nick Frosst watch the film to get a better idea when writing the song.
↑ Originally released exclusively as B side to the vinyl release of Good Kid 4[13]
↑ Originally vinyl exclusive hidden track for Good Kid 3, later released as a stand alone single on online platforms
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