Start Listening To: Goodbye
A Brighton band turning scrappy jams, odd textures and real friendship into something quietly magnetic.
Brighton’s Goodbye are one of those bands that seem to appear fully formed but still buzzing with the energy of the rooms that made them. The five-piece grew out of the city’s DIY scene, passing through the Green Door Store as engineers, gig-goers, friends and, eventually, collaborators. Their debut single ‘Meat’ arrived this year with a strange, brilliant charm: raw and slightly feral, but carried by harmonies that feel warm and deliberate. It’s a song that manages to be tender and grotesque at once, and it immediately marked Goodbye as a band doing something a bit different.
In conversation, they’re thoughtful and chaotic in equal measure. Megan and Sarah spoke to us about building songs from half-formed riffs, finding confidence in the mess of early jams, and how much their community has shaped who they are. Before their upcoming Bella Union show and a busy 2026 ahead, we caught up with Goodbye to talk beginnings, Brighton, and the world behind ‘Meat’.
For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
Megan: We are goodbye, we formed in Brighton, we all met through the grass roots venue Green door store and I’m not really sure what kind of music we make.
Sarah: We're goodbye (2/5 of us), based in Brighton UK. If I could summarise our music/vibe it'd be bittersweet grooves - 'throwing it back in a melancholy way', like that animation of Yoshi from Mario party 10.
We love your debut single ‘Meat’. Can you share the story behind it?
Sarah: Thank you! It's the first track the 5 of us wrote collaboratively as a 'jam in the room' approach. I love how janky and raw it feels as a first song.
The lyrics seemed to flow out of Wheeler in improv. I love the subversion of a dreamy song to be quite disgusting, taking a narrative of being offered up and objectified, like a cut of meat.
At first I thought this was super gory and weird, but singing these smooth harmonies and icky words alongside Meg makes it one of my favourites to perform. Opening a set with it always feels quite powerful.
Megan: It was one of our first songs we ever wrote. Probably the second oldest in the setlist. Elik (our drummer) wasn’t in the band yet. We were just jamming, playing with effects and things and then built this idea over a guitar part of Alfie’s, where he was panting around with one of his pedals. It was meant to just be a jam but it developed into a full song.
How did recording at Unwound Studios with Morgan Fraser-Jones influence the sound and feel of ‘Meat’ compared to your earlier demos?
Megan: Morgan is brilliant with helping us keep our songs concise and make the structure make sense. Morgan is brilliant at understanding the sound we want and knowing how to make that possible and bringing the songs to life.
Sarah: Morgan is our pre prod queen - they can hear our song demo'd in the room or just tracked through a couple sm58's and imagine it produced almost to the final degree. They help us hit the highest and lowest dynamics that bring the song on a whole emotional arc.
I remember in early iterations it was still a 'jam' and we had a whole verse with no lyrics and Alfie and I made wacky noises through our pedalboards. I'm glad we took it out, that was lame.
Unwound has lovely high ceilings and it felt like it gave the cymbals and instruments room to soar. The massive corrugated metal doors were not very effective at keeping out the heatwave though, which I think made us slightly more feral in the process of recording.
What emotions or experiences do you hope listeners will connect with when they hear the lyrics of ‘Meat’?
Megan: It’s honestly deliberately kept vague. I really love hearing what people take from it as I’ve heard so many different versions. I have my own idea of what I was writing about which is how it feels when men (strangers) look at you in an entirely lustful way.
But I’ve sometimes sung it with different meanings depending on my mood. It’s definitely open to interpretation and I enjoy hearing what other people have taken from it.
How did your time in the Brighton DIY scene shape your artistic identity and the music you’re creating as Goodbye?
Sarah: The 5 of us will always be a part of this scene - as individuals and a group we're absolutely a product of it. Goodbye met through working in venues, despite our somewhat unhinged musical differences.
For real - I'm personally thankful to this scene for everything. For letting me book my first headliner at GDS as a lil 17 year old and nurturing my first band into the project it was, for the engineers, venues and studios that taught me the ropes and let me take my first few shifts as a live and studio engineer, and for giving me the platform to cross paths with the rest of Goodbye. So many people have played a part in my personal growth.
I think Brighton has a strong sense of subculture in its music scene, but also great open-mindedness. We have an abundance of dedicated, versatile musicians and such a strong community spirit. Show up, be respectful and you'll find support everywhere.
Can you describe your songwriting process? Do you typically start with lyrics, melodies, or a specific concept in mind?
Megan: Usually Alfie or Sarah will come up with a guitar idea and develop it in a bedroom session (as we like to call them) with 1 or 2 of us and then we’ll take it to a full band practice and it will be a completely different song by the end of the session. We like to play around with structure a lot and the vibe of the song often shifts a lot once it’s with a full band.
Lyrics always come last. I’ll sing the melody with a concept in mind and explore what syllables sit nicely where and then I’ll actually write the lyrics once that’s decided. Then the lyrics are never going to get in the way of the phrasing or how I’m singing a note etc.
Sarah: Usually melodies. Alfie's written a new riff every couple of days. We literally can't stop him. We meet up to figure out guitars about once a month and have the bones for a new track within a couple of hours - an idea can snowball into a whole band song in a couple of days.
What role does collaboration play in your music, and how do each of you contribute to the creative process as a band?
Megan: Collaboration is huge to us. We always start with somebody bringing an idea (usually Alfie or Sarah) but not a full song and we all work on it together and make suggestions to each other about everybody’s parts. We communicate a lot during the writing process and yeh songs go through a lot of different versions.
Sarah: It's massive. As mentioned above, our sound is a product of our completely mismatched influences. If Alfie wrote everything he probably wouldn't mind me saying we'd be a Jangle pop project, if I write everything it'd be sad overcomplicated folk or totally left field noise. We all meet each other somewhere.
Are there specific visual elements or themes you envision accompanying your music videos or live performances?
Megan: I personally like the ideas of playing with light and physical media. Like how the stars we had for our last Brighton headline reflected the light and how it shone through the plastic in our most recent press shots.
Sarah: We draped some plastic dust sheets at our first gig to transform Rossi basement and make the space feel cobwebby and dreamy - that kind of stuck. With Meat being our single the plastic wrapping felt thematically correct.
How do you feel about the growing interest from tastemakers and the buzz surrounding ‘Goodbye’?
Megan: It’s exciting, it’s nice that people are enjoying something that we’ve all put so much work and passion into creating together.
Sarah: Amazed. And suspicious. I think we're a little surprised that people care so much. We knew that we started to make an interesting sound together, but of course you think your own music's great. The fact that other people, let alone some of our favourite bands and magazines in this last year alone are giving a shit about what we do is just kind of sus.
What’s the significance of your upcoming performance at Bella Union, and what can fans expect from that intimate show?
Megan: It’s more of a celebration than a show. We’re doing it in Brighton so that we can celebrate with the people who have always been there and supported us from the beginning, who we really appreciate.
Sarah: Just a bit of a knees up. We work ourselves really hard, and the last headline shows were fun but super exhausting for us. It'll be nice to play a low-key show to local homie fans. Got some super hot new t-shirts to flog too. I designed them - they're really nice.
Looking ahead, what are your plans for live performances in 2026, and how do you hope to evolve as a band?
Megan: We’d love to do a support tour and play some towns we haven’t played before. I would love to go back to Manchester. I’m excited to see how our live performance evolves. We’re trying to get Elik’s SPD fixed as it broke as soon as we wrote a song on it but I’m excited to see how that influences our set in future shows.
Sarah: More festivals. Taking on Europe. Greatest hits album. I want us to evolve to grow gills.
What do you love right now?
Megan: Music, food, friends, cats - always what I love
Sarah: Early nights, telling your friends you love them, Modelo on tap, Dan and Phil's resurrection.
What do you hate right now?
Megan: Water bottles that leak by design. My right ankle - I sprained it when we played Wilderness and it’s still not the same but 100% worth it because we had so much fun together!!
Sarah: Christmas music in November, wearing all your thermal layers then getting on a tube, our van going missing, YouTube shorts
Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?
Megan: Debut - björk. Idk just fucking slaps.
When someone hears your music for the first time, what do you hope sticks with them?
Megan: Hopefully they can hear the work that has gone into it, not just the track itself but in creating a sound we feel is pretty unique.
Sarah: Friendship.
