The Good Natured channel the spirit of the 80s through their deceptively upbeat pop-electro beats, dark and gloomy lyrics and their worship of icons like The Cure and Human League. Wonderland photographed them while they told us about their new single ‘5-HT’.

So what exactly is 5-HT?

Sarah: 5-HT is serotonin, the chemical released in our brains which is responsible for making us feel happy. The concept of the song is based around the notion of love being a drug, the idea that when you’re with someone, you enter a dream world. When they kiss you, the chemicals rush through your body giving you a natural high.

Apart from two of the members being siblings, how did you form the trio?

George: I met Sarah at Westminster University where we were studying the same music course. It became pretty apparent early on that if we wanted to pursue a career in music, as we both did, then we might as well just get out there and do it.

Were any of you in previous musical projects before the band?

Sarah: I was in a couple of different indie bands at school with my mates. We weren’t very good but it was a lot of fun.

George: Before The Good Natured I used to play in various punk bands with my friends back home. We weren’t any good and we weren’t serious, but we had a lot of fun playing to barely anyone in the worst type of venues you could imagine!

Hamish: I was in a band called Numex Sunset, we played a few shows at school and won the local battle of the bands.

You have

a slightly dark image that’s pop-py and edgy at once. Can we expect this to be portrayed throughout your sound?

Sarah: We’d say our music sounds like Robert Smith and Katy Perry’s lovechild. We bring dark emotions to a pop place.

Hamish: Yeah, or if Debbie Harry fronted The Killers.

You have an obvious 80s influence. Why is this decade such an inspiration?

Sarah: All of us were born into families who had an extreme passion and love for music. Hamish and I grew up listening to our parents’ vinyl collection, like Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Human League, Tears For Fears… All these records were on constantly in our house, so we were inspired by the 80s from a pretty young age.

Your previous EPs have been critically acclaimed, so how’s the album shaping up?

Hamish: The previous EPs like Warriors and Your Body Is A Machine were great, we got a lot of support from blogs, magazines and even radio, but we were still finding our sound.

Sarah: Yeah, Warriors was just me on my grandma’s 1980’s Yamaha keyboard!

You seem to be quite mild and inoffensive off-stage and quite boisterous when playing. What can we expect from your live shows?

Hamish: Yeah, it’s cool to be quiet and mysterious in person then go mental on stage, it freaks people out. They don’t understand it which make us do it more!

What else is in the diary for you guys this forthcoming year?

Sarah: 5-HT is out on March 10th so we’re gearing up to that. We’re doing an acoustic session for Vevo, plus some other acoustic sessions coming up which we are really excited about, plus the Swiss Lips and Imagine Dragons tours. We’ll be releasing our debut album around summer time!

‘5-HT‘ is out on March 10th. thegoodnatured.co.uk

Words: Shane Hawkins
Images: Edward T Cooke