Great Good Fine Ok Talks Thrifting, Kevin Hart and Fourth EP in iEDM Interview

Great Good Fine Ok is a synth pop band that bends genres and explores boundaries. In 2013, Jon Sandler (vocals) and Luke Moellman (keys) met each other in Brooklyn, New York. Together they released the track "You're The One For Me" and the rest was history. 

Today, they have a drummer, Danny Wolf and guitarist, Carey Clayton. Their live performances are feel good music with a edgy disco vibe. In 2015, they co-wrote a track with The Chainsmokers called "Let You Go" that has been remixed by A-Trak and Tiesto. 

iEDM got the chance to sit down with Jon Sandler and Luke Moellman right after their set at Electric Forest 2018. Here is what they had to say. 

Luke: I love the material of your shoes.

iEDM: Thank you! I have a jacket that goes with it, but like it's too hot. I don't know how you're wearing a jacket!

Luke: It's a light jacket.

Jon: Fashion over comfort.

Luke: Right.

iEDM: Right? And you were wearing that awesome glitter kimono earlier, right?

Jon: Did you see my set?

iEDM: I did see your set. So I have to ask, where did you get those sparkly kimonos?

Jon: Well, mostly thrift shops. That one, the gold one, I had custom made. A couple or few of my jackets are custom, but most of 'em yeah, just lucky finds.

iEDM: Lucky finds! That's cool. I'm not usually as lucky with the thrift shop. 

Luke: This is from here (Electric Forest).

iEDM: Really? Cool.

Jon: At that thrift store by the Sherwood Court, A Bizarre Universe.

This photo pretty much sums up @electric_forest 🌲 a magical place...🤤💚 See you again next weekend! 📸 @weirdali

A post shared by Great Good Fine Ok (@greatgoodfineok) on Jun 22, 2018 at 9:44am PDT

iEDM: Great find. So you guys were here last weekend, what do you guys think of the festival?

Jon: We love it. It's like made for Great Good Fine Okay, like all the lights and people dressed up in awesome things.

Luke: It's like yeah nature combined with electricity.

Jon: Totally our vibes, yeah.

iEDM: Exactly what it is! So your guys' set reminded me kind of Odesza meets Empire of the Sun. What would you guys say your influences are?

Jon: I'd go with that! That's good!

Luke: Empire of the Sun. I mean everyone first time I heard that song, what's the one?

Jon: We are the people that rule the world.

Luke: I know how to play that! That's the one song I know how to play on guitar.

iEDM: Yeah? Cool!

Jon: That's funny because we love Empire of the Sun and I love Odesza. That's cool.

iEDM: Yeah there's a lot of elements that reminded me of seeing Odesza recently at Red Rocks. What else has influenced your sound?

Jon: It's funny, when we're writing we basically just write like ... We make the music we both love and not really thinking about what it's inspired by, but then if we step back, it's like very Micheal Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston.

Luke: Yeah I mean I kind of like leave that up to other people to say what it is, 'cause it's just whatever has gone into my brain since I was born, which is a lot of stuff.

iEDM: How did you guys all come together?

Jon: Luke was living around the corner from me in Brooklyn with a guy who is in my current band, my piano player sort of partner, so I was going over there working a lot and we met. We started being like we should collaborate on something and then a couple years later, we ran into each other on the street and said we should write a song together. That night he sent me music for the song he had been working on and I wrote the lyrics and melody and it ended up being our song, You're the one from You, which is our first release. And, that's just what started it off. 

iEDM: What are some other festivals that you guys really enjoyed playing? I see you guys have done South by Southwest.

Jon: Yeah.

Luke: We did Bonnaroo last year. That was cool. We saw U2. 

Jon: We did a festival in San Francisco called Clusterfest.

Jon: It was fun. What was the one in Seattle?

Luke: That was the one where you used Kevin Hart's bathroom.

Jon: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. So our greenroom was sort of close to Kevin Hart's. It was like half comedy, half music. His people got super mad at me for using his bathroom. We got kicked out of his area. That was the highlight of the festival. 

iEDM: I mean if you're gonna get kicked out of an area, let it be someone super cool like Kevin Hart right?

Jon: Totally. In general, we love playing festivals. It suits our music and our vibe really well. All the ones we've done have been really fun.

iEDM: Do you have any on the list that you want to play?

Jon: We've never played Lollapalooza and we've never played Coachella, so all those good ones.

iEDM: I would say Forest is my favorite over those.

Jon: It's the favorite of the ones we've done, for sure.

Luke: Yeah, It's just ... I don't know where else has the kind of stuff that they have here. It's just so cool.

iEDM: Tell me about last weekend.

Luke: Last weekend was great. We were only here for a day for the weekend so we get here in the morning, we load all our stuff in, we go to soundcheck and set up, play the set, and then we have a few hours to just hang out and watch some of the bands and see some of the art.

iEDM: What are some of your dream collaborations?

Jon: That's a tough one 'cause we're fans of a lot of bands. I don't know, do you have any dream collaborations?

Luke: Yeah, I don't know.

Jon: It's such a tough question. I would love to collaborate with The 1975, but I'd also like to collaborate with Beyonce.

iEDM: That would be a good one. Beyonce would be a good one.

Jon: Yeah. I don't know. It's hard. It comes down to who wants to collaborate with us, so there's a synergy.

iEDM: Right.

Jon: Collaboration's all about being really organic, how they kind of happen.

iEDM: Right. So you guys did some work with the Chainsmokers, correct? 

Jon: Yeah, like three years ago they sent us a track. We wrote a song and they released it and it was super cool. It was before even "Selfie," so they weren't as big as they are now. It's been really cool to watch them become one of the biggest acts in the world, 'cause they're really, really nice guys, and we had a good experience with them. Our song is out there and it's like, I don't know, the whole experience was just cool.

iEDM: So what are you guys working on now?

Luke: We have an EP coming out in the fall, so we're just working on finishing up that batch of songs.

iEDM: Cool. Does it have a name?

Jon: It doesn't.

Luke: Not yet. It will probably have something to do with the number four.

iEDM: Why is that?

Luke: It's our fourth EP.

iEDM: Okay.

Luke: The last one was called three.

Jon: Maybe not though, who knows?

Luke: Maybe not.

iEDM: Okay. Cool. Well four will be a play on it, or to be decided?

Luke: A foreplay.

Jon: Foreskin.

Luke: There you go.

iEDM: I like foreplay better I think.

Jon: We're just spitballing here.

iEDM: Cool. If you had any advice for any other artists trying to do what you guys are doing right now, what would it be?

Luke: Just keep doing it. That's it.

iEDM: Cool.

Jon: Keep doing it.

Luke: That's so funny. That's the advice I give myself. 

iEDM: Sometimes you need it right?

Jon: 'Cause it's like, if I think to myself, how did I get here? It's just not ever stopping doing what I love doing, which is writing songs. You just keep doing it long enough. I'm sure there's people who don't have success, people who have more success, but the first step is just to do it.

Luke: It's the tenacity to just keep doing it.

Jon: And perseverance.

Thank you Great Good Fine Ok for your time and we will be on the lookout for your fourth EP! Stay up to date with their latest music on their SoundCloud HERE. 

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